not seeing any plan elevation despite installed DEM files

[PhillyPennPilot]

As per the instructions, I've downloaded and extracted all the elevation tiles from www.ngdc.noaa.gov and placed them in my Documents \ Plan-G Files \ DEM folder.   I've also created a flight plan selected a cruising altitude, etc.  But when I click Plan Elevation in the View tab, the window that opens has neither my planned altitude nor the ground elevation.  It just is blank.  All other features of Plan-G seem to working properly though.


Any suggestions?  ???

[ivanrk]

Hi

I assume you are creating the flight plan from within Plan-G?  If you are and have the Flight Plan open as you create it using the GUI, you should see it being populated as you create it.  After you are finished or in fact at any point you can then open The Plan Elevation and it is all there.  If you have created the plan in fsx you need to use the Plan-G option under File to open the .pln file from within fsx.  You have probably done all this but thought I would mention it as sometimes we overlook the obvious.  I cannot get it to not work.

Cheers
Ivan

[PhillyPennPilot]

Yup, I'm looking at one now that I've created in Plan-G, and I can see the multiple waypoints in the Flight Plan window, but there's definitely nothing in the Plan Elevation window.  :(  All the tiles are extracted and in the DEM folder.  Weird, right?  It's driving me nuts, as this is (obviously) pretty important to figure out when going over mountains -- which I do quite often in the Orbx regions of North America.

Just so you don't think I'm crazy, here's a screenshot.  Am I missing something stupid?  Thanks.

[ivanrk]

Hi

It looks to me like you are not using the latest version of Plan-G.  My suggestion would be to download and install the latest version and see if the problem goes away.

Cheers
Ivan

[PhillyPennPilot]

The previous version I had (3.1.1.93) was the official public release, but I went ahead and updated.  Actually, in attempts to nail this down I just did a completely clean install: I rebuilt my database, reconfigured my options, etc., but the ame problem persists, this time using 3.1.1.94.   :(   I've tried this with several different flight plans in different parts of the world -- which shouldn't matter as I've downloaded all the DEM tiles into the appropriate folder.  But still nothing.


It wasn't clear in the manual:  If, let's say, I did not have them DEM files installed, should I theoretically at least be seeing the elevation of my aircraft in that Plan Elevation window?  Wondering if the problem is with the DEMs specificaly or with Plan-G not even understanding how to plot my altitudes in a plan regardless of terrain.


Hope that makes sense.  Thanks for your help.

[w9nwrwi]

Philly,

Just to be sure what you have is: the Folder My Documents, then Plan-G Files, then DEM folder and within the DEM folder all your all extracted files read a10g,b10g, etc. up to your last one.

I am not sure that within the Plan Elevation window that the aircraft even shows anymore....I do not recall seeing it.

Chuck

[PhillyPennPilot]

Well, almost.  On my Win 8 system, it goes like this:


C:\Users\Rufus\Documents\Plan-G Files\DEM


Within that folder, there are all the extracted tiles files.  However, they are actually a10s, b10s, etc.  Could that be the problem -- the "s" rather than the "g" at the end?  After I downloaded the tiles, I unpacked them with WinZip as per the instructions.  They do not have file extensions associated with them, but apparently that's correct.


Hmmm....

[PhillyPennPilot]

Solved!  :)   And it was my fault all along.   :-[


Somehow I got directed to http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/topo/glstiles.html which has the "source tiles" rather than the "source elevations."  You're post, w9nwrwi, tipped me off because my files ended in "s" rather than "g."  Anyhow, all is well and everything (including the plan's elevation) are showing up in the Plan Elevation window.


Thanks for the help!  Cheers.

[ivanrk]

Hi

Just to let you know - all my DEM files end in a g eg a10g b10g etc

Ivan

[PhillyPennPilot]

Just to let you know - all my DEM files end in a g eg a10g b10g etc

As they should!  It was my goof.  I mistakenly downloaded "source" tiles from the same site thinking they were elevation tiles.  My bad.   ::)

[tim arnot]

You've solved it now, but in build 94, if you right-click the map (to get the popup menu), it will log the location and filename of the tile that it tries to get the spot height from. You can easily cross-reference that to the folder on your PC.

[PhillyPennPilot]

You've solved it now, but in build 94, if you right-click the map (to get the popup menu), it will log the location and filename of the tile that it tries to get the spot height from. You can easily cross-reference that to the folder on your PC.

Very nice!  Just noticed that.  Thanks.  :)