AFCAD Question s

[Guest flightsimmernick]

Hi folks, I having a few issues and wonder if you could help me clarrify them.I have just downloaded LIMC scenery and I think that I have 2 AFCAD files installed. I can see runway markings twice and aircraft wheels appear to go through the ground. I know about the one afcad but cant6 find the other and it is not called AF2, does anyone know where or how I I can find this one?Can someone explain to me how AFACAD parking works. I have spent along time adjusting my settings and am still having problems. ExampleNo 5 in the parking list: Gate a: QFA BAW KLM AFC .....No 20 in parking list: Gate b: BAW QFA KLM AFC .....Which one will a BAW assigned aircraft park at first.I think that It should park at gate b first as this is in the first position is this correct. I cant seem to get any BAW aircraft to park at the A in the example as they seem to prefer to park at unassigned gates before ones with there own parking code!Also at LIMC I have noticed that at quite periods aircraft prefer to park at remote stands when 99% of the gates are free. I have again checked the parking list and they all have the correctly assigned parking code and are higher in the list than the remote parking stands?I am really confussed?!

[Guest flightsimmernick]

>Hi folks, >>I having a few issues and wonder if you could help me clarrify>them.>>I have just downloaded LIMC scenery and I think that I have 2>AFCAD files installed. I can see runway markings twice and>aircraft wheels appear to go through the ground. I know about>the one afcad but cant6 find the other and it is not called>AF2, does anyone know where or how I I can find this one?OK Soz dont think I have a second AFCAD but the scenery is not flattened properly, do i need to do something extra. I have the AFCAD in the LIMC scenery folder.

[tgibson 11]

Hi,If it is just the runways that you are having flatten problems with, then put an apron (slightly smaller than the runway) underneath it - that will flatten it to the level of the rest of the airport. If you need to flatten the entire airport, you can use one of the flatten utilities out there. The parking problem might be due to the radius of the parking spot vs the aircraft. Make sure the parking spot is big enough to accept the plane. You can check the plane's radius in AFCAD - Tools/Aircraft Editor. Also, make sure you don't have more than one BAW code (or any other duplicated code) at a parking spot - that will mess things up.Hope this helps,--Tom GibsonCal Classic Propliner Page: http://www.calclassic.comFreeflight Design Shop: http://www.freeflightdesign.comDrop by! ___x_x_(")_x_x___

[Guest flightsimmernick]

Hi Tom,Thanks for your reply. I managed to gtet the scenery working fine this afternoon. I completly removed the scenery areas and retried the instal. I think when I did it this time though I added 2 scenery areas and I have one area lower priority than the other and it seems to work fine. The parking code issue really has me confused with AFCAD and aircraft parking at the moment. All heavy gates are set to a radius of 177.17 and the aircraft radius is 43, (but gate radius is ft and aircraft radius shows m)? One gate is not assigned to any parking codes and the one I want to use has the correct parking code (as well as some others). Some stands have the BAW code as the second code inb the list but still they prefer to use the unassigned gates??I just wonder what the priority list is or what the order of importance is?

[RFields5421 1]

I would most strongly recommend you get away from using feet for gate radius values. It is guaranteed to cause you problems when rounding errors start creeping into AFCAD files.There is no IF/THEN logic for parking spot assignments in FS.An open spot receives a weighted value based upon the closeness of matches to the aircraft properties. The spot with the highest value "wins" the aircraft.To properly understand your issue we need to know:The atc_parking_codes= entry for the aircraft.The radius value of the aircraft.For the parking spots we need to know:The parking codes - in order listedThe radius in metersThe parking type The identification properties - i.e. GATE or GATE A, etc.The placement of the parking spot on the list order.We also need to know if this occurs for landing aircraft only, or occurs at both landing and FS flight startup. Different rules can apply.We also need to know what the load order of your aircraft, flight plans. i.e. Do you have separate traffic files with BAW loading before QFA? Separate files load in alphabetical sort order.Within the traffic file, are the largest aircraft listed first then the smaller aircraft, or are the smallest aircraft listed first.Now - by the way your question is written - I'm assuming the particular gate with the BAW code second does not have a QFA aircraft. You do not have a QFA aircraft anywhere on the airport.Also the spot is 54M in size.By being the second code in the list, BAW has a much lower priority for parking than a first code in the list.That priority may be low enough so that an uncoded spot could have a higher value based upon other criteria.Is the preferred spot listed as GATE A (or other letter) and the uncoded spot just GATE with a number? There is a priority for GATE with a number over GATE + LETTER + number.If the aircraft in question is a small one - such as an A320 - and the gate is a 54M heavy spot - the difference in radius value can be a factor.

[Guest flightsimmernick]

Hi and thanks for the reply. At the moment I am using BAW (British Airways) as my example. I have now switiched to make sure that all measurements in AFCAD are shown in metric. I have already noticed a diffence so think that was my first problem.Things have changed abit now so going to have a close look at everything and if/when i have more detailed info/questions will come back. Alot to think about there anyhow - thanks for that. Another AFCAD question - I have noticed at EGLL that sometimes landing/departing aircraft need to taxi across an active runway to get to there stand. Some aircraft seem to be under ATC to stop for any aircraft that appear on or landing on the runway but on some other taxi routes across the runway they just carry on. Is there sone logical reason for this. I have looked at the AFACD and all the taxi ways seem to have hold short nodes?

[RFields5421 1]

>Another AFCAD question - I have noticed at EGLL that sometimes>landing/departing aircraft need to taxi across an active>runway to get to there stand. Some aircraft seem to be under>ATC to stop for any aircraft that appear on or landing on the>runway but on some other taxi routes across the runway they>just carry on. >>Is there sone logical reason for this. I have looked at the>AFACD and all the taxi ways seem to have hold short nodes?For crossing active runways, hold short nodes are not used by the ATC to tell the AI aircraft to stop. It's a more complicated process based upon having the taxiway link actually connected to the runway link, the taxi path of the AI aircraft, the distance from the crossing link, the status of the runway and the position of the AI aircraft "owning the runway".On busy airports such as EGLL up to 100% of the aircraft told by ATC to hold before crossing a runway will time out and disappear.Using the default configuration results in many aircraft disappearing in the taxiways and popping up at the gate.Steve Parkinson developed a technique to run an extra taxiway link across a runway, but not connected to the runway. It's been further refined and adjusted by many people.We find that having the cross runway traffic move without consideration for the runway usage works much better in general.When runway is locked out and prevents usage/ aircraft crossing - about 75-80% of the time there is no aircraft on the runway.We see an extremely small percentage of runway crossings result in "collisions" between runway aircraft and crossing aircraft.Most of the time we never actually see one while flying. Of course the number goes up if we spend a lot of time spotting.Check the AFCAD for crossings which are not connected to the runway at those points. You will probably need to move the node connecting the runway and taxiway to see if another taxiway is hidden underneath.Setting such runway crossings is the default for many people - I use it all the time.

[Guest flightsimmernick]

OK thanks - seems then there would be some crossing points with a double taxi way so that aircraft could just continue whatever and some with just one taxi way which is connected to the runway which would mean that aircraft using these would have to stop and wait (or timeout). AHH - I keep finding issues that I could ask about but in light of your first responce I seem to be answering my own queries so will get back to you when I amn really stumped. Thanks again for your input!

[Guest flightsimmernick]

Reggie - (or anyone reading this)had a couple of other AFCAD related queries and just wondered if you could help. I got Aerosoft's LHR 2008 scenery a few months ago and I have been doing some work on the AFCAD. One thing I noticed is that 27L/09R runway was set at 660 width. I had a go at changing and moving all the hold short nodes which seemed to work OK, but I have a propblem with one exit point. Sometimes (not in all cases) an aircraft will taxi off and then get stuck just off the runway before it reaches the hold short node. I have taken some pics here so will give you an idea. This causes a problem as no other aircraft can vacate and get stuck on the right leading to more go arounds.I have run fault finder but nothing found and I have tried replacing the link and nodes?Any advise?Thankshttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/185102.gifhttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/185103.gifhttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/185104.gif

[tgibson 11]

Hi,My assumption is that they want to cross back over the runway to the other side. You will need to make a taxiway line that crosses the runway WITHOUT connecting to the runway itself. Then they will cross the runway without worrying about cross traffic. Just drag the current node on the runway for that taxiway to one side and create a new taxiway line all the way from red node to red node.Hope this helps,--Tom GibsonCal Classic Propliner Page: http://www.calclassic.comFreeflight Design Shop: http://www.freeflightdesign.comDrop by! ___x_x_(")_x_x___

[Guest flightsimmernick]

Thanks Tom! Added link across the runway and has done the trick! Thanks for that! (sorry for late reply)