Utilities
Click here for my new beaut Airport Scenery Search
I don’t know about you, but I have found it hard to find scenery packages at times. The Org has a whole bunch of scenery that is not too hard to search, but there are other sites scattered across the internet with some really good quality scenery freely available to any X-Planer who wants to use it.
Anyway, I thought I’d try to build a database of airport codes (icao/faa/location id etc) and related links to scenery. Of course, this means trying to find scenery packages, and adding the links to the database. You can suggest a link to some scenery if you wish, and if the scenery is hosted at a trusted domain (ie: x-plane.org and a few others), it will appear immediately as a registered link. Otherwise the link text will appear, but I will need to ‘approve’ it to make the link active.
Click here for a Airport Scenery Tracker
The idea here is to let others know what scenery packages you are building, or have built and submitted to Laminar as part of the Global Airport Scenery effort. This is to try and avoid two people building the same airport, and to give an idea of what is let to do.
Click here for a Scenery Manager for X-Plane Custom Scenery
MD5: 4b3229de0c820f59f203865ee3030782 Click here for a brief manual
WINDOWS ONLY! (Sorry mac people, although the Mono project may help you)
Custom Scenery Manager. Helps you manage and install custom scenery for X-Plane.
INSTALL: Download into a directory and run XSceneryManager-Setup1.4.exe to install. Select File/Scan to load all the custom scenery data. Explore the available options.
24-Dec-2012: BETA 2. add scenery installation management (drag & drop a file on the app/show disabled scenery/enable-disable scenery with right click)
1-Jan-2013: BETA 3. Now has an installer! RSS scan added. ‘Robustness’ code added. Logging added.
13-Jan-2013: BETA 4. Added a couple of goodies to make me happy.
14-Jan-2013: BETA 4. Scenery Scan fix.
15-Jan-2013: BETA 4b & c. Fix for lat/long scan in Germany. Fix for KML with spaces. Fix ‘Enable’ bug.
20-Jan-2013: BETA 4d. Added XP10 scenery_packs.ini management.
22 April 2014: RC1. Refined a few bit and pieces. Added a window to display a list of installed custom libraries. Added drag & drop to XP10 scenery_packs.ini management window. Added ability to ignore Global Airports.
23 April 2014: RC2. Fixed a bug when no duplicates found. Added a little more error handling and logging. Added a view filter. Added a DSF browser, which can also export some KML to show regions your custom scenery covers.
30 May 2014: RC3. Fix potential crash when package manually removed. Improvements to Manage Load Order window (drag & drop etc)
2 Jun 2014: RC4. Fix heading calculation bug. Display radio (ATC) info.
18 Jul 2014: RC5. Fix problem where ATC in some Global airports is missing the description
2 Jan 2015: 1.5RC2 Fix bug in Manage Load Order, add row numbering
Previous Releases:
Airport Scenery Manager RC5
Airport Scenery Manager RC4
Airport Scenery Manager RC3
Airport Scenery Manager RC2
Click here for a Ground Traffic co-ordinates Helper
WINDOWS ONLY! (Sorry mac people, although the Mono project may help you)
GetGT. Helps you extract co-ordinates for Marginals Ground Traffic X-Plane plug-in.
INSTALL: Download into a directory and run extract the getgt.exe from the zip to a handy location.
Help available here
3-May-2013: 1.0. Initial release.
12-May-2013: 1.1. Added a file-open dialog for those who cannot drag & drop
25-Sep-2014: 1.2. Can now add GT commands to nodes in WED, making it easier to manage and edit routes.
Click here for a Windows DDSTool Helper
MD5: 40b1ed36d6195e3f83575bd43ddeeabe
WINDOWS ONLY! (Sorry mac people, although the Mono project may help you)
DDSit. Helps you use the DDSTool from Laminar, an essential tool for orthophotos and other textures.
INSTALL: Download into a directory and run the DDSitSetup.exe. It contains 3 files: the UI exe, DDSTool.exe and a config file.
5-Sep-2014: 1.0. Initial release.
I am happy to receive any suggestion you feel may improve the tools.
That is what I’ve searched for to get an overview of my scenery packages. Unfortunately the download “Click here for a…” isn’t linked.
oops! Took the opportunity to add an update!
As I couldn’t find an email address, I write it down here:
Now I’ve installed, I tried out, there seems to be some things to improve:
1. After scanning custom scenery folder, only one scenery (KSEA Demo Area) is shown although I have all standard Aerosoft sceneries installed.
2. After export to Google Earth, Google Earth starts with an error “Can’t read …kml”
3. The Lat/Lon result for KSEA is 4746379733,-12230775222, there is the decimal point missing, so “show on Bing maps” for example doesn’t work
4. Is there a way to scan additional folders? I have extra folders for airports, regions, osm, photo, addons to order the things and not get confused ;-), and I have linked these “external” files to custom scenery folder
I’m looking forward to the first release, as this tool is wonderful to manage sceneries 🙂
Thanks to PilotBalu for his enormous help to date!
Hi there,
is there a difference how to install Your excellent program Scenery Manager into my PC, cause I use just the X-Plane folder on a different SSD main board!
Question- do Ihave to install Your program there as well?
thx
Heimo
You can install XSceneryManager where you like. You just set the X-Plane location in the Options menu.
thx, I did, but no airports found???????
Can you mention the path to your X-Plane folder? (ie: E:\my stuff\x-plane 10\)
E:X-Plane 10
thats it….
maybe it is not 64bit compatible?
If you are using Windows, then it is compatible. If not, then I can’t guarantee the application will even start.
I use Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit… so it is no problem to start the program, but in middle of scanning my Scenery folder, it just stops and says NO AIRPORTS……
A superb utility. Very well done!
Just a couple of things:
When I try to enable Show Duplicates, I get an error notice ‘Unhandled Exception’.
Also, I do not have the menu option Enable/Disable scenery files when I right click an entry. All the other options are there as outlined in the manual but not this one. I am running X Plane 10.25, Windows 7.
Hope you might be able to help.
Best wishes Upkeep.
Took me a minute to figure out what I had done there! Because XP10 uses the scenery_packs.ini to manage packages, the disable is a little different. Right-click and choose ‘Manage Load Order’. When you right-click in the pop-up window, you can disable a scenery package there. As for the crash, I will fix that, although I don’t know what might be causing it yet.
Thanks very much for the quick reply. I also posted the comment on the Org site in case other people were having the same trouble and there was a simple answer. I gave a little bit more information about the crash there, ie:
When I select the Show duplicate option I get a message saying there is an error: ‘Syntax Error: The IN word must be followed by a non-empty list of expressions separated by commas and must also be enclosed in parenthses’ I am not at all sure what that means!
Excellent work! I know exactly what that is. It would seem you have no duplicates (a situation I have not achieved!) or all your scenery is disabled. This will be fixed in RC2.
Thanks for looking into this so quickly. You are right. I have just deliberately put a duplicate in the Custom Scenery file and it worked fine. The reason I have no duplicates is that I keep all my scenery in a separate folder on my desktop ‘Extra Scenery’ and within that folder have separate folders for each country. Within these country folders are the the relevant airports, and it is simple just to move one file (if there are duplicates) to the actual Custom scenery folder for actual usage. I try to label all the files something like EHAM – Amsterdam – so I can pick up duplicates more easily.
As far as the disable/enable scenery goes, I have followed your instructions and that works fine. Thanks you. Of course what I would really like is some way of moving files from my ‘Extra Scenery’ folder to the actual Custom Scenery folder and back again, when I enable and disable airports. But that is asking too much!!! Thank you again for a very nice peice of software. Well done!
Excellent !
I use win7 64 with an XP10 installation on an external drive and no problem with the installation, functions and export to Google Earth. Everything work.
I have an idea (an old idea but i havent got time and talents for developping that). Sometime (often), the scenery havent got exclusion zone and forests, buildings and facades from autogen or OSM “corrupt” the scenery zone. Do you think it’s possible to scan the content of a scenery file, extract the angles lat/long and create a complementary scenery with only the exclusion zone ? Do you see what i mean … 🙂
Trust me, it has been discussed and thought about, but it is not likely possible. One problem is that exclusion zones are rectangular and airfields are not. There is simply too much guesswork required.
The new version is very good and deals with the no duplicate problem.
However, when I first loaded it up, set the path to XPlane 10 as before, and did a custom scenery search I was able to enable and disable airports exactly as the manual, ie when I enabled an airport it was moved from Custom Scenery (disabled) to Custom Scenery automatically and vice versa. That was great, so I moved all my downladed airports from my ‘Extra Scenery’ file to Custom Scenery (disabled), so I could enable and disable them when I wanted to.
However, for some reason that has now stopped working, and the only option is the Manage Load Order (as before). Going to the load order I can – as before – enable and disable, but I can no longer move files from Custom Scenery to Custom Scenery (disabled) and back again. That function would be really useful, and I am not quite sure why I have lost it. Would be very grateful for some help. I am sorry for asking so many questions but I really do like this add-on. Thanks very much for your help.
Here is what happens. It (the app) was actually made for XP9, where disabling scenery was done as you do it – moving folders about. In XP10, a scenery_packs.ini file was introduced, and this allows the load order for scenery to be changed, as well as scenery packs to be enabled and disabled without having to move the folders about. In the app, if it sees the scenery_packs.ini file, it changes the menu option from ‘enable/disable’ to ‘Manage Load Order’ – then in the Manage Load Order window you can enable/disable scenery packs. I don’t know why you saw the XP9 menu if you are using XP10.
In any case, the whole enable/disable thing in the app is not ideal because at the moment the two methods (XP9 & XP10) are mixed together making it a bit messy. I need to re-work it a bit.
Thanks very much for the quick reply and the detailed explanation. Just as a test I removed the ini file and yes I could then enable/disable each airport as you say.
It seems for XPlane 10 I should put all my airports (700 odd in total) into the Custom Scenery file and let a new ini file be generated by loading up XPlane (How long it would take to load with all that stuff I am not sure – I am a bit concerned it will take hours!). Then I can use your Scenery tool to disable and enable those files I either want to load or not load by enabling or disabling entries using the Managing Load Order option. It would take a bit of time to set up but that would be the answer (though as I said I am not sure how having so much custom scenery initially would affect the loading.). Probably the simplest thing to do is to wait a bit for the next release as you mention you plan to re-work things a bit.
Thanks again for the detailed and quick response.
All the best
Upkeep.
cannot open the new Version RC4- dont know why!
Ok, once again- installed the new RC4, ….. olny can find 7 airports, which is much too less! Funny, cause RC3 worked very well for me?!? Please help
May I suggest a modification to the Scenery Manager? Would it be possible for it to ignore scenery packs that are DISABLED in the scenery.ini so that they don’t appear in the “duplicates” list?
Many thanks for a most useful tool.
Regards, and a happy new year
Dave
You can uncheck View->Show Disabled, then check View->Show Duplicates
Hello
I like very much your SceneryManager. In the next release, could you add an option that get’s to decide the exact number of line where insert the new scenery instead of only “top or bottom”?
Now it’ s possible only manually but it’ no so useful..
A second useful option could be to select a multiple choice of sceneries instead of an action for every scenery line.
Thanks and have a good day!
Paolo
Yes, it’s a good idea. It’s been a while since I looked at the code, but I may get back to it in a couple of weeks.
Hi there ,
On a new PC windows 10 anniversary edition scenery manager wont launch , Is there a specific dependency
Regards
Lawrence
It was with GREAT JOY that i came upon your Scenery manager, To Hopefully enable me to find duplicates, which ‘MUST’ be sapping my FPS!
Downloaded and installed like a dream!
ARRRGGG! I am using ‘shortcuts’ to ‘most’ of my scenery …
only Prefab and what it requires are in my CustomScenery Folder.
Any chance if a fix?
Shortcuts as in Windows Shortcuts? If you used symbolic links instead, it would probably work perfectly. In Windows you use “MKLINK” at a CMD prompt, or if you prefer, you can use a “Link Shell Extension” (Google it) to create symbolic links in Windows Explorer.
OH ‘ SORRY ‘ I Thought that as X-Plane 10 recommends and uses the “Right/Click” Create Short Cuts
in the Context menue … Which works … This would Too !!!
I Can confirm that in WIN 7 -64, The Scenery Manager, DOE’S indeed Find & Follow ‘Symbolic Links’ as added by “Link Shell Extension” !!!!!
HOWEVER … X-Plane 10.45 DOES NOT see the links! (another day waisted!! Thank you Micro**f*!
Well (Thanks to Properly Backing up), It should only take a couple of hours to get Flying again.
Good evening,
I haVE ALWAYS USED THIS PROGRAMME BUT i HAVE UPDATED MY pc AND IT HAS WINDOWS 10 AND THE SCENERY MANAGER starts but does no complete. Any way you can help installing this programme. Thanks in advance
Danny
OK, I haven’t tried it on W10, but I will check over the next few days.