Taxiway runway hold markings.

[skiflyzander]

Hello All! I am working on a project and am having some problems drawing taxiway runway hold markings. To be more clear: The red boxes with runway numbers in them that are placed on taxiways. I can easily draw the red box using opensceneryx polygons, but i am having huge problems drawing the numbers. I can't figure it out for the life of me. On a side note, is there a way to draw a perfect rectangle when making polygons? Thanks!

[sichars1968]

Hi skiflyzander

You draw the red box using the OpenSceneryX .pol and then use the white character .pols and draw them on top of the red box. You have do do each number and the dash between seperately.

I hope this helps.

Regards

Simon

[ryancz]

[skiflyzander]

You have do do each number and the dash between seperately.

Simon, thanks for the advice, but how do I actually draw the number polygons, that is what I am struggling with.

Ryan, I saw that topic but it didn't help me. I do like the polygons you created though, they look excellent. I am just in need of something kind of different. Besides I'd like to learn how to make them myself so if I need to do something similar, I can do it later on.

Edited October 16, 2012 by skiflyzander

[tkyler]

.....but how do I actually draw the number polygons, that is what I am struggling with.

If you wanted to actually "draw" the polygons...and I assume you mean drawing them in WED. Then you would use the "Polygons" tool in WED and draw the shapes using bezier curves/paths. The problem with this approach is that when you draw a polygon with this tool, you need to specify a POL file resource (in the upper left hand corner of WED). A POL file tells x-plane which texture to use to fill a polygon and also how that texture is oriented/rotated within the polygon (...like if there is some type of grain direction to the texture). Default POL file resources are generally of grasses, asphalts, concretes etc...and what you would need is basically a "white paint" texture and therefore would have to make your own texture/POL combo. So you would need to:

1.) Create a simple repeating 'white paint' texture

2.) Create a *.pol file....something like "white paint.pol", that references the white paint texture you made. POL files are simple text files with a *.pol extension.

3.) Put the pol file and texture in the custom scenery pak you want to use it in.

Then when you open WED, you can actually select that pol file in the browser (I think, going from memory here) and begin drawing shapes. IF the pol file did not appear in the browser...then you would select the polygon tool and in the upper left hand corner of WED, type in the name of the pol file to be used.

When drawing shapes in WED in this manner, that is polygons on top of polygons, you have to mind your draw/stacking order in the heirarchy or your numbers might be under your red background and unseen.

-Tom Kyler

Laminar/IXEG

Edited October 16, 2012 by tkyler

[skiflyzander]

Tom, thank you for your reply! That will be useful in the future. What I was trying to do was use the opensceryx number polygons. What I didn't realize is that you need to check the "use texture map" option to make the numbers appear correctly. So that problem is solved. It would just be useful to be able to make a perfect square or rectangle. Is that possible in WED? Here are some shots of what I was trying to achieve. Finally got it!

[skiflyzander]

1.) Create a simple repeating 'white paint' texture

2.) Create a *.pol file....something like "white paint.pol", that references the white paint texture you made. POL files are simple text files with a *.pol extension.

3.) Put the pol file and texture in the custom scenery pak you want to use it in.

Hey Tom, I'm thinking about making my own custom runway hold markings. It just seems easier and more convenient. SEEMS. Do I need to edit anything in the plain text file? or simply name it the same as the polygon that I created and put it in the same folder?

[skiflyzander]

How's this look? I added texture in photoshop to give it a more authentic look. Now do I just make a similar 257.pol file?