MSFS Parking Codes

[art209]

So far in my personal experience, I have seen no indication that adding a parking code with ADE to a parking space has any affect on getting an aircraft with that code (atc_parking_codes=) directed to that space. Is this something that ADE is not currently implementing? Setting the parking type is effective in directing aircraft to particular parking spaces (atc_parking_types=).

 

[scruffyduck]

So far in my personal experience, I have seen no indication that adding a parking code with ADE to a parking space has any affect on getting an aircraft with that code (atc_parking_codes=) directed to that space. Is this something that ADE is not currently implementing? Setting the parking type is effective in directing aircraft to particular parking spaces (atc_parking_types=).

To the best of my knowledge ADE is generating code for parking codes.

 

[mottoth]

So far in my personal experience, I have seen no indication that adding a parking code with ADE to a parking space has any affect on getting an aircraft with that code (atc_parking_codes=) directed to that space. Is this something that ADE is not currently implementing? Setting the parking type is effective in directing aircraft to particular parking spaces (atc_parking_types=).

Both work (airlineCodes & parking_types), as showcased here.
I recommend having more than one parking_types set in aircraft.cfg entries. I set GATE, RAMP, CARGO to airliner jets, CARGO, RAMP to cargo aircrafts, and RAMP, GATE to pax regional jets and turboporops. If you only assign GATE to an A320, it won't overflow to other types as RAMP or CARGO once all gates are filled: it will simply not spawn.
Also, be reminded that your AI aircraft wingspans (in Aircfraft.cfg) need to be set in accordance with parking stands radii. More on this here.

 

[hairagon]

I have been playing with setting parking designations and have found that the Asobo aircraft have in their aircraft.cfg files a setting " atc_parking_types = "GATE,RAMP" ; "ANY" / "RAMP" / "CARGO" / "MIL_CARGO" / "MIL_COMBAT" / "GATE" / "DOCK"" so basically it can park anywhere. The same applies for add on liveries such as Aerosoft's Simple traffic. I plan to correct these.
I have redone the parking at the bespoke airport EGGP and set the airline codes (also missing in aircraft.cfg) to an approximation of those IRL and am in the process of entering these in the matching liveries.
Whether or not Asobo have implemented this is therefore to be established, although I doubt it.
UPDATE:
Aircraft.cfg files for base and livery sections amanded to "GATE,RAMP", and airline codes added.
Airline codes added to the GATES (1-8 @ EGGP).
No difference, airlines still park where they want, including a CARGO spot.

VIDEO:
http://www.g4est.me.uk/videos/parking test.mp4

UPDATE 2:
I had made an incorrect assumption that the live aircraft models selected by MSFS which were then skinned by Simple Traffic (Aerosoft) were those matched to the available flyable aircraft. This has been proved false. I have since modified the parking type on all the GENERIC models to "GATE,RAMP" and with one exception where an airliner spawned at a Cargo spot, all the others obeyed the GATE parking..
Airline codes were however ignored.

 

[hairagon]

Both work (airlineCodes & parking_types), as showcased here.
I recommend having more than one parking_types set in aircraft.cfg entries. I set GATE, RAMP, CARGO to airliner jets, CARGO, RAMP to cargo aircrafts, and RAMP, GATE to pax regional jets and turboporops. If you only assign GATE to an A320, it won't overflow to other types as RAMP or CARGO once all gates are filled: it will simply not spawn.
Also, be reminded that your AI aircraft wingspans (in Aircfraft.cfg) need to be set in accordance with parking stands radii. More on this here.

Your post is encouraging. I am in the process of zapping my aircraft at the moment.

 

[art209]

At my small island airports in the Bahamas, I have set a parking spot in front of the terminal at each airport as type "gate". Each of the aircraft with airline textures such as Kenmore, Emerald Air, etc. were given "GATE" for parking type in their cfg files, and these aircraft park at the "gate" parking spots as expected. At the same time, I have set other small aircraft to park at "RAMP" spaces, but they often show up at gates, especially at larger airport jetways. The most troublesome aircraft has been the Pitts Special.

I have not yet been able to determine that airline codes work at all for parking in this sim. If anyone has experience with this, I would like to be informed.

 

[hairagon]

At my small island airports in the Bahamas, I have set a parking spot in front of the terminal at each airport as type "gate". Each of the aircraft with airline textures such as Kenmore, Emerald Air, etc. were given "GATE" for parking type in their cfg files, and these aircraft park at the "gate" parking spots as expected. At the same time, I have set other small aircraft to park at "RAMP" spaces, but they often show up at gates, especially at larger airport jetways. The most troublesome aircraft has been the Pitts Special.

I have not yet been able to determine that airline codes work at all for parking in this sim. If anyone has experience with this, I would like to be informed.

Maybe size of the spot is the determining factor. I have found that MSFS ignores parking types after monitoring over a few days. I have set my types to "GATE,RAMP" for airliners but they still dock at CARGO. I have also set airline codes in the aircraft.cfg and on the GATE definitions and it makes no difference, size does however seem a deciding factor as smaller Live Traffic aircraft go to the smaller ramps sized for them specifically.

Your post is encouraging. I am in the process of zapping my aircraft at the moment.

I have since done some testing and cannot get the parking codes to take effect, although now at least thego to the gates when available.

 

[art209]

size does however seem a deciding factor as smaller Live Traffic aircraft go to the smaller ramps sized for them specifically.

Obviously I am not having the same experience if Pitts Specials (one of the smallest planes in the sim) are parking at jetways for airliners. I acknowledge that some default airports have parking spaces at jetways that are too small for an airliner (KPBI for one), but my airports have 18m or larger parking spaces.

 

[jgarnold]

FYI The radius of a parking spot also controls the maximum size (wingspan) of an aircraft which can park there and airline codes also controls which airlines can park there (if NOT blank).

 

[Ironpot]

Also, be reminded that your AI aircraft wingspans (in Aircfraft.cfg) need to be set in accordance with parking stands radii. More on this here.

What a mine field this is. I changed my parking spaces in accordance with the rules mentioned and got nothing bigger than a small plane when specifying 22m wingspan.
Turns out I needed to make the ramp large and then 23m to get something larger. Still playing. A specific formula would be excellent!
P.S. editing direct in DEV mode and not in XML

 

[voeni]

AI Group has incorporated a list with wingspans for all planes in their AI Manager so that one can adjust. From my experience it works, e.g. when increasing the wingspans the respective parking gets used.

When adding airline codes to specific parking positions, MSFS does recognize and parks the aircraft correspondingly.

 

[hairagon]

FYI The radius of a parking spot also controls the maximum size (wingspan) of an aircraft which can park there and airline codes also controls which airlines can park there (if NOT blank).

I cannot see this. I deliberately made the radius of several 'out of the way' RAMPS too small for airliners but they still spawned there. Still not getting airliners to use their designated GATES. Th spawns I have established are aircraft about to depart so as they prepare they are picked up by the flight tracker used by MSFS. They spawn in CARGO bays quite often although the parking type in the aircraft cfg set to "GATE,RAMP". Adding they don't actually take off adds to the clutter. Saw one despawn (?) for the first time yesterday.

My additional issue is whether or not my ADE created package is being processed. I made a mistake with one parking spot and my aircraft spawned with the front wheel on the grass. I fixed this in the Editor, rebuilt and reloaded but the parking spot didn't change. EGGP is a bespoke airport which is so wrong aviation wise. worse than the pre WU3 installation, so wonder if this is why things go awry. Also noticed though that with the ADE version installed some buildings are missing. WIP.

 

[jgarnold]

Just a thought but remember that radius is half the diameter and as such an airliner with a wingspan of say 60 feet would 'fit' a parking spot with a radius of 30 feet.

Regardless of that I should have pointed out that this was the case with FSX and as such I thought that it would be the same with MSFS. Logically one would think that. Personally I have not tried this in MSFS. I used it successfully with parking spots for AI aircraft and only those with a wingspan =< parking radius X 2 (wingspan is 2 times the radius value) would go there

 

[hairagon]

Just a thought but remember that radius is half the diameter and as such an airliner with a wingspan of say 60 feet would 'fit' a parking spot with a radius of 30 feet.

Regardless of that I should have pointed out that this was the case with FSX and as such I thought that it would be the same with MSFS. Logically one would think that. Personally I have not tried this in MSFS. I used it successfully with parking spots for AI aircraft and only those with a wingspan =< parking radius X 2 (wingspan is 2 times the radius value) would go there

That is obvious, basic geometry, but thanks for your input. I have also moved from FSX where it all worked.

 

[mottoth]

Some clarifications with parking radii and parking codes:
- the radius setting foesn't count the 6 extra meter area for vehicules around the actual stand. So a 18-m stand will accomodate 18-m radius models or less, and the total radius accounted by the sim is 24 meters (meaning two neighboring stands will have to be saparated by 48m+ to be both assigned by the sim at the same time.
- parking stands coded as they were in FSX work the same, at leats with the previous sim versions (worked great last winter, not tested recently by myself with SU7).

 

[hairagon]

Some clarifications with parking radii and parking codes:
- the radius setting foesn't count the 6 extra meter area for vehicules around the actual stand. So a 18-m stand will accomodate 18-m radius models or less, and the total radius accounted by the sim is 24 meters (meaning two neighboring stands will have to be saparated by 48m+ to be both assigned by the sim at the same time.
- parking stands coded as they were in FSX work the same, at leats with the previous sim versions (worked great last winter, not tested recently by myself with SU7).

That extra radius is shown in ADE so can be accounted for. In my experience through testing it makes no difference as aircraft with larger wingspans than even the extended radius park there.

 

[art209]

I cannot see this. I deliberately made the radius of several 'out of the way' RAMPS too small for airliners but they still spawned there.

That surprises me, because it was not my experience. The default KPBI and a scenery for KPBI sold on the marketplace had no airliners parking at terminal gates because the these airports had parking spaces at terminals that were too small. When I enlarged the spaces, airliners appeared. Perhaps parking spaces with jetways behave differently than spaces without? Also, I am noticing different behavior using generic aircraft for AI than otherwise.

 

[jgarnold]

I have come into this thread late and now wondering if this related to AI and if so what are people using to set AI up? The MSFS built in AI or AIFP or AIG’s Traffic Controller?

ALSO in searching for AI programs and Youtube tutorials I found a link to a freeware file at https://flightsim.to/file/18285/easy-airlines-aircraft-matching-with-default-live-traffic which states -
"But one of the problems with MSFS is that it will place aircraft randomly in the parkings because it does not know where to place the right airlines."
Now don't shoot the piano player as he is ... Not sure if this might also be an answer to your parking codes

 

[hairagon]

I have come into this thread late and now wondering if this related to AI and if so what are people using to set AI up? The MSFS built in AI or AIFP or AIG’s Traffic Controller?

ALSO in searching for AI programs and Youtube tutorials I found a link to a freeware file at https://flightsim.to/file/18285/easy-airlines-aircraft-matching-with-default-live-traffic which states -
"But one of the problems with MSFS is that it will place aircraft randomly in the parkings because it does not know where to place the right airlines."
Now don't shoot the piano player as he is ... Not sure if this might also be an answer to your parking codes

I am using Aerosoft's Simple traffic which uses the generic aircraft as the base for airline liveries, I have deduced that those that spawn at the airport are those which are due to depart as when they become active the tracker used by MSFS picks them up.
MSFS is also inconsistent as when Live Traffic lands while the majorty ask for "taxi to the Gate" around 10% (very rough estimate) ask for "taxi to parking".
In reality EGGP has only one RAMP on the west side of the airport big enough for a 747, the others gates (missed off the EGGP bespoke offering) are 1-10 and 40 - 53 on which mainly airbus and Boeing aircraft land. The generic aircraft used for live traffic are 'on the large size' and overlap the parking anyway
My sizings are 30m for the allocated gates based on wingspan of generic 2 engine jet of 154 feet (47m) so radius = (47/2) +6 = 29.5 m. Similarly large ramps @ 40m (w/s 218 feet)..
I am unable to get any changes done as ADE has stopped producing a bgl with errors showing missing output file mymaterials,lib.

 

[scruffyduck]

I am unable to get any changes done as ADE has stopped producing a bgl with errors showing missing output file mymaterials,lib.

Make sure that you have the materials asset group unchecked if you do not have any custom materials,

Checking it with no materials can cause errors. This is a bug that is on my list to fix