• Welcome to SC4 Devotion Forum Archives.

How to build an Airport

Started by PLT, December 21, 2008, 08:55:18 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

PLT

Note: In this tutorial, I'll focus on building realistic airports according to real-life dimensions. If you want to build an airport, which doesn't take up a lot of space, please refer to the readme included in the RMIP-2 SAE 1, were you can find more instructions on airport building. Building realistic airports can be quite complicated, so take your time!

Before you start, make sure you have downloaded and installed the following custom content:

- RMIP-2 SAE 1
- RMIP-2 SAE 2
- RMIP-2 SAE 3
- RMIP-2 SAE 4
- ACB-VLT Terminals and Jets 1 and 2
- Other custom content can be found here: http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=6231.0



EDIT: I took the liberty to add this useful link here ;)

Quote from: caspervg on December 21, 2008, 09:19:07 AM
By the way, a List of probably all Airport-Related Custom Content can be found here.

jeronij

END OF EDIT

______________________________________________________

Hello people,

In this tutorial, I'll explain and show you how to build a realistic medium-sized Regional Airport. First, let's take a look on what a regional airport is:


"A Regional Airport is an airport which serves small to medium-sized commercial aircraft. Usually, a Regional Airport has 1 or 2 runways."


To determine what types of aircraft can land at your airport, you should measure the length of your runway. The runway at the regional airport we are going to build is around 2500m (8200ft) long. Therefore, this runway should be able to serve business jets, regional jets, and turboprops. To determine how many tiles long your runway should be, do the following calculation:


"Runway length in meters ÷ 16"


If we do this calculation with the runway length we had in mind (2500m) we get an outcome of approximately 156 tiles. Counting all those tiles in SC4 would be ridiculous and takes a lot of time, so use the following method:


A road costs 10§ per tile, so drag a road which costs 1560§, and you have your runway length (156 tiles).

______________________________________________________

O.K, let's start with building the airport. First: pick a nice location in your region. You are going to need a lot of space, so your best bet would be to pick a large city tile (256x256 tiles). Make your piece of land completely flat, because small land elevations won't look so nice...

When you have chosen your location, build the road I just told you about (remember, the road should cost you 1560§!). Build the road in the middle of the tile. This is very important, because you don't want to end up with a lack of space! Open the airports menu: you should see a huge amount of different lots. Don't freak out, you don't need all of them (yet).

In these steps, I'll show how to build a realistic European runway step-by-step. Make sure the arrow shown when placing the lots points to the west, unless I say differently.

Step 1:

Click on the "SSALS Approach Lighting" icon, and place in exactly the same way as shown on the picture.

Step 2:

Click on the "Threshold Left Exit Taxiway" icon, and place it right after the last lighting pole of the SSALS Approach Lights

Step 3:

Click on the "No Skid 2x Section", and place it according to the picture. Note: You can also use this space to add a letter (L, C, R), if you don't use a letter, skip this step!

Step 4:

Click on the "09 Designator" icon, and place it according to the picture.

Step 5:

Once again, click on the "No Skid 2x Section" icon, and place it according to the picture.

Step 6:

Click on the "No Stripe Tire Skid Ending" icon, and place it according to the picture.

Step 7:

Click on the "1-Stripe TDZ Mark" icon, and place it according to the picture.

Step 8:

Click on the "Short Section (2x2)" icon, and place it at the highlighted spots. In between the 2 runway sections we are going to build a taxiway exit.

Step 9:

Click on the "Standard Taxiway Exit" icon, and place it according to the picture. The arrow should point South at this step!

Step 10:

Click on the "Half Section (B)" icon, and place it at the highlighted spots. The arrow should point North at this step!

Step 11:

Once again, click on the "1-Stripe TDZ Mark" icon, and place it according to the picture.

Step 12:

Click on the "Long Section (8x2)" icon, and place it according to the picture.

Step 13:

Click on the "Aiming point" icon, and place it according to the picture.

Step 14:

Once again, click on the "Short Section (2x2)" icon, and place it at the highlighted spots. Remember, arrow to the west!

Step 15:

Once again, click on the "1-Stripe TDZ Mark" icon, and place it according to the picture.

Step 16:

Once again, click on the "Long Section (8x2)" icon, and place in at the highlighted spots. Remember the arrow!

Step 17:

Once again, click on the "Short Section (2x2)" icon, and place it at the highlighted spots.

Congratulations! You have finished the first part of the runway. However, there is another half we should build.
Up to this moment, you've had my help, but now it's time to do it yourselves.

Step 18:
Try to complete the other half of the runway, using the same lots, and in the same way as you just did. 4 more things:
- The arrow should point east now;
- To start the other half of the runway with, use the "Threshold, Right Exit Taxiway" lot.
- Use 27 as designator
- Add runway exits to the north, not to the south!

Of you go!

When you have finished, you should have something like this:

Pretty, isn't it?

Now, I've been talking about this arrow all the time, and I'll now show you why you actually had to be careful with this arrow:

See those lil' yellow strips at the sides of the runway? When you have reached the middle of the runway, you should turn them around.

Remember this:
Arrow to the right = stripes to the left
Arrow to the left   = stripes to the right

Now you have finished the runway, we are going to build the taxiways. More on that in the next episode!

See y'all!                           





PLT

#1
Hi there again!

In the last episode, you learned how to build a realistic runway. Now you are going to learn how to build taxiways and ramps.
As you might have seen in real-life, taxiways have blue edge-lights. Taxiways in SC4 also have edges-lights, and there is a system in which these edge-lights have to be placed. I will not include "placing the edge-lights in the correct order" in this tutorial, but if you want to know about it, please refer to the readme of RMIP-2 SAE 1 (it does add a great deal of realism if you do place them in the correct order!).

Step 1:

Click on the "Taxiway Short Section (2x2)" icon, and place it at the highlighted spots. Repeat this step at every runway exit you made!

When you are finished with Step 1, your airport should look like this:


Step 2:

On Regional Airports, there are most of the time 2 parallel taxiways near the ramp (place where aircraft park and where passengers can board the aircraft:

- 1 taxiway for the planes which have just left the runway
- 1 taxiway for the planes which are heading for their gate/parking spot

We are going to build this as well, so:
Click on the "Taxiway Half T with Apron Left", and place it at the highlighted spots. Make sure the arrow point to the west!

Step 3:

We will now finish this part. Use the following pieces:

- Blue: "1-Lite Half Taxiway", place at highlighted spots.
- Red: "Taxiway Half T", place at highlighted spot.

Make sure for both the pieces, the arrow points north!

Step 4:

Finish the other half of the taxiway by using the piece called: "No Lite Half Taxiway For Aprons". Place the pieces at the highlighted spots. Make sure the arrow points south!

Step 5:

Click on the "Taxiway Curve with Apron inside" icon, and place it at the highlighted spot. Arrow to the east!

Step 6:

We'll continue. There are 4 different pieces, and you may find them for yourselves! I'll give you a small hit though:

- Red is highlighted in the icon bar...
- Blue is already familiar to you...
- Green is called "Taxiway Half T with apron on both sides"...
- Yellow is also familiar to you...

Finished product shown at Step 7...

Step 7:

Let's start with the ramp! Click on the "Gate and Ramp Taxiway Fillers" icon (low), and place them along the unfinished half of the taxiway.

Step 8:

Add another part to the ramp-taxiway; make sure the upper side is ramp, the lower side apron!

Step 9:

Finish the taxiway highlighted in blue (apron on upper side, grass on lower side), and place the piece "Taxiway Half T with Apron Left" at the highlighted spot. We are going to connect the 2 taxiways, as the ramp part ends.

Step 10:

Connect the 2 taxiways with a curve, and keep on building and connecting the taxiways. The result could be:

The finished product!


You have succeeded in building runways and taxiways, and in the next tutorial the most important part: terminals and PLANES!!!

See y'all!







PLT

#2
And here I am again!

In this last episode, we’ll concentrate on building terminals and plopping planes. So, what are we waiting for?

Step 1:

Plop some business jet gates (red), and plop the ramp centre lines (blue).
Make sure you bulldozed some “Half Taxiway Ramp” pieces, and replaced them by “Gate-Taxiway Junctions”.

Step 2:

Build the walkways (blue).

Step 3:

Plop the ramp vehicle boundaries (green), and plop the first terminal piece (red).

Step 4:

Finish the terminal.

Step 5:

Plop some more planes and the lines which go with them (ramp centre lines and vehicle boundaries).

Step 6:

Build a pier and more gates

Step 7:

Finish the terminal.

Step 8:

Fill up the ramp, and start filling the aprons (space between the 2 taxiways).

Step 9:

Fill the other areas with grass, and put a fence around it.

Step 10:



Enjoy your new airport!


Of course, you can add things yourselves, like fuel tanks, hangars, parking aprons, emergency services, lotted planes form other sites etc.
This guide was only meant to show you how to build a realistic airport with correct dimensions, and not how you should do it.
Anyway, I hoped you learned something, and above all, enjoyed building your airport!


Happy building, and good luck,
Pat

P.S.
If you have any questions regarding this tutorial, PM me!

pilotdaryl

This is quite interesting, PLT!  Just a bit of inaccuracy involving the designator numbers. The designator number should strictly follow the threshold and not be followed by anything else such as the runway stripe that you placed.  Keep going! ;)

CasperVg

Looks like you're doing great here! You follow a different approach than I do, it seems. I build the planes and terminals first, and the runways/taxiways afterwards. I can see this will become a great tutorial.

By the way, a List of probably all Airport-Related Custom Content can be found here.
Follow my SimCity 4 Let's play on YouTube

SimNation

Like your tutorial on how to build a airport. You seem to build huge airports but that can easily be shrunken for making a smaller airport so I am sure many will find this usefull. I was wondering though did anyone think about make a How to Build & How to Use PDF that has all of the how to build/use tutorials all in one pdf? It would make using all of the tutorials a breeze since it would be all in one document that can constantly be updated when a new tutorial is finished.

46Bit

#6
Quote from: PLT on December 21, 2008, 08:56:28 AM
Plop some business jet gates (red), and plop the ramp centre lines (blue).

The piccy here is wrong - the red highlighted icon should be the one at the top of the visible menu (5 above it is now), and the blue one should be the one below it is at present. Here's a piccy to better explain:


Other than that slight bug, this really is a wonderful tutorial - thanks. I've never been good at making airports... but this does a good job of teaching it, as well as creating the actual airport.  :)

PLT

@ 46bit,

Thank you for your report,

Is is O.K. if I use the corrected picture you made?


PLT

WC_EEND

great tutorial, it included alot of thing I didn't knew yet
RIP Adrian (adroman), you were a great friend

My LOT thread                                    

SCAG BAe146/Avro RJ Project

46Bit

#9
Quote from: PLT on December 30, 2008, 02:18:22 AM
@ 46bit,

Thank you for your report,

Is is O.K. if I use the corrected picture you made?


PLT

Yep - course :) I've fixed the original picture as well: http://46bit.com/simcity/finalAirTutPic.jpg

You'll probably want to copy it to your own server though - I can't really guarantee that image'll be up there forever.

Antica

#10
"When you have finished, you should have something like this"

Well, I don't... both sides of the landing strip do not connect. Also, two 'standard exit taxi' are missing and the lines look different. It seems like the part connecting both sides of the landing strip is not explained in the tutorial...

Also, which taxi driving pieces are used for the end and the beginning of the landing strip?

For the rest, thanks for the big effort on the tutorial, couldn't have learnt it another way.

PLT

Quote from: Antica on February 16, 2009, 06:43:53 PM
"When you have finished, you should have something like this"

Well, I don't... both sides of the landing strip do not connect. Also, two 'standard exit taxi' are missing and the lines look different. It seems like the part connecting both sides of the landing strip is not explained in the tutorial...

Also, which taxi driving pieces are used for the end and the beginning of the landing strip?

For the rest, thanks for the big effort on the tutorial, couldn't have learnt it another way.

First of all, thanks for you support call, it's appreciated  ;)

You are right about the part in which I don't explain about connecting the 2 runway parts. I didn't explain it because I thought you should try it out for yourselves now. Could you maybe post a picture of the problem you encountered, that makes it easier for me to help you  :)

About the taxiway pieces, just use the normal ones.


Yours,
Pat

Commadner jao

 &apls
good job it looks fantastic....

but can it be used as an airport or is it just a show piece
if it can be that would be great ()stsfd()
but if not &mmm

mike3775

Quote from: Commadner jao on May 22, 2009, 11:39:26 PM
&apls
good job it looks fantastic....

but can it be used as an airport or is it just a show piece
if it can be that would be great ()stsfd()
but if not &mmm

I built one based on this tutorial(even had to PM PLT to find a piece that was not shown) and only used the runway pieces and created my own terminals, and its used.  Unfortunately I leveled the city because I got sick of the maxis highway going red(which ran to the airport). so I started over.

I built it first, and I never got the annoying "business interests clamor for a airport" pop up nag at all.  So I assume it works(I could just be lucky as well)

PLT

Quote from: Commadner jao on May 22, 2009, 11:39:26 PM
&apls
good job it looks fantastic....

but can it be used as an airport or is it just a show piece
if it can be that would be great ()stsfd()
but if not &mmm

The modular pieces aren't funtional, so they are just "eye-candy" as we call it.
However, the AC Team over here made a series of pre-fab functional airports.
For those, take a look here.

Pat

Ikoda

Any chance of a re-upload of these images?  :)

Korot

I can still see the images? Have you tried refreshing your browser?

Regards,
Korot

Ikoda

Cleared the cache. D'oh, dunno why I didn't think of that.

Risu

Quote from: PLT on December 21, 2008, 08:55:57 AMStep 6:

We'll continue. There are 4 different pieces, and you may find them for yourselves! I'll give you a small hit though:

- Red is highlighted in the icon bar....

Gee, thanks for the vague hint. >:( I've been driving myself crazy looking for that piece!!! :bomb:
.

andrew.j.palmer

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post my question, but I will ask anyways.  I am returning to SC4 after a long hiatus and I am looking into lotting some planes for my personal use.  I am currently having some problems with creating the base textures for for the lot.  If you could give me some tips and steer me in the right direction, it will be greatly appreciated.