Makerunways question

[PRB]

New user here. First post. Hi all.

 

I'm looking for a database of airports in FS9/X/P3D. Makerunways produces one, but it's a binary file. How does one make use of this file? It's not a SQl Compact (SDF) database that I can connect to from Visual Studio. It's not a .cvs file that I could use to create my own records in a SQL database. What is it, exactly?

 

Thanks!

 

- Paul

[Thomas Richter]

Hi,

 

did you read the included MakeRwys ReadMe.txt?

Runways.xml
   An XML file providing a database of airports and their runways.
	
FStarRC.rws
	This is a binary runways database used by my FStarRC program.
	
Airports.fsm
	This is a binary airports database used by FS_Meteo, at present after
	re-naming to "Runways.rws".
	
Runways.csv
	This is a comma-separated text database of all the runways, sorted, 
	and it is in the particular format used by Radar Contact (all versions
	up until the change to the following:
	
R4.csv
	This is the same as the previous CSV file, but includes additional
	runway data added at the end of each line. This is used 
	in Radar Contact 4 (before RC4.3) for more precise ATC operations.
	
R5.csv
	This is the same as R4.csv but with runway closure indicators in an
	extra two fields - CL closed for landing and/or CT closed for
	take-off. This file is used by RCV4.3 and RC5.
	
G5.csv
	This contains information about Gates, Ramps, Parking places, along
	with airline lists where specified. It is used by later versions of
	Radar contact.
	
T5.csv
	This contains details of all taxi paths.It is used by later versions of
	Radar contact.
	
F5.csv	
	This lists all COM frequencies and associated names, including the
	airport name, for Radar Contact 5 or later.
	
F4.csv	
	This lists all COM frequencies and associated names, including the
	airport name, for Radar Contact 4. If you want to use this with RC4
	you must copy it to the Radar Contact 'data' subfolder. Make a safe
	copy of your original F4.CSV file first (I usually just rename it
	to "f4orig.csv").
	
	Note that MakeRwys matches frequences as best it can, with the
	following extra "fiddles" to ensure a good range of frequencies:
	
	1. Clearance Delivery is preferably met by FS type 14 "CD", but else is
	   met by type 7 "CLEARANCE".
	   
	2. Multicom is met by FS type 2 "MULTICOM", but failing that by type 4
	   "CTAF".
	   
	3. Approach is from FS type 8 "APPROACH", but failing that from a 
	   second Type 9 "DEPARTURE" if there are more than one of the latter.
	
	4. Deparature is from FS type 9 "DEPARTURE", but failing that from a 
	   second Type 8 "ARRIVAL" if there are more than one of the latter.
	   
	Centre, FSS, AWOS and ASOS frequencies aren't used for this file.
...

[PRB]

Yes, thanks. I did read it. So, to restate the question, how does one access the file called airports.rws? What's an rws file? It's still a binary file that I don't know how to access. That was the question.

[Thomas Richter]

Hi,

 

makeRwy does multiple files for different programs. The cws files with same or more information in it (depending on which version you use, R4/ R5) are available, you wrote you could use that format to create your own SQL database.

As well a XML file with all information is available.

 

MakeRwy is a tool that converts FS information into a file format of the programs it was designed for like FStarRC, RadarContact and many others they just use their formats as they are.

 

Any more information about that special rws binary format you want to convert only Pete could give you, he will be back on 25th.

[Paul Henty]

Hi Paul,

 

None of the .csv files contain info about the airport beyond the ICAO code.

 

The Runways.txt file contain lots of information about the airports (including runway and comms info) but it's not in a very friendly format for parsing by code. It's possible, but I think it's more intended for humans to read.

 

Your only other option (and the one I used) is runways.xml which has some good information about the airport (lon/lat, name, city etc). It also has runway info. You'll need to write some code to read the XML file and then push this data into your SQL database. Depending on what programming language you are using there could be some built-in or free libraries to parse XML files into an easily navigable class structure. Failing that you'll need to write your own text parser based on the rules of XML.

 

Dealing with the XML will be much easier than trying to work out the format of a third-party's binary file, especially if you have access to ready-made libraries that handle XML reading.

 

Paul

[PRB]

Ok, thanks all. That makes sense.

 

I'm thinking the runways.csv file is actually better than an airports only file anyway, and I can easily read that file into an sdf database file. Then I can use LAT/LON from FSUIPC to determine which airport I'm at, and even what runway, which is nice.

 

- Paul