General Category > General Discussion
Questions about your AFCAD's
ACSoft:
--- Quote from: virtuali on March 16, 2009, 03:02:09 pm ---You falled into the trap of believing the APPR_xxxx.bgl file contains navaids, ...
--- End quote ---
I am afraid so !!! LOL
(not the first time I was catched by this, but I didn't tweaked AFCAD since a while).
--- Quote from: virtuali on March 16, 2009, 03:02:09 pm ---As I've explained already, the APPR_xxxx.BGL is mostly needed for Approaches. Since the runways CHANGED numbers compared to KORD default scenery ( 27L became 28 and 27R became 27L ) all the associated Approaches changed accordingly so, it was necessary to supply an updated Approach file that contains the updated procedures, otherwise the runway that changed would appear as Visual only in the ATC.
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OK I see.
But these "APPR" files are apparently special. I mean, they are identified as AFCAD, but in program AFCAD 2.21, nothing can be found, except those navaids, which as you said, don't even belong to the file. Anyway, I don't need to understand all your technology. My target is to have what I call a "generic" AFCAD and to be sure it will work correctly.
Airport KORD:
Actually, I have simply removed the dummy runways array. I have also seen that runways have landing & takeoff restrictions defined. I shall probably remove them to, because, in any cases, they don't work anymore without the dummy array. What do-you think ?
From your explanations, I suppose it is better not to remove "APPR_KORD.bgl" ?
Do-you confirm it will be OK that way ?
Airport KJFK:
Here also, I simply removed the dummy runways array. In this case, runways don't have any landing & takeoff restrictions defined, so no problem.
But what shall I do with both "APPR_KJFK.bgl" ?
Many thanks in forward for you precious help.
Best Regards,
Alain Capt
ACSoft Productions
PS:
I am not a masochist ! I mean, if it would be possible to fool FS2004 for the bug of crossing airways, WITHOUT to totally destroy the ATIS ATC. I would naturally be happy with this trick. I would also accept a solution to solve the problem of different wind conditions, if it would'nt require to switch manually between different AFCAD files. To my view, these kind of tunings are like blocking a hole by digging a larger one. Between two troubles, I chose the one who is, for me, the most less bad.
virtuali:
--- Quote from: ACSoft on March 16, 2009, 08:27:25 pm ---But these "APPR" files are apparently special. I mean, they are identified as AFCAD, but in program AFCAD 2.21, nothing can be found, except those navaids, which as you said, don't even belong to the file. Anyway, I don't need to understand all your technology.
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They are AFCAD. Or, if we really want to use the correct term, they are standard SDK Airport BGL, that contains only the Approach section and the waypoint section. It's not "our" technology, it's 100% standard MS SDK compliant BGL, just in a separate file, and Flight Sim supports this.
You are confusing what FS9/X can do with the BGL file format, with what the AFCAD utility allows you to do and how it presents the data. Since the AFCAD utility doesn't support Approaches display and/or editing, it's perfectly normal you don't see anything when opening that file with the AFCAD utility, because that section is entirely ignored.
Since the APPR_xxx.bgl file contains ONLY Approaches, the AFCAD utility will show it as if it was an empty file. However, since the AFCAD utility recognizes it IS related to Chicago, it will also show all the navaids in that area taken from the default scenery, so you might have the wrong impression that file contains just navaids.
Also, if you edit that file and save it back, you will also LOSE the Approaches, because the AFCAD utility do not save them back if you edit the file.
THAT'S why we have a separate file for Approaches. Since users like to tweak the *Airport* AFCAD, if we put the Approaches together with the Airport BGL ( the AF2*.BGL file ), they would lose the ability to edit it without losing the approaches, because the AFCAD utility (which is the most widely used), don't support them. The new ADE, for example, can be safely used to edit AFCAD with Approaches inside, but it's for FSX only.
--- Quote ---My target is to have what I call a "generic" AFCAD and to be sure it will work correctly.
--- End quote ---
Just follow my initial advice: ignore the Approach file, and edit the main AFCAD file for the Airport, remove the dummy runways and, eventually, remove any take-off/landing restrictions on the runways, this will obtain a file which is as standard as possible.
--- Quote ---But what shall I do with both "APPR_KJFK.bgl" ?
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Just pretend they don't exist...unless you want also to renumber the runways.
--- Quote ---To my view, these kind of tunings are like blocking a hole by digging a larger one. Between two troubles, I chose the one who is, for me, the most less bad.
--- End quote ---
I perfectly agree. In fact, since we develop under FSX, we do the FSX AFCADs in the regular way without those tricks. However, FS9 users seems to be generally more of the "tweaker" type and they asked for these kind of customizations, so we just let them have it: the AFCADs that comes with FS9 is the result of some help by forum users.
ACSoft:
Hello Umberto,
Now all is perfectly clear and I know exactly what to do. Many thanks and congratulations for your very professional assistance. It is really nice to see a firm which is so responsive for the technical support. Obviously, your technical support is at the same quality level of your 4 marvellous airport sceneries !!!
No I wasn't confusing, when I said "But these "APPR" files are apparently special", I was simply thinking relatively to AFCAD definition and its associated program, as these files are identified to be BGL of this type. This is what I was meaning by "special". A "special" AFCAD file if you prefer.
I have no difficulty to believe they are 100% standard MS SDK compilant BGL and when I said "your" technology, I was simply thinking you do not use AFCAD 2.21 to create them. Like you told me, it is now also fully understandable, why you do separate files. A very good idea, so tweaker's like me can still act on the "AF2_xxxx.bgl", without to loose the approach data not recognized by AFCAD program.
Again many thanks for your precious collaboration.
Best Regards,
Alain Capt
ACSoft Productions
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