Editing AI aircraft parking?

[Navy Chief]

A fellow SOH member kindly put together a AI aircraft package for me, and I am wanting to edit/change where the aircraft are parked.

I have never even attempted any of this. I would like to know what software I need to download to do this? There is apparently a LOT of software available for such things.

I have downloaded ADE, but no clue how to use it yet! NC

[Victory103]

ADE is really the best program to use, even basic stuff like parking. One thing to remember is how FSX reads required parking spot size compared to FS9. If you see AI land, then disappear on the runway they do not have any available parking despite your ADE showing lots of green parking spots. ADE does take a few minutes to set up, but once it's up you can make the changes. There are also several tutorials on making the AI behave somewhat normal during taxi with drive-through spots and such.

Retro Cecil Field?

[dougal]

A fellow SOH member kindly put together a AI aircraft package for me, and I am wanting to edit/change where the aircraft are parked.

I have never even attempted any of this. I would like to know what software I need to download to do this? There is apparently a LOT of software available for such things.

I have downloaded ADE, but no clue how to use it yet! NC

I would also HIGHLY recommend ADE. I'm having a lot of fun with it. You'll need the FSX SDK installed to use it.

[Navy Chief]

ADE is really the best program to use, even basic stuff like parking. One thing to remember is how FSX reads required parking spot size compared to FS9. If you see AI land, then disappear on the runway they do not have any available parking despite your ADE showing lots of green parking spots. ADE does take a few minutes to set up, but once it's up you can make the changes. There are also several tutorials on making the AI behave somewhat normal during taxi with drive-through spots and such.

Retro Cecil Field?

Yes. And there are plenty of parking spots. I simply want to change where the aircraft are placed, is all. NC

[Golden Rocket]

If you want to see immediately where you place exactly parkings, I would strongly suggest Airport Facilitator X of Flight1. It's payware, but it's really worth the money. With the interface creating or modifying Afcad become very simple.

Bernard

[expat]

Pete,

If you can navigate in ADE to your Retro Cecil bgl, open it, you will then see your parking spots as green blobs. Click on the ones you want to assign parking for your SLUF's (:wink:) and you will get a dialogue box where you can enter a code. Put in that e.g. A7 and then be sure in your AI air.cfg the parking code=A7. They should then park at all the spots you assign in ADE.

expat

[Golden Rocket]

Put in that e.g. A7 and then be sure in your AI air.cfg the parking code=A7.

The line entry must be done in the aircraft.cfg. And the line must be atc_parking_codes=A7, otherwise it wouldn't work.
Bernard

[Navy Chief]

Pete,

If you can navigate in ADE to your Retro Cecil bgl, open it, you will then see your parking spots as green blobs. Click on the ones you want to assign parking for your SLUF's (:wink:) and you will get a dialogue box where you can enter a code. Put in that e.g. A7 and then be sure in your AI air.cfg the parking code=A7. They should then park at all the spots you assign in ADE.

expat

Expat,

Maybe I am looking at the wrong file? I am loading up AF2_KVQQ.BGL file There aren't any aircraft assigned to the parking spots, which I know is incorrect, obviously. Pete

[Butcherbird17]

Chief,
Whose Cecil field are you using? If I can d/l it and you give me a list of the AI aircraft you have for the scenery,
I can set up the parking for you. Having the AI aircraft cfg files would help even more, as they need to have the
parking codes applied to them as well. Just let me know.

Joe

[Navy Chief]

Chief,
Whose Cecil field are you using? If I can d/l it and you give me a list of the AI aircraft you have for the scenery,
I can set up the parking for you. Having the AI aircraft cfg files would help even more, as they need to have the
parking codes applied to them as well. Just let me know.

Joe

Joe, thanks so much for your offer, but I am determined to figure out how to do this myself. Understanding ai flight plans, and airport scenery editing has eluded my comprehension for way too long! NC

[Butcherbird17]

Not a problem Chief. You have the right afcad opened in ADE (KVQQ). To change the parking code or add one, just double
click on the parking spot, a properties window will open. Under the Airlines portion you should see where to put the code
(it should be blank if no a/c are assigned to it) you can just put A7 for the sluf or you can setup specific parking by making
the codes for squadrons. Its up to you how you want it. Once your done adding the codes click OK close the properties window.
Now click on File in the tool bar (top left of ADE) and save the airport (here you can give the ade file a specific name) and save.
Now you can go back to "File" and then click on the Compile Airport or at (top right of ADE) click on the Compile button, and name the
file the same as the original. Now go to where you have ADE installed, and open the FSX folder, now open the BGL folder and you should have the new BGL file there. Just copy the file and replace (back up original first) the bgl in the scenery.
You will also need to add the parking code to the AI a/c cfg file to make it all work. Hope this helps

Joe

[PHo17]

In my opinion ADE has best value-price ratio. It's free, easy to learn, well documented and practically there isn't anything you cannot do for afcads with ADE. It has even a function called fault finder. With just a click of mouse you can find any faults in afcad. This leads me to wonder why so many freeware sceneries have so many faults in their afcads. Some authors of those freeware sceneries make magnificent job and beautiful sceneries, but obviously they don't know well how to make afcads or don't know ADEs fault finding features (if they use ADE at all). For me this software is a must conserning FSX's AI traffic.

Pekka

[leuen]

Some authors of those freeware sceneries make magnificent job and beautiful sceneries, but obviously they don't know well how to make afcads or don't know ADEs fault finding features (if they use ADE at all).

You're right to point out these lacks. The worst thing often seen are missing hold short nodes. BTW, Fault Finder fault often that such nodes are too narrow to runways. It hasn't any impact on traffic. I have a lot of helicopter Afcads with hold short nodes pratically on runways, and it works correctly.

Regarding ADE, just one question: How do you would create an Afcad for ground traffic without seeing buildings, objects etc. on the display?

Bernard

[Dave Torkington]

Hi Pete,

How are you progressing with getting your AI to behave properly? It's good that you want to solve this for yourself. Once you do, you'll wonder what all the fuss was about!

I thought a picture might paint a thousand words so I took a screenie showing an airfield / parking that my buddy and I are working on. I personally use Flight 1's AFX for editing the airfield AFCAD, but ADE does the job perfectly too.

Hopefully I've shown how the aircraft parking codes must be included in both the AFCAD bgl file parking spot and the Aircraft.cfg file.

So, open the Aircraft.cfg [using Notepad] of the AI Aircraft that you want to park in a [I]specific parking spot. Add the line atc_parking_codes=A7 [for example]. The parking code can be 1 - 4 characters long. It must be unique for the AI aircraft visiting your airfield. Save the modified Aircraft.cfg.

Now, open your Airfield's AFCAD bgl using ADE. I trust there's tutorials / guidance with ADE that tell you how to navigate to the Airfield's AFCAD bgl and edit the Parking Properties of the Parking Spot you want your A7 Aircraft to park at. Assuming you're at this stage, add the same Parking Code you added to the Aircraft.cfg [i.e. A7]. Save the modified AFCAD bgl. ** Again, follow the ADE tutorial for saving the 'new' AFCAD bgl. **

Finally, restart FSX and watch how your AI aircraft obey your parking instructions... Hope this helps!

5781

Dave.

[Navy Chief]

Outstanding Dave, thank you!

I have been printing out tutorials, and have started putting everything in a notebook. I am one of those who needs to read through instructions repeatedly for things to "sink in":mixed-smiley-010:

The illustration you made will be most helpful. That really increases the chances of me understanding how things are edited! Pete

[jmbiii]

Pete;

ADE9X is a very powerful program, and it's free. But it has a steep learning curve for all the many things you can do with it.
AFX is payware and cannot do as much as ADE. AFX does have one redeeming feature - you can have flight simulator open and visually see in FS what the afcad looks like and what you are doing. It also has a fault finder.
I bought AFX years ago and used it long after ADE came out. After looking at ADE, I resisted using it as it was different and a bit more difficult. I now use both.
I would recommend buying AFX and using it to get your"degree" in afcad then later go to ADE to get your "masters".

One thing you should be aware of, if you use AFX to modify an afcad that has been developed with ADE you will loose a good deal of the additional (other than the afcad/parking) things that the ADE afcad might have. You will loose scenery, flattens, landclass, etc. You can modify AFX and original Afcad AF2_ and original FS afcads with ADE but not the other way around.

Learning how to provide parking comes in very handy for military fields . . . . most stock ones in FS9 and FSX have no parking, thus no AI.

Joe III

PS: I have no monetary conflicts of interest in AFX. :biggrin-new:

[Dave Torkington]

Very good point Joe - all's ok if it's a stock / default FSX airfield that's already packed with AI parking spots...

Glad to help Pete, if you hit a brick wall just shout :encouragement:

Dave.

[expat]

Be sure you are also using the desired KVQQ bgl. You probably have at least two. There will be a default one and then I expect your modded one. The latter would go either into a Addon Scenery/KVQQ Cecil (etc)/Scenery folder or an alternative location. Try to remember where you placed it. You want to in ADE "open airport" by "select bgl", browse to that folder and then make the changes described in this thread, save, and compile - be sure you browse again to the same folder location and, after backing up, overwrite. (If you are opening the "default airport" e.g., by filling in the blank line with the ICAO, KVQQ, you are likely using the wrong airport file.) You also need to conform the ATC_parking entries in your AI aircraft air.cfg accordingly.

Once you learn how to assign a/c to parking we're gonna getcha goin' on TrafficTools too!

[leuen]

Try to remember where you placed it.
With AFX you shouldn't do that - it shows you all Afcad saved either with KVQQ and/or Cecil.

Personally I use AFX, ADE and even Afcad 221, it depends for which purpose. So e.g. Afcad 221 is the only tool which allows to reduce runways to 0.4 ft and made them completely invisible.

Bernard

[PHo17]

I don't think learning the basics of ADE (or other programs) is so difficult at all. When I was learning to fly airliners with help of FMC (just in FSX :biggrin-new:) I was afraid of going through lots of pages of the airplane's manuals I thought ware also very difficult to understand. So I went onto Internet to search for youtube videos of the subject. There are plenty of them (in English and other languages). Quite easily I learned the basics (thought I was even then well over my sixties of age and knew nothing of FMC flying). Now I know that using FMC (MCDU etc.) isn't that challenging at all. Learning from manuals it's just more tedious and time consuming.

Same method might work also with learning ADE or corresponding software. Using keywords: "ADE9X FSX FS2004 youtube" I found for example these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SmqyoJg5m0 .

I hope this is for some help too.

Pekka

[dhazelgrove]

You're all overloading a beginner here. Too much, too soon.

just stick with the one program (ADE), and then expand when/if you need to.

Dave

[Navy Chief]

Ok, here is where I am now.

I opened the AF2_KVQQ.BGL within ADE. The stock airport file has almost zero parking spaces. Now then, the ai aircraft.cfg file (for each ai A-7) looks like this:

[fltsim.0]
title=JAI A7 VA-15
Sim=JAI_A-7H_Corsair_II_AI_ONLY
model=Clean
texture=A7 VA-15
atc_airline=NAVY
atc_parking_types=Mil_Combat
atc_parking_codes=
ui_manufacturer=JAI
ui_type=A-7E
ui_variation=USN
description= The Vought A-7E Corsair II Repaint By Ray Parker

When I look at the parking spots in the AFCAD file within ADE, I do not see any aircraft assigned. Should I? There are aircraft parked on (what used to be the S-3 aircraft side of the base), and taxiing from parking spots, yet I don't see them assigned to spaces in the AFCAD file. The area of the base where I want to MOVE the aircraft has Mil_Cargo parking spots......no Mil_Combat for the A-7s, like there is on the S-3 side where they are now; so would they be renamed first?? Also, within the AI aircraft.cfg file, where it says parking types= Mil_Combat.....where is the NUMBER of the parking space put?

I see there is a AI aircraft.AIR file, but no idea what to do with that, or how to access it.

By now, I would have normally thrown in the towel, but am not. Just taking this slowly, and NOT doing any changes until I fully understand what I am doing.... NC

[Victory103]

If you have any MAIW packs, you can see a general code layout they use. For your example, mark all your Mil_Combat's with parking code VA15. In the ac .cfg file, do the same in the atc_parking_codes=VA15. Only guessing as I haven't added the JAI SLUF yet, but I'm guessing you need a parking size of at least 8mm.

[Butcherbird17]

Chief,
In the Ai aircraft cfg file you will need to add (if it don't have one) this line: atc_parking_codes=
and then add the code. For the CorsairII you can use A7, or you can assign the Squadron code
up to 4 letters or numbers or a combo of both. (This is the code for F-14's stationed at Miramar
atc_parking_codes=VF24)
In ADE you can change the parking spot from Mil_Cargo to Mil_Combat under "Type" in the
properties window for that parking spot. This is also where you would add the parking code
that you added to the aircraft cfg.

Joe

[Butcherbird17]

Here is a pick of Nas Oceana and a parking spot properties window open.
1 is where you change the parking Type
2 is where you add the parking code
Hope this helps.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b210/Butcherbird17/ADE_zps56911ad4.jpg~original (http://s20.photobucket.com/user/Butcherbird17/media/ADE_zps56911ad4.jpg.html)

Joe

[Navy Chief]

Here is a pick of Nas Oceana and a parking spot properties window open.
1 is where you change the parking Type
2 is where you add the parking code
Hope this helps.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b210/Butcherbird17/ADE_zps56911ad4.jpg~original (http://s20.photobucket.com/user/Butcherbird17/media/ADE_zps56911ad4.jpg.html)

Joe

Thanks Joe, it does. I will try it! Gotta take dog to vet, and will check later on! Pete

[Navy Chief]

5815
Be sure you are also using the desired KVQQ bgl. You probably have at least two. There will be a default one and then I expect your modded one. The latter would go either into a Addon Scenery/KVQQ Cecil (etc)/Scenery folder or an alternative location. Try to remember where you placed it. You want to in ADE "open airport" by "select bgl", browse to that folder and then make the changes described in this thread, save, and compile - be sure you browse again to the same folder location and, after backing up, overwrite. (If you are opening the "default airport" e.g., by filling in the blank line with the ICAO, KVQQ, you are likely using the wrong airport file.) You also need to conform the ATC_parking entries in your AI aircraft air.cfg accordingly.

Once you learn how to assign a/c to parking we're gonna getcha goin' on TrafficTools too!

I made the parking assignments, using the KVQQ.bgl file that I am sure I needed to use. But when I tried to compile it, I got the following popup:
5814

I then went to settings, options, etc..., and pointed it to the folder where I thought the compiler was, but am still getting the same popup. Plus, VA-37 and VA-15 aircraft are mixed on the flight line. Not parked where I assigned them, or THOUGHT I had assigned them. Pete
5816

[Butcherbird17]

Chief,
Do you have the FSX SDK installed? BGLCOMP is part of the Environment Kit in the SDK.
You'll need to install it to have the compiler work. If you do have the SDK installed, just
browse to where you have it installed. Mine is this:
F:\Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK\SDK\Environment Kit\Bgl Compiler SDK\

Joe

[Navy Chief]

Chief,
Do you have the FSX SDK installed? BGLCOMP is part of the Environment Kit in the SDK.
You'll need to install it to have the compiler work. If you do have the SDK installed, just
browse to where you have it installed. Mine is this:
F:\Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK\SDK\Environment Kit\Bgl Compiler SDK\

Joe

That's my problem (at least with this particular issue). During my most recent FSX install, I never got around to installing SDK again. The bad thing is, I took all of my software/cds/dvds to my storage unit. Trying to get stuff out of this house in preparation for the move this summer. Geez....what a hassle. Pete

[PHo17]

I am so sorry Peter. Seems that we all forgot to mention that FSX SDK must be installed before installing (and using) ADE. There are some other things too that are good to be checked before using ADE. I found this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5UkOV58_J0 where it all is more or less explained.

Pekka

[Navy Chief]

I am so sorry Peter. Seems that we all forgot to mention that FSX SDK must be installed before installing (and using) ADE. There are some other things too that are good to be checked before using ADE. I found this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5UkOV58_J0 where it all is more or less explained.

Pekka

Pekka, no apology needed! I have had FSX long enough to know what was wrong ( especially after multiple reinstalls!) I chalk up my omission to old age! I appreciate EVERY bit of advice in this forum. Pete

[expat]

forgot to mention that FSX SDK must be installed before installing (and using) ADE.

Hmmmm, ADE works really well for me and I have NEVER been able to get the FSX SDK to install and work (eg to watch AI traffic). Been over and back to the discussions at FSDevelopers more than once and I still am perplexed why installing successfully the SDK is such a job. Think I go the FS9 SDK to work fine. I have only so much time to sort out problems so in the end give up. :banghead:

[dhazelgrove]

You want the ADE Environment Checker, available here (http://www.interkultur.de/gossmann/fsx/tools.php).
Scroll down.

Dave

[PHo17]

Hmmmm, ADE works really well for me and I have NEVER been able to get the FSX SDK to install and work (eg to watch AI traffic). Been over and back to the ...

Perhaps it works ok just with bgl compiler installed though I've never tried it without the whole SDK installed. I have FSX Gold and have installed it twice first on my former computer and second time on this one a little more than a year ago. I did install according to this: http://www.simforums.com/forums/setting-up-fsx-and-how-to-tune-it_topic29041.html and everything went ok by first attempt. Here: http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?59416-My-links-guide-to-setting-up-FSX-11-July-2012 is more discussion of the subject.

FSX runs nicely (with Kosta's tweaks) and has all the time been much more stable than FS9 I had since 2005 when I started this FS hobby. As newbie I had to install FS2004 various times before I learned the tricks and even after that it wasn't very stable.

Pekka