How do I add a mountain? OK, a hill!

[hawkeye52]

Periodically someone asks how to flatten terrain; my question is how do I add a hill?

The former Harry S. Truman airport (now Cyril E. King airport) on St. Thomas, USVI had a hill at the end of a 4,000 foot runway until the '80s when the hill was removed to permit extension of the runway to 7,193 feet. For my "retro" FS9, I want to replace the hill as it was in the sixties.

- H52

 

[Terry]

You can do it with the flatten program. Just draw the hilltop outline in flatten and enter the new elevation. If it's an ADE airport you can use ADE.

 

[Mick]

You can also do it with AFCAD. Make a taxiway in the length and shape of the crest of the hill. Make it zero width. Make the altitude whatever the top of the hill should be. The taxiway will pull the ground up so that a hill is formed. If the hill looks too steep you can make more taxiways partway up the hill and contour the shape of the hill with them.

 

[hawkeye52]

Great input, fellas! :salute::salute:

I'm off to move some earth.

- H52

 

[PeteHam]

If you use the EZ Scenery program, there's several 'hill' objects you could place and size to suit.

Pete.

 

[Mick]

EZ scenery sounds like the way to go. If you use the AFCAD method, be sure to make the taxiways invisible. That's in the settings somewhere, but I haven't used AFCAD in so long that I don't recall the details.

 

[nigel richards]

SBuilder - its awesome!

As the above Gentlemen correctly suggest H52.

If you want to go a step further and as advanced as you can take it, I'd go for SBuilder everytime...its awesome.
And having tried many other tools, I still believe its the 'heaviest' all-rounder.

In SBuilder (its freeware) you get a very versatile and powerful scenery creation tool.

In slew mode;
You can acurately create hills, slopes (oh, alright gradients then...ever been gradient soaring?)...even mountains
in polygon forms or even multi-polygons with the added ability to specify different heights at the edges and points of the poly

You can even put poly on poly or polys on polys or multiple polys...
(No, Gentlemen - not a bunch of randy parrots)

AND

while you're at it, simply choose and specify the kind of terrain texture you wish. Forest, snow, rock, tundra ANYTHING.
In fact, if you're in the mood for it you could even add your own custom texture

Gilligan's Island H?

 

[hawkeye52]

Thanks for the SBuilder thought, Nigel. I have D/L'd high-resolution aerials from the U.S. Geological Survey that show the airport and the hills as they were in 1954. What remains to be ascertained is their elevation.

Real life is getting in the way again, so this will be on the back burner for a bit.

- H52

 

[nigel richards]

Thanks for the SBuilder thought, Nigel. I have D/L'd high-resolution aerials from the U.S. Geological Survey that show the airport and the hills as they were in 1954. What remains to be ascertained is their elevation.

Real life is getting in the way again, so this will be on the back burner for a bit.

- H52

You're welcome H.

High-resolution aerials. That's the ideal way to go. Easy to install too. :salute:

 

[hawkeye52]

Hi Nigel --- not planning to use the aerials for photo-real scenery. I'll use them to determine the shape (outline) of the hills and their location, then use AFCAD to raise them. For that I need their elevation.....which I have not yet found.

- H52

 

[nigel richards]

Oops!

Hi Nigel --- not planning to use the aerials for photo-real scenery. I'll use them to determine the shape (outline) of the hills and their location, then use AFCAD to raise them. For that I need their elevation.....which I have not yet found.

- H52

Sorry H, my mind must have been googled, I was thinking of good terrain mesh. Yep, Afcad is a pretty good quick'n dirty method.

Nothing available in the way of some good mesh from sat data?