P3D v5 Sloped Airport Taxiway Creation

[scruffyduck]

Aprons prior to v5 do not have an altitude property and always appear at reference altitude. They have an altitude property in a sloped airport so even if they are flat they do not have to be at the reference altitude.

EDIT - for the avoidance of doubt v5 for flat airports behaves the same way as earlier versions with aprons set at the reference altitude. When the airport is marked as sloped v5 takes notice of the apron altitude and places it as a flat element but at the altitude specified in the apron properties. It is not clear to me whether for a sloped airport the GP would be placed as the altitude specified in the apron property or at the reference altitude..

 

[roland_lfor]

Yes, I should have realized that, but I failed to appreciate I was dealing with two users with different issues, one with runways, one with aprons.

Nonetheless, the answer is the same. If the GP is wholly on the apron, it should be displayed at apron elevation.. But, in your case, Roland, it appears the terrain elevation computed by PV5 (the elevation at which a GP is displayed) is not apron elevation. What you suggest may (and I stress may) solve your specific issue. But, if you have numerous aprons in a sloping airport, I doubt that the PV5 internally computed terrain elevation is the same for all aprons - which it appears PV5 places at ARP elevation regardless. And it certainly wouldn't work for GPs on runways or taxiways - even level ones - where such an offset would bury the GP.

But, "I feel your pain". For a permanent solution, LM will have to fix PV5 so that ground polys are "on the ground". Then, if changes to ADE-GP are required, I'll do my best to comply. In the meantime, I've created a development release of ADE-GP that will allow you to "fix" individual GPs for horizontal areas. Previous releases of ADE-GP deleted the GP .mdl files it creates since they can consume a lot of disk space. However, ADE-GP Development Release 2.2.23.3, available from http://stuff4fs.com, leaves that folder intact when compiling for PV5, thus allowing you to modify the _GP.bgl file.

To do so, compile your GPs normally. Then, locate the file ADE-GP.xml in the ADE folder. Edit the elevation parameter of the XML segments that pertain to the GPs of interest and save the .xml file back into your ADE folder. Open the PV5 SDK folder World\Scenery and you will see bglcomp.exe. Drag the icon of the .xml file over bglcomp.exe. After a slight delay, an updated ADE-GP.bgl will appear in your ADE folder. Rename that file as necessary and copy it to the relevant \scenery folder.
Please do not ask for assistance in this regard.

Thanks a lot Don I'll try asap.
Another solution I see is to draw GP's by group of common altitude, then Build the ARP from ADE, rename the GP bgl, delete GP in ADE, draw another group ...
The problem of course is that it's impossible to modify them.

 

[roland_lfor]

Looking to fence behaviour, things are good as they automatically follow the mesh in v5.

 

[gadgets]

Another solution I see is to draw GP's by group of common altitude, ...

As Jon points out, there is no "common altitude".

I afraid the ONLY solution is for LM to fix GPs.

 

[Jay Bloomfield]

Here's an alternate method for finding the altitude of the taxiway points, without running P3d5 and taxiing around:

1. Open the airport in ADE. I add the runway ID (for example, RWY15-33) in each taxiway point's comment section .
2. In ADE, Draw a railroad vector down the centerline of each runway. Draw a small railroad vector perpendicular to the runway centerline at each taxiway point. Save the airport and compile it. Leave the airport open in ADE.
3. Open the airport's CVX file in tmfviewer. Then open the mesh file in tmfviewer that corresponds to the airport location. You can get the correct folder and filename in the ADE open stock airport dialog. You don't need to open the stock airport. You should use whatever mesh is active in your sim.
4. Still in tmfviewer, find the railroad vectors and read the elevations for each point that you drew. Write the elevation in the comments section temporarily for each taxiway point.
5. In ADE, either delete the railroad vectors or mark them as "Force Skip Compile" to save them for later use. I used railroad vectors as they are uncommon at most airports. Now you can add the elevations to each taxiway point from the comments and recompile the airport.

 

[scruffyduck]

Thanks Jay

 

[Jay Bloomfield]

Your welcome. I'm surprised that you didn't catch that it's not possible to set Force Skip Compile for Railroad vectors. Maybe it doesn't matter, as they are probably hidden under the runways.

EDIT: I just realized that Force Skip Compile is available in Raw View. Does changing the value to TRUE work?

 

[roland_lfor]

SURFACEQUERY: set to None

By mistake I finally understand the meaning of this option:
- I've set it to 'NONE' on runway taxi links - the runway is made of concrete
>> when the aircraft moves on the runway (wheels on ground) we can see dust projections like on a grass runway

It means also that setting the option to 'DEFAULT' equals to 'SURFACEQUERY = ON'

 

[spatialpro]

Following on from Jay's suggestion, might it be possible to add functionality for ADE to read (and even render in the viewport?) pre-compiled mesh and sample elevations from it at nodal points?

Andy

 

[spatialpro]

Has anyone noticed any changes to the design of sloped airfields (taxiways or otherwise) with P3D v5 HF2? I was hoping for draped ground polygons (GP) but haven't found any reference to such so far.

 

[Jay Bloomfield]

The only change that I have noticed is if the P3d5 stock Airport Boundary polygon has shifted laterally to overlap a different QMID boundary, then excluding it may require drawing a slightly different shaped exclusion polygon in the P5 version.

Also, a word of caution on creating sloped taxi points. It's obvious that they must be created at an altitude slightly higher than the underlying terrain mesh. However, it may be necessary to raise specific taxiway points up even further, else high points in the mesh will bleed through the runway.

 

[Wolkenschreck]

Sorry for bringing up this old(er) topic:

After setting the Flatten flag of a taxiway link to "None" I noticed that the compiled BGL will still set it to "Default" (at least that is what ADE is indicating). Are the flatten flags for taxiways not recognized during compilation or is it simply a display error? Surfaces/Aprons do work and only the taxilinks do not work as far as I can tell.

This was with my personal try of FlyTampa's EHAM Amsterdam. However, if I open the the AFCAD-BGL of Sim-Wing's EDDM Munich Pro I can see that all taxiways show "None" as flatten flag. But I have no idea if Aerosoft does actually use ADE for their projects or soemthing else.

Picture 1 is the ADE project file with the flag set to "None"
Picture 2 is the compiled BGL with the flag indicating "Default"

Thanks,
Christoph