Google Warehouse buildings in xplane..(scenery question)?

[Geofa 108]

I have been googling about scenery etc.I found a free program called Meshlab that will convert a .dae model (which is what google buildings uses) to a .obj model. I was able to import correctly the .dae in Meshlab and was able to save it as an .obj file.How do I get that .obj to appear in xplane scenery at this point-or is this whole process a waste of time? (By the way I was playing with importing to xplane2blender but couldn't get it to work-it couldn't find the script folder to install xplane2blender-I assume due to a newer blender program from when it was written....)Any ideas appreciated-to my simple mind it seems if I can import a google building into a program and export it as an obj file which is what xplane appears to use this should be an easy project.

[Simmo W 24]

Sounds promising Geoff!So this .obj file, does it use only one texture file? If so, even better.I'm pretty sure blender can import .obj files, if not theres a plugin, just google. Same with the easiest program, sketchup. Once you import it, you can edit as needed then export as an xplane object.Edit- then you place in xplane via overlay editor or WEDLet us know how you go, or I'll try when I can in a few days.

[Geofa 108]

Ok-I put it in Wed-looks like long/latitude are there-what do I do now?

[jasonX 24]

While since I messed with this. I think you need to export as scenery pack to get your objects to appear in Xplane. For example you might save a scenery pack name as the state where you are placing objects. That way you will keep some semblance of order in your customs folder.Would be good if one of the devs could help out here but that should at least get you started.regards

[Geofa 108]

Yeah-I tried that but it doens't seem to have worked...sure would be nice if we could click on empire state building-eimport-and then export into xplane... I think this would change the whole game...

[Simmo W 24]

Haven't got time right now, but try overlay editor first, it's much easier. you can search for the closest airport then save the scenery as yes, a custom scenery pack, and insert your object as desired

[jasonX 24]

Sure overlay editor is great for that but the new WED when released will supercede that, it does now but I can't quite remember how it works which is why I hope someone knowledgeble on these things steps in. It is important because ppl are for sure going to want to do this.

[Geofa 108]

Just for more information in case there is any promise in this.You can go to what is called the Google Warehouse. They have tons of real buildings, trees for practically every city and they are all freely downloadable. I am drooling to think that somehow these could be put into xplane-one could populate the urban areas of xplane quickly and freely!They even have airport buildings!I found this free program called meshlab (http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/)-which allows you to convert to different formats. My thoughts were if one could convert the google building from its .dae format to .obj then it would work in xplane:I select save as .obj file-and get these options:Now I am left with a folder withand in the model folder is now an .obj file.Now how does one get this into xplane in the correct spot? Or is this all just a waste of time.My feeling is that if buildings like this can be placed into xplane for free that a whole door has just opened for this sim! Every city in the world could be populated by real buildings at the end users whim.Can you imagine if San Diego which has pages of downloads looked something like this in the sim?

[Benny_ 3]

The problem is that you will need to retexture every building, as xplane wants only ONE texture file per object (wich is not the case for google models)

[Geofa 108]

In that save dialog it appears there are a lot of options..does one of them do the trick and how does one then get the object into xplane?

[Benny_ 3]

If you can export a .obj file that only use one texture file, i think you can then use blender to export it to xplane file format with this script http://marginal.org.uk/x-planescenery/tools.html

[Geofa 108]

Thanks so much Benny-I'll give it a try...I tried to get that script into Bender last night-and was given an error message that it couldn't find the script files. Any idea how to fix that? Maybe I have a newer version of blender.<editt> the exact error message is "failed to find the correct location for the scripts!!!" Is there a way to manually copy them somewhere?

[Benny_ 3]

I never used Blender ,i just know concepts so i won't be able to help on this point, but i think it's an easy question for a scenery maker.

[Simmo W 24]

Yes, Geof put the scripts in the scripts folder of blender I think. You can also use sketchup, even easier for basic models like these. Looks promising Geof, but hopefully the textures are in the one file as Benny says. But such simple buildings won't take long texturing

[Geofa 108]

I'll give it a try. Even if they were grey shapes that represent reality that would be something!I manually copied the files into the script folder. Is there supposed to be an option to save as, or export to explane-cause I don't have one. Sorry for all the quiestions, new to this.P.S. I am not having any trouble converting to a obj file-just trying to figure if I have to do something special to the obj file to make it show up in xplane.