database for taxi ways

[Jason Fayre]

Hi Paul,

For a future version of the software I'm writing, people are asking for a way to taxi the aircraft. This would require us to get a list of the taxi ways, which the Makerwys database provides in the t5.csv and t5.bin files. Have you considered adding a database of taxi ways, similar to what you do for runways and airports?

When I look at the t5.csv file for the Toronto airport (CYYZ), I notice a ton of taxi ways that are unnamed. The named ones seem to be at the end of the list. Not sure why this is or if this might present a problem.

What are your thoughts?

 

 

[Pete Dowson]

34 minutes ago, Jason Fayre said:

I notice a ton of taxi ways that are unnamed.

They'll most list be links, like to Gates. Look at a chart for the airport and you will see many taxiways like that, without names.

There's a freeware program called ADE by Scruffy Duck which you can use to determine details of all parts of an airport layout.

Pete

 

[Paul Henty]

Quote

 Have you considered adding a database of taxi ways, similar to what you do for runways and airports?

I can't remember why I didn't include them, but I'll have another look next week.

Paul

[Paul Henty]

Just an update: I've had a look at this and it's in progress. I'm hoping to get a new version out next week with taxiways included.

Paul

[Paul Henty]

Version 3.1.21 is now available on NuGet which includes Taxiways in the Airports Database.

This feature must be enabled by setting the LoadTaxiways property to true. This adds roughly 30% to the initial database loading time.

The Airports now have a Taxiways collection which works in the same way as the gates, runways etc.

 

The FsTaxiway class contains the following information:

string Name
FsAirport Airport
FsLatLonPoint StartPoint
FsLatLonPoint EndPoint
double MinimumWidthMetres
double MinimumWidthFeet
double MaximumWidthMetres
double MaximumWidthFeet
bool IsPlayerOnTaxiway
List<FsTaxiwaySegments> Segments

A taxiway might be made up of multiple segments. Each taxiway has at least one segment.

The StartPoint is the start point of the first segment.
The EndPoint is the end point of the last segment.
IsPlayerOnTaxiway will tell you if the player is on any of the segments making up this taxiway. You must set the Reference Position first for this to work. (See the examples application for this).

 

The FsTaxiwaySegment class contains the following information:

FsTaxiwaySegmentType Type
FsLatLonPoint StartPoint
double StartWidthMetres
double StartWidthFeet
FsLatLonPoint EndPoint
double EndWidthMetres
double EndWidthFeet
FsLatLonQuadrilateral Bounds
bool IsPlayerOnSegment 
FsTaxiwaySegment Next
FsTaxiwaySegment Previous

Start and End points are on the centre line of the Taxiway.
Bounds defines the locations of the four corners of the Taxiway Segment.

 

The AirportsDatabase class now has properties to decide what elements to load into the database.

LoadGates
LoadHelipads
LoadFrequencies
LoadTaxiways

To preserve the behaviour of previous versions, all are set to True by default EXCEPT LoadTaxiways which is False. 

Example of getting all named taxiways at EGJJ:

            AirportsDatabase DB = FSUIPCConnection.AirportsDatabase;
            DB.LoadTaxiways = true;
            DB.Load();
       
            FsAirport egjj = DB.Airports["EGJJ"];
            foreach(FsTaxiway taxiway in egjj.Taxiways)
            {
                if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(taxiway.Name))
                {
                    Debug.WriteLine(taxiway.Name);
                }
            }

Paul

[Jason Fayre]

Thanks Paul! This is amazing!

We're a little way off from adding this support into our software, but this will make things much easier!