MakeRwys - Missing Airports

[Dave March]

Just had a user complaining about a couple of missing airports, LECK and LEMQ

I checked the various output files produced by MakeRwys 5.13 for MSFS and discovered the following:-

LECK and LEMQ are NOT in Runways.csv, R5 or F5. But they are referenced in Runways.txt, Runways.xml, T5 and G5

I couldn't see anything obvious as to why this should be and would appreciate your thoughts/comments

Thank you

[Pete Dowson]

5 hours ago, Dave March said:

LECK and LEMQ are NOT in Runways.csv, R5 or F5. But they are referenced in Runways.txt, Runways.xml, T5 and G5

I would need to see the relevant sections of the Runways.txt file. That is the log of the analysis made. Are they default airports?

Pete

 

[Dave March]

Hi Pete,

Yes they are default airports in MSFS

Please see attached

Runways_Extract.zip

[Pete Dowson]

2 hours ago, Dave March said:

Yes they are default airports in MSFS

Well, there would be no F5 entries as there doesn't appear to be any airport frequencies in the BGL definitions.

It looks like MakeRwys cannot compute the actual start point, which involves the threshold offset.

Could you show me the relevant sections of Runways.xml?

My MSFS installation is not only out of date, but the PC it is on is out of commission at present pending some changes I was planning. So, it would help if you count ZIP and send me the file involved:

Official\OneStore\fs-base-genericairports\scenery\0502\APX46170.bgl

Pete

 

[John Dowson]

This is that bgl from my installation which is up-to-date - it is only 516KB so zipping  not required: 

APX46170.bgl

 

John 

[Dave March]

Here you go...

<ICAO id="LECK">
<ICAOName></ICAOName>
<Country></Country>
<City></City>
<File>\\?\F:\FS2020\Official\OneStore\fs-base-genericairports\scenery\0502\APX46170.bgl</File>
<SceneryName>fs-base-genericairports scenery 0502</SceneryName>
<Longitude>-3.934329</Longitude>
<Latitude>39.693424</Latitude>
<Altitude>2367.43</Altitude>
<MagVar>0.000</MagVar>
</ICAO>

<ICAO id="LEMQ">
<ICAOName></ICAOName>
<Country></Country>
<City></City>
<File>\\?\F:\FS2020\Official\OneStore\fs-base-genericairports\scenery\0502\APX46170.bgl</File>
<SceneryName>fs-base-genericairports scenery 0502</SceneryName>
<Longitude>-3.874286</Longitude>
<Latitude>39.898067</Latitude>
<Altitude>1602.32</Altitude>
<MagVar>0.000</MagVar>
</ICAO>

[Pete Dowson]

Right, so there's no Runway information for those in the Runways.xml file either.

I think there must be something missing in the BGL definition for those airports. I'll try and find time to take a look at the BGL in the next few days.

Pete

 

[Dave March]

Okay Pete,  thank you very much for taking the time to look into this. 

Dave

[Pete Dowson]

Right. I should have noticed -- the runway length is less than 1500 feet in those two airports (and in several others in the same BGL).

See this in the MakeRunways README document:

MINIMUM RUNWAY LENGTH
By default MakeRunways imposes a minimum runway length of 1500 feet, otherwise runways are omitted from the data files. This is to eliminate so-called "ghost" runways being included -- very small runways provided only to allow AI Traffic to be directed better for landings and takeoffs.
If necessary you can override this value. Just use a command line parameter in the form:
/>n where n gives the number of feet to be considered the maximum for exclusion. Take care not to make this too small for fear of including those "ghosts", but if you really do want to see all, you can set />0.

Pete

 

[Dave March]

Ah ha, thank you so much... now you mention it I do remember seeing that at some point.

Much appreciated

[pointy56]

2 hours ago, Pete Dowson said:

Right. I should have noticed -- the runway length is less than 1500 feet in those two airports (and in several others in the same BGL).

See this in the MakeRunways README document:

MINIMUM RUNWAY LENGTH
By default MakeRunways imposes a minimum runway length of 1500 feet, otherwise runways are omitted from the data files. This is to eliminate so-called "ghost" runways being included -- very small runways provided only to allow AI Traffic to be directed better for landings and takeoffs.
If necessary you can override this value. Just use a command line parameter in the form:
/>n where n gives the number of feet to be considered the maximum for exclusion. Take care not to make this too small for fear of including those "ghosts", but if you really do want to see all, you can set />0.

Pete

 

Hi Pete,

It seems that from a Windows 10 command line the parameter needs to be enclosed in double quotes to work, e.g. MakeRwys.exe "/>500" , otherwise it creates an empty file for redirected output (called 500 in this case).

Regards,
Martin

[Pete Dowson]

19 hours ago, pointy56 said:

It seems that from a Windows 10 command line the parameter needs to be enclosed in double quotes to work, e.g. MakeRwys.exe "/>500" , otherwise it creates an empty file for redirected output (called 500 in this case).

I used a new shortcut with the command being "makerwys.exe />500" (with thee path to the exe of course) and it worked fine. Yes, on Win10. I always use shortcuts when adding parameters, then I can name them appropriately (like "MakeRwys All lengths").

There obviously mustn't be a space between the / and the >, else you'd certainly get the result you said. I can't imagine why Windows would interpret /> as just >.

Pete

 

[John Dowson]

I think these things can depend on the shell being used....e.g. command prompt vs windows terminal vs power shell....