Print Page | Close Window

AI parking at KDFW

Printed From: Just Flight Forum
Category: Just Flight Products
Forum Name: Traffic 360
Forum Description: Discussion area for Traffic 360
URL: http://forum.justflight.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=31066
Printed Date: 28 Mar 2024 at 10:02pm


Topic: AI parking at KDFW
Posted By: ifeliciano
Subject: AI parking at KDFW
Date Posted: 22 Oct 2016 at 6:13pm
I have done a search on this forum and have not found a written solution to my issue.  Im fairly certain that this is caused by a configuration issue, I just dont know where to begin to correct it.

I sim-fly mostly out of Dallas-Ft worth Intl (KDFW). We have a myriad of airlines and aircraft types flying in/out of the airport, however 95% of the parked AI are American Eagle Regional Jets (Embraer?). 
How do I change this so I can have the different type AI aircraft parked (757, 767, Airbus, etc..) ??

 







Replies:
Posted By: freddy
Date Posted: 22 Oct 2016 at 10:27pm

The solutions are indeed all over this forum ... and probably more so, the Traffic X forum ... you just need to know "what" to look for.

The first thing you will need to know is whether this airport does have 757s, 767s, and Airbus aircraft scheduled in the flight plans to fly to it. If it doesn't, then you would need to fix that by adding some schedules and compiling. If this is what you need help with, then I would be surprised if you are unable to find information on that here in the forums. If it does have 757s, 767s, and Airbus aircraft scheduled in the flight plans to fly to it, then whether those planes will park in the spots you want them to, or not, depends on the following ...

1) The aircraft.cfg files for AI planes have special parking codes in them which tell the plane what type of parking spot it can go to. The special codes are in these parameters ... atc_airline=, atc_parking_codes=, and atc_parking_types=

2) Airport files are called AFCADs, and if you use an airport editor that can open your AFCADs (such as ADE), then you can look at and see the parking spots. Each parking spot in the AFCAD will be a certain size. And, each parking spot will likely have parking codes associated with it. A plane will park in a parking spot if the spot is wide enough to cater for its wing_span, and if the special parking codes in its aircraft.cfg file MATCH with the parking codes that are set for that spot in the AFCAD.

Therefore, to get 757s, 767s, and Airbus aircraft to park in these spots, you would need to open the airport AFCAD file and check the parking spot sizes and codes. You may need to add/modify/edit parking spots to get the parking codes or parking spot sizes that you want or need. At exactly the same time, you will need to be cross-referencing with the aircraft.cfg files for any 757s, 767s, and Airbus aircraft that you want to park there, and check/add/edit their parking codes so they will match the parking codes set in the AFCAD's parking spots, as well as checking the wing_span values in the aircraft.cfg to make sure this plane will "fit" in to the parking spot size(s) in the AFCAD.

Search for these terms in this forum and also in the Traffic X forum (you'll possibly find MORE in the Traffic X forum, rather than in the Traffic 360 forum). Also use these terms in Google, as there is a wealth of information out there about this subject matter ...

parking
atc_parking_codes
atc_parking_types
atc_airline
wing_span
aircraft.cfg
AFCAD
FSX ADE

Here are some links to get you started:

http://forum.justflight.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=31022&PID=206311&title=entering-flight-number#206311" rel="nofollow - Entering Flight Number
http://forum.justflight.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=22139&PID=168761&title=adding-traffic-to-an-entire-airport#168761" rel="nofollow - Adding Traffic to an entire airport
http://forum.justflight.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=14805&title=turning-circles-etc-for-ai" rel="nofollow - Turning circles etc for ai
http://forum.justflight.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=16048&title=disappear-after-landing" rel="nofollow - Disappear After Landing



Posted By: ifeliciano
Date Posted: 24 Oct 2016 at 2:39am
Thanks Freddy. I'll look into this soon.


Posted By: ifeliciano
Date Posted: 03 Nov 2016 at 5:54pm
Ok. So a little background here. My flight sim is P3D v3.4 and the scenery in question is the FSDreamTeam KDFW.

I have edited all the wingspans of the Traffic 360 AI aircraft which all seem to be set to a standard 94.75 ft.

I looked at the both the Traffic 360 KDFW afcad and add-on scenery KDFW.
In the UPS cargo area for the airport, the afcad parking spots say CARGO and airline is UPS, but i'm still getting American Eagle ERJ-135 (AALX) and/or Asiana 747 Cargo Aircraft parking there. (See image)

I have removed the KDFW afcad from the Traffic 360 scenery folder. This does not seem to have any effect on AI parking.

Any ideas where to look and what to change next? I will look for help in the FSDreamteam forum also.




Posted By: RayM
Date Posted: 04 Nov 2016 at 3:42pm
Isn't it wonderful how JF couldn't be bothered to get the correct wingspans in the aircraft.cfg files - it was no better in TrafficX.

All I can suggest as the first step is to make sure that any aircraft that park 'illegally' in your UPS-marked spots have sufficient of their own correctly marked spots (AALX and AAR) before you look for other solutions.

-------------
A long time FSXA and Traffic X user


Posted By: freddy
Date Posted: 04 Nov 2016 at 10:23pm
I concur with Ray.  If you have American Eagle ERJ-135s and/or Asiana 747 Cargo aircraft parking in those UPS spots it will be because they have CARGO set for their atc_parking_types parameter in their aircraft.cfg file, and there are no other parking spots available for them.

In other words, you probably have too many American Eagle ERJ-135s and/or Asiana 747 Cargo aircraft already at the airport but there's not enough parking spots (or none at all) in the AFCAD specifically assigned for American Eagle cargo and Asiana cargo planes ... so those planes then look for the "next best" available cargo parking spot in the AFCAD ... and what do they find ... the UPS parking spots will be set as CARGO spots in the AFCAD ... so they park there.

To fix this you either have to reduce the number of American Eagle ERJ-135s and/or Asiana 747 Cargo aircraft at the airport ... or ... specifically assign parking codes to the cargo parking spots in the AFCAD and make sure those parking codes match with the cargo airlines and respective aircraft.cfg files of your cargo planes ... or ... leave the parking codes for the cargo parking spots as BLANK in the AFCAD as long as you have enough cargo parking spots to cater for the number of cargo planes that will be at the airport (also considering the wing_span values of your planes and the parking spot sizes of these BLANK cargo parking spots) ... or a combination of all of these suggestions.

-------------------------------------------------------
 
And ... I believe Just Flight's logic for setting all the wing_span values as 94.75 ft was to ensure that the maximum number of planes could appear at any and all airports in the FSX world.  In other words, Microsoft is part to blame here because the vast majority of airports in their sim did not have appropriately sized parking spots and correctly assigned parking types.  If Just Flight applied correct wing_span sizes for planes like the 747, then the 747 would not have appeared at many airports and that would have been LESS realistic.  So Just Flight covered this off by setting the wing_span values to 94.75 ft.  Truth be known, after I manually set all of the CORRECT wing_span values in my aircraft.cfg files, I've never not once noticed an airport anywhere in the FSX world that didn't have, say, 747s etc parking there.  So I am not sure if Just Flight's concerns were founded or not.  My advice?  Set the wing_span values correctly and enjoy the fact that 747's no longer park in parking spots where smaller planes should be parking.
 



Posted By: RayM
Date Posted: 04 Nov 2016 at 10:51pm
I wish I had said all that!

-------------
A long time FSXA and Traffic X user


Posted By: ifeliciano
Date Posted: 07 Nov 2016 at 3:30pm
Thanks guys. I will get back into this when time permits. Indoor pole vault season is starting and I will keep busy taking the boys to practice and meets.
Again, Thank You!


Posted By: freddy
Date Posted: 08 Nov 2016 at 1:46am
Roger that.  Smile



Print Page | Close Window