Default STOP position

[Erwin06]

Hi, I had not used GSX for 2 months and I've noticed that you've changed the default STOP position. The problem is that I've made 2 GSX pro profiles without setting the STOP position because it was at the same level than the front gear. Hence, the plane now stops too far. It would take hours to correct that... Is there a way to set the default stop position like before ? Is it possible to make an option that automatically set the stop position at the front gear for a specific profile ? By using profiles from flightsim.to, I saw that I'm not the only one who tried to save time by doing this. Making that option would help a lot of us who don't want to do the same thing for hours, it seems like a waste of time...  Thanks !

[DroidE326]

I asked a similar question a few weeks ago after I noticed the changes in a resent update. I received a prompt and detailed reply from Umberto, but unfortunately I wasn't able to follow through with my enquiry due to other commitments keeping me away from my PC for a while.

Since this seems to have been raised again, the bottom line for me is that before the changes, using the editor to move the 'Parking Position' also moved the 'Stop Position' to the same location. I edited 30 plus parking positions at various airports in this way and that is how it worked; i.e. go into the editor, choose the option to edit parking, move the aircraft to the location you wanted it to be relocated to by physically moving the Parking Position (the default and first editable option you were placed in) and that was it because, as stated above, moving the Parking Position also moved the Stop Position. What happened after the update is that the Stop position was moved forward and away from the Parking Position. This results in the aircraft now relocating to the altered Stop Position and not the one it was originally edited to be in.

At this stage I would just like to make what I consider to be a fair and an obvious point, and an important one going forward: changes made to GSX in order to resolve an issue for people who do not use the editor should ideally not impact on those of us that do use the editor to make similar changes. If changes like this need to be made in future, then could I kindly ask that a method be made available by the devs to help mitigate or at least reduce the burden of having to reverse any unwanted effects those changes might have on what can, in many cases, be many hours of work using the editor.

[Erwin06]

Thank you for your answer. I understand what happened, but like you say it should not impact those who used the editor. I made a GSX profile for LFPO and LFMN, there is something like 200 parking positions that I adjusted, and it's nothing compared to others on flightsim.to who made 5 GSX profiles... I have already spent 2 days on this, I don't want to spend hours on something that could be changed with a few lines of code.

So please virtuali, could you add an option that we can check/uncheck for each parking position (without having to open the parking editor) that moves the stop position to the parking position ?

[virtuali]

This has already been discussed here so, try to search in the forum first, before opening a new thread:

https://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,28171.0.html

About changes to GSX affecting those that used the editor, this change is NOT affecting existing profiles, unless you didn't set the STOP Position, because it only affects how the Stop position is calculated when No Custom Stop position is set.

Setting the Stop position is probably the most important thing you should set when making a custom profile, because it's the only thing that will ensure the Jetway ( if present ) would work across a variety of airplanes, because the customized Stop position references the Main passenger exist and place it always in the same place, to help having different airplanes having their Main passenger exit in a predictable position, which would automatically result in their front Gear in different positions on ground, like in real life.

moving the Parking Position also moved the Stop Position. What happened after the update is that the Stop position was moved forward and away from the Parking Position

That's to be expected, because ( where there's NO custom Stop position set ), since GSX places the airplane center in the center of the parking, moving the parking itself will affect the Stop position but, it's just a side effect of having moved the parking: if you are only moving the parking itself, you are still NOT setting a "custom STOP position", you are just...moving the parking, but you are still relying on whatever GSX strategy used when no Custom Stop is set, which might change, and in this case it changed because the user made a good point it needed to be changed:

https://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,28059.0.html

However, if you customized the airport properly, that is explicitly setting a custom Stop ( when I do a profile, it's the FIRST thing I set, because it affects everything else, no use moving other vehicles or even the parking itself if you don't decide the Stop position first, you'll have to do them again if you set the Stop after moving the vehicles ), any change in GSX DEFAULT positioning, won't have ANY effect on your profile, because when the Stop position is customized, it will take precedence over the default positioning method.

Moving the parking position itself, it's only useful in case you realize your Custom Stop position had to move so far ahead/back from the default, than GSX couldn't detect anymore you are "inside a parking", resulting in the GSX Parking selection menu to show ( GSX thinks you are outside a parking ) when you parked in your new custom Stop position, instead of the Services menu. In this case, when you realize you had to move the Stop position quite a bit, it would be best to ALSO move the Parking itself, to reconcile it with the new custom Stop position.

So, before doing anything else, start by setting the custom Stop position first, TEST the jetway ( NumPad5 ), keep adjusting the custom Stop position until you see the Jetway resolves comfortably. And THEN, move the Parking itself, assuming it is required. Now, you can be reasonably sure the Jetway will work with lots of different airplane types, because the custom Stop will always place the Main exit on the same position you tested the Jetway with, regardless of the airplane.

Another way of saying it is: by customizing the parking without customizing the Stop position, even if it "looked right", it means it would only worked with the same airplane you used to customize the parking spot, another airplane with a different center of mass wouldn't stop in the same place when using the default positioning, but it would ( its Main exit would, which is what matters ) if you customized the Stop position, that's the whole point of having it as a separate item.

So, it's not as if the GSX change "affected" your existing profiles, it's your profiles which were already at the mercy of different airplane types, but they wouldn't be affected by any of this if you set the custom Stop.