SBuilderX Walk Through

I use SBuilderX to change the Airport Background Masking on some airports which show a sand type background instead of grass. I would suggest and recommend at this point that one should get the SBuilderX_FSX_Tutorial_V1.zip and read it a few times to get the feel of what the program does and in this way it is easier to understand the particular function above which I will try to outline in my simple terms which is what I use as a guide for myself when I forget what I read in the Tutorial mentioned above.

Firstly before you even open the SBuilderX program one can assume that you have selected an airport which you would like to make some changes to and you must know the lat. and lon. location of this airport prior to starting. There are three (or maybe more) ways that you can get this information and I will list them in the order of what I consider the easiest:

A.

1. Start FSX and go to the airport that you have selected.
2. Go into slew mode. Press CTRL+SPACE BAR to position to go into the "North Up" view.
3. Take screen shot which you may want to use later and get the lat. and lon. required which should be close to center of airport including terminals, runways and surrounds.

B.

C.

1. Load "WorldLC" (Located FSX/Scenery\Base\Scenery) with TMFViewer (located in Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK\SDK\Environment Kit\Terrain SDK.
2. Pan and Zoom into airport location required and you should be able to see the airport boundaries.From this get the Lat.and Lon. of Airport as described above.
3. Determine Folder and File name from information on Base Line.(It should be something like Folder 0302, File cvx2520.bgl depending on location of airport). This tells you that the default scenery of your airport or location is in this file which will be located in Microsoft Flight Simulator X\Scenery. This can be very useful for other functions of the program which you may decide to use.

Now start up your SBuilderX Program and let's assume that you have chosen to use option A above and have the required lat.and lon. then follow these procedures in sequence:

1. Create new Project Name and Folder Location for storing.
2. Go to "View-GoToPosition" and enter lat. and lon.
3. Go to "Edit-Preferences" to select best server and let's say you select "Virtual Earth Server" and press OK. (If you do not get a satisfactory picture from this server you can try any of the others and you may get a better one).
4. From Menu select "View-Show Background"
5. Pan to the best view of required background around airport allowing a bit of space outside what you regard to be airport boundaries as you can tidy this up later if you wish.
6. When you have finally decided on your airport background go to menu and select"File-Add Map-From Background" then go to "Menu-File-Save Project As" and save. This will be called an SPB file. (I usually save with the same name as you called your project up above.) It is recommended that you repeat this process and save a second file as an SBX file which can be imported using the "File-Import SBuilder SBX" option and are useful to locate problems if you run into trouble.
7. Now you can start creating your polygon. Click on the "Poly" Toolbar Icon and pace your arrow on the first point of your Polygon and press your left mouse button. Continue with these points until you have your Polygon completed. Now press your right mouse button after you have made your last point.
8. Right click on edge of polygon with your mouse and you will get Context Menu with Properties Option and do the following:
   1. Select appropriate Vector Poly which in our case is "LC_Grass"
   2. Select "Set Transparency" and set it around 120. This will allow you to see the background underneath.
   3. On some selections of Vector Poly's you have to give the altitude but for what we are doing you don't.
   4. If you are creating more than one Poly you should give each one a name by using the "General" option. This would be very useful to identify later.
9. Save your project
10. Choose "Select" from menu and choose all relative types that you have put into the project such as "All Polygons", "All Lines" etc.etc.In our case there is only one type that we have used which is a polygon so just select "All Polygons"
11. Go to "Compile" Toolbar Icon and click.
12. Tick "Copy Sel Files to BGL Folder"
13. Select type of Scenery
14. Compilation will also create some files in "Shapes" Folder.
15. Go to folder where you selected to store Project Files at the start and copy the cvx*****.BGL to Addon Scenery\Scenery folder. You can use a different folder if you wish as long as it is accepted scenery for FSX.
16. Load up your FSX and go to the airport you have worked on and Bingo bring a lawnmower to cut the grass!

Just a few notes which are useful:
Key I : To insert new points in poly created.
Key D : To delete points in poly created.
Press Right Mouse Button to get out of Edit.

Hope you may find this useful as a quick guide but don't forget that this is only a fraction of what SBuilderX is capable of and there is really not an awful lot of difference to create islands, lakes, roads, traffic, etc. I certainly find it to be a great program and am most thankful for it being made available to us.

Regards

Toni O'Kelly

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