P3Dv4 Airports Menu

[IanHarrison 521]

Is it possible to change the descriptions of Ramps/Gates on the Airport menu?

e.g instead of "Ramp GA", can I get it to show "International" or even just "Gate Heavy"?

I have tried ADE but that did nothing that I could see.

 

Thanks

 

Ian Harrison 

[Clutch Cargo 384]

I would double-check ADE once again as I am nearly 99% sure you can change the naming there.  They have a pretty detailed user's guide and I would think it would be in there.  Can say 100% as I have not dug in ADE for that purpose for a few years. 😉

Edited January 19, 2020 by Clutch Cargo

[Michael Moe 493]

I always wonder why alot high quality airport scenerys have these bad renditionsoverview of the gates etc.Its pretty hard sometimes to find the right place to start at. 

Michael Moe 

Edited January 19, 2020 by Michael Moe

[vc10man 732]

19 minutes ago, Michael Moe said:

I always wonder why alot high quality airport scenerys have these bad renditionsoverview of the gates etc.Its pretty hard sometimes to find the right place to start at. 

Michael Moe 

Fully agree. Classic case being FSDT. Go check their KJFK and see if you can determine which gate is which.🤣

[Christopher Low 5,324]

5 hours ago, IanHarrison said:

Is it possible to change the descriptions of Ramps/Gates on the Airport menu?

e.g instead of "Ramp GA", can I get it to show "International" or even just "Gate Heavy"?

I have tried ADE but that did nothing that I could see.

 

Thanks

 

Ian Harrison 

You can change the designations of the parking spots in the AFD file with Airport Design Editor. Just load an AFD file in ADE, and double left click on one of the parking spots. A new window will open where you can change the parking spot designation, and add specific airline codes etc.

[Michael Moe 493]

11 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

You can change the designations of the parking spots in the AFD file with Airport Design Editor. Just load an AFD file in ADE, and double left click on one of the parking spots. A new window will open where you can change the parking spot designation, and add specific airline codes etc.

So basically , every airport scenery developer could do this ?

What amount of time would it take for a international airport would you guess ? 

Thanks alot

Michael Moe

[virtuali 4,419]

17 hours ago, vc10man said:

Fully agree. Classic case being FSDT. Go check their KJFK and see if you can determine which gate is which.🤣

This has been explained so many times, that is not even funny anymore, and of course it's INTENTIONAL. 

The obvious reason why some gates are being flagged as GA at JFK, it's because if they are flagged as Small/Medium/Heavy, the sim will automatically create its own ground vehicles, which are generic, doesn't look every good, are badly optimized for fps AND conflict with the scenery own ground details.

Since it would be wrong to force users to turn off ground traffic to prevent this on specific airport, the only solution that really works is to flag all the gates as GA. This method has been used by many other developers, that flag everything as Military, or Military Cargo, for the same reason so no, it's not we are doing anything weird or never done before.

In addition to that, the naming convention used by the default "Go To" airport menu, which is based on the AFCAD, is too LIMITED to realistically indicate an airport that has a naming structure like JFK. You couldn't have chosen a better airport to prove my point, so I thank you for having supplied me with a chance to explain this, AGAIN.

How do you label something called "Terminal 8, Gate B31" using the AFCAD ? YOU CAN'T, because the default naming convention simply doesn't allow having a terminal with a number, and parking spots at the same terminal with letters, which of course is quite common ( at least in Europe ) but it's like this AT JFK!! 

Without the GSX custom labeling, real life Terminal 8 Gate B31 would be listed as Terminal B, Gate 831, because that's the best the .BGL standard can do.

Enters GSX, which at JFK V2 is both mandatory AND FREE ( current version has GSX/SODE jetways, and GSX Docking Systems, so it won't work without it ), and JFK obviously comes with a full blown GSX customization, and one of its features, is to allow to present and group terminals in a REALISTIC way so, when using GSX, both in servicing, but even just as a positioning tool, all Terminals will be grouped with their REAL name ( "Terminal 1, 2, 3", etc. ) and those spots that have A/B letters will also be displayed as they are in real life. Which, again, is NOT possible with the default menu.

In addition to that, GSX will also shows which parking spots are suitable for the currently loaded airplane which, again, is way more precise ( and more easily customizable by users, since it won't require using ADE ), than the default "Small/Medium/Heavy" labels, which are *just* labels, since nothing ensures a large airplane will fit in a parking labeled as "Heavy", it's the radius that counts, you can easily ( intentionally, or by mistake ) create a parking spot that is very small, and label it as Heavy, so the GSX method is checking the *actual* radius is more reliable, without even considering the fact that you can even override the Wingspan in GSX and leave the radius as it was, for AI usage. And you can even override the Small/Medium/Heavy label in GSX, without having to edit the underlying AFCAD with ADE.

Since it's assumed you will use the GSX menu at JFK, if only to operate jetways and activate the docking systems , saying the underlying ADE with everything flagged as GA is a "problem" that makes it difficult to know where to go, doesn't have any sense, considering how much more realistic the custom GSX labeling is, way better than what is possible with just the ADE file. 

Edited January 20, 2020 by virtuali

[gsand 105]

ADE does allow you to change some things, such as parking type, radius, name and number etc. But, there is not any way I've ever found to type in a name. Gate numbers are from a drop down box. You can, for example, select Gate, Gate A, B, etc., Dock, NE Parking, N Parking and assign any number but that's about it. Never found any way to type in anything

I do a lot of mods on my system, currently have about 250 that I've done over the years. I find it really fun and addictive.

Edited January 20, 2020 by gsand

[Christopher Low 5,324]

4 hours ago, virtuali said:

How do you label something called "Terminal 8, Gate B31" using the AFCAD ? YOU CAN'T, because the default naming convention simply doesn't allow having a terminal with a number, and parking spots at the same terminal with letters, which of course is quite common ( at least in Europe ) but it's like this AT JFK!! 

Without the GSX custom labeling, real life Terminal 8 Gate B31 would be listed as Terminal B, Gate 831, because that's the best the .BGL standard can do.

Is there more than one Gate with the same designation at KJFK? In other words, is there (for example) a Gate B31 at Terminal 8, and another Gate B31 at a different terminal? I am just trying to work out what you mean here, as terminal designations are not even required in the AFD file if every single gate/parking spot at an airport has a unique designation. Or are you referring to designations that are required by GSX?

[virtuali 4,419]

1 hour ago, Christopher Low said:

Is there more than one Gate with the same designation at KJFK? In other words, is there (for example) a Gate B31 at Terminal 8, and another Gate B31 at a different terminal? I am just trying to work out what you mean here, as terminal designations are not even required in the AFD file if every single gate/parking spot at an airport has a unique designation. 

Let's not confuse the two issues:

- The chance of a conflict between parking spots with the same name

- The presentation in the sim with a realistic name.

Those are two separate issues, and JFK is a case in which BOTH issues could happen, which are BOTH solved with GSX.

About the ability to display the terminal with its real name, this is what happens at both Terminal 2 and Terminal 8, since on T2 there are multiple Gates 23 with A, B, C, D, E, F and G letters, and on T8, there are multiple Gates 31 ( A, B, C, D, E, F and G ). A common solution with ADE only would be using Terminals A, B, C, D, E, F and G, so the 23s and the 31s would not cause any conflicts.

However. they will appear "wrong" in the sim, with names like "Terminal B, Gate 831" or "Terminal B Gate 31", when the real world name would be "Terminal 8 Gate 31B" and in fact, this is how they ARE in our AFCAD file. However, with the GSX customization, they will appear in the GSX menu with their real names, because we have a feature (currently not available to users, because it really requires programming), that can remap the names in the AFCAD with some presentation rules in the GSX menu.

 

Possible conflicting gates, instead, are a different issue and yes, JFK has these too, and GSX CAN sort them out, so it would be more easy for users to known which is which. 

In this case, we had two possibly conflicting names, Parking 1 and 2, which are present both in the JAL Cargo area and as two open parking spots on the Jetblue terminal (no jetway, they are in the open) so, in order to make it easier to make them out, without using unrealistic naming, GSX has another feature, in which it can sort it out gates with the same name and number, using their coordinates, so they will appear as independent parking spots in the GSX menu, and can be labeled more clearly.

Edited January 20, 2020 by virtuali

[Michael Moe 493]

Maybe not 100% related but i had a trip to FB SEQM in a PMDG777LR and after landing i could only find/small gates in the GSX menu so couldnt really deside where to place my 777. Proberly Also why GSX didnt work when i manually ended up on one of those small gates 

The meny simply refused to interact .(correct i supposed)

But again i did not understand all those only small gates from the developer. 

Thanks 

Michael Moe