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Misha_K

Is there a limit for number of overlays?

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OK, so I went slightly nuts and created ten overlays for KEWR. When I loaded it up first everything seemed fine. All airlines were at their proper gates and were using the proper runways. Here's the odd thing. Three of the overlays are currently unused because I don't have flightplans for them: 1. UPS, 2. other Cargo carriers using the North ramp, and 3. GA. Every aircraft that arrived, no matter what overlay it was assigned to was directed to taxi to the North Ramp parking area, which should not exist as an option in the AFCAD files for any of their destination overlays! What's more bizarre, all heavies (757 and up) never contacted ground and just sat on the runway turnoff until they disappeared some ten minutes later. Once all the parking spots on the North ramp were filled up, all the other arriving aircraft, large and small, did the same thing: just sat on the turnoff forever without contacting ground. This all is despite the fact that there were PLENTY of free gates at the proper terminals where they should have gone. Does anyone have any clues? I'm rather puzzled.Misha

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It has nothing to do with the number of overlays (you can have 100 if you want).Here's the answer: FS ATC Ground will direct arriving aircraft to the overlay with the closest airport ref point (the pink dot in AFCAD). I assume that either the North Ramp has the closest ref point to the aircraft as they contact Ground, or the ref points are all in the same spot (which means FS arbitrarily chose the North Ramp).It's always best for each overlay to have it's "own" runway, and then put the overlay's airport ref point in the center of this runway. For parallel runway layouts this will provide proper assigning of AI aircraft to each overlay. If the airport has intersecting runways, you often have to compromise, only rarely getting perfect assignment.Hope this helps,-- Tom GibsonCalifornia Classic Propliners: http://www.calclassic.com/Cal Classic Alco Page: http://www.calclassic.com/alco/Freeflight Design Shop: http://www.freeflightdesign.com/ San Diego Model RR Museum: http://www.sdmodelrailroadm.com/Drop by! ___x_x_(")_x_x___

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Hmm. Well that's a bit of a problem since KEWR has only three runways. I'm using 11/29 for commuters and GA. All others use 4L/22R for takeoffs and 4R/22L for landings. I don't really want to change the runway assignments as this is the realism I was trying to achieve. Any suggestions?Thanks.Misha

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Stupid question: How do I move the airport reference points? They don't seem to reposnd to clicking and dragging.Misha

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In the latest version of AFCAD they are moveable. I think it's 1.2.2. Hope this helps,-- Tom GibsonCalifornia Classic Propliners: http://www.calclassic.com/Cal Classic Alco Page: http://www.calclassic.com/alco/Freeflight Design Shop: http://www.freeflightdesign.com/ San Diego Model RR Museum: http://www.sdmodelrailroadm.com/Drop by! ___x_x_(")_x_x___

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Not many as far as overlays are concerned. See below for my solution. If you are designing for a "typical" wind direction, you can do things like put a ref point for an overlay designed for small aircraft closer to the middle of the runway, while the ref point of an overlay for large aircraft closer to the far end of the runway. Then they will contact different overlays depending on their length of landing run.My solution was not to use overlays to segregate airlines at different terminals - use radii instead. I made 1 overlay for each runway I wanted to use (typically 2). Then I made a chart of all the airlines I wanted to segregate. I selected an aircraft radius for each airline - United is 24 meters, American is 25, Delta 22, Skywest 21, etc. Note that all United planes got a radius of 24 meters, whether they were 737's or 747's. I gave the local airlines smaller radii and international airlines larger ones, but it doesn't really matter. You should try to keep all the radii reasonably close to the real radii of your average planes, so the crash radii will be close to the visual radii. I keep them a little on the small side, so I don't crash if I get too close. I then used AI Traffic Mover to change the radii of all my planes by airline, according to my chart. Since the radius is found in the MDL file, if a plane is set up with multiple textures in one aircraft folder (using texture.1 folders, etc.), I created duplicate model folders (like model.1, etc.) and set each texture to use a separate model folder (model=1 in the aircraft.cfg file for the model.1 folder). That allows each airline's aircraft to have a different radius.Then I calculated the number of feet that would be just larger than each airline's radius (which is in meters) to use as the parking spot radius. For example, United (24 meters) times 3.21 is 77.04 feet. So I entered 78 feet in my chart for United's parking spots. Then I opened up my airports in AFCAD and changed the radius of the United terminal parking spots to 78 feet. Now all my United planes park at the United terminals (unless they ran out of gates). Do this with all the airlines and you'll be done. For many airlines, you can group them together with one radius, if they all park together at the same terminal (everywhere you fly, remember!).Hope this helps,-- Tom GibsonCalifornia Classic Propliners: http://www.calclassic.com/Cal Classic Alco Page: http://www.calclassic.com/alco/Freeflight Design Shop: http://www.freeflightdesign.com/ San Diego Model RR Museum: http://www.sdmodelrailroadm.com/Drop by! ___x_x_(")_x_x___

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Well, that's entirely too much work, as it would necessitate similar changes to parking radii at other airports. I've got some of the stuff with the reference points sorted out and things seem to be working somewhat more tolerably now. One question just out of curiosity: what happens if you delete the airport reference point?Misha

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I just did on a couple of overlays that I decided I wasn't going to use. I hust deleted everything on them.Misha

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Guest Captain Barfbag

I was working on KBOS, adapting someone else's AFCAD files to create overlays for the terminals, cargo, etc. I, too, was unaware of the problem of FS2K2 and how it picks the overlay for arriving aircraft, so I built them all the same. I tried moving my reference points, but discovered that there was a configuration-related problem which made the reference points invisible in AFCAD 1.2.2, although I could see them in 1.1. Of course, I couldn't move them in 1.1, so I was stuck until Lee Swordy graciously sent me a copy of 1.2.4, which solved the problem.While doing this, I've found that progressive taxi for takeoff will also select the nearest reference point, so it's important that all overlays have all taxiways, even those to remote terminals which are not used by that overlay. Otherwise FS2K2 will plot a direct course to the nearest node, through buildings and aircraft, over the river and through the woods.

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Haven't had that problem actually. All my departures used the taxiways I wanted them to use and deleting some taxiways strategically solved some potential taxiway conflicts. It's the arrivals that are the problem. Yesterday I just set up a situation at KEWR with viewpoint and let the traffic run for a few hours while I went out an had dinner with some friends. When I came home traffic was still functioning and for the most part in pretty decent shape. Some planes were at the wrong terminals and the Delta/Northwest concourse was deserted, but otherwise it seemed to be working quite well.Misha

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