Build Your Own Hangar

[pixelninja 0]

I recall seeing screenshots where someone created their own hangar they could park their plane in. They even put signage on it and objects inside. Does anyone know what software was used to accomplish this?

[pixelninja 0]

So after a day of searching I decide to post. As soon as I do so I find Eaglesoft hangar... I'm going to give it a look but it looks like there is just a single model you can use. I'm interested in varying sizes and types of hangars if that is possible.

[hurricanemk1c 195]

Hi Jason and welcome to the forums,

I believe the screenshots you have seen are Rob's, and he used Flight1's Instant Object Studio to create them - see the Latest Reviews section on the right of the forum index

Kieran

[rob16584 42]

That's correct.

The hangar was created in IOS and then placed at various airports using ADE

[mutley 4,497]

Hi Jay,

You may have seen my hanger dotted around the forum, the only picture I can find at the moment is this one.

You are right, it is the Eaglesoft version and has an animated door. Sadly it is not resizeable.

The Instant Object Studio looks to be the best bet

[pixelninja 0]

Thanks for all the help guys. Will start my foray into modelling and scenery creation later this week.

[Quickmarch 488]

I'm coming in to this a bit after the fact.

 

JA supplied the URL for the download. All went well on that end. I sure could use a bit of help from someone who has done this before.

 

I keep my FSX files (don't have FS9 or FS 2004) in their own directory C:\FSX. The download for the hangar places the hangar files in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator 9\

 

I read the instructions and moved the appropriate folders and files to their FSX equivalent locations: 

 

- C:\FSX\Addon Scenery\Eaglesoft Hangar (contains FOLDERS: placement tools, scenery, texture - and one FILE: SCENERY.dat

 

- C:\FSX\SimObjects\Airplanes ( contains FOLDER: Crosshair Box English - which contains Folders: model, panel, sound - and four FILES: Aircraft.cfg, Crosshair Box English.air, crosshair box english.jpg, readme.txt

 

- There is already a file called GaugeSound.dll under C:\FSX so I did not replace it with the one that came with the Hangar package.

 

That's pretty much as far as I got. When I follow the install instructions and load FSX then go to "Change Aircraft", there is no THUMBNAIL showing the Crosshair Box in the group of thumbnails that show clickable pictures of the various available aircraft (Yes, I do have "Show All Variations" checked)

 

Some things I noticed:

 

1. FSX does not have a Folder called "Aircraft". The equivalent is "Airplanes"

2. FSX "Airplanes" sub folders all contain a "thumbnail.jpg" file that is the icon that shows in the aircraft loading page in the main FSX menu.

(I put one there, but it didn't help)

 

I did run the 'Scenery' update from the main FSX menu.

 

Can anyone help?

 

Cheers,

March

 

PS - This is NOT an important item in my life. AH works well without having my own hangar.

PPS - I did download the demo version of Instant Object Studio. Quite a piece of software, but likely more than I need for this job.

[brett 2,314]

Not sure about all of this but did you make the thumbnail.jpg file small enough when you added it? 256X135 and around less than 10kb is usually good. If it's too big it will sometimes not show. That's all I got.

[allardjd 1,853]

Brett is right about thumbnail size. Paint.Net does this admirably if your image is too large - Top Line Menu -> Image -> Resize.

 

The file has to be named "thumbnail.jpg" and must be in one of the texture folders for the "aircraft". If there are several textures (liveries) there should be an image of each in the corresponding texture folder.

 

John

[Quickmarch 488]

Thanks to both of you for the info.

 

I very carefully made the thumbnail the same size as the other aircraft.

 

One thing of note is that the texture file in FSX is in the corresponding folder. Example: C:\FSX\SimObjects\Airplanes\C172\Texture, Texture.1, Texture.2, etc and the thumbnail for the aircraft repaint is in one of these folders.

 

The files that came with the hangar package contain a "Texture" file, but it is in the "Addon Scenery" group. There is no thumbnail in this texture file ( I out one there, just in case - no joy). So I copied the "Texture" sub folder into the "Crosshair Box English" folder under "Airplanes" - again, no joy.

 

The major difference I could see is that FSX does not contain a folder called "Aircraft" - it's equivalent is (presumably) "Airplanes". So not to be stingy, I placed a folder in C:\FSX\SimObjects\ called Aircraft and put copies of the required files in there - no joy.

 

Thanks again for all the brain-cell burning from the opposite side of the planet. I'm going to sit back, copy the exact file structure from the Hangar package and reprint it here. Give me a few minutes and I'll edit this post,

 

Cheers,

March

 

OK - back again.

 

Here's the first screenshot

 

Second screenshot - Called CHB 1

 

This is the third screenshot - Called CHB 2, contents of the indicated folder, above

 

I can do screenshots of the folder that went into C:\FSX\Addon Scenery if required.

 

Does this help?

 

March

[brett 2,314]

I'm not sure what your aircraft.cfg file shows in the [flightsim.xx] area but maybe you could create a texture folder(texture.chb) for the thumbnail to reside, then place the texture folder in the Crosshair Box English folder. You would then need to add the name of the texture folder in the texture= line on the flightsim section of the aircraft.cfg so it will recognize it or for each one you make.

 

Hard to say without playing with this myself.

  

[Quickmarch 488]

Thanks Brett, 

 

I'll give it a try and report back.

 

I was hoping that this thread would elicit a response from one of the people who had done this exercise. You know; one of those "Oh, THAT problem. Sure. This is how you workaround it. Etc, etc"

 

Thanks for all the input to try to solve a dilemma that is just not very important.

 

Cheers,

March

 

PS: FS Repaint can find the file. Thinks it's an aircraft. Unfortunately, I don't want to edit it, just "fly" it (and a load and save to FS Repaint doesn't automatically produce the missing link).

[brett 2,314]

Just to update this thread Match:

 

I downloaded the hanger folder and installed the "airplane". To get it to show up in my hanger page I created a folder named "texture" in the aircraft folder and placed the Crosshair Box English.jpg into it. I then resized it to 250x187 and renamed it to thumbnail.jpg. I did not have to make any changes to the aircraft.cfg in this case because there is only one texture folder involved*. It now shows up on my hanger page under the name "Eaglesoft DG Scenery Placement Crosshair Box". The reason is shows up with this name, if you are interested, is because of the following inputs in the [fltsim.0] section:

 

ui_manufacturer=Eaglesoft DG
ui_type=Scenery Placement
ui_variation=Crosshair Box

 

The only other things that might need to be changed is the panel and sound folder .cfg files. In this case they alias an aircraft named "schweizr". I tried to see if this is a default aircraft in the FS9 sim but could not find the information. Maybe someone here could enlighten us. You can of course alais a like aircraft of your choosing by changing the name to any other aircraft folder name. (Make backups first  )

 

*If you had more than one texture folder and or models you would alias the folders and their contents by adding the texture folder name in the texture= section of the flight sim area for that particular aircraft.  

[Quickmarch 488]

Thanks Brett,

 

I managed to get it to load last night - pretty much as you described, above.

 

So I went through the entire setup procedure and it did as advertised, eventually installing a file called esdg_hangar_CYCD.bgl (CYCD being the FSX airport where I put the thing).

 

All chuffed, I then went to the FSX Scenery Menu file in the Main FSX Menu and tried to get FSX to recognise the file as a scenery file. FSX finds the folder alright = C:\FSX\Addon Scenery\Eaglesoft Hangar\scenery ..................Unfortunately, that's the end of the trail. The message box comes up empty, ie: no recognisable scenery file. 

 

When I load FSX, there's nothing there (by way of a hangar, anyway).

 

The "schweizr" file is necessary as it is part of the setup process. What it does is display a "GPS" on a blank Sweitzer 2D dash which gives you the co-ordinate info needed to do the install. Nothing like the instructions show, but easily recognisable for what it is. Why it needs a sound folder is beyond me.

 

After spending untold hours when I could have been making Airport Diagrams for MH, I've pretty much given up and my airplane is sitting in the rain in Nanaimo (CYCD).

 

Anyway, thanks again. We've probably thrown enough time at this little project by now. I'm willing to give it up if you are. Otherwise I've got to open a whole new can of worms in the Addon Scenery area.

 

Cheers,

March

[brett 2,314]

I haven't tried to actually set a new hanger somewhere yet. I hate to give up on anything so will keep going anyway because I planed on making this hanger for myself and redoing the texture files to show my AH company name on it. I would just place the new BGL and redone texture files into a new folder.

 

If you added the new hanger BGL to the original scenery sub folder and did everything correctly it should work I would think. FSX should have just reloaded the library on it's own since you made a change to the folder(adding the new BGL) if you had installed and linked the new scenery folder first. So one question I do have is, did you install and activate the original scenery file in the FSX Scenery Library before creating this new BGL? 

[ddavid 149]

March - were you using this download?

 

http://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/files/2637/fs2004-eaglesoft-fbo-hangar-scenery-kit/

 

The readme contained in it gives a fairly good introduction on how to locate and install the Eaglesoft hangar for FS2004. Any use?

 

Cheers - Dai.

 

[brett 2,314]

I know you might be done with this March but I post this for others that may read the thread. I believe I might have been on the right track in my last post because there was no reason to have to activate the new scenery BGL.

 

Almost hate to say this March but it worked for me although the angle of the hanger(heading) seemed a bit off. I installed the Eaglesoft Hanger folder in my addon scenery folder and activated it in FSX using the scenery library.

*If you click on Add Area and get the popup box, you only need to browse to the main folder(Eaglesoft Hanger) and then press ok, do the click on the blank part of the screen deal for us Win7 users. If you go past the main folder to the sub folders or the BGL itself you might get that message that you received.* 

 

I then followed the instructions to get the Lat, Lon and heading in FSX and closed out of it after saving my flight.

 

Did the creation thing as instructed and the newly created and renamed BGL file appeared. I moved it to my the Eaglesoft Hanger folder that is in my addon scenery folder.

 

I then restarted FSX, it automatically rebuilt the scenery database. I then loaded my saved flight and there it was.

 

 

[Quickmarch 488]

Hi guys,

 

Thanks for the perseverance. I'll give it another go.

 

@ Dai, yes, I believe that's the file. I can double check as JA sent me the URL. MH forum thread 8751.

 

@ Brett - followed the instructions to the letter (sometimes not a good thing because the screenshots that they supply and the reality are two entirely different things - see the "GPS"). It's not like there isn't already stuff in the Addon Scenery file. There's three airports in there, all with .bgl files and they load and run with no drama.

 

I'm not 100% sure of the sequence of events, but I'll guess that the Eaglesoft stuff was in Addon Scenery for two or three days before I got around to; first, getting the placement aircraft file to show up in FSX. That took some doing with help from your comments. Second, going through the routine as described in the installation instructions. I'm going to assume that I did this correctly as the .bgl file DID turn up in Addon Scenery\Eaglesoft Hangar\scenery.

 

It was the next step that probably didn't work - that of getting FSX to recognize the scenery.

 

Your reminder about the click here instead of there Win7 trick did it. I had completely forgotten that bug. 

 

I now have a hangar at CYCD. That's the good news. The bad news is that it is facing into the woods. Obviously I didn't get the alignment tool aligned the right way.

 

Here's what i propose:

 

I'm going to re-do this whole thing from start to finish and take a bunch of screenshots during the process. I'll post them here (when I get positive results). That should satisfy our obligations to the future simmers whow want to use this hangar in FSX.

 

Back to work!

 

Thanks again, all of you.

 

Cheers,

March

[allardjd 1,853]

I think you place it by slewing, so 1 and 3 on the NumPad rotate it. I've heard before about it facing an unexpected direction and am wondering if it uses magnetic heading instead of true, or vice versa. Could be a bug where you see it pointed true and it displays magnetic or the other way round. The two cases I know of (including this one) are at high latitudes where magnetic variation can be pretty high. Just a shot in the dark.

 

John

[Quickmarch 488]

You do.

 

But 180 degrees out? Now that's serious Variation 

 

I finally got the thing where I want it and pointed in the right direction. I do think you're right John. It almost looks like a variation calculation might be needed as well as a 180 degree adjustment. 

 

Originally, I set the aircraft up so that the compass was on 161 degrees - at Nanaimo this roughly translates to parallel to RWY 16. This is the direction that I input to the widget and it resulted in a hangar facing in the opposite direction. However, it was facing more to the west than a simple 180 degree rotation would account for. I didn't check it and I've trashed the file. CYCD has a westerly mag variation of 19 degrees. On the subsequent install I simply added 180 to the 161 = 341and filled that in. The hangar door is facing approx 140 degrees (east of the expected 161). Once I saw it in place, I kind of liked I and left it that way. 

 

I'll post the entire procedure later. For now let's assume that i will have to do a bit of experimenting to see if Variation is having its way with the install.

 

Here's the resultant:

 

 

Cheers,

March

[brett 2,314]

Glad your getting closer to success and it does look pretty good sitting at that angle. I should mention that I was doing my hanger rather fast and did not take the time to zoom in and adjust the increment lines of the box tool. I also, against the instructions, entered the full heading including the decimals. Not sure if that is what messed mine up but it seemed like it would be a good idea accuracy wise. I look forward to your results after testing on this. I noticed that the instructions say to

 

Press Y to enter “Slew Mode,” and press the spacebar to orient yourself due North.

 

For me it is "Ctrl+Spacebar" to orient to the north. To make things work quicker I used a normal aircraft first to position myself close to where I wanted to be and then switched aircrafts to the crosshair tool. This way the north side of the crosshair tool is already facing in the same direction as the front of my plane. Note:The back of the hanger is the north side of the tool. I use this "quick look" text file I have in my FSX notes folder for slew modes to fine adjust and even made a copy of it for the hanger folder so it's handy:

 

SLEW COMMANDS/ Slew to rapidly reposition your aircraft without flying in real time.
 
Slew Mode (on/off)    Y
 
Heading North/Attitude Level     CTRL+SPACEBAR
 
Freeze All Movement   Num Pad 5
 
Slew Forward     Num Pad 8
 
Slew Backward     Num Pad 2
 
Slew Left       Num Pad 4
 
Slew Right       Num Pad 6

Rotate Left      Num Pad 1
 
Rotate Right      Num Pad 3
 
Slew Up Slowly      Q or F3
 
Slew Up Quickly      F4
 
Slew Down Slowly       A
 
Slew Down Quickly       F1
 
Freeze Vertical Movement      F2
 
Pitch Nose Up       9
 
Pitch Nose Up Quickly      F5
 
Pitch Nose Down      F7 or 0
 
Pitch Nose Down Quickly      F8
 
Freeze Pitch        F6
 
Bank Left       Num Pad 7
 
Bank Right       Num Pad 9

 

 

Next Step: Last night I did play around real quick with the BMP texture files(made a copy of the original texture folder) and created another newly named folder for my addon scenery named. I took the BGL I made out of the EagleSoft folder and put it in a new scenery subfolder. I also added the copied texture folder. I was then able to use the DXTBmp program to add my own signs. I really need to get a payware version of a paint program so I can get better results when resizing images because it looks horrible the way it is now, not to mention the nighttime bmp's as they are the hardest to do. This is what I ended up with:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rob16584 42]

Hi March,

 

If you want an FSX scenery hangar creating with IOS drop me a pm and let me know at which airport and where abouts at the airport etc... and I'll see what I can do and email it over to you.

 

I also had the problem of the hangar been at a totally different heading to what I wanted it to be, eventually I managed to figure out a formula/calculation so that I could enter the wrong heading in ADE but get the right one in FSX

 

Cheers

[Quickmarch 488]

Hey Thanks for the offer, Rob,

 

No need to do all that extra work, but thanks anyway.

 

This exercise is all about learning the ins and outs of the MS FSX software that I'm using daily. All these trials and tribulations lead to a better understanding of how all this stuff ties together.

 

@ Brett, thank you, too. I see I've created a monster - inquiring minds MUST know!  I also tried to modify the signs (operative word = tried), using PaintDotNet. PdN is a graphics editor that JA and I use to edit the Airport Diagrams. JA put me onto back at the beginning of my Airport Diagram Maker Career. More on that later.

 

Meanwhile, I am working on the instructions.

 

First thing is to experiment with this alignment problem. No question that the hangar does not load to FSX in the direction I intended.

 

I wonder if anyone has experienced the same problem in FS9.

 

BBack,

March

[brett 2,314]

I do enjoy a challenge March so thanks for bringing this up. Its fun to learn about this stuff and also fun to look back at my old posts where I floundered around before finally  getting to the ah ha state.

I too had problems with changing the BMP's when I first tried it. I finally figured out what I was doing wrong. I was trying to save them in the paint.net program when all I had to do was save it in the DXTBmp program, duh. It was always saving them to some temp area. I even had tried doing a "save as" in paint.net and them renaming it but I was not getting the alpha channel. Now I save in paint.net first(make sure any layers are flattened) then make the save in DXTBmp and walla, bmp changed. Took me awhile to finally figure that one out so take everything I say with a grain of salt and wait for the experts to chime in.

 

When I get another chance I will try and play with the heading. I guess the first step would be too install one in the direct north position(Ctrl+Spacebar in slew mode) and see if it moves off of that position after the creation of the BGL. This is a pretty cool hanger and I would really like to figure it out. There are a few airports I wouldn't mind installing them at.   Not sure why but I just thought that I could save alot of testing time and do a search and see if this has been discussed before somewhere (double duh  ). I'll be back.....  

[Quickmarch 488]

You're going to like this, Brett..................

 

Eaglesoft Hangar - Installation in FSX

 

I started out writing up the hangar Install process for FSX from scratch. That will take me a few days to get it right. Meanwhile I'm going to be populating the PNW with Eagesoft Hangars.

 

Let's start with the issue of alignment. 

 

Ignoring for the time being, that you cannot DO any of the following in FSX without some serious modifications to file and folder locations/thumbnail editing and a few other minor housekeeping items....  

 

In the Eaglesoft instructions, called ESDG_Hanger_Installation.PDF, I get the following:

 

-Quote - Start FS and choose the “Eaglesoft DG, Scenery Placement, Crosshair Box” as your aircraft. Go to the airport where you want to place the office and hanger, switch to “Top Down View” (Ctrl-S)*  = (F12 in FSX) and zoom out. Press Y to enter “Slew Mode,” and press the spacebar* =  (Cntl-Spacebar in FSX) to orient yourself due North.

 

Scan around the airport looking for a suitable place for your scenery* (He means "Hangar").  Press Shift-2 to bring up the Lat-Lon display too, then size and move it somewhere convenient. Endquote -

 

Let's stop here for a moment: I used CAM3 as my airport, it's a small airport and familiar to me. The results of the instructions, above, put me at the departure end of RWY 31, facing in the appropriate direction for takeoff. Next, I did the Shft-2 (Radios) thing and the "Lat_Lon Display" popped up. I also hit Cntl-Z so I'd have the additional FSX information text line at the top left. 

 

 

 

The data agrees with simulated reality - RWY 31 is orientated - 312 degrees magnetic.

 

Pressing "Y" to put me in "Slew" mode, then Cntl-Spacebar rotated the Crosshair Box so that it is headed straight up towards the top of the screen. Ie: Due North - True.

 

Here, we need to refer to the second screenshot

 

 

Notice that the display reads HDG: 342.0073 - This is a Magnetic Heading. This is what will show on your compass. It is nearly right, indicating a Westerly Variation of (360-342=18) = W18 degrees. MSFS does not keep up with the annual change in Variation which is quite small, but does result in significant differences over time.

 

Remember - we were facing up RWY 31 - 312M, 294T. "East is least and West is Best" so when going from TRUE (Map) to MAGNETIC (Compass) you add westerly variation (Best = ADD) and vice-versa. It is very confusing, but if you get it wrong you're out by twice as much as your mistake.

 

Duncan BC probably doesn't want a hangar on the end of RWY 31, so I'm going to skid the thing up the runway to the other end and rotate it so that it is at 90 degrees to the runway on the East side. Let's do the math. Mag = 312 so 312 - 90 = 222. Stands to reason that if I first slew back to the runway heading, then slew my way to the opposite end, do a left 90 and back up a few feet, I should have the hangar door facing the runway.

 

Let's go....Done.

 

 

Now let's go to the PDF file that is the instructions for this project. I can find nothing wrong with these, other than the fact that it is a long, convoluted, process. Welcome to developerville.

 

Doin' it, Doin' it....Done. 

 

 

 

 

Load the new BGL file into my FSX\Addon Scenery Folder, load up FSX, Main menu - Settings - Scenery Library - pick the file, remember to do the little click me here, not there trick and FSX accepts the new scenery. Yahoo! Let's have a look!

 

OHHHH POOP! The hangar is facing away from the runway and not square to it. Does that angle look a lot like 18 degrees to you? So we're facing 180 MINUS 18. My grade 3 math says this is 222-180-18 = 024 degrees Magnetic or 222 - 180 = 042T.

 

 

 

 

Basic mistake #1 - The direction the aircraft must be heading is towards the open door of the hangar plus (in the case of westerly) the variation. So to get this right on my next attempt, I need to slew my way down the runway, make a RIGHT turn to 042 degrees, then add the 18 degrees of westerly variation and put 060 into the software for heading! Add = cancel the variation.

 

Let's do it. 

 

Eureka! And that's not just the name of a small Northern California Town! Success!

 

 

Why do I feel unnaturally happy about this? I need to get out a bit more often.

 

One more run through. I'm not happy with the hangar being so close to the runway, so I'll back it up a bit before saving it for good.

 

One thing that's been bothering me: where does the confusion regarding the direction come from? I took a good look at the instruction PDF and found the answer: The first airport picture used is upside down! RWY 18 is at the bottom. The text in the GPS box reads Hdg: 180, so the natural assumption is that the box is oriented facing down and that the position of the box is to the east of the runway. It's not that easy to read the runway numbers.

 

The second picture just makes it worse. The author has rotated the picture 90 degrees and the text on the GPS reads HDG: 271. Given that I've already made the error and mentally placed the box on the east side of the runway, it's easy to see where I might think the box (aircraft) is now facing "OUT" of the proposed hangar. If the box is on the east side, then the aircraft would be facing west if it were in the hangar.

 

Quote - Write down the coordinates as they are displayed in the Lat-Lon Gauge window, as well as the heading. Notice the orientation of the view.  The “top” of the coordinate grid points to the back of the building, so the lower edges show where the front of the building will be!  - Unquote 

 

The text explanation doesn't make it any clearer. The "Top" that he refers to is not the "Front" of the hangar, but the "Front" of the aircraft. The "Top" of the aircraft is (presumably) pointing towards the ceiling.

 

Ahhh.....Go to bed March!