Okay, I have been simming for years, have many payware or freeware add on aircraft, mesh, landclass, weather, planning, hanger management, performance, panel, and other utilities. I also try to fly "as real as it gets" since I plan to start flight school as soon as college tuition for my son is paid. BUT I have never messed with AI or AFCAD. Never, nada. I have watched with interest each day the many AFCAD files that are posted here. I understand that these are primarily for assisting AI, so I have ignored them. Default AI exacts such a toll on my system I can't go about 20% (AMD 2.5 1G RAM, ATI X800 XT). I think this is because I am pushing pretty complicated payware a/c (lately the Aeroworx B200) and panels with custom guages. But if these do more, I would be interested. How do these work and what does one do with them? Because of add on mesh issues, several airports i fly to do not align with the terrain (these float up on plateau). I find this REALLY annoying, but don't know how to fix it. Would an AFCAD file help with this? Even an imporvement in gates would be fun, IF the AFCAD did not have a Fps hit. Thanks in advance!

For what you are looking to do new AFCAD's won't help much. An AFCAD defines taxiways, hold-points and parking locations at airports, so you would get more gate parking locations, that depending on the AFCAD, could correspond to real life. The primary purpose of AFCAD's is to provide for more gates and more realistic parking locations for AI, as well as improving their flow on the ground. AFCAD's can even assign specific airlines or aircraft sizes to specific gates. They can also help with better utilizing mutiple runways at airports that have them, but again this all mostly for the benefit of the AI. Add-on airports will need specific AFCADS for them so gates the AI sees are the same as what you see in the scenery.I suggest downloading AFCAD and checking out the docs that come with it. There is a complete overview of what it does and how it does it. You may find there are some things you would like to do with it. It is pretty to use, and you can even make changes at existing airports if there things you want to alter about their AFCAD.Check out this link for info on the floating airport problem. The long and the short of it is there is not much that can be done about it currently. http://portal.fsgenesis.net/modules.php?op=modload&name= FAQ&file=index&myfaq=yes&id_cat=10#q38 Tony=http://www.flightsim-bevs.com]

"Even an improvement in gates would be fun"You can also use it for things like adding a Tower frequesncy or ATIS. I have used it at a couple if I find myself frustrated when an airport does not have a seperate freq for ground control (ever get passed to ground only to find you are still on the same freq as the tower, yeuch).Adding such a thing as a ground controller or just changing the ground freq so it doesn't clash with the Tower takes 2 or 3 minutes and is just one example of just one of the many things AFCAD can do that does not involve gates.If you are running low AI I doubt you need more gates but have you ever seen AI disappear on the runway? That is often because there are not enough gates so adding a couple would sort that out. There are a few airports where there is a bug in the default AFCAD meaning that AI will not operate properly there another problem which AFCAD can alert you on and help you to fix.Wan't to move a taxiway so that AI don't bang into each other quite as much = AFCAD does it.The point I am getting at is that changing the layout or adding more gates is just one part of AFCAD. BTW no change to framerates.Andrew Brownhttp://www.gordiusfs.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

Thanks Tony. I guess my point about flattening airports was a little distracting. I read the thread and it fits with my impression: just have to live with floating airports if you use terrain mesh. trade off. I can live with that since I like terrain and fly VFR. too bad though.My central question was the added benefit to AFCAD. Improvements for AI aren't important for me (until I get a better computer alas) but still I might be interested in more realistic parking and taxiways since I follow real world airport diagrams (actually they haven't been too bad-- limited parking and few taxiways that don't match charts here and there). If there was not performance costs to overlaying an AFCAD on an airport I might do it before i flew there for the realism. there seem to be hundreds available and a whole team of dedicated folks who work on them altruistically. Do I understand correctly? will read the docs, as you suggest too.

Sounds like you have a grasp on this. There should be no performance hit from AFCAD's. If you use them to increase the amount of AI you have at an airport, then performance can be affected by the increased traffic.Tony=http://www.flightsim-bevs.com]

AFCAD files are excellent to have regardless of your processing power. By themselves they add no tax to your system, but they will place AI traffic where they below in the airport scenery. If you are worried about AI traffic filling up the new abundance of parking spots simply turn AI traffic down to a more comfortable level.AFCADS can do wonders for your scenery as pointed out in replies here, however, moving runways and taxiways are limited to default sceneries and cannot move scenery that is part of an add-on package. Likewise, placing or replacing navaids in default scenery is a snap, however, again, in add-on sceneries where the navaids are usually part of a scenery .bgl file, it can't do much except line up your AI parking spots.I'd suggest you pick your favorite airport, drop in a ready-made AFCAD file and experiment to see if it is of any value to you.For me, AFCAD files are a necessity since I fly heavies into crowded large airports. This gives me correct airlines and aircraft type parked at the respective terminals and gates, optimized taxiiway routing configurations avoiding traffic jams, crosswind runways allowing aircraft to land and takeoff on more than one runway allowing more efficient traffic flows into and out of the airport, etc. And, at the end of the day, I don't like pulling up to Terminal C or D at KIAD and finding a DHL cargo jet parket there! AFCAD solves these little idiosyncratic issues.Regards,Mike T.

I used it to add the new taxiways at Spokane International, and to move the ILS 21R at Felts Field to it's actual position. They had the localizer at the end of the runway by default when it reality at Felts, it's north of the runway at midfield and cants about a 7 degree angle to the left of the runway centerline to bring you away from the mountains. I've also used it to move other airport features to where they are in reality.----------------------------------------------------------------John MorganReal World: KGEG, UND Aerospace Spokane Satillite, Private ASEL 141.2 hrs, 314 landings, 46 inst. apprs.Virtual: MSFS 2004"There is a feeling about an airport that no other piece of ground can have. No matter what the name of the country on whose land it lies, an airport is a place you can see and touch that leads to a reality that can only be thought and felt." - The Bridge Across Forever: A Love Story by Richard Bach

John's work is the kind of thing that makes realize this could be kind of cool. I like realism. When folks do things like this, does it create conflicts with the defaults? In other words, do you get bugs, or is that a thing of the past?

I haven't had any conflicts so far.----------------------------------------------------------------John MorganReal World: KGEG, UND Aerospace Spokane Satillite, Private ASEL 141.2 hrs, 314 landings, 46 inst. apprs.Virtual: MSFS 2004"There is a feeling about an airport that no other piece of ground can have. No matter what the name of the country on whose land it lies, an airport is a place you can see and touch that leads to a reality that can only be thought and felt." - The Bridge Across Forever: A Love Story by Richard Bach

Donny AKA ShalomarFly 2 ROCKS!!!Does AFCAD create ILS's, vis landing aids and taxiways instead of just modifying them? Meigs ain't there but I still love it and it deserves an ILS so I can try to squeze heavies in there in more challenging weather. Plus I know one airport near my house has a missing taxiway.Suppose someone wants to go crazy and build their own airport, maybe on their own now nonexistant private island. Afcad's the ticket there too?Best Regards, Donny:-wave

>John's work is the kind of thing that makes realize this>could be kind of cool. I like realism. When folks do things>like this, does it create conflicts with the defaults? In>other words, do you get bugs, or is that a thing of the past? > No conflicts. You can use multiple traffic files, or delete the default traffic file entirely and create a new one. I had a low end system, and just created a new traffic file with the AI from Project AI (very easy to set up with the auto-installers), then replaced as many models as possible from AI Aardvark and others who use LOD modeling to keep the frame rates as high as possible. Once you get the hang of modding your AI manually, it's a snap. On a 1Ghz system, I was running my AI at 60%, while keeping a fluid sim. A word of warning, playing with the AI is highly addictive. I downloaded a flight board from the Avsim library and would load up the sim just to watch AI. It's pretty cool to watch that South African Airways 747 land in Atlanta in the morning, just like it does in real life (my job is under the glideslope for 27L at KATL, about 3 miles from the threshold). There's a massive amount of AI models and flightplans that aren't nearly as taxing on your system as the default AI. AAFCAD makes it all possible.

>>Donny AKA Shalomar>Fly 2 ROCKS!!!>>Does AFCAD create ILS's, vis landing aids and taxiways instead>of just modifying them? Meigs ain't there but I still love it>and it deserves an ILS so I can try to squeze heavies in there>in more challenging weather. Plus I know one airport near my>house has a missing taxiway.>>Suppose someone wants to go crazy and build their own airport,>maybe on their own now nonexistant private island. Afcad's the>ticket there too?>>Best Regards, Donny:-wave Yep, you can make your own airport, correct errors in real world airports. Whatever you want to do. AFCAD is a "must have".

You can modify default navaids - ILS, NDB, VOR with AFCAD. You cannot delete them because AFCAD does not touch the default files. There is a lot of information - like approaches, scenery objects, some buildings, some taxiway signs and most importantly approaches in the default files. Navaids, including the ILS, are actually kept in a separate file from the airport data.The average airport in FS is made up of anywhere between 5 and 12 default files.You do not run the AFCAD program while flying most of the time, though you do need FSUIPC to help you in modifying and building AFCAD files.New airports can be completed. AFCAD created taxiways and apron areas will create flattens in FS. This is something MS setup within FS and how it reads the data - not something designed into AFCAD. However runways do not create flattens. (We do occasionally put a taxiway under a runway to create a flatten at small bush airports rather than using other tools)The biggest issue with building a new airport is autogen scenery - you will need to be able to build exclusion files and compile them with the BGLComp SDK.It's not hard - if someone as old and dumb as me can learn...One thing about charts and airports - remember FS2004 is the world as it existed in the fall of 2002. Of course some stuff is not going to be current.One additional note - DO NOT CHANGE RUNWAY DESIGNATIONS WITH AFCAD.FS2004 implemented an entirely new system of published approaches. Changing the runway designations breaks the link between the runway and the approach.It is a very easy task to decompile the default approach data, modify it with an XML editor and recompile a new approach data file to match runway number changes. Unless you do that, you will end up with EHAM as a VFR only airport like almost all the addon AFCAD files.

You Guys are great. thanks for all the information.

Just thought I would post this for anyone reading the thread. Here is the list of default airports which have problems all of which can be solved using AFCAD so maybe something to try as a starter to figure out how to use AFCAD. I have not checked to see why the listed aorports have no runways.KBCB has no hold short pointsKUZA has no hold short pointsX51 has no hold short pointsKPNS has no hold short pointsKPOU has no hold short pointsKPKB has no hold short pointsKORM has no hold short pointsKSPF has no hold short points7U8 has no hold short pointsEB01 has no runwaysEB02 has no runwaysK001 has no hold short pointsKLGU has no hold short pointsNFTF has no hold short pointsRJTX has no runwaysYXFV has no runwaysYWHA has no hold short pointsYXWL has no runwaysYXMW has no runwaysAndrew Brownhttp://www.gordiusfs.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/