Taxi Signs

[richard64]

Hi all, how ya doin'?

OK Have had no problems with installing ILS to a runway. All works fine.
I now want to turn my attention to taxi signs.

I have had a look and have added one leaving in the default settings.
Am getting the dreaded parser errors when compiling although the fault finder says all is ok.
However can you please explain the following.
Does Taxi Sign cover ALL that is required?
Size - Well I guess that must be the size of the sign.
Justification - Left or Right don't know
Label - I suppose that must be what you want the sign to say?? What in fact can you add?
Heading - ???
And how do you position a taxi sign?


Regards
Richard.

PS as another POSSIBLE topic, can you add a DME and a VOR with ADE???

[scruffyduck]

I have had a look and have added one leaving in the default settings.

Am getting the dreaded parser errors when compiling although the fault finder says all is ok.

Richard - what compiler error are you getting? I just added a default one to my test airport without changing anything and it compiled fine.

However can you please explain the following.
Does Taxi Sign cover ALL that is required?

Can you expand on what you mean please?

Size - Well I guess that must be the size of the sign.

Correct. I think there are some rules on what sizes get used where but I need to go back to my notes. I suggest leaving it at SIZE3.

Justification - Left or Right don't know

The reference point (what it's coordinates are) is set to one corner of the sign. If you zoom into a taxi sign in ADE you will see a yellow oblong with a black spot at one cornere and a darker line. Try experimenting by changing LEFT to RIGHT and you will see that the sign face changes against the spot.

This effectively reverses the direction that the sign faces becase the writing is from the right rather than the left. Take a look at it in FSX to get your bearings. Place a sign next to a feature that you can reference in the sim like a runway edge and then experiment with facing and size to see what changes. This is how I learned and found it the easiest way to understand what happens

Label - I suppose that must be what you want the sign to say?? What in fact can you add?

OK I have to own up here that ADE does not currently have a wizard to make it easy to write sign lettering :o Thus I can give you no easy answer to this. You are correct that the label represents the writing on the sign. The different elements are shown by using symbols. This is what the SDK has to say on sign labels


The key to the text of the taxiway sign is the format of the label. There are six types of sign, each identified by a single lower-case letter:

Letter Sign type

Colors
l Location Yellow text on black
d Direction Black text on yellow
m Mandatory White text on red
i Information Black text on white
r Runway White text on red
u Unknown Black text on white

The following characters describe the content of the sign. The characters can be any upper case letter (A-Z), any numerical digit (0-9), or any one of the following special characters:

Character Description
_ or space Space
- Dash
> (or >) Right arrow
^ Up arrow
' (apostrophe, or ') Up-right arrow
< (or <) Left arrow

v Back arrow
` (backwards apostrophe) Up-left arrow
/ Back-left arrow

\ Back-right arrow
[ Left border

] Right border
x Do not enter
# ILS boundary
= Runway boundary
. Dot
| Vertical line

The following example creates a location sign for taxi ‘golf’:

l[G]
This example creates a location sign indicating you are on taxiway ‘alpha-echo’:

l[AE]

Note the brackets. These create the black outline around the letter on location signs. If you omit the brackets the letter will have a black line above and below it but not on either end. You can also use brackets on direction and runway signs to increase the spacing at either end of the segment.

Direction signs are made up of a combination of directional arrows and taxiway and runway designators. Arrows can appear before or after the taxiway or runway designator. All of the following are valid direction signs:

d/G
dG/
d/G/

Using these components you can create signs of arbitrary complexity. For instance, the following example sign will tell a pilot that they are located on taxiway Golf at the intersection with runway 11R/29L and that taxiway Foxtrot is back and to their right:

l[G]d[F\]m[11R-29L]


Not very user friendly but for simple signs that show runway numbers it is relatively simple. I am adding a wizard to make this easier.


Heading - ???

Which way the sign faces. You can turn a sign in ADE by selecting it and pulling it around by the 'handle' circle. Again I would recommend having a play because the way a sign actually faces is going to depend on the Justification LEFT or RIGHT

And how do you position a taxi sign?

Is that a question related to placing in ADE or where you might place them at an airport? To place them in ADE Right Click where you want one and then select Add> Taxi sign. You can more them in ADE by dragging them and rotate them with the mouse and the handle.


PS as another POSSIBLE topic, can you add a DME and a VOR with ADE

No. you can Add an NDB but not currently a VOR or DME. You can add a DME associated with an ILS but not one on it's own or with a VOR. This will be possible later but ADE currently only allows thos navaids that are usually attached to an airport. You can get terminal VORs but I think that is unusual now.

[richard64]

Most helpful Jon Thanks.
And just to make me look a complete cock I have tried compiling a taxi sign again and it works.
Just one of things!!!!!!!!!

I will print off your reply and have a little old experiment.

Richard

[richard64]

OK Jon, taxi signs now sorted.

Thanks for the guide, I now know !!! what to do.

Richard

[scruffyduck]

OK Jon, taxi signs now sorted.

Thanks for the guide, I now know !!! what to do.

Richard

That's good

[dcmiller58]

Richard, I would suggest when you venture into new elements of airport design that you open a stock airfield and see how it is there. Then, model your element based on that.

For example, I just set my taxi signs the same size and justification as a nearby airport that was stock.

As for signs, there four essential types:

Location signs simply tell the pilot where they are

Direction signs tell them where to turn

Information signs tell them about the facility (Fuel, or GA Parking)

And mandatory signs which tell them to stop

If you go to an airport and taxi around you will see plenty of examples that will give you an idea how to sign your own project.

Then, just open that model airport in ADE to see how it is coded. Also check the SDK and compare it to what you see at your model airport.

In 30 minutes you will be a sign expert!

Derrick

[richard64]

Thanks Derrick all taken onboard.

Richard.

[richard64]

Just an observation but I notice that under the key to text both m - mandatory and r - runway are the same i.e white text on red,yet when I used these r - runway comes out as white text on black?
m - comes out as white text on red.

Richard

[dcmiller58]

Yep, that red is where a mandatory stop would be and is used in conjuction with a hold-short line on the taxiway, hence--red for stop.

The black and white is just a runway sign for informational purpose.

I am at work but will see if I can dig something up to help.

Derrick

[dcmiller58]

Here is something I found really helpful, Richard:

http://www.faa.gov/airports_airtraffic/airports/resources/advisory_circulars/index.cfm?template=Document_Listing&Keyword=150/5340-18&DocumentSelected=1

Download that document and read. It is brief but, like I said, pretty helpful.

Derrick

[Tim_A]

You might also like to look at CAP637 http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP637.PDF which details all the signs and surface markings specific to the UK.

[Mace]

Just an observation but I notice that under the key to text both m - mandatory and r - runway are the same i.e white text on red,yet when I used these r - runway comes out as white text on black?
m - comes out as white text on red.

Richard


Yes you are discovering that what is in the SDK as far as the colors go, is not what you actually get in the sim. ;)

I've noticed a few other minor errata in the SDK