ADE Version 012 Build 2676

[scruffyduck]

is available here:

http://www.scruffyduck.co.uk/files/ade_012_2676.zip

This build adds some functions:

Taxisigns are back having been left out of the last build. Can be switched in and out via the view menu.

Runways extensions should now be correctly depicted. Overruns and blastpads show up pale blue with a white line. Offset Thresholds show up as a white line with an arrow head.

Closed taxiways are now pink rather than red

Passing the mouse over any element should bring up the name as defined by SDE.

Double clicking the element when the tooltip is visible should open a new window with a property list of that element. You can mod the properties and they will persist until you change the airport but not saved (they will not change the picture yet). This window is really just a placeholder for the real property windows. I plan to use the approach taken in AFCAD so that the window will allow easy and friendly changing of property information.

Double click on the ARP (magenta cross) to get the airport properties.

Some other changes under the hood but not visible to the user in this build.

Still no save or compile but we are getting closer to that and also to drag drop of elements etc.

Still no background grid but that is coming

 

[José]

Hi, Jon

Very good job.

I'd like to add those remarks:

1.
The black line in the runway is identified as taxiway (blue lines) . Should it be runway, as in AFCAD?;

2. For drawing, a white background seems to be better for my eyes and give more contrast to the colored elements;

3. I suggest to suppres those arrow in the taxiway's lines since they do not indicate a "one way" direction. Some nodes have two or three arrows pointing to an no one point from.

The idea of the label is very good as well the window to edit the elements' parameters.

Thanks,

José

 

[scruffyduck]

Hi Jose

Thanks for the comments

The black line is a taxiway of type RUNWAY and is over the runway - you should be able to get the runway by moving the cursor a little.

I agree on the arrows - I meant to take them out but forgot

I will look at providing user preference for the background color.

 

[jdhaenens]

If the arrows are indicitive of direction so we can tell which are the "right" and "left" sides of the taxiway/path , I'd like to see them stay put. I have nightmares of my first use of airport design software and trying to figure out which side to stripe on a tarmac. Then I discovered AFCAD and we could generally "see" what our lines were going to look like. It doesn't hurt to know and do it right from the start, however.

While porting some of my airports to FSX, I've noticed that the lines act a bit differently....like the minimum space between two taxiways where the lines won't show, and other small changes. So I think the algorythm may have changed...or FSX is more precise at higher associated scenery/mesh/terrain/etc. densities.

JimD

 

[glottis]

Thank You Jon
Do you ever get any sleep?..................
nice touch! where one can see the number of the Nodes
and the Tower even know the numbers of the fuel trucks
i guess you'll get round to the Helipads, so i'll say no more

Ray

 

[scruffyduck]

I will leave the arrows on the taxiway lines until we can confirm whether or not they are actually useful

 

[gadgets]

How about a vew option?

Don

 

[scruffyduck]

for the arrows?

 

[gadgets]

Yes, for the arrows. Not everyone will have a use for them, but they will come in handy on occassion. Since you've already done the work to display them, why not keep the available for when needed?

Don

 

[scruffyduck]

OK Don I will look to make them optional

 

[José]

Arrows, yet

Hi, Jon

I see you want to maintain the arrows, optional or not.

So, I´d like to make two suggestions, if may it please you:

1. let it be visualized optionally;

2. you would add an option to reverse an arrow´s direction. This way, the left side of a taxiway segment could be turned to the left, if not there, by example.

Kind regards,

José

 

[gadgets]

Lookin' good, Jon. A few minor issues re Build 2676:

1. Pan/zoom with the mouse no longer seem to work. (I thought I saw this reported elsewhere in the forum, but it doesn't appear to be in this thread.)
2. Displaced threshold indicated by a narrow white line across runway of length about 8X runway width. Length intentional?
3. The width of apron links (pathtype="PATH", i.e., green links) seem to be taken into account by ADE when determining the "visible" width of taxiways - even though FS does not draw the surface of apron links.
4. There are some strange circular "bumps" on some of my taxiways. Two such bumps (there are others) occur at N48 38' 52.54/W123 25 35.43 and N48 38 52.50/W123 25 48.50 (CYYJ AFCAD attached). The bumps seem to be centered on taxi nodes.

Hope this helps,
Don

 

[scruffyduck]

1. Pan/zoom with the mouse no longer seem to work. (I thought I saw this reported elsewhere in the forum, but it doesn't appear to be in this thread.)

No it is not enabled but I am putting it back in

2. Displaced threshold indicated by a narrow white line across runway of length about 8X runway width. Length intentional?

The displaced threshold line is drawn based on the length given for the displacement. Are they ending up in the wrong places?

3. The width of apron links (pathtype="PATH", i.e., green links) seem to be taken into account by ADE when determining the "visible" width of taxiways - even though FS does not draw the surface of apron links.

It's turned off in the next build. I am also checking DrawSurface for each path and only drawing the surface if this is true.

4. There are some strange circular "bumps" on some of my taxiways. Two such bumps (there are others) occur at N48 38' 52.54/W123 25 35.43 and N48 38 52.50/W123 25 48.50 (CYYJ AFCAD attached). The bumps seem to be centered on taxi nodes.

Caused by the way that the taxiways are drawn at the moment - they have rounded ends based on the link point. It is a temporary measure to avoid gaps between taxiway section ends. They appear at the end of runways as well if there is a ruway taxipath. Once I have everything working I will go back and look at the different representations but want to get everything working first.

 

[gadgets]

Jon, it doesn't seem that I told you a lot you didn't already know.

Re the displaced threshold lines, because I wasn't able to pan I couldn't see the other one - which would have made it obvious that the length of the line was the displacement distance. Whether or not they're drawn in the wrong places I leave to you, What I can tell you is that they appear as a white line perpendicular to the runway and crossing it at the location of the displaced threshold.

Re Draw Surface, when decompiling a FS9 bgl with BglAnalyse or (as I'm sure you already know) with your Bgl2Xml, that flag is not generated for any taxi path type. As well, AFCAD 2.21, did not provide a means to specify whether or not the surface should be drawn. So, presumably, FS infers whether or not the surface should be drawn from the path type in the bgl. (I see you've started a new thread for that topic, so it will be interesting to see what turns up there.)

On a related topic, I now see another use for those taxiway path arrows. As many readers by now know, to avoid pushback from any parking spot in FSX it is necessary to add a "coincident" node on the departure side of the parking spot. Jim Vile's post earlier today on "drift" reminded me to check my "coincident" nodes, many of which I found to have moved slightly from where I (intended to) put them. Whether this was due to drift or not, I can't be sure. But, on very short links (such as the ones joining the "coincident" nodes to the parking spots) only the arrowhead is visible, which makes it quite apparent when these nodes are misaligned - and hence, become a possible source of "wobble" when the AI departs. The arrowheads on very short links may be distracting otherwise, supporting the case for a view option.

Don

 

[scruffyduck]

Thanks Don

I need to check the SDE code to make sure that I am reading the drawSurface flag correctly. Should be fairly quick to do.

I have gotten the pan mode working on the middle mouse button. At the moment I can't get zoom to work as my Graphics Engine does not seem to want to take any notice of the mouse wheel

I will add a method to allow optional arrows on the taxi lines I think

EDIT

OK found a way to grab the mouseWheel after all so now have zoom via that as well as the keyboard

 

[GHD]

I'm sure I've used drawSurface="FALSE" and it works ok. Perhaps those you have found are apron taxiways which would not need to be drawn on top of aprons.

George

 

[scruffyduck]

Thanks George

I am going to have a good look at it