I would probably try using LWMPoly instead of Area16N. Sbuilder and/or Ground2k4 work well for this:Set( BUF 8192 )Header( 1 54 53 -4 -5 )LWMFileHeader:cell00LWMAreaDrawPoly( 1 2 9 17 )LWMPoly( 4 2 100 204 208 153 168 167 151 231 180 )LWMIndexList( 1 374 104 3 0 0 )LWMEndhttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/150158.jpgscott s..

Thanks. I'm getting into a slightly steeper learning curve than I anticipated here to be honest though! I solved this problem late last night (patched it up, really) by getting rid of my 'hill' and making another flatten bgl, inland as before but at the default terrain level, so it doesn't show. Again, without this extra 'blank' flatten bgl, all my other flattens at the coast are just cancelled out. Weird. I can't see how they are connected.Also, if I change the name of this blank bgl, like from temp.bgl to EGOV_flatten.bgl, all the flattens stop working again. I tried different names: EGOV.bgl it won't accept and the bgls don't work. x.bgl is OK and all the bgls work to flatten the terrain. This is very odd to me - I thought you could call these files what you wanted, and when you restarted FS the new file name was registered. Not so with this little ****** of a file. It has a mind of its own!!! (Which after all this is almost more than I can say for myself).M.

That is a strange one alright. I've never had a file name problem. Does that also happen if you create a new scenery area with just the flatten in it?scott s..

Not sure but I'll try out later. I have flatten lines swimming around in my brain now, like some kind of bad trip......I have been having problems also with fst flatten making bgl files that do nothing - in other words, when you restart FS9 there is no scenery library activity goes on and the terrain remains just as 'unflat' as it was before. The only common factor I can see in these instances is where (for some reason), I am making flattens on land, but FSNavigator shows the area to be just off the coast in the sea. (?! - I did recompile FSN last week)). When this happens and the flatten area (only according to FS Navigator, I repeat) is half in the sea half on land, I get these 'dead' bgl files. If I move further inland, then usually things are OK. Anyone get this too? I don't remember a 24-hour period in which I have seen so many odd things happening in FS9!!!BTW, I have twice noted that FSTFlatten.exe, although I don't have the programme open on my taskbar, shows up as running in Task manager - and is shown as using 95% of my CPU!! Has anyone else had this problem? A bug in the programme? It explains (I think?) why I kept getting those d****d "Flight Simulator has encuontered an error and must close..." messages; at least, now that I check Task manager and close FST Flatten if this is going on, I haven't had any more problems.M.

There is no reason why you cannot have a flatten in the sea, I have used them under afcads with raised runways, however I don't do this any more.FSNav gets information from the default coastlines. If you are using add-on scenery, that may be using modified files.If the flatten is not effective, it is probably in an inactive scenery folder or the area has the wrong priority.George

Hi George. I certainly use flattens in the sea, to correct the odd mound of water for instance, but I was just guessing that the discrepency I mentioned was causing the error. Probably not a very likely guess, I agree.Not aware of having any other add-ons for the area I was working in (Papua New Guinea!), FSGenesis mesh apart, so didn't think the priority would be an issue. You may well be right though..I've got another few airports to do/create in my current little project, then I am going to have a go at flying for a change! (Downloaded VOZ 2 yesterday lunchtime - with all this flattening and excluding, haven't had time even to look at it yet! First reports are some awful fps killers in it...).M.

I hate to rain on a parade, but I think SBuilder's interface would solve all the hassles of having to manually hand-code ASM files to create a flattening polygon. In SBuilder, all you need to do is make a multi-sided polygon, and set its properties to a flattening mask and set its elevation. You can then change the dimensions and the polygonal layout by using SLEW mode in Flight Simulator to get the desired shape of the polygon, as well as its size.-Steve

Steve,I think he is trying to replace the Flatten.n commands in the scenery.cfg. In this case he already has the coords of the rectangle.George

In this case you can create the poly in sbuilder, and edit the lat/long for each point using your known values, although it is probably easier IMHO to load a map and append the default flatten file as the starting point.scott s..