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KAPF Naples Florida

Indeed! This is about 25% of the project. I was fortunate to find ramp side shots from the Facebook pages because Google Earth is a distorted nightmare to try and discern what really the building looks like when you get down to "street level".
 
Four days work but it's paying off. A little bit more to do on the front (both sides are done) and then it's to the back or rampside. I was fortunate to get some nice photos and not have to rely on the distorted satellite Google Earth from Naples Aviations Annual Reports. Here is Naples Aviation Terminal to date:

Construction Naples Aviation 5-24 to 5-28.jpg
 
When this has been completed I am going to place it in ADE and then check out the rest of the buildings to see if I need to custom make any others that have been changed since 2009. If they are all ok to use, then that will be it and I will be posting this in Resources and also at AVSIM which is where Art Poole posted all his Florida airports, where I found the original of KAPF. I have his permission to update any of the other Florida airports of his for Prepar3D V4.5 (2025) since he exclusively is using MSFS 2020 now. So if there is any Florida airport that is not up to date and he created it back in the day, see if it's on AVSIM and then give me the link. I will check it out.
 
The saying is: "The Proof Is In The Pudding" or P3D that is. Here almost complete is a screenshot in Prepar3D V4.5 I just took. It's coming along nicely and all the sketchup addons are working great, like the palm trees. I made drawcalls for the textures which also worked well in Model Converter X for the textures after making them all a power of 2. That's enough for one day. The scrolled canopy is going to be challenging and there are some more details to add here to the front.

All In A Good Days Work at KAPF.jpg
 
Spent the day today as a "test pilot" for the Grumman Goose Redux 2025 so I didn't do any work on this. I also was able to create a version of KAPF for FSX which I sent out for testing and am waiting to hear back. When all the buildings have been completed and placed I will post both versions (FSX and P3DV4) in the Resources for all to share.
 
Spent all afternoon but it was really rewarding with everything working in Sketchup as it was designed to. Here is a screenshot in Sketchup of the progress now on the ramp side. Going through this much trouble to "get it right" at KAPF, I am going to do two more custom buildings that are to the left of this building. Like this they are really kinda unique and I think worth the effort. Then when you land and taxi onto the general aviation ramp you can see both of them. Although the cast iron fences (which I custom made which in this shot are kind of a black rectangle in the left lower foreground, the rest of the fences around the airport are chainlink so I will be able to do them in Airport Design Editor making life a whole lot simpler. And then there was none!!! After all this detailing and hours of work, Airport Design Editor will not load it because it is too large! Duh!!!!!!!! I ran into this a few years ago. Even after removing the palm trees and all the gutters from the building I guess there are just too many windows with shutters because before I did the ramp side in this photo, it was not a problem. Now it's start all over making shuttered windows as textures, NOT 3D detailed windows. Does that stink or what! I may just walk away this week because I am disgusted right now and then take screenshots of the windows and texture 2D rectangles for them. I guess the real idea is the airport not the buildings but not for me. I love the architecture.

Naples Aviation Terminal in Sketchup.jpg
 
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I did an experiment before I shut down this for the night which worked. I took a screenshot of each of the style of windows in Sketchup and then used that as a texture. Side by side with the 3D window, the 2D window texture on a rectangle the same size of the window looked so close that I am going to replace each one that way. It'll take hours of re-work, but that will reduce the size of the building considerably so that ADE will upload it and salvage all the time I have put into this. The doors are textures created that way as is the foliage on the patio. I am very glad that I don't have to "chuck" this and am again enthused about continuing the project. I forgot that we did this back in 2016 with NAS Alameda so that it could be used in FSX on much less capable computers of nine years ago and 32bit simulators.
 
I spent a little time I had this morning before I have to go out for awhile and what I woke up with thankfully I still had the recycle bin full of older versions of skp files and was able to salvage what I need to redo all the windows with rectangles and textures and drastically reduce the MB's used by the building. Fortunately the other two buildings are nowhere near as complex and I will use window textures on them anyway so I can add the other cool details to them. Otherwise they won't be worth the time and effort. I'll get back to it later on if I have a chance and post progress.
 
Really upset that I had to decimate this building to get Airport Design Editor to accept it taking out all the extra details. I was able to save the major portion itself and will be adding the 2D component windows around the sides and rampside tomorrow. At least I don't have to totally scrap it with so many hours of work. On a positive note though, thank you Scruffyduck for the program which I have been able to create many airports with. This terminal is just too complex I guess for it. Live and learn!
 
I was blessed to day to get to salvage the Naples Aviation Terminal and get ADE to accept it. All the windows are back; I didn't lose the gutters, palm trees or fences. Here are two screen shots I just took in Prepar3D V4.5 of the front and the back AND because they are all textures there is NO flickering of anything on my computer. I am next going to try and add on the cool covers at the two entrances and hope that it does not put the terminal over the top. If it does, I won't be upset to delete the fence sections and replace them with simpler ones. So far I am under 15,000 MB once the bgl is compiled and at this stage that seems to be the magic number. I was surprised to see how low the main terminal was with all the details but they are all Engineering Toolbox and textures. The Firehouse on the other hand was probably approaching being rejected at 15,229 MB bgl. It's crazy. The Sketchup files are like 14,000+ then when they are exported they are 1/3 that size and then go way back up when compiled to bgl's. Fortunately, the next three buildings are no way near as large or complex as this.

Naples Aviation Terminal Parking Lot Side.jpg
Screenshot of Naples Aviation ramp side.jpg
 
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After working on programming my internet radio station for next week which broadcasts around the world 24 hours a day, I fired up Sketchup, the Naples Aviation GA Terminal skp file and tackled the wavy parking cover rampside. After a few hours of frustration I got some semblance of what it looks like and stopped to check out the size of the file and unfortunately it had gotten 2.3MB larger so I deleted that and went back to the way I have been doing this to be able to upload it in ADEX: texture on a rectangular shape. That is what is in this screenshot of today's finished work. It's complete with this. So I am going to compile it in Model Converter X for both P3D and FSX and send it out to the testers on Monday.

June 6 Work.jpg
 
This is a 5 year old video of a private jet from Miami to Naples. The pilot shares a lot of info on his journey there.



One comment in this video seems true to me:

"Air traffic Control. They just don't keep up, send planes out of their way, as in this video, (just watch the path of aircraft on one of the online tracking services, they can go hundreds of miles out of their way) and talk gobbligook far too fast to be intelligible, mainly because they are juggling too many tasks and like us to know how busy they are. All the information they give could be shown on a simple display in the cockpit, its only wind speed, direction, surface pressure and runway in use. There is so much space above ground but ATC want to keep an enormous separation between aircraft so that for the most part pilots never see each other. If they do, its often such a shock that they can panic and (as in an accident report I read yesterday) over-react, stall and end up in bits. Its time we moved over to an automated system. I remember a time when there was a policeman at busy road junctions waving the traffic out. We moved on from that but the ATC are still with us metaphorically waving their white gloves at us."
 
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