scale problems with FSDS and Airport 2.6

[damo44]

Guys

I'm having a few problems here.

I started to design some scenery (a hospital)in FSDS but because of a few problems I've broken the scenery down into 6 FSDS projects and saved them as api macros.

Now I'm trying to place the macros into Airport 2.6 so that I can add more ground featurs like some roads and ground polygons which I couldn't get to look right in FSDS.

The problem is when I try and place and scale the buildings. For example if I try and scale the buildings to Airport Standard 0.01 they show up as a bunch of tiny but widely separated dots in airport - but show up in FS2002 as reasonably sized buildings which are just a bit too small. If I try and increase the scale
to 0.015, Airport changes it to 0.02. They still look widely scattered in Airport but in FS2002 they all become much too big and start jutting in to each other.

If I were to increase the scale to something larger where the macros look resonable sized/placed in Airport, I end up with a massively oversized main building which swallows up everything else.

Obviously I've made some fundamental error (I can't say miscalculation because I don't know enough to calculate anything in the first place) and would appreciate some rules of thumb in how to select the scale in FSDS so that I don't get these kind of problems. For the record the main hospital building is reported as being "FSDS object 84x88 using scale 0.0100000" in Apirport's 3D object dialogue box. Also the scale I've selected in Airport's General section is 1cm/100m.

I accept I may have to start over on this one because I've got something horribly wrong. I've succesfully produced scenery before using a combination of VOD and Airport and don't recall having anything like these problems. I guess I just got lucky last time and happened on a combination of scales which worked
out for me.

Regards



David
david@vanguard2.freeserve.co.uk

ALSO POSTED TO FLIGHTSIM.COM SCENERY DESIGN FORUM

[deaneb]

OK this make take a little explaining, so I hope I do not confuse you in the process.

Firstly the shape airport shows for your macro (a square)is based on the biggest X and Z dimensions of your object you created in FSDS and it will be drawn in airport as if centred about the intersection of the x and z axis. In other words if you made a box with sides 2 metres each centrally about the X and z axis in FSDS it will be shown in Airport in the correct position. If however the box in FSDS is displaced 1 m to one side of (lets say) the x axis it will still be shown in airport as if the box is centred around the x and y axis again. This means you are unable to place this object correctly as it will show up in your scenery 1m displaced from where you actually want it. So first idea is to make sure each object in FSDS is centered as best you can around the x and z axis prior to making the API.

Secondly when making the buildings try to get the scaling accurate. I use a rough rule of 10-12 ft (3-4m) per story of a building (lets face it Flightsimmers can't get out of their planes with rulers to check -yet!!).
If you are not using any intricate detail then use a FSDS scale (in the project properties menu) of 1 if using feet or say 0.5 if using metres. Note that this scale parameter is setting how accurate your dimensions will be (the nearest foot or half meter) it has nothing to do with the size of your finished building. If you require finer detail, lets say a rail 0.2 m square then you will need to make the scale smaller. At least 0.2 in this case. Curved surfaces too will need smaller scales.

Lastly the shape and size of the macro polygon drawn in Airport is defined in the API file. You can edit this to change this if you want to show your macro in its true shape. This can be handy if your building is not 4 sided and you want to place it accurately.

The entry looks like this:

; displays airport symbol
Area( 5 %1 %2 1 )
RotatedCall( :symbol 0 0 %5 )
Jump( :endsymbl )
:symbol
RefPoint( 7 : 1 %1 %2 )
Points( 1
-1 0 -4
-1 0 4
1 0 4
1 0 -4
0 0 0 )
Poly( a 1 5 2 )
Poly( a 2 5 3 )
Poly( a 3 5 4 )
Poly( a 4 5 1 )
Return

Points are x,y,z co-ords of the shape and are taken from the x,z intersection in FSDS. So if you know the positions of the corners of your building ( taken from the x,z intersection in FSDS) you can type them all in and have as many points as you like. Note though that if you use an FSDS scale factor of 0.5 then you need to multiply all your co-ords by 2 to show in Airport properly. If a scale of 0.2 is used then multiply by 5 etc.

Lastly, failing all that technical stuff, sometimes the good old trial and error method works fine. Keep moving your buildings - compiling the scenery - then going to Flightsim to check positioning. From htere note any corrections in the positions required and start again. Enventually you will get things in place.

Hope this helps.

Deane

[damo44]

Thanks for that response. It was very helpful and certainly things are a lot clearer to me now on the FSDS front.

The only area I'm still a bit vague about is the scale within Airport. Let's say I've created a building 100m tall, 50m wide and 50m deep in FSDS and used a scale of .5

When that macro is selected within Airport, if I leave the Airport Standard scale at the default (is this 0.1?) should the building show up in FS as 100m tall etc.

If the answer to the last question is "yes", does it also depend on the overall scale for the Airport project? I think the default for this is 1cm=1000m isn't it? If I changed it to 1cm=100m would this mean that I'd need to increase the Airport Standard scale in the macros by a factor of 10 also.


David

[wsieffert]

Hey! I just got out of my simulated helo to measure a building just yesterday!!:-lol

[deaneb]

>The only area I'm still a
>bit vague about is the
>scale within Airport. Let's say
>I've created a building 100m
>tall, 50m wide and 50m
>deep in FSDS and used
>a scale of .5
>
>When that macro is selected within
>Airport, if I leave the
>Airport Standard scale at the
>default (is this 0.1?) should
>the building show up in
>FS as 100m tall etc.

You must use a macro scale of 0.5 This scale should be the same as that selected in FSDS and should be shown in the Airport dialogue box for the 3d macro as "FSDS object 50m x 50m scale 0.5"

If you used 0.1 it would show up 1/5 the size (20 tall) and the polygon shown will be samller in airport too. Hey try it - just copy your macro (ctrl-c) and paste (ctrl-v) and place the two macros side by side. re-scale one and compile. See what happens!!

>If the answer to the last
>question is "yes", does it
>also depend on the overall
>scale for the Airport project?
>I think the default for
>this is 1cm=1000m isn't it?
>If I changed it to
>1cm=100m would this mean that
>I'd need to increase the
>Airport Standard scale in the
>macros by a factor of
>10 also.

I have no idea what the default airport scale does. I do not think it has any purpose as far as I am aware. I have never changed it and simply leave it as 1cm =100m.

glad I haven't confused you yet !!

Deane

[deaneb]

But do you really know how high the real one was to compare it, and did you use a virtual tape measure!!

Deane