Could GSX Jetways Replace Static Jetways if ...

[portanav]

static jetways that are visible in P3D but GSX does not pick up that they are there and therefore cannot 'exclude' them. You can create new jetways but can't get rid of the original (visible) jetways.

Exactly. If a jetway is embedded in the terminal building, there's only one person that can exclude it, and it's the original scenery designer.

Well...technically, this is not *entirely* true. You might be able to fix such sceneries by opening their .BGLs with this tool:

https://www.scenerydesign.org/modelconverterx/

- Find the .BGL that contains the terminal with the embedded jetways

- Open it in ModelConverterX

- Open the icon named "Object Hierarchy"

- The Hierarchy editor will open. Be sure "Highlight selected" is enabled.

- Scroll through the object Hierarchy, and see what's being highlighted in red. Eventually, you'll find the jetway.

- Click the "Remove" button. The jetway will disappear.

- Repeat this for all those static jetways.

- Save back the .BGL file.

This MIGHT work but, please, do not ask for further support: you are really on your own with this, and it would be much better if you pressed the scenery developer to model jetways as separate objects, which will make life easier for everybody.

Thank you Umberto.

[Terblanche]

Oh GREAT Umberto -

There goes my Sunday!!
 

[JRBarrett]

I tried removing static jetways at Sunskyjet KPHL without success.

This scenery contains non-moving static jetways at all terminals. I have confirmed that they are not part of the terminal itself by going into the airport scenery folder. There are two jetway BGL files, and when I temporarily removed them and reloaded the sim, all the jetways were gone. I realize, of course, that this is not a proper solution.

I reenabled the jetways and used the GSX editor to add a SODE jetway at gate D5, which worked fine - the new jetway appeared adjacent to the old one. I then set an exclude radius of 1 meter, saved and exited from the sim.

I used the stand-alone GSX Level 2 config program to compile an exclude bgl, and verified that the file was present in the GSX excludes folder.

However, on re-loading the sim at that gate, the original static jetway is still present adjacent to the new SODE jetway. I repeated the process with increasing exclude radii up to 10 meters, but still cannot get the static jetway to disappear.

The only proviso is that this is an FSX scenery being used in P3DV4, (but installed using the add-on.xml method). In general the scenery works very well in P3D, but perhaps this is preventing the GSX exclude from working?

I did verify, using the Lorby scenery config program, that GSX Excludes has the highest priority in the scenery library, above all other entries.

[portanav]

I tried to adding an SODE jetway to LatinVFR Piarco scenery using the GSX editor with the exclude BGL file feature; but it did not work, the SODE jetway was added but the static jetway also remained. I checked the scenery folder and there is one jetway BGL for all gates, if I remove the BGL the jetways disappeared.

I checked the exclude BGL and it was generated by GSX, I know you said it was not a good choice to manually remove the jetway BGL so I don't know what else to do, or why the exclude BGL did not work.

Regards,

[virtuali]

I know you said it was not a good choice to manually remove the jetway BGL so I don't know what else to do, or why the exclude BGL did not work.

The exclude .BGL will work only if the jetway object is modeled separately.

It's still possible the exclude might not work, even if the object is separated, if its center point is not in its real center. This is clearly a mistake of the scenery, since it will cause lots of problems to the simulator optimizations and LODs. The Exclude creation assumes the object is properly modeled, with its center matching its actual center, so it will create a very small exclude area around the center of the jetway, which you can control in size but, if it's too large, you risk excluding something you don't want.

If removing the jetway library .BGL works for you, then just do it. It might only become a problem if you have *lots* of removed .BGLs so, if the Exclude method works, better try this first.

Also, regardless if the Exclude method works or not for a specific scenery, you MUST enabled the Exclude checkbox in the GSX editor page, otherwise it wouldn't let you edit the jetway.

[portanav]

Understood, thanks.

[JRBarrett]

It's still possible the exclude might not work, even if the object is separated, if its center point is not in its real center. This is clearly a mistake of the scenery, since it will cause lots of problems to the simulator optimizations and LODs. The Exclude creation assumes the object is properly modeled, with its center matching its actual center, so it will create a very small exclude area around the center of the jetway, which you can control in size but, if it's too large, you risk excluding something you don't want.

I think this may be the problem with KPHL. Each static jetway emerges from a hemispherical structure that sticks out of the terminal wall a few feet, and when the jetway bgl is disabled, those structures remain. Any new GSX jetway automatically originates a few feet to the right of the structures - where the terminal wall is flat, which must be the actual center.

[virtuali]

Ok, here's an undocumented trick, which might be helpful. We haven't put in the manual, because it would made people's head spin...

If the parking originally had at least one animated (CTRL+J) jetway, the center of the Exclude radius area is ALWAYS the original jetway insertion point. So, you just enlarge the radius and, if there's a nearby static jetway, it will likely be excluded too.

But if the parking does NOT have an animated jetway, you can still set an Exclude radius but, its center will be the coordinates YOUR airplane is located when you enable the Exclude. This was meant as a way to exclude static jetways from parking that have *only* a static jetway, to let the editor know the center coordinates of the exclude in some way, since a jetway is missing.

So, you might be able to control the exclude center too, by moving the airplane around when editing.

[portanav]

Ok, here's an undocumented trick, which might be helpful. We haven't put in the manual, because it would made people's head spin...

If the parking originally had at least one animated (CTRL+J) jetway, the center of the Exclude radius area is ALWAYS the original jetway insertion point. So, you just enlarge the radius and, if there's a nearby static jetway, it will likely be excluded too.

But if the parking does NOT have an animated jetway, you can still set an Exclude radius but, its center will be the coordinates YOUR airplane is located when you enable the Exclude. This was meant as a way to exclude static jetways from parking that have *only* a static jetway, to let the editor know the center coordinates of the exclude in some way, since a jetway is missing.

So, you might be able to control the exclude center too, by moving the airplane around when editing.

Thanks again for the added info.

Regards,

[JRBarrett]

Ok, here's an undocumented trick, which might be helpful. We haven't put in the manual, because it would made people's head spin...

If the parking originally had at least one animated (CTRL+J) jetway, the center of the Exclude radius area is ALWAYS the original jetway insertion point. So, you just enlarge the radius and, if there's a nearby static jetway, it will likely be excluded too.

But if the parking does NOT have an animated jetway, you can still set an Exclude radius but, its center will be the coordinates YOUR airplane is located when you enable the Exclude. This was meant as a way to exclude static jetways from parking that have *only* a static jetway, to let the editor know the center coordinates of the exclude in some way, since a jetway is missing.

So, you might be able to control the exclude center too, by moving the airplane around when editing.

Thanks for the info. I’ll give that a try. I’m pretty sure that none of the default jetways are CTL-J versions in this scenery.

Jim Barrett