TerraShape and TurboCAD (all versions)

[Guest Hagar]

Roger,I am not trying to start an anti-MS campaign. But I have to mention that I don`t like their exceptional arrogance :)Also, I had a steady Win98SE for a couple of years, but I still dislike it!Regarding gtp files I simply haven`t had any need for this yet. The reason is that all the available elevation data is ruining the Norwegian fjords so badly that there`s no hope for them anyway, and there is so many fjords and islands in my country, that I would never be able to reach all of them. I only edit the coastlines for a fjord or two near the airport, the rest I just have to forget :(But I got a promising answer from SRTM Germany, and they are going to send me brand new DTED-1 data for trials. If the slicer eats this, I am going to pay EUR 400.- for Norwegian coverage straight away!

[Guest Fly II Pilot]

Roger:Here's what I did to edit Fly! Coastline data:- Start TerraShape- Go to Project > New Project- Enter the xxx and zzz coordinates and press the Create button- Go to Fly! Data > Extract Coastline data- Go to DXF > Export Coastline data to a DXF file- Using TurboCAD LE (Learning Edition) I opened the V??????.dxf file (where ?????? is the x,z coordinates of the global tile you're working on) and modified some of the polygons, and added a node to ee if it worked.- Saved the v??????.dxf file (no R12, R14, etc. settings necessary - there are no options).- Switch to Terrashape- Go to DXF Extract Coastline layer to Fly! format- This will create a file named new.gtp- Create a folder within the fly!II folder called coast- Copy the new.gtp file to this folder and rename the file to v??????.gtp- Start Fly!, teleport to that area and... voila! the changes will be there and the ground will be as hard as a rock: no more sinking!!!Let me know if you get stuck somewhere along the process.Good luck!Alejandro AmigorenaCheshire, CTFly! II Beta Team MemberAthlon XP 1800ABIT KR7A-RAID768Mb RAMMSI GeForce 3 Ti 500 64MBSB Audigy GamerCH Flight Yoke USBCH Pro Pedals USB

[Guest Colins2]

Roger, Alex et alI think that the GTP anomolies are fixed now.I've just created, edited etc a gtp file with both AutoCAD and TurboCAD LE.I converted both output files back to Fly! gtp files and doing a byte compare showed then to be identical.I can't test them in Fly! right now at work, but the AutoCAD version worked OK before, therefore so should the TurboCAD ones now.(Says he, with great confidence :) )Give the new build a try, and let me know either way.Colin

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

G'day Alejandro, >>Here's what I did to edit Fly! Coastline data: >>- Start TerraShape >- Go to Project > New Project >- Enter the xxx and zzz coordinates and press the Create >button >- Go to Fly! Data > Extract Coastline data >- Go to DXF > Export Coastline data to a DXF file >- Using TurboCAD LE (Learning Edition) I opened the >V??????.dxf file (where ?????? is the x,z coordinates of the >global tile you're working on) and modified some of the >polygons, and added a node to ee if it worked. >- Saved the v??????.dxf file (no R12, R14, etc. settings >necessary - there are no options). >- Switch to Terrashape >- Go to DXF Extract Coastline layer to Fly! format >- This will create a file named new.gtp >- Create a folder within the fly!II folder called coast >- Copy the new.gtp file to this folder and rename the file >to v??????.gtpOh dear! not looking good. :-( So far this is exactly what I did :-) >- Start Fly!, teleport to that area and... voila! the >changes will be there and the ground will be as hard as a >rock: no more sinking!!! and Start Fly! - Unfortunately Fly! crashes to desktop at the helicopter loading screen. If I remove the offending gtp file from coast folder Fly!II works fine.>Let me know if you get stuck somewhere along the process. > A thought just occurred to me; Maybe the groundtile that you modified behaved itself and you haven't been involved with any of the spurious polygons. :-)Could you please do me a favour and see if you can achieve the modification of ground tile 107102 With my obscession to get Sydney fixed I haven't attempted to alter any other groundtile. Maybe it's the conversion of data within this particular groundtile that is causing my problem.My problem is NOT cad related. I can't use terrashape to create a V??????.dxf file and then immediately use terrashape to convert the same dxf file successfully back to a working gtp file! Thanks for the suggestions and help.Cheers,Roger @YSSY

[Guest]

Just discovering this thread...Thanks a lot Colin for having solved this problem!I can now use TurboCAD LE (I was using TurboCAD V6 but it is free only during a limited period..) ;) I am currently modifying coastline data for adding rivers. I am exactly doing what Alejandro described, and this works well.:-cool Nevertheless, I don't understand the method Colin described to add rivers with Terrashape: do you mean adding rivers without modifying coasts (and without using Terrascene producing HUGE files)? This could interest me if the result is better...Regards,Jeck

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

G'day Jeck,Great to hear terrashape is working for you modifying coastlines. I'm still having problems. :-( Would you please post confirming your operating system. I'm using Win 98 SE and so far only Win XP users have posted success.Rivers may be added using shapefiles but you still need to process the shapefiles through Terrascene. Shapefiles are simply the data files that those of us outside of USA use in conjuction with Terrascene. Generally speaking the data within shapefiles is unfortunately not that accurate. Terrashape gives us the ability to modify the shapefile data in a Cad program.You appear to be doing it the way I think would give excellent results. Use Terrashape to modify the coastline gtp file to give an accurate bay/estuary as far inland until the river actually starts and then use a shapefile to plot the path of the river. The appearance of the river would depend on how you map the shapefile within Terrascene. And of course if you want "real water" (the sort an aircraft will sink in - not just painted) you would have to use Elrond's ground type transformer program to change the underlying ground tile attribute (for all the tiles the river flows over) from land to water.I hope the above helps. Re-read Colin post as he explains all of the above far better than me ( but he has inside information :-) ) I'm green with envy :-)Cheers,Roger

[Guest Colins2]

G'day Roger,Sorry to hear that you are still having problems.I really don't see how it can be an OS issue even though I can't test on 98 any longer.AutoCAD etc. works fine on 98 (from past experience)TurboCAD LE should also work fine given the age of the program.There *should* be no reason for TerraShape not to work on 98. The fact that you have made dxf files from shapefiles and gtp files shows that TerraShape is working.The re-conversion back to shapefiles and gtp files is simply the reverse procedure, i.e. converting double precision or float values in text form from the dxf file back into binary form for the shapefiles and Fly! gtp files.In theory all the math etc. is handled by the Borland routines not the OS, so if it works one way, it must work the other.Can you send me your edited dxf with the coastline polys and I'll try it out on my machine.CheersColin

[Guest Fly II Pilot]

Roger,Just gave it a try but got carried away with modifying the coast. I got a CTD after teleporting to YSSY.There must be either a limit on vertex per tile or it must be very jealous when it comes to overlapping tiles. I'm going to try making a minor change to the coast to see if it does it.The same happened to me trying to modify SABE, I added polygons, and got really carried away with the changes... sure enough, it didn't work. I went back and only made changes to the nodes within a tile, didn't add anything, didn't have to overlap anything and it worked just fine.I'll keep playing around starting next week and will let you know.Take care,Alejandro AmigorenaCheshire, CTFly! II Beta Team MemberAthlon XP 1800ABIT KR7A-RAID768Mb RAMMSI GeForce 3 Ti 500 64MBSB Audigy GamerCH Flight Yoke USBCH Pro Pedals USB

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

G'day Colin, Thanks for posting, I have noticed another strange thing.When Terrascene creates a gtp file with windows explorer minimised; as I open explorer the new.gtp file is displayed as 0 KB. If I refresh explorer OR copy the new.gtp file to another folder it then displays as 63 KB. A similar anomally occurs with the dxf files as well. That explains why I thought I was sending a 747 KB dxf file to you and you were saying it was only 2 KB. >Can you send me your edited dxf with the coastline polys and >I'll try it out on my machine. Ah great minds think alike :-)Just prior to logging on to the forum I sent you a swag of files that I hope might help you see what my problem is.BTW The email address for Rob Westhouse didn't work. Cheers,Roger @YSSY

[Guest]

Bonjour Roger,Sorry, but my OS is Win XP too! This doesn't bring additionnal information for your problem:-roll Thanks for your explanation about adding rivers with Terrashape. Actually I already tried this method, but it does not cover my need: I want to add rivers without modifying generic textures all around - and the generic textures I use are not used by Terrascene (they are ROTW textures).So I modify coasts to add rivers: this way, rivers are seen by Fly2 as an arm of the sea. The HUGE advantage of this method is the weight of created files: 40Ko par Tile, whereas Terrascene creates (as far as I know..) 40Mo files per Tile!(-: And I can keep on having the french generic textures all around the river.Great thanks again to Colin for having allowed this method with Terrashape!Regards,Jeck

[Guest Hagar]

Roger,Could it be the .gtp file extension giving you problems with Win98?Maybe it sees those files as its own system files, and not so with WinXP...?

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

G'day Alejandro, Sorry to hear that it seems even XP systems may have problems. Perhaps its the Sydney coastline thats the cause of our worries. I can tell you that Terrashape has a limit of 100 nodes per tile. There was originally only 50 but when Terrascene crashed Colin traced the cause to a tile at Sydney that has 72 nodes and he upped the value to 100. Whilst major changes may be the cause of your system crashing I have yet to get Terrashape to function with an unmodified coastline.I look forward to hearing from you.Cheers,Roger @YSSY

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

G'day Andrew,I wouldn't have a clue about the cause of my problems :-) . Now that Alejandro has also confirmed a problem of sorts with XP, so that mitigates against it being an OS problem. Colin feels that it should work on all win based platforms. This is all technically way out of my depth.I'll beta test till the cows come home because I can see the potential of Terrashape.The fix I'm afraid will have to come from some of the more computer literate members of the forum.Cheers,Roger @YSSY

[Guest Fly II Pilot]

Roger,Terrashape works fine, it catalogs and converts the modified .DXF and so on. It's not until I actually get into Fly! and teleport to the area that I get a CTD. The problem is that I got carried away with the changes, I added the runway data and I added a background picture on top of which I drew the lines. Although I then deleted the picture, the runway data was still there, maybe there is a problem with that.I tried again and now it DOES work, except that the tile must be changed to land. Here's a picture. It ain't pretty because it's just a test but it shows that this DOES work...Take care,Alejandro AmigorenaCheshire, CTFly! II Beta Team MemberAthlon XP 1800ABIT KR7A-RAID768Mb RAMMSI GeForce 3 Ti 500 64MBSB Audigy GamerCH Flight Yoke USBCH Pro Pedals USB

[Guest Colins2]

Bonjour JeckThat is actually what I had in mind when I added the GTP code.People were complaining about 2 issues with the default coastlines:1) Not very accurate - stepped - in some areas.2) Runways & taxiways being in the sea.My only reason for adding the gtp module was to 'fix' these things.It is not necessary to alter the GTP files for TerraScene.But, as a side effect, it is possible to import the GTP files into the dxf project file so that the user can see the default coastline.For the most part, the TRI default coastlines are better than the DCW data. They can always be improved though.I suggest using the GTP file to modify the ponetl/ponetp shapefiles. Then TerraScene will take care of the coastlines in the rendered area.Also you must remember that if you change a tile to include some land where it was previously water - or to all water where there was previously some land - you need to change the underlying tile type with Elrond & Jim Kanold's excellent 'Ground Tile Transform' program, available from the Avsim library.Colin