ADE and how do you do it?

[richard64]

I must confess that I am getting absolutely nowhere with creating a NEW but fictious airport.
I have checked and all installations are up to date.

I want to create some float plane bases on lakes in England and Wales and on the Lochs of Scotland.
I intend to use Instant Scenery to create the bases.
I have created one including a pontoon for float plane docking.
I cannot create a parking space at this pontoon.
When I try to reopen a "saved" airport I get the message "no airport found in this file". Hence I cannot compile anything.

Is there a simple step by step tutorial on how to create a new but fictious airport.

I have been given help and advice by some guys but unfortunately the information is too fragmented for me to make any sense of it. I do not mean to be ungrateful but I am only just starting out and I really want some simple step by step guidance.

 

[scruffyduck]

• First make sure that you have the bsic information that ADE needs to create a new airport. You are going to need most of the items listed in the New Airport Dialog. Once you have them entered then Click Save
  • Latitude and Longitude of a point that represents the center of your airport - make sure you use the format that you have set in options
  • The altitude of the platform or other item that you want the airport set at. So this would be at the lake altitude I think
  • Magnetic variation - you can usually ge this by checking a nearby airport
  • An ID that does not already exist in FSX plus all other entries except State/Province unless you are in North America
  • Leave the traffic scalar and test Radius at default
• After saving you should have a circle and cross at the center of the screen. This represents what you have for the airport for the time being
• Save your airport.

Right now if you compile this nothing useful will appear in FSX as you have not created any infrastructure. OK it gets a bit harder now and I am sure some of the other guys will step in and help. If you just create a parking space and no taxi network, runways, starts etc then you will almost certainly no see anything at all. At the very least you need to:

• Create a runway of suitable size and surface
• Create a Runway Start at least at one end and probably both
• Create a Runway taxilink that runs along the runway
• Add some parking spots and connect them to the runway using taxi links.

You might want to connect ADE to FSX while you are laying things out.

Save it regularly in ADE. I don't know why you are getting the error you mention but if it continues please post the file ade_200801.log so that we can check it out.

Compile it - the folder you compile it to should be part of your Addon Scenery Setup. So if you call it 'FloatBase' then I would create a folder called FloatBase under Addon Scenery. In that create a scenery folder and a texture folder. Compile to the scenery folder. If you have already created your own folder structure for the instant scenery then you can put the bgl file in there.

 

[richard64]

Thanks I am going to try now and will report as to what happens.

Regards

 

[richard64]

Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've done it.
Well almost.

My airport is not showing up in the locations in FSX???

 

[scruffyduck]

My airport is not showing up in the locations in FSX???

Bit more info please Are you saying it is not showing up in the airport list or that the start information is not showing up?

I assume that you can find your airport on the ground so know it is there?

The information needed to show the airport in the list of airports in FSX is the information you entered such as ID, Country, City, Airport Name - are they all filled in?

 

[richard64]

The airport is NOT showing in the list of airports and hence no starts.
I go to the airport by loading at Carlisle and then slewing to the location.

The info I entered was
ID WD40
Country UK
City Windermere
Airport Bowness.

 

[scruffyduck]

Richard

Perhaps you would post your ade file or bgl file or email them to me so I can check it out for you?

 

[richard64]

Thnaks Jon,
I have found the answer.
I put the country as UK and that is what it was under.
I should have put United Kingdom.

However when I went there I was in the middle of land so something has gone wrong in my calculations.

BUT at least now I can do it I just need to refine it/myself.

Q. Can I not just add a dock parking space?? most float bases will not have a designated runway area??

Regards

PS how is the weather in Wilts?? It's normal in Wales cold and damp.

 

[richard64]

And I've just realised what went wrong.
I created using a Virtual Earth image to which of course FSX bears no relationship in terms of well everything.

SO Jon please explain how I create using, is it 2 windows. 1 for ADE and 1 for FSX????

 

[scruffyduck]

PS how is the weather in Wilts?? It's normal in Wales cold and damp.

Bright today but very cold - but then I would say that after just returning from a month or so in Florida

 

[scruffyduck]

SO Jon please explain how I create using, is it 2 windows. 1 for ADE and 1 for FSX????

• Run ADE
• Start FSX. Put FSX into Slew Mode (Y Key) - we always do design work of this type in slew mode and Top Down.
• Make FSX windowed and get your user aircraft in the correct place in the Sim. You will need to switch between the two if you do not have multiple monitors
• I assume that the status bar at the bottom is showing a Green Box with SimConnect Found in it? If not then we have a different kind of problem
• Make sure your airport is open in ADE and click the Connect button at top Right. After a moment the indicator should turn Green and you will be connected to FSX. Now there should be an aircraft symbol in ADE showing where the aircraft is. If you are way off then you might need to zoom out. If you can't find it then...
• You have to decide the best way to bring things together. You can use the Lock Button under the connection indicator. This will center ADE on the current user Aircraft location in FSX. The alternative is to use the Right Click Menu in ADE and use the Move Aircraft option - this will move the User Aircraft in FSX to the location you right clicked at in ADE.
• You then have to decide whether to move the existing airport infrastructure over to the correct place or create new elements there and delete the old ones. If you are way out then it might be worth starting again by making sure your user aircraft is correctly placed in FSX and creating a new airport at that location.

 

[richard64]

ok Jon, have had another go and the airport shows in FSX AND at the parking spot.
The NEXT problem is how do I get the aircraft to MOVE????
What I did was to add a very short taxiway and a very short runway and linked them together, but the 'plane will not move???
I'm almost there!!

 

[scruffyduck]

Are you talking about AI Traffic?

 

[richard64]

No the aircraft I want to fly.

 

[scruffyduck]

No the aircraft I want to fly.

So you start the engine and go

Or are you looking for ATC? if so then you need to define a Tower Frequency for your airport. To do that Select Lists from the Main Menu and then Comms. You will find a list of any nearby airport comms so you can avoid using those frequencies.

Click the Add Button and Give your Com a name like Bowness Tower. Select the Type Tower and then dial in a frequency avoiding nearby ones.

Close the list and compile.

I think that is all you need to get ATC.

 

[GHD]

If all you need is for user aircraft operation, just specify a start point and as Jon says, create a comms frequency of type "MULTICOM" which will give you the possibility to talk to ATC without hearing a reply (ie. a "Bowness traffic" frequency).

George

 

[richard64]

What is happening is that I can only create a dock park if I include a short length of taxiway linked to the parking spot by an apron link. All that is fine but the aircraft either won't move or it is sitting on a raised [concrete???] taxiway.

ADE let me compile just a parking spot and I put the bgl in my addon folder. FSX recognises this but crashes on loading.

I am so close but this last bit is really frustrating me.

 

[GHD]

My recommendation to use concrete surfaces was for AI use. For user aircraft, you need to use water textures for both taxiways and runways.

George

 

[jvile]

FSX recognises this but crashes on loading.

Can you attach the bgl file to your post?

A FSX crash on startup can be many things even if the ADE compiles ok. Inaccurate Airport Headers and start Locations are just a few reasons why FSX will crash.

 

[scruffyduck]

I agree with Jim. We can help better if we can look at the file. ADE uses BglComp to compile so what is actually happening is that BglComp compiles something that FSX does not like. There are several examples of this including twisted aprons that compile but give problems when the FSX engine tries to render them. It is also a very good idea to run the Fault Finder before compiling as this will find quite a few potential problems.