Render airport diagram onto map [Archive]

Nudge

15 Sep 2008, 08:17

I've seen in applications such as FlightSim Commander and FS Flight Keeper they draw airport diagrams onto maps which scale as you zoom in or out.

They include information such as runway, parking, taxiways, etc.

I was wondering if anyone knows how this might be done?

Here is an image from FS Flight Keeper
http://i35.tinypic.com/wsaox.jpg

scruffyduck

15 Sep 2008, 08:35

Clearly programs like AFCAD2, AFX, FSX Planner and ADE all do this. As the programmer for ADE I have a pretty good idea how it is done :) What sort of information are you actually looking for?

Very simply the model or data is a tree of objects making up the airport. Each one contains information about its position in the world (or relative to a fixed point such as the ARP). Each type of object in the world has a graphical object that renders the information about it to a canvas. Cameras on the canvas can then be used to zoom, pan, rotate etc. Objects can be drawn or not drawn depending on user request or drawn highlighted etc by having different drawing modes in the graphic object.

Nudge

15 Sep 2008, 08:43

Thanks Jon.

I was just going to have a play around with this type of programming, I've never done anything like that before and thought it might be fun to create a class library that will render airport diagrams.

scruffyduck

15 Sep 2008, 09:54

Thanks Jon.

I was just going to have a play around with this type of programming, I've never done anything like that before and thought it might be fun to create a class library that will render airport diagrams.

What language do you work in?

Gypsy Baron

15 Sep 2008, 11:40

Thanks Jon.

I was just going to have a play around with this type of programming, I've never done anything like that before and thought it might be fun to create a class library that will render airport diagrams.

Should you pursue this for a releasable product for
in cockpit use please include the capability to
display the airport diagrams that are used, those from
Addon Scenery locations, not simply the default diagrams.

I recently installed a gauge, Airport Chart Gauge by
Holger Maass, that displays all the airport info but
it's main shortcoming is that it only uses default
airport data and the majority of the airports I "use"
are modified to add parking, correct signage, etc,
thus that application falls short.

Paul

Nudge

15 Sep 2008, 19:47

What language do you work in?

C# or VB.NET, depending on the size of the project, vb for smaller projects.