Help needed with creating pilot controlled runway lights

[szcsongor]

Hi,

This is my first ever post and I just started with scenery design so be gentle
I'm happy I found this toolbox, since it supposedly does what I need: pilot controlled runway lights. I'm making now my first ever photoscenery for a city and it's small airfield and I find this tool very useful for it.
I have problems though how to make simple runway edge and threshold lights which can be pilot controlled.
Even after reading the manual more than once I am kinda stuck.

1. It's not really clear to me which type of light I should choose for simple runway lights for a basic grass field. Omni? Split? The definitions in the manual are not super clear on this to me. There is one "bi-directional lights – medium and high intensity - runway lights" mentioned but there is no such light type to choose from in the toolbox...

2. Should I choose BGL_light or effect when making it? I plan to use it in P3D v3.

3. I tried the other day to create omni and split objects. Here is what I did and experienced:
Set PCL to COMM freq. 123,35, 5 clicks with transmit button, auto off. 15 min. (as it is at this airfield for real)
Choose split (later also omni) type as effect, then clicked create element button, then make library. There were no error messages, all went as it should.
After that I opened my airfield project in ADE, there I imported the object to library then added the object.
What I saw then is a 200*200 m square object. What am I supposed to do with it? How can I place it on the runway as runway lights? I can't even change it's size.Should I place more of these square objects until the runway is all covered? How should I imagine these objects? One object per light bulb, so I place them along the edge of the runway? Or the whole lighting is one object which I place on top of the runway with correct heading and dimensions? (sorry for the layman questions)
I tried to place it anyway to at least try the PCL function, saved the project and loaded the flight sim. I saw absolutely nothing and PCL didn't work.

Btw, which button should I use when I set a COMM freq. as switch for PCL? There is a key binding called "COM 1 radio (transmit)" but that did not work, no matter how many times I clicked on it. But probably the light object was not correctly made or placed anyway...

I know I should get help from the manual, but I must say it's not very clear on how exactly you do this. I have some experience in scenery making now, I am able to make a photoscenery, I already made/modified airports with ADE, so I'm also not a complete beginner. But this tool is over my level I guess.

I also know that it's a hassle for someone to help all with this, but I would really appreciate a step-by-step tutorial on how to make simple pilot controlled runway edge lights for a basic grass (or any) runway.

Thanks for any help with this. In the end I can just set a permanent light for the runway in ADE, but it would be much more realistic to have it pilot controlled as in real life.

 

[gadgets]

AFLT primarily generates individual light objects (runway light, object light, etc.) that are saved in a library and that can be placed by all the usual methods. (AFLT includes one of those methods, i.e., the array capability.) Most users would place runway and taxiway edge lights using ADE (or another such tool); the array tool is most useful for approach lights.

The type of light you use is determined by the nature of the real-life light you are simulating. A taxiway light is "Omni". A runway light can be either omni or bi-directional. AFLT uses a bi-directional effect. If you want omni, edit the effect or create a new one.

Leave PCL till last. Until you get your lights working (set airfield operation to 24 hr.), PCL will do nothing.

As for your 200x200m square. How do you know it is generated by AFLT? If it is, did you inadvertently specify it? Without a screenshot, I can't comment further.

As for a tutorial, once you understand the overall concept (which I've gone to some length to describe in the user manual), I doubt you'll need anything more than the existing manual. Experiment! You can't do any harm and, if the light(s) you generate aren't to your liking, change them and recompile.

Good luck,
Don

 

[szcsongor]

Thanks Don for your fast reply.
I just need simple runway edge lights (+ perhaps threshold lights), so no fancy approach light arrays or anything like that.
So which type of light should I choose for simple (yellow or white) edge lights from the drop-down menu? Omni?

The 200*200 m object I got when I added the AFLT-made light object from library in ADE to my airfield. So it opened in ADE like this. I don't know why it has these dimensions, I did not specify it at all. Or can it be that it looks like that because I set it as effect and not BGL_light when I generated it in AFLT?
It is weird that this light object is a huge square, it just does not feel right. (I will attach a screenshot to this when I get home soon.)

I'll experiment further and report back if I'm stuck again.

Update: When I wanted to make a screenshot in ADE to show you these huge square objects, I realised that when adding an object it can actually be resized down to cm size. Don't know though why the default size is 200*200 m... Rookie mistake, sorry