tower!3d pro Schedule Builder Tool - create your own schedules

[crbascott]

3 hours ago, christopher43b1@hotmail.co said:

Is it possible to adapt this for Tracon 2012?

I think Eligrim is finished modifying the tool, but the schedules created can be used for Tower!2011 or Tracon!2012. Of course you'd more than likely need to update the airlines, airplanes,  and airport files too since the RT data is very old.

[EliGrim]

Just did a quick test run with a LAX schedule in TRACON!2012 SE. I used the airlines, airplanes, airports, gaandlocaltraffic and schedule file generated by the Schedule Builder after deleting the klax prefixes (klax_) from the file names.
Flights were planned from 07:59 to 12:58, but I didn't get any flights at 08:00. Having a quick look into the game.log I could see that TRACON!2012 changed it to 15:59 to 20:58. After setting the start time to 16:00 the flights were processed as planned, just 8 hours later.

Maybe someone who has experience with the game would have to take a closer look. A dedicated TRACON option for the Schedule Builder will most likely not be implemented, unless it's a quick fix that I can realize in 1 to 2 hours - and experience shows that it never is!

[crbascott]

9 hours ago, EliGrim said:

Just did a quick test run with a LAX schedule in TRACON!2012 SE. I used the airlines, airplanes, airports, gaandlocaltraffic and schedule file generated by the Schedule Builder after deleting the klax prefixes (klax_) from the file names.
Flights were planned from 07:59 to 12:58, but I didn't get any flights at 08:00. Having a quick look into the game.log I could see that TRACON!2012 changed it to 15:59 to 20:58. After setting the start time to 16:00 the flights were processed as planned, just 8 hours later.

Maybe someone who has experience with the game would have to take a closer look. A dedicated TRACON option for the Schedule Builder will most likely not be implemented, unless it's a quick fix that I can realize in 1 to 2 hours - and experience shows that it never is!

Although the times in the schedule are local, for Tower!2011 and Tracon!2012 the time you select on the menu is UTC. Also, FYI, the gaandlocaltraffic file is not used in Tracon!2012.

[Ron C]

 

@crbascott @EliGrim @christopher43b1@hotmail.co I ran a short TRACON!2012 (T!2012) LAX sector session using T!3DP’s LAX  Real Traffic (RT) schedule and a short LAS sector session using Schedule Builder (SB).  They both worked just fine, except for the T!2012’s clock time being 8 hours ahead of the T!3DP schedule’s times.  I just had to make sure that the contents of the T!3DP’s LAX RT and LAS SB airplanes, airlines and airports text files were in the specific T!2012 “Databases” file folder(s) I created for each sector with the ‘”klax_” and “las_” removed from the text files’ names.  The game worked just as well as it does when using the older original T!2012’s “Databases” text files.  Therefore, I don’t see why you would need to modify too much of anything in SB to use it for T!2012, except for the T!2012’s UTC game clock times vs T!3DP’s schedules being in local time issue.  For me personally, the out of sync time issue really doesn’t matter that much since TRACONs have windowless operations rooms (so no concept of day or night) and airplane-wise there isn’t much to see except 2D radar targets and data tags.  So, I’m basically content using SB as is for T!2012 and just concentrating on working the traffic .

Since LAX’s T!3DP RT schedule also worked for T!2012, I’d think any customized T!3DP schedule should work for it as long as you have the correct data text files in place and the out of sync time issue doesn’t bother the user.  This should also work for the other T!2012 sectors besides LAX (as demonstrated by using LAS) as long as they have airports that use T!3DP formatted schedules.  

One drawback I noted is if you have any other commercial airports in the sector that aren’t in T!3DP, you won’t have any commercial traffic for them.  However, I discovered that you can build-in scheduled flights for those airports into theT!3DP schedule you are using.  I tried that with the NORCAL sector using T!3DP’s KSFO RT schedule (I don’t have the KSFO T!3DP airport).  The game generated my built-in schedule flights for KOAK and KSJC which are also included in the NORCAL sector (with generated traffic in he game's original schedule) but are not in T!3DP.  

 Also, does anyone know if a flight will generate if the arrival and departure airports are not paired up in the “sidstar.cfg.txt” file?  If not (which would be my guess), then that could also be a potential and/or possibly time consuming issue to rectify when using SB or any other customized schedules if you want all of the schedule’s traffic to generate. 

[crbascott]

@Ron C There's really nothing out of sync here. The time on the selection menu is UTC time and is clearly documented in the manual. The times included in the schedule file are local and also clearly documented in the manual. 

Regarding sidstar_cfg.txt, it's not a required file. So I'm certain if the file is not used or, if used, a route is not included then the game will choose a SID or STAR for you. If you are unsure and/or want to verify this, the log file contains information on the SIDs and STARs it picks for a flight.

I personally see no reason for @EliGrim to even consider updating SB to accommodate Tracon especially since it is approaching 10 years old, has a relatively small customer base, and to do it "right" would be a substantial effort. 

     

[Ron C]

@crbascott I understand how the UTC and local time schedules work in T!3DP and T!2012.  What I was referring to was if the "purist" wanted everything to be exact (schedule times match the game clock's time).  As I stated in my post the time difference doesn't really matter to me.  I also agree that @EliGrim doesn't need to do anything with schedule builder.  As I tried to point out in probably a too long of detailed post is that one should be able to use any T!3DP formatted schedule for the appropriate T!2012 sector (even with multiple commercial airports) as long as they create a "Databases" folder (with the modify text files) for that sector.  For anyone who might be interested I've included a screen shot of how I have my sector "Databases" folders set up in my T!2012 main folder (did this today).  First of all, I created a "Databases" folder for each T!2012 sector.  After that it’s fairly easy to switch from one sector to another sector since each sector's folder will contain all the correct modified text files for that sector.  Now all I have to do to use a sector's "Databases" files is to delete the "-(sector name)" from the sector's "Databases" folder name and copy & paste the T!3DP "schedule.txt" file I want to use into that folder.  When done controlling that sector I just need to rename that "Databases" folder back to the "-(sector name)" and then I'm ready to play another sector by just repeating the basically simple two-step process.

I actually didn't realize that T!2012 had a game log (you learn something new every day).  I'll take your suggestion and check it out.

[ATC AlaskaGuy]

why hasen't EGLL been added to the schedule builder tool?

[crbascott]

58 minutes ago, ATC AlaskaGuy said:

why hasen't EGLL been added to the schedule builder tool?

Despite <sarcasm>grateful and appreciative users like yourself</sarcasm>, the developer announced several months ago no new airports would be added.
 

Keep in mind the developer did all this work for free and on his own time and for justifiable reasons made the decision. 
 

You are welcome to get caught up on things starting with Eligrim’s post on October 14, 2020 in this thread. 

[rmcglew]

Your schedule builder is a must have for us less computer literate. I would love for you to update it in anyway you seem fit. EGLL WSSS  I love it.

[EliGrim]

6 hours ago, rmcglew said:

Your schedule builder is a must have for us less computer literate.

Thank you very much, I am glad to hear that.

6 hours ago, rmcglew said:

I would love for you to update it in anyway you seem fit. EGLL WSSS  I love it.

Although I did not respond with the sad emoji, I still have sad news for you.
As mentioned several times, no new airports will be added to the Schedule Builder for various reasons.

You will surely remember that I held out the prospect of adding EGLL, one of the most anticipated airports as it seemed to me, to the Schedule Builder if 11 community members could be found to PM me expressing their desire for EGLL to be implemented. Not even half of the goal was achieved.

This means that either, in addition to my personal reasons, the interest in implementing new airports is not even remotely big enough, or, the community at large understands how time consuming implementing new airports is and did not want to deprive me of many, many hours of my spare time.

In any case, the decision is made:
There will be no new airports for the Schedule Builder and I intend to stop all work, except mandatory work, on the tools/websites on August the 1st of this year.
However, all tools/websites will remain available online for quite some time.

[EliGrim]

Update v1.05

• Files can now be conveniently downloaded as zip archive and no longer need to be clicked on individually to download. (If creating the zip file fails, the individual download is offered automatically.) The download of the sorted schedule is kept as an option to check the schedule (if needed) before downloading the zip archive. This is optional, the sorted schedule is also included as ScheduleInfo.txt in the zip archive as well.
• As of today, all non-mandatory work on the Schedule Builder will be discontinued. The Schedule Builder Tool is now considered finished. If there are any changes in the real world, such as closing or opening a terminal, they will (officially) no longer be reflected in the Schedule Builder. At this time, it is planned to keep the Schedule Builder website available for at least the next 2 years.

Schedule Builder Website

[MJKERR]

X

[baek]

Can you add ZBAD(bejing daxing)airport?

[scoobflight]

1 hour ago, baek said:

Can you add ZBAD(bejing daxing)airport?

No updates to the utility are planned.  Read in full the first post -

https://forum.simflight.com/topic/88657-schedule-builder-tool-create-your-own-schedules/

 

Also read in full the 9 August '21 post -

https://forum.simflight.com/topic/88657-schedule-builder-tool-create-your-own-schedules/?do=findComment&comment=564377

[pocketdynamo87]

I've created a schedule for KSAN, using data imported from Flightradar24. There were no errors, so I compiled the project. On the download page, I receive this message:

 

Your schedule is ready for download.

 

In rare cases it may take a moment until the archive is ready and the download button works.

 

The button doesn't work, indeed. I've waited for about an hour now... How long may said moment last?

[EliGrim]

53 minutes ago, pocketdynamo87 said:

The button doesn't work, indeed. I've waited for about an hour now... How long may said moment last?

Actually, the download should work immediately. In extremely rare cases, it may take up to a minute.

Based on your message, I assume that you can see the blue button, but nothing happens when you click on it, right?

If you have visited the Schedule Creator website before, whether logged in or not, please clear your Bowser cache, close your browser, then reopen it and compile the project again.

If the download still doesn't work, please send me a PM with the version of your operating system, the browser you are using and the version of the browser. I will then look into it. Thanks a lot.

EDIT:
Brief info... Here's the thread for the Schedule Creator:
https://forum.simflight.com/topic/92091-schedule-creator-tool-create-100-custom-schedules/
Creator and Builder are named very similarly and are therefore easy to confuse.

Edited August 29, 2021 by EliGrim

[pocketdynamo87]

Thanks, that did the trick. Should've thought of that before, really.

I couldn't even see the blue button before, it was just black script on white, like the rest of it.