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How to get SIDs and STARs in Airbus A320 mcdu

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Re: How to get SIDs and STARs in Airbus A320 mcdu

Postby V12 » Wed Mar 10, 2021 10:30 am

That file is only for Lisboa (LPPT) airport.
I used Navigraph FMC data with FG and route manager, worked perfectly.
I very recommend use it, with A320family it is new level of immersion and realism.
Fly high, fly fast - fly Concorde !
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Re: How to get SIDs and STARs in Airbus A320 mcdu

Postby wkitty42 » Wed Mar 10, 2021 2:00 pm

V12 wrote in Wed Mar 10, 2021 6:33 am:2. copy LZIB.xml to that folder
3. rename it to LZIB.procedures.xml

i would rename it first before the copy so one doesn't accidentally overwrite a possible file of the ICAO.xml that might be in the destination directory... but that's just me being cautious...
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
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Re: How to get SIDs and STARs in Airbus A320 mcdu

Postby Sparticus » Thu Feb 03, 2022 2:47 pm

V12 wrote in Wed Mar 10, 2021 6:33 am:You need FMS data Level - D. These xml files You must copy to the correct folder and rename, for example data for LZIB :
1. I created folder AIRAC\Airports\L\Z\I\
2. copy LZIB.xml to that folder
3. rename it to LZIB.procedures.xml
4. done

I had simple script for this copy/rename operation, but I do not use FG more than 2 years.


Hi all. I'm new to FlightGear and trying to get AIRAC data into the A320 FMGC - particularly interested in LOWI Innsbruck procedures. So far after 2 days of pain I have managed to download a bootleg LOWI.proceedures.xml and have added into a new 'AIRAC\Airports\L\O\W\' folder as above as well as trying in 'Scenary\Nav Data\'. No location seems to work!?

Also subscribed to Navigraph only to discover they do not seem to allow direct manual downloads of the data anymore (auto software only) and say they do not support FlightGear :-( Managed to download a bunch of FMS .dat files into a trial version of X-Plane. ransfered these into FG but these also don't work, I guess they are not the correct Level D 767 type?

Any help appreciated - getting close to giving up on FG already as its a non-starter without this working. Thanks
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Re: How to get SIDs and STARs in Airbus A320 mcdu

Postby wkitty42 » Thu Feb 03, 2022 2:58 pm

Sparticus wrote in Thu Feb 03, 2022 2:47 pm:as above as well as trying in 'Scenary\Nav Data\'. No location seems to work!?

NavData should not have a space in it... in the below, FG has been pointed to "mySceneryOverrides" as an additional scenery location... from there, it finds everything else as long as it is in the proper directory layout form...

Code: Select all
mySceneryOverrides

├── NavData
│   ├── apt
│   ├── fix
│   └── nav
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
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Re: How to get SIDs and STARs in Airbus A320 mcdu

Postby V12 » Thu Feb 03, 2022 7:23 pm

Sparticus wrote in Thu Feb 03, 2022 2:47 pm:
V12 wrote in Wed Mar 10, 2021 6:33 am:You need FMS data Level - D.

Also subscribed to Navigraph only to discover they do not seem to allow direct manual downloads of the data anymore (auto software only) ...
... I guess they are not the correct Level D 767 type?


If You have subscription, use a manual download :

Image

Image

Download Level-D, run .exe file, install to any folder, then find LOWI.XML, rename to LOWI.procedures.xml, then copy (or move) the file to YourAddonSceneriesFolder\AIRAC\Airports\L\O\W\

EDIT :
I do not updated FG procedures more than 3 years, but hope that LEVEL-D still works.
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Re: How to get SIDs and STARs in Airbus A320 mcdu

Postby Sparticus » Fri Feb 04, 2022 6:07 pm

Many thanks to you both.

V12 - I found the Level D 767 app soon after previous post. Had missed it previously when scrolling through the list of manual download apps. You're pics are extremely useful for anyone else who treads this path.

wkitty42 - The space in my post above (Nav Data) was a typo, no space in the actual filename. Big thanks for the suggested file structure, which I have replicated as so:
>parent\data\CustomNavData\apt
\fix
\nav

I also think, I worked out how to 'point' FG toward the custom files within the startup launcher. Added my 'CustomNavData' folder to the 'Add-ons' section. Although the 'Add-on Module Folders' didn't work but the 'Additional Scenery Folders' did and FG seemed to show some updating of scenery on boot-up. Still don't understand why there isn't a designated folder for FMS/nav data rather than relating it to scenery?

ALAS STILL NO GO :-/

Despite now having both the Level D 767 .xml files and a set of X-Plane .dot files that should update any FMS, I have now spent my third day of fighting FlightGear, by adding both types of files, one at a time, to the apt/fix/nav folders in every conceivable combination, including changing the filename to LOWI.procedures.xml as suggested above. Constantly exiting and reloading the app, the sim, getting powered up and then loading the MCDU, just to see 'NO SID' in the Runway 26 departures page. This has been torture!

Everything else works great except the FMGC (MCDU) SIDs and STARS - and this is the whole reason I downloaded the sim. I am a professional pilot and just trying to practice some Innsbruck procedures at home. Due to my lack of owning a capable gaming PC, FlightGear seemed about the only sim I could successfully run. It appears FG is just not capable of running this function. I have considered coding my own procedures and/or using fltpln.com and the Route Manager function on FG, but none of these will be an approximation of the SOPs I am trying to rehearse and very time heavy.

Think I will call it quits and upgrade my PC. A pity as I love many of the features on FlightGear, which is an amazing piece of free-ware. The A320 is also otherwise extremely realistic :-)
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Re: How to get SIDs and STARs in Airbus A320 mcdu

Postby V12 » Fri Feb 04, 2022 7:40 pm

Again step by step :
1. Create folder c:\airac\airports\L\O\W
2. From Level-D 767 copy file LOWI.XML to folder from 1)
3. Rename LOWI.XML to LOWI.procedures.xml
4. Run fgfs with launcher
5. Add Your folder AIRAC to the addon scenery list
6. Restart fgfs

After these steps SIDs and STARs should work.
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Re: How to get SIDs and STARs in Airbus A320 mcdu

Postby legoboyvdlp » Fri Feb 04, 2022 8:54 pm

The A320 is also otherwise extremely realistic

Thank you


It appears FG is just not capable of running this function.

It certainly is - here is the RNAV east approach for runway 26:

Image

or the RTT1R SID for runway 26:

Image


by adding both types of files, one at a time, to the apt/fix/nav folders in every conceivable combination

That may be an issue - LOWI.procedures.xml has to go in the following folder:
/Airports/L/O/W/LOWI.procedures.xml, it can't go into any of the other folders.

the /fix/ folder is used for fix.dat files, /nav/ is used for nav.dat files.
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Re: How to get SIDs and STARs in Airbus A320 mcdu

Postby Sparticus » Mon Feb 07, 2022 3:20 pm

SUCCESS :-)

Thanks to everyone above for the pointers.

Script is beyond me and I have no idea what Python is :?: but I can generally find my way round PC. This simple issue of adding files had me stumped! The main issue: placing my custom scenery folder within the main FlightGear parent folder - for some reason this just doesn't work. I am sure one of you will point out why this is obvious, but not to little ol me :oops:

Placing the folder in C:\ as V12 very clearly laid out and pointing at the folder in Add-ons worked. Although on the first reboot of FG it didn't appear. I think I had to change the starting location for it to update the FMS - don't quote me on this?

Great bit of kit! Extremely useful training aid. Thanks again to everyone above :D
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Re: How to get SIDs and STARs in Airbus A320 mcdu

Postby jojo2357 » Sat May 27, 2023 1:40 am

For those not willing to pay for navigraph, i have a repo with levelD for airports in the US for free: https://github.com/jojo2357/flightgear-star-sid-manager (data source: faa)

Unfortunately not the whole world, but it is better than nothing imo
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Re: How to get SIDs and STARs in Airbus A320 mcdu

Postby mpotra » Wed Nov 08, 2023 5:15 pm

For those with Navigraph subscription in 2023, here is how to obtain SID/STARs in FlightGear (compiled from answers above, and updated for 2023 data)

1. Download Level-D navdata from Navigraph (On the Downloads -> Manual Download page)
2. This is ZIP file with a Windows Installer executable inside. If you're on Windows already, run the installer, select a version (Prepar3D/PD3) and then skip to step 4.
3. The executable is a Inno Setup executable. In Linux you can extract the contents with `innoextractor -e leveld_2311.exe` for example, which will output a "code$AppName" directory.
4. In the extracted directory you'll find a "navdata" folder containing XML files with procedures for all airports for the AIRAC cycle with filenames as "<ICAO>.xml".
5. You can either rename in bulk or single file from "<ICAO>.xml" to "<ICAO>.procedures.xml" for desired airports.
6. Create a new directory somewhere (anywhere you want) say "AIRAC/2311", and inside it create the "Airports" directory. (camel-case formatted - "airports" with small letter A didn't work for me)
7. Inside this "Airports" directory, create new subdirectories for each airport you want to bring in, using the [I]/[C]/[A] format.
For example, if you want to add Vienna airport LOWW, create the subdirectories "Airports/L/O/W" - do not create the fourth subdirectory [O] (it won't work)
8. Copy the renamed file from step 5 into this last subdirectory.
For example, copy "LOWW.procedures.xml" into "AIRAC/2311/Airports/L/O/W" directory, resulting in "AIRAC/2311/Airports/L/O/W/LOWW.procedures.xml"
Example 2: for Budapest airport copy "LHBP.procedures.xml" into "AIRAC/2311/Airports/L/H/B", resulting in "AIRAC/2311/Airports/L/H/B/LHBP.procedures.xml"
9. In FlightGear, add the "AIRAC/2311" directory to your sceneries paths.
10. Reload FlightGear and enjoy SID/STARs in your MCDU

Maybe one day I'll make a script to move all extracted "<ICAO>.xml" files into a directory structure of it's own ready for adding to the scenery paths :D
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Re: How to get SIDs and STARs in Airbus A320 mcdu

Postby unhappytroll » Wed Nov 08, 2023 7:22 pm

# Get list of files in navdata folder
$list = Get-ChildItem -Path .\navdata
foreach($string in $list){
# Get letters for subfolders creation
$icao1=$string.Name.Substring(0,1)
$icao2=$string.Name.Substring(1,1)
$icao3=$string.Name.Substring(2,1)

# Get just name from filename.ext, we know it is 4 symbols, so we take just that
$icao_name=$string.Name.Substring(0,4)

# Create new name for FG
$new_name=$icao_name+".procedures.xml"

# Create string for new foder creation
$new_dir=".\FG_navdata\"+$icao1+"\"+$icao2+"\"+$icao3

# Create string of new path to file and new file name
$new_fullname=$new_dir+"\"+$new_name

# Add new folder to structure
New-Item -Path $new_dir -ItemType Directory -Force

# Copy file to new place with new name
Copy-Item -Path $string.FullName -Destination $new_fullname
}


Run with Powerscript in directory where Level-D was installed
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