ADX water

[Kent33]

Okay...being stubborn isn't working. I've experimented for days trying to learn the steps for creating a simple hydro poly in ADX and all I get are craters. One time I thought I understood it...I had layed out a river over an airport background exclude autogen poly (at least I think that's what it was), and lo and behold I had a river.....except that over the length of it there were 2 or 3 small craters.

Must have something to do with setting altitudes, which is another problem for me, in that when I draw a poly the properties altitude box has a value in feet (which I set as a preference) but if use Set Altitude to FSX, the value changes to something approximating the altitude in meters. Not exactly, just close.

Two questions then...

Is the Set Altitude to FSX value shown in the box, the altitude for the current posiition of the aircraft when in top down slewing mode?

Secondly, what are the basic steps for creating a simple lake? I can take it from there...I think?

[tvieno]

When ever you put any kind of water, be it lake, river, ocean, FSX will give it an altitude of zero. It is not a problem for those locales near sea level. But for the higher elevations you need to put a Flatten Polygon around the water polygon. What that will do is set the water level to the elevation the airport is.

Not that you asked, but when you put shorelines on, it is the right side of the vector that faces the water. Huh? If you were to cut the vector in half lengthwise, one side always faces the shore and the other faces the water. And in the direction of travel, like a road, it is the right side of the vector is the side that faces the water. It is not so important on lakes, channels, and rivers. But for Ocean vectors it makes a difference because the wave animations just might be on the shore side.

[Kent33]

Thanks very much. Turns out I rediscovered the Flatten Polygon and that works. And now that you've explained that the water level is set to the "airport" elevation (I mistakenly assumed it would be set to the elevation where the polygon is placed), I think I can work now. I should have realized that when the area I flattened showed up as big hump.

Ohh...and thanks for the tip about the right side of vectors. Since my river is flowing in the wrong direction I'm thinking it might apply also to water polygons set to rivers.

Now, if I could only figure out why the altitude box in the polygon will show 1986 feet initially but when I click Set at FSX Altitude it shows 573, or something like that. Something pretty close to the altitude in meters....

[Kent33]

I want to thank you again for your help re: craters and water polys. No sooner than I began to understand it, I get a crater in the middle of a field. No water just farmland. The field altitude ranges from about 1970 feet down to 1920 a mile or so away. Around the edges of the crater it's between 1970 and 1960. Skewing over the pit I get readings in the 600 to 700 foot range?

What to do?

[tvieno]

Have you tried putting a Flatten polygon where the crater is? I remember I was working on one airport and I had "uncalled for" craters. I used flatten to get rid of them.

[Kent33]

Yep....tried that...but I'll give it another go since I might have gotten a little ahead of my skills....which is pretty easy to do by the way. I was going to edit the altitude of the vertices so as to retain some of the slope. I figured if I just flattened it, I'd end up with a cliff on the low side.

I'll give it a whirl...thanks again.

[Kent33]

Ah ha...the flatten polygon didn't work....BUT I did find something else. I rolled back the field...i.e. moved the vertices so that the field polygon wouldn't lay over the crater. The crater was gone and the autogen forest was there again. No crater is good news and I'll settle for that...but I'd still like to profit from a mistake I must have made when experimenting.

You see....in FSX there's a very distinct grassy looking strip in the forest in the area where the crater used to be, but there's no corresponding polygon for it in ADE. I skewed over the strip and the altitudes are within the range of the surrounding area (I was expecting to find a big drop.)

I remember during my experimenting that I tried several different of the available options not knowing exactly what they did....mask class map and so forth. Can't remember exactly which option did it, but that grassy strip is no doubt what caused the crater in the field. Trouble is there's no object polygon in ADE to delete it. It's as if I've made a permanent change to the autogen forest which somehow manifests itself as a radical change in the topography when another land class is used. That's okay, I can live with it, but if I could undo whatever it was I did at least I will have learned something.

Any ideas....if not that's okay....I appreciate the help you've given me already.

[tvieno]

lol.. yeah, FSX is an odd beast to say the least. Sometimes the easiest thing to do is to just start over with a clean slate. And learning from your mistakes and experimentation is what it's all about. Good luck!

[Kent33]

Well...I won't be startin' over that's for sure. I only got into this stuff when I got a new machine and could actually see the scenery...before everything was at miminums.

So, anyway, with the new machine Tower View was obscured by trees and I spent a lot of time tryin' to cut 'em down. Turns out the Stock Airport had the Tower ( that little tiny red T ) stuck way back in the woods about a half mile from the runway. Easy fix once ya know what your doin'.

Thanks again....I'm gonna stick with that grassy strip in the woods.

[scruffyduck]

I am not sure if the question was answered. Set Altitude to FSX will set the altitude to the value of the user aircraft in sim. However do be aware that this is the ground altitude at that point. If you check the altitude via the aircraft instruments you will get a different and higher value - this is because the aircraft altitude is measured at the center of gravity. The difference is a few feet in a Cessna but a lot more in a 747.