TTools to FsX Plans

[Frankis]

In my qest to create a program to sort and compile Ttools plans into TrafficDatabaseBuilder These are some possible issues I have found with TrafficDatabaseBuilder
In gate parking it will not accept aircraft that are 10 meters less than the gate size ,so if you have 2 gates 1 at 50 meters and one at 34 meters an aircraft with the width of 39 meters will be discarded for that airport, the minimum parking for ramps appear to be 5 meters less than ramp size.
If TrafficDatabaseBuilder rejects one leg of a plan it appears to compile up to that leg then reject the rest.
If the file to be compiled is greater than 288 kbs then TrafficDatabaseBuilder will not create entries in the stats file.
Most of the stock aircraft in Fsx don't have an entry for parking_types but
TrafficDatabase builder Requires An entry in the Aircraft list it uses to compile else it will give an error “Cant find parking”

Hopefully I will be ready to upload when I sort out some Parking probs.

[ronh]

Thanks for sharing this information - I ran into the problem with aircraft size and parking. You can't put a cessna into a large parking spot.

Will your program change FS9 stype traffic flight plans to FSX style?

[lc0277]

Originally Posted by ronh

Thanks for sharing this information - I ran into the problem with aircraft size and parking. You can't put a cessna into a large parking spot.

Interesting fact. Is it happening only when compiling with TDBB ? or is it a limitation of the AI simulation itself ?

[ronh]

I was trying to add GA aircraft to an airport that did not have any parking spaces in the airport.dat file for TDBB. I added LARGE parking spaces to the airport and building traffic files, I got the error no parking spaces available (or some sort). When I changed my paking space to small the error disappeared and aircraft appeared in parking spaces. I only wanted to add cessna AI traffic doing circuits.

So if there are no parking spaces or the parking spaces are not the correct type you don't get AI at that airport.

[José]

Hi, ronh

Originally Posted by ronh

to add cessna AI traffic doing circuits.

AI traffic changed a lot from FS9 to FSX and I don't know a specific tool to create the new options FSX offers. By now, I follow compiling FS9 AI flightplans with its limitations for FSX.

On the other hand, the FSX SDK isn't the best way to learn those new things, by lack of examples and clearness. Perhaps, for someone very smart and patient, it could be more helpful.

I think this matter is not very well discussed in this forum, where there is not a specific topic for it.

So, if you or someone else could give me a clear explanation on how to programm AI traffic circuits I should be grateful.

Regards,

José

[Frankis]

Originally Posted by José

Hi, ronh




AI traffic changed a lot from FS9 to FSX and I don't know a specific tool to create the new options FSX offers. By now, I follow compiling FS9 AI flightplans with its limitations for FSX.

On the other hand, the FSX SDK isn't the best way to learn those new things, by lack of examples and clearness. Perhaps, for someone very smart and patient, it could be more helpful.

I think this matter is not very well discussed in this forum, where there is not a specific topic for it.

So, if you or someone else could give me a clear explanation on how to programm AI traffic circuits I should be grateful.

Regards,

José

I have Just uploaded A prog Called AiSort To avsim, It converts TTools plans to FsxTrafficdatabase compatable Text files Try it then read the files in the stats Dir.Also check the Sceds file against the original TTools file ,It might help.
Depending on feed back I intend to develop this prog further maby even give it the ability to make new plans.

Regards Frank

[Frankis]

Originally Posted by lc0277

Interesting fact. Is it happening only when compiling with TDBB ? or is it a limitation of the AI simulation itself ?

Yes the problem Appears? to be with TDBB because if I change the size in the AircraftType.Text TDBB will accept the plan and the plane will apear at the airport.
Yes my prog changes TTools format to FsX format ,Does a lot of sorting then Compiles it. (you can edit the Fsx File by hand and compile it again if nessisary)

Frank

[Burkhard]

First thanks for doing it - there are many ttools based flight plans around, and installing one of them kills FSX traffic for large areas.

I was under the impression that the new gate radii 36,23,18 are somehow hard coded into TDBB, so that a plane of 38m wing span would not be compiled for an airport with heavy and medium parkings only. The only way I found around is is, for any heavy gate I find, I add a heavy, a medium and a small to the airports file. This allows TDBBX to place them. It might overbook the airport, but since for a 1 hour ground time it blocks the ground for 3 hours, in average this factor of three is available.

By the way, you use the SDK SP TDBB, the one from the stock has many more issues.

[berendt]

Hello all,

this is actually no reply to any of the messages in the thread, but a cry for help on its own. However, it is exactly the problem of converting TTools AI flightplans to MS flightplans in FSX. So, here is my question:


I am about to write a small tool which in FSX converts AI Flightplans from TTools format to the corresponding flightplans in MS format without the assistance of other AddOns. In order to do this, I have to get access to the program <TrafficDatabaseBuilder.exe> in the Environment Section of the SDK for FSX.
Fortunately, this SDK is enclosed in the professional version of FSX, which I purchased (MS does not offer a free download of the FSX SDK, as it did for FS9!)
Unfortunately, however, the <TrafficDatabaseBuilder.exe> in my copy of the FSX release seems to be corrupted: Regardless which of the allowed (required and optional) parameters I enter, the program always only displays the Usage Screen and (contrary to its FS9 counterpart) does not work. This is even true for the sample parameters which are explained in detail in the Traffic Toolbox Manual and enclosed in the Kit. The attempt to repair the SDK with the help of the setup program did not yield any results.
As I found out in similar cases, it also seems to be useless to contact Microsoft in this matter.

Hence, if anyone can provide me via e-mail or otherwise with an uncorrupted copy of the program <TrafficDatabaseBuilder.exe> (which is only a few hundred kB large), I should appreciate this very much and I could dive deeper into the matter.

Thanks and regards,

Gerhard.

*********************************************
Gerhard Berendt
e-mail: berendt@zedat.fu-berlin.de
internet: http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~berendt
*********************************************

[Randy Subers]

TrafficDatabaseBuilder is pretty finicky about command lines. What I found always works is put the /Output command first and always put spaces in between parameters as TDBB is not smart enough to figure out that / followed by a keyword is not part of a filename. If you are still having problems put the parameters in the same order as they are listed in the help screen and make sure you have the minimum listed parameters as shown in the help screen.

[rfields]

I've also found that TDBB seldom works if the /Countries=countries.csv is not in the command line, even though autoschedule and aircraft reg#'s is not enabled.

I've also found TDBB to hang when I had duplicate REG#'s in a schedule file.

[anipilot]

Hi everyone,

This post from this forum has an very helpful info,
http://ultimatetraffic.flight1.net/f...s.asp?TID=2892

infact I've cut and past the relevant part as below frm it


FSX parking is different than FS2004 in that model radius is apparently not used to determine the size of the AI aircraft. The wing_span= value in the airplane_geometry section of the aircraft.cfg is apparently used. This value has to be in feet - it is apparently divided in half and rounded up to the next whole meter.

Watch for overlapping wingtips - and that is the value to change to spread the planes apart a bit. (This is expecially bad with the AIA B747's)

Personally I put my AI aircraft into a different folder than the flyable aircraft in FSX - you can put the folder anwhere - but will need to edit the FSX.CFG file main section to add a new entry. I use:

SimObjectPaths.6=SimObjects\AI_Aircraft

The default Gate parking spot sizes have changed - they are:

Gate Small - 18M

Gate Medium - 23M

Gate Heavy - 36M

Ramp parking spots appear to remain the same size:

Small GA - 10M

Medium GA - 14M

Large GA - 18M

Cargo - 50M

I have not found any of the following parking types in the default airport:

Ramp (Mistakenly called Unknown by AFCAD)

Mil_Cargo

Mil_Combat

Dock

There is a new parking spot type - Fuel Box

The default aircraft sizes are:

B744 - 33M
A321 - 18M
B738 - 18M
MD80 - 17M
DH8A - 13M
CRJ700 - 12M
B350 - 9M
C208 - 8M
LJ45 - 7M
Maule - 6M
C172 - 6M
M20T - 6M
BE58 - 6M
ARCHER - 5M

Heavy Gate spots draw lines on the apron around an outline of the aircraft.

Overlapping parking spots look really bad.

Pushback tugs, luggage loaders and baggage carts appear at the edge of Gate parking spots at the highest scenery density levels.

Using FS2004 AFCAD files is not a good option. While they will work after a fashion - there are many problems created by the header which AFCAD uses to delete the default aprons, comm frequencies, helipads, runways, start locations and taxiway. This can cause updates to FSX data to be ignored, AI aircraft to fail to contact the correct frequency and problems with taxi behavior.

There will be airports where there is no traffic because the FS2004 ICAO codes/ airports.txt - does not match the approx 2700 changes in FSX.

This will be especially evident in Indonesia where the vast majority of the airports were given new ICAO codes in Oct 2004. Those changes are in FSX.

In case you are wondering, the ACES team has reported that the FSX airport and approach data date was April 2005. Because of the way the world was redesigned and things had to be redone, this data was required much earlier in the development process than in past versions of FS.

Lastly, any strange or unusual behavior you see in FSX should not be considered a "bug" but a result of using an FS2004 product in FSX.

Finding ways to resolve the issues will be a challenge - but people are working on developing replacements for TrafficTools and AFCAD with FSX compliant tools.