Removing taxiway signs...

[Speedbyrd 0]

How do I get rid of the taxiway signs? I looked for them in the scenery folders but don't see them listed as taxi signs. Some of my airports are really cluttered with them so would like to remove them. I don't think AFCAD will work with this. Thanks for any info.

[Opa 6]

>How do I get rid of the taxiway signs? I looked for them in>the scenery folders but don't see them listed as taxi signs. >Some of my airports are really cluttered with them so would>like to remove them. I don't think AFCAD will work with this.> Thanks for any info.Unfortunately you will probably have to live with the taxiways signs.If they are present in an add-on airport, the author "may" have added them in a bgl file which "may" be named so you can identify it and disable it.However the vast majority of taxiway signs are the default ones which I believe are a part of the many, many files which start with the AP prefix in your main scenery folder and it's subfolders.Using one of the several programs which can create excludes, it is possible to exclude them - but even that is tricky as they apparently are placed in groups with one in each group serving as the "trigger" for the others. I have never had much luck trying to exclude individual taxiway signs as a result.That of course has to be done at each individual airport in question so to my way of thinking it is often more trouble than it is worth.Hope that helps.

[Guest LeeWang]

You can not edit/move one taxiway sign on a default airport. To remove all the taxiway signs at a airport, you must make an exclude.bgl file which removes all the default taxiway signs. Use ExcBuilder.exe to create the exclude.excbuilderv2.zipIf you want to fix taxiway signs at a default airport, let me know, and I can provide a few painful steps to do that.Lee

[Speedbyrd 0]

I was afraid you'd say that. OK, let's hear it. :)

[Guest LeeWang]

First, please ignore spelling and grammarTo fix/move taxiway signs at an airport, you could buy flight1's Airport FacilitatorX, which I understand makes things very easy. I don't have this product, so really can't comment on it.http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=afxv1Keep in mind, they're different ways of doing this (fixing/moving taxiway signs), but if you want to do it the hard way (painful), for free, here's one way.Tools required (file names here at Avsim):excbuilderv2.zipafcad221.ziplwmviewer.zipcreatsign_c.zipSTEP ONE - Make an exlcude.bgl file to remove all the default taxiway signs1. Start FS2004 at your airport2. Press Ctrl-S to get top-down view3. Press Y to enter slew mode, and slew to the NW corner of the airport, press the spacebar (which should align your aircraft with North), then press pause. If your aircraft does not align to the North after pressing the space bar, most likely you've assigned your spacebar to another function? This step is very important, your aircraft must be aligned North, or your exclude.bgl will not work.4. Start ExcBuilder (note: Excbuilder requires the FSConnect.dll module (File name: fsc300.zip here at Avsim). You'll also need the "bglcomp.exe" which compiles XML files into bgl (scenery) files. The "bglcomp.exe" file is found in Microsoft's BGLComp SDK found here: http://download.microsoft.com/download/b/9...comp2_setup.exe 5. Using ExcBuilder, press the "FSC" buttons for the Northwest point.6. Back in FS2004, unpause FS2004, and slew to the Southeast corner of the airport, press the spacebar, then pause.7. Using ExcBuilder, press the "FSC" buttons for the Southwest point. Under the "Exclusion type", checkmark Taxiway signs.8. Depending how you've configured ExcBuilder, and where you've placed the "bglcomp.exe" file, ExcBuilder can compile the exclude.bgl automatically. I'll explain the manual way, just to make you aware.9. Uncheck "Delete source after compilation?" in ExcBuilder, press "Generate source code", and then press "Save source and generate.bgl". Save the xml file as exclude.xml (or name of your choice).10. If you wish to peek at your exclude file, right click the exclude.xml file, press "Open with" and pick notepad. That's xml code, about to be turned into a bgl file that fs2004 uses.11. Close notepad, drag and drop the exclude.xml file onto the "bglcomp.exe" file. A new file called "exclude.bgl" will be created in the same location where the exclude.xml file was.12. Close FS2004, and ExcBuilder.13. Move this new exlucde.bgl file into your Addon Scenery - Scenery folder. Note: you can rename the exclude.bgl file to whatever you wish. I also suggest you make individual scenery folders for each airport, to keep things organized.14. Start up FS2004, and confirm all the taxiway signs are gone. We now have to make a decision. A). Do we want to start fresh, and make new taxiway signs for the entire airport, starting from scratch? Could be time consuming, depending upon the size of the airport?:(. Or, do you want to add the default taxiway signs back, and then move/edit/fix only a few of the default taxiway signs? If you picked option A, start up CreatSign and begin adding taxiway signs.If you picked option B, continue with STEP 2.STEP TWO - Locate the default taxiway signs in all those FS2004 bgl files, and copy them so we can fix/move/edit them.1. First we must find the default taxiway signs of the airport we're going to fix. Open LWMViewer.exe and find the airport to fix by clicking "file Open by coords....". Copy and paste the Latitude and Longitude (obtained by AFCAD) of airport into the "Load by Coordinates" window, and press "Load". Click "Yes" to "Close all existing files?" message. Note: all the Bgl files, that are associated with that airport, will be displayed in the LWMViewer Controls window. Default taxiway signs are found in AP*****.bgl files. Now that we have the name of the AP******.bgl file that contains default airport information, including our taxiwaysigns, we can close LWMViewer.2. Find and copy the AP******.bgl file that contains your airport to a different location, to work with. I always work with a copy of a file, just in case.3. Start NewBglAnalyze.exe and open the AP*****.bgl file "File-open". Then click "Disassemble-disassemble to xml" and save as a txt file. Close NewBglAnalyze.4. Now open the new AP******.txt file you just created, and do a search for your airport by ICAO code. You can now view your entire airport, but we just want the taxiway sign section,,, so search from our new starting point for the word "TaxiwaySign".5. Copy and paste only the taxiwaysign section for your airport, into a new text document and save. Each taxiway sign has a section looking like this, copy all the sections pertaining to all taxiway signs into a new text document. <----------This is the orientation of the sign, see NOTE that follows.This section can be big, depending upon how many taxiway signs are at this airport.Note: NewBglAnalyze has a bug. BGLAnalyze will decompile taxiway signs wrong, turned around 180 degrees. The error is in the parameter "justification" which comes out "left" when it should be "right" and viceversa.6. Because of this bug, we now have to change all the LEFT's to RIGHTS and RIGHTS to LEFTS and then save your new text document containing your taxiway signs.7. Using notepad, open a new text file and call it ICAOTaxiwaysign.txt (Replacing the ICAO with your airport ICAO name)Copy and paste this section into this new ICAOTaxiwaysign.txt file:---------------Start copy here-------------------<?xml version="1.0"?>--------------End copy here----------------------------8. Now copy and paste the entire taxiway sign section saved earlier into the ICAOTaxiwaysign.txt file. It should look like this:<?xml version="1.0"?>Note: I'm only showing one taxiway sign here as an example.9. Once the entire taxiway sign section has been copied in, edit the Lat/Long, alt, and ident section to match your airport10. Using AFCAD as reference, change these lines to match the information obtained from AFCAD. <--------change to your airport ICAO11. Once these changes have been made, save this text file as an XML file, saving it as ICAOTaxiwaysign.XML"12. Start Creatsign. Note: to use CreatSign, remove the FSConnect.dll from the modules and use FSUIPC. Using Creatsign, click on the folder icon next to the load button. Browse and open up the "ICAOTaxiwaysign.XML" file.13. You can now use CreatSign to edit/move/fix the default taxiway signs as required. when finished, save the ICAOTaxiwaysign.XML file using Creatsign.14. Drag and drop the ICAOTaxiwaysign.XML file onto the "bglcomp.exe" which will create a bgl file called "ICAOTaxiwaysign.BGL"15. Move this new "ICAOTaxiwaysign.BGL" file into your Addon Scenery - Scenery folder, and you should have your fixed/modified taxiway signs back.You specify the type of sign component by a letter:

[Guest LeeWang]

I've attached a valid taxiway sign XML file I created for CYFB called CYFBTaxiSigns.xml.Open it up by right clicking and open with notepad. You can see what you're trying to make with all that coping/pasteing. If you drag and drop this file "CYFBTaxiSigns.xml" onto "bglcomp.exe", it will create a valid BGL scnery file for CYFB.If you wish, copy and paste your new taxiway sign section into this file, and edit as required.ScenGenX is another program which is good for playing with taxiway signs.http://www.scenery.org/graphical_editors_b.htmNOW,,, care for a lesson on writing ATC approach code, so after you add a new runway to an airport using AFCAD, ATC will recognize it, and offer an ILS approach, or NDB apporach?<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> Lee

[Speedbyrd 0]

thanks but that's a little deeper than I'd want to venture. Speaking of the new runways, I added the new runways to KSEA, KORD and KIAD per the online charts on Flightaware and they didn't come out have bad if I say so myself! :)AND ATC recognizes them just fine and assigns a lot of traffic to them. Is there something that the XML coding allows that I'm not already getting? Thanks

[Guest LeeWang]

It is a little deep, but for someone interested in finding out how things work, it maybe of some help. When you use AFCAD, you're writting xml code.As for ATC, unless you add the approach in XML code, ATC will not use them for IFR, only VFR.http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho..._id=54323&page=Lee

[tgibson 11]

Hi,Yes, you are missing one thing. Bad weather. Set the visibilty to one mile and see if ATC uses your runways then. I bet not. You have to construct an ILS approach in XML for that.BTW, there is a simple ILS approach creator program that will create a straight in ILS approach for a given runway. One thing to keep in mind - this file will be listed in AFCAD, but not contain any airport objects. Do NOT save it in AFCAD or you have lost your approach.ils_gps_approach_creator_v1.zipHope this helps,--Tom GibsonCal Classic Propliner Page: http://www.calclassic.comFreeflight Design Shop: http://www.freeflightdesign.comDrop by! ___x_x_(")_x_x___

[Speedbyrd 0]

ok, i'll keep this as reference for when I'm feeling adventurous. As for the weather, I use Active Sky and have my preference set to 3 miles min visibility so it never goes below that. I know that's cheating but in my 'world' I can get away with it. Thanks for the info and I'll work on this.

[scott967 62]

As stated earlier, I recommend SceneGenX build 61 for taxisigns. SGX can import a stock airport or BGL and will place all the taxisigns. You can then create an exclusion rectangle around all the signs, then move or delete any signs you don't want. You can then delete all the other airport stuff so you are left with the exclusion and taxisigns only.The bigger problem is when you are using an AFCAD that moves runways or taxiways but the default taxisigns were left, so that two different airports are combined (stock and AFCAD mod). In this case it is usually possible to open the AFCAD file in SGX (at times it may crash probably since AFCAD is not sdk compliant), and then "add to" (rather than replace) with the taxisigns from the stock airport. In SGX it might be better to import from the appropriate AP9 bgl file (rather than just loading the default airport). AFCAD will show you the default AP9 filename containing your stock airport. Doing it this way you can import just the taxisigns and not the whole airport.In the stock airports the taxisigns have been grouped such that the position of one serves as a "master" for positioning (and consequently excluding) with others being defined in relative position to the master. This makes it hard to exclude individual signs and typically it is easier to exclude them all, except perhaps at really big airports with 100's of signs. Taxisigns made with the sdk bglcomp compiler (such as with SGX) are defined as "part of" an airport element, and the compiled signs will contain the airport ID within the bgl file. This will appear as a "dupe AFCAD" in bgl scan tools. This is not a problem.scott s..