>Thank you for the confirmation, Doug, it is good to know.>>I have received messages from people wondering why the>documentation says one thing when excludes don't in fact work>on autogen. So, there has been confusion, to say the least.>>In the absence of communication, the only recourse that we>have is to test and establish the limits ourselves. Which is>what I, and others, have been doing.>>By the way, you were the one who said that this was broken and>that you were looking into it, in this very thread, as a>matter of fact. I was only echoing your comment.>>Best regards.>>LuisI apologize if my earlier statement was not clear. What I intended to say was broken and being looked into was autogen via photo annotations not responding to "flattens" with autogen exclusion properties.-Doug

>Hi Luis.>>I think this is about right. We should be using XML excludes>to get rid of objects, and Shapefile/Vector excludes to get>rid of autogen.>>I haven't read of anything like the QMID15-sized minimum for>autogen XML exclusion anywhere else. But it seems true.>>Dick Your summary is correct. XML exclusions for objects, Shapefile/Vector exclusions for autogen. Please don't rely on any accidental XML exclusion behavior for autogen. This would be undocumented and unsupported. Not a good idea.-Doug

I also would be interested in someone figuring this out. The terrain sdk document says:"2. Exclude general classes of shapes (for example, all roads or all water polygons) by using one of the GUIDs from the Vector Attributes table."I don't see any GUIDs in the table that would allow for this. It seems like the same GUID "1B6A15BB..." is used for every shape type. The example that is supposed to exclude airport flattens also uses this same GUID.Also using this "method 2" it seems like you could exclude exclusions from lower layers?"I assume exclusion method 1 (null) is the one that excludes autogen?I note that the bounding box for the exclusion shape is used, not the actual shape geometry.Not sure how the "clipping level" affects this. Minimum area excluded?scott s..

>I also would be interested in someone figuring this out. The>terrain sdk document says:>>"2. Exclude general classes of shapes (for example, all roads>or all water polygons) by using one of the GUIDs from the>Vector Attributes table.">>I don't see any GUIDs in the table that would allow for this. >It seems like the same GUID "1B6A15BB..." is used for every>shape type. The example that is supposed to exclude airport>flattens also uses this same GUID.>>Also using this "method 2" it seems like you could exclude>exclusions from lower layers?">>I assume exclusion method 1 (null) is the one that excludes>autogen?>>>I note that the bounding box for the exclusion shape is used,>not the actual shape geometry.>>Not sure how the "clipping level" affects this. Minimum area>excluded?>>scott s.>.>The GUID 1B6A15BB... is the guid for a texture block. Using this in an exclusion will result in all vector types with a texture block being excluded.From the table you mentioned - for all roads, you would use 560FA8E6... for all water polygons use 956A42AD... I believe someone on the beta investigated the exclude an exclude and determined that it did not do anything.Method 1 does NOT exclude autogen. Autogen is excluded by use of "flattens" (bad name) with appropriate GUID:{6c0c6528-5cf1-483a-a586-2c905cf2757e} ExcludeAutogen{47d48287-3ade-4fc5-8bec-b6b36901e612} Flatten{5a7f944c-3d79-4e0c-82f5-04844e5dc653} Flatten + MaskClassMap{1f2baab1-4132-416e-8f6f-28abe79cd60b} MaskClassMap{46bfb3bd-ce68-418e-8112-feba17428ace} Flatten + MaskClassMap + ExcludeAutogen{18580a63-fc8f-4a02-a622-8a1e073e627b} Flatten + ExcludeAutogen{594e70c8-06a5-4e3f-be6e-4dbf50b49d11} MaskClassMap + ExcludeAutogen As far as clipping of the exclusion shape - conceptually think of it like the bounding box gets clipped into sub-bounding boxes.And note that the XML files accompanying the Shapefiles in the given examples are not to be edited. The same XML file (renamed) should be used to compile all Shapefiles of a given vector type. You want to be playing with the Shapefile data file (DBF) values.-Doug

Hi all.Concerning XML exclusions. Whether it is an airport or an object ( such as a building ), the exclusion should be relatively small. Just take out the refpoint if possible. Combine the many small exclusions into one XML file. Within this XML, you should also add the text to replace the airport/ objects/ etc. This way there is one xml-created BGL for the whole project.This avoids the prospect of mutiple BGLs ( which may not work together, as Luis has found ). Many excludes, many placements of new objects, in one BGL.The same is true of shapefile/vector scenery. The shp2vec tool will make one BGL of several shapefile types ( including the exclusions for terrain elements and autogen ). The SDK has a great example of an entire default project... only missing is the exclusion shapefile, and an example of that is also included in the second SDK example. Again, many elements, one BGL.In this way, you have fewer BGLs for a project. One is for exclusion/rebuilding of XML-type scenery. One is for vector exclusion/rebuilding. Perhaps another for mesh, another for photoreal. This is a neat and compact way of designing, and guarantees success. This is not the way we have been doing things in the past, but it would be a better habit to form. I think we need to start viewing the excludes as a part of the redesign process, not as a separate BGL.Dick

>Hi all.>>Concerning XML exclusions. Whether it is an airport or an>object ( such as a building ), the exclusion should be>relatively small. Just take out the refpoint if possible.>Combine the many small exclusions into one XML file. Within>this XML, you should also add the text to replace the airport/>objects/ etc. This way there is one xml-created BGL for the>whole project.>>This avoids the prospect of mutiple BGLs ( which may not work>together, as Luis has found ). Many excludes, many placements>of new objects, in one BGL.>>The same is true of shapefile/vector scenery. The shp2vec tool>will make one BGL of several shapefile types ( including the>exclusions for terrain elements and autogen ). The SDK has a>great example of an entire default project... only missing is>the exclusion shapefile, and an example of that is also>included in the second SDK example. Again, many elements, one>BGL.>>In this way, you have fewer BGLs for a project. One is for>exclusion/rebuilding of XML-type scenery. One is for vector>exclusion/rebuilding. Perhaps another for mesh, another for>photoreal. >>This is a neat and compact way of designing, and guarantees>success. This is not the way we have been doing things in the>past, but it would be a better habit to form. I think we need>to start viewing the excludes as a part of the redesign>process, not as a separate BGL.>>DickPerfect on all counts!-Doug

is there any sign's of a tutorial for doing this. I find the included infomation very difficult to unerstand. Not faulting just difficult for a newcomer to this end of scenery design.

I just found this and as you guys have helped me a lot figuring tings out in scenenry design. Excludes the easy way.http://fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.php?title=FSX_KMLThis program is very easy to use and works great. I just can't believe how well it works.One note you will have to pay for google earth to use this.

Very much the way facility data has been handled in FS9 - the AFCAD paradigm extends to other types of scenery with many parallels. Very elegant, though time will reveal it's flexibility...