Tutorial - Coast-Line-Maker V2.0

© Iain Murray, 2003

Please refer to the Instructions in the Coast-Line-Maker package before use. For basic troubleshooting information for Coast-Line-Maker (if you have any problems getting the program to run), please see the Troubleshooting Tips.

The first commercial scenery to utilise Coast-Line-Maker is ScotFlight's "Scotland Scenery V1.0", which includes the scenery areas shown in this tutorial - for more information on this scenery, visit the ScotFlight main page.

Making a sample coastline with Coast-Line-Maker V2.0

The best way to use Coast-Line-Maker is as follows; we will follow the procedure through with an example to correct the position of the existing coast around a new airport. The following screen shot shows the new airport (which is correctly positioned) but it is partly in the sea as the default coast is in the wrong place:

• find the cell co-ordinates of your "target region":
  • looking at the region in FS2002 (use Shift-Z to see your position), the centre of the new airport is at approximately N 56:24:8 W 3:11:5; exit FS2002
  • within Coast-Line-Maker, open the Cell Calculator (menu Help/Cell calculator), enter these target co-ordinates and calculate the LOD8 cell - this is gives [ 377, 95 ]

• use the CellGrid files (included as part of this package) to generate a visible grid BGL for this LOD8 cell (edit the name and content of the given 192_127_grid.txt to reflect the required LOD8 cell co-ordinates, then drag-and-drop this file onto BGLC.EXE to compile the scenery BGL); copy the BGL to an active FS2002 scenery folder (remember to copy the grid texture LOD8define.bmp to the corresponding texture folder too)
• re-run FS2002, and return to your target region - there should now be a red/blue cell grid over the area
• create a background map showing your "target region":
  • go into map view, and zoom out until you see the whole of the area required; rotate if necessary so that the LOD13 grid lines are parallel to the screen edges
  • capture the screen (press Alt-Prt Sc) and paste the image into your graphics program (MSpaint, Paint Shop Pro, etc.)
  • crop the image so that it includes a whole number of LOD13 cells (and ensure again that these are parallel to the image edges)
  • if you wish, overlay the image with the position of the new coastline that you wish to add
  • if you wish, reduce the number of colours in the image (to decrease image file size)
  • save the image (in BMP, GIF or JPG format)

• within Coast-Line-Maker, load the background image and set its properties:
  • load the image saved above as the Coast-Line-Maker background image (menu Background / Load background image)
  • in the Background Properties dialog, enter the relevant cell co-ordinates - this is how Coast-Line-Maker scales your image to fit the FS grid
  • resize the Coast-Line-Maker window as required, and move the status panel window into a suitable position on the screen (it can be moved at any time if it is obscuring part of the background that you wish to work on; it can also be removed from the screen (click Hide Status Panel) and brought back (menu Help / Show Status Panel ). N.B. if the status panel is moved over the background image, it will delete any line graphics shown on the image - after moving, always click Refresh Graphics to reshow the lines. 
  • set your output preferences (menu Output / Preferences) as required
  • save your Coast-Line-Maker project (menu File / Save Project As ... ) with an appropriate name

• within Coast-Line-Maker, add coastal segments as required:
  •  select the type of segment from the Draw Mode combo box on the status panel
  • Land/Water mask polygons will fill in around the coast, so even if no visible coastline is required, you must enter a plain segment to act as the edge of the LWM polygons
  • the ends of your coast segments should be :
    • in the same place as current coast positions (so that your new segments will join up with existing FS segments)
    • at the edge of an LOD13 cell (i.e. with a co-ordinate of 0 or 255)
  • remember that any LOD13 cell which has new coast added into it will automatically have any existing coast deleted
  • save your project

• within Coast-Line-Maker, add land and water polygons around the new coastline:
  • in this example, we have only existing water that needs to be made land, so we only need to add land polygons - but remember to cover all areas where existing water has to be excluded, including small corners!
  • save your project

• within Coast-Line-Maker, add any cell exclusions
  • there are three cells in the example where coast exists at present, but which will have no coast after modification - we thus need to specifically exclude the coast in these areas
  • save your project

• within Coast-Line-Maker, add any other segments (rivers, roads etc.) if required:
  • none needed for this project
• save your project 
• save the VTP and LWM data as assembler files, assemble them with BGLC and copy the new scenery files to FS2002 (Coast-Line-Maker can do this automatically for you)
• run FS2002 to see the new coastline, which should now be as desired:

Coast-Line-Maker Online Gallery

More examples of Coast-Line-Maker use, contributed by a range of users from around the world, are available to view on the Coast-Line-Maker user examples page.

Acknowledgements and Legal Notice

Thanks to many subscribers to the AVSIM scenery design forum (especially Richard Ludowise) for helpful comments made in the forum, or to me directly. Without these comments, writing Coast-Line-Maker would not have been possible. Special thanks to:

• Richard Ludowise for permission to use his include files (which are in the public domain) within the Coast-Line-Maker package
• Dietmar Frenzl for permission to use his LinkCLM within the Coast-Line-Maker package
• all users of earlier versions of Coast-Line-Maker for their positive feedback and suggestions for improvements

The Coast-Line-Maker program is distributed as Freeware but remains © Iain Murray, 2003, all rights reserved; it may not be distributed commercially by any means without the express written permission of the author. Any sceneries created using Coast-Line-Maker are the copyright and property of the scenery author, but where such scenery is published (either commercially or as Shareware or as Freeware), the scenery author should acknowledge the use of Coast-Line-Maker in its creation; as a courtesy, the scenery author should also inform the Coast-Line-Maker author of publication.

Coast-Line-Maker should not harm your computer or any data stored on it but, if you imagine that it has, the author accepts no liability.

Go to my main flight simulator page

Go to Iain Murray's home page or send me an e-mail

Go to the Applied Computing home page

Go to the University of Dundee home page