FSDS Help

[DaleRFU]

i recently got FSDS V3.5 from abacus and its great, i am having loads of fun making stuff. but one thing is bothering me.. i dont know how to place them. i already own abacus EZ-Scenery so can i put it in that?

Thanks for the help

[MIKE JG]

Dale you have two choices once you have completed a scenery model inside FSDS. You can compile it directly with BGLComp through FSDS and place it at a particular set of lat/lon coordinates using FSDS. This method however, at least to me, has proven difficult to use and get the object where you want.

Since you mentioned that you own EZ Scenery, that's the route you want to go. You need to save the scenery model as a .mdl file NOT a .bgl file. Once you've saved it as a .mdl file, you can then place it using a program like EZ scenery. However to do that, you have to first compile your .mdl file into a scenery library bgl file. Confused yet?

It's actually very easy, you just need the proper program to make a scenery library so that you can use it with EZ Scenery. EZ Scenery might have it's own library compile program, I'm not sure, I use Instant Scenery which is an updated version of EZ Scenery. It does have a compile program but I use another free one.

The one I use is called Library Creator XML and can be downloaded here: http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/downlo ... file&id=10

It should have a help guide that will explain how to use it, it is very simple to use.

[DaleRFU]

Thanks mike i will give it a go when i get my sim started up again as when i installed FSDS for some reason my FS will not work now so i am going to have to reinstall it unfortunatly. thanks for the info

[fishlips]

If that doesn't work for you, save your project as an .x file then drag that file to makeMDL.
If your FSDS model was built correctly, you should now have an .mdl file ready to place using your library maker to "add" the model to a new library file.
Place this library file in your chosen active add-on scenery/scenery folder and textures in the texture folder.

You may also like to look at tweaking your model using freeware mdl.tweaker, this program has some great features that will asist in how your model is seen and works within FS.

[DaleRFU]

Ok I saved the object that i have built as a mdl file and a blg file just to make sure. I then placed them into an active scenery folder and activated the folder in the sim. I then started up the sim again and started up so i was at an airfeild (diego garcia, my test base) so then i start EZ-Scenery and there it was but in ez-scenery there are different areas i.e. add-on areas, default areas etc to select from. but the one that my scenery came under this other one, am not sure what it was called. but that would notlet me place the object in this area. i had a message warning come up saying, 'you can only place this onject in a certain area of an airport or city, to place it you will have to go there'.

But with the scenery that MAIW produce with their packages it lets you place it anywhere.

any help please?

[BadPvtDan]

This is from their customer support when I got started:

... In order to create a new Library, you will have to have FSDS
v3 to design the object or load an existing object that was created in FSDS v3. Then, you produce the
object as a Scenery MDL file - not an aircraft MDL or a scenery BGL file - you need to select FIle |
Create FS Object File | Scenery Object, then change the "Save As Type" box to Scenery *.MDL file.
You can do this for multiple objects. Once the MDL file is created, then you use the EZ-Library Manger
that comes with EZ-Scenery to load the new scenery MDL file(s) and then generate a new Library BGL
file.

It's not recommended that you create a new library BGL file for each object - y ou would want to create
all of your desired object, compile them as Scenery MDL files, then use the EZ-Library Manager to
convert them to a new single Library BGL file.

[DaleRFU]

ok i tryed that and this message came up:

D:\Program Files\FS2004SDK\BGLCOMP_SDK>bglcomp compile.xml

Parsing document: compile.xml

ERROR C2014: Failed to load model data in file: D:\Program Files\Addon Scenery\DIEGO GARCIA\scenery\tabuksun3.xml
ERROR C2149: Failed to load model data!
ERROR C2340: Failed to finalize MODEL_DATA!
ERROR C2032: XML Parse Error! Element tree follows:

ERROR: <FSData
ERROR: version = 9.0
ERROR: >
ERROR: <ModelData
ERROR: name = 437CC8B52AD94C7995F322079356BAC8
ERROR: sourceFile = D:\Program Files\Addon Scenery\DIEGO GARCIA\scenery\tabuksun3.xml
ERROR: >
ERROR:
ERROR C2024: Failed to process closing element tag <ModelData> near line 2!


Parse complete!

[MIKE JG]

Are you trying to compile it with an XML file as well? Looks as though BGLComp is trying to read an XML file along with your FSDS file?

[DaleRFU]

its ok Mike i have cracked it now and it is all good. My scenery is appearing in the place's that i want it using the EZ-Scenery.

Thank you so much for your help everyone i really appreciate it

[MIKE JG]

Good deal.