FGSignMaker: A new tool for creating taxiway signs

[skyop]

FGSignMaker version 1.5.0
A tool to generate taxiway sign codes
By skyop

FlightGear Wiki page: [wiki]FGSignMaker[/wiki]

Introduction

As some of you may already know, I placed some taxiway signs not too long ago for KBFL. Unfortunately, as a result of accidentally overwriting the *.stg file I was working with, I lost all my work. That experience taught me two lessons: 1, always symlink or backup any scenery files you are editing , and 2, writing taxiway signage codes can be extremely tedious, monotonous, mistake-filled work.

With that in mind, I decided to redo the KBFL taxiway signs- but this time, things were a going to be a little different. Before diving in, I would write a JavaScript (the closest thing I know to a programming language) (X)HTML based taxiway code generator.

To-do list

See to-do list on the wiki page

Status

An overview of the features included in version 1.5.0:

• Automatic sign previewer
• Automatic syntax checking with misplaced braces ( { and } ) and spaces
• Select All and Clear buttons
• Character counter (shows your position in the text box)
• Easy-to-use glyph inserter with arrows and sign types

Take a look for yourself:


Download

Version 1.5.0 available here.
Licensed under the GNU GPL version 2 or above.

Open "FGSignMaker.html" in your favorite web browser and generate away!

[Avionyx]

Brilliant little tool, thank you very much for putting that together. I imagine it'll save a lot of people many many hours of tedium.

Alex

[skyop]

Brilliant little tool, thank you very much for putting that together. I imagine it'll save a lot of people many many hours of tedium.

Alex

Thanks!

New version available: 0.6.0

Not much happened in this release. Changelog:

• Select All button added in place of copy (couldn't find good, cross-browser clipboard library that didn't involve Flash)
• Clear button enabled
• Glyph combination added (so instead of "{@Y}{^lu}" you'll get "{@Y,^lu}"
• Arrow glyphs changed from @s to ^s; thanks to mfranz for the correction

If I have time I might be able to finish 1.0.0 by tonight!

[skyop]

Full release available: version 1.0.0

In a couple hours of coding, I finished version 1.0! List of changes follows:

• Cleaned up the code a bit, fixed some issues with it.
  
• Added basic syntax auto-checking! Currently it just searches for misplaced braces ( { and } ), but I think that'll do for now.
  
  
• Added a "character counter" that displays your cursor position in the text box (see above screenshot).
  
• Probably the most exciting new feature would be the automatic sign previewer! It provides a rough, but fairly accurate, view of how your sign will look in FlightGear!
  
  
• Full IE7 and up compatibility (seems to work _ok_ with IE6, but not recommended... for more reasons than one!).

Download link and updated screenshot in the first post

[skyop]

I'm thinking about creating a wiki page about FGSignMaker, detailing the interface and how to place taxiway signs with the help of this tool. Any objections?

[Gijs]

Such a nice tool deserves a wiki page Besides that, one of the nice things about a wiki is that you can just create a page and see how people respond to it. Others can improve/edit it, so we will end up with a nice and informative article.
Make sure to place a link at http://wiki.flightgear.org/index.php/Signs

[simbabeat]

Any objections?

I don't see why anybody would object? If it's as nice as the screenshots look it should definitely be in GIT

[skyop]

Such a nice tool deserves a wiki page Besides that, one of the nice things about a wiki is that you can just create a page and see how people respond to it. Others can improve/edit it, so we will end up with a nice and informative article.
Make sure to place a link at http://wiki.flightgear.org/index.php/Signs

Maybe I'm just low on self-esteem today... lol.

I'll get started on the tutorial straight away!

[skyop]

Done! You can check out the new page here: [wiki]FGSignMaker[/wiki]. It has been linked twice from [wiki]Signs[/wiki].

[skyop]

New version available: 1.0.1

Just a small bugfix release. Fixed some errors to make my XHTML and CSS valid.

[Avionyx]

Tested it thoroughly on both Safari and Camino browsers, works absolutely fine.
I've updated the Wiki to reflect that!

A really thoroughly useful tool, thanks again once more.

Alex

[Gijs]

Getting better and better each day! However, still some things to note:

• Spaces (in text to be displayed on the sign, eg "MAX SPAN 50M") are not accepted by FlightGear, _ should be used instead (meaning that _ should not be shown!). Would be nice if your tool shows a warning when spaces are added.
• No-entry signs are not displayed in the sign-preview.
• No-entry signs only work in combination with a color (only red!) In FlightGear. So they must be like {@R,no-entry}. This was not clearly noted in the Signs wiki; I will update it.

ILS critical and Runway Boundary signs do not work at all in Flightgear (Git) at the moment, but that is not a problem of yours

Cheers,
Gijs

PS: Also works on IE8, will update the wiki, together with some other things.

[skyop]

Spaces (in text to be displayed on the sign, eg "MAX SPAN 50M") are not accepted by FlightGear, _ should be used instead (meaning that _ should not be shown!). Would be nice if your tool shows a warning when spaces are added.

I knew that already, but I wasn't sure if it was that big of a deal. But I will surely include such a feature in the next release.

No-entry signs are not displayed in the sign-preview.

On the todo list. Should be fairly easy to implement though.

No-entry signs only work in combination with a color (only red!) In FlightGear. So they must be like {@R,no-entry}. This was not clearly noted in the Signs wiki; I will update it.

So what happens if they are combined with other colors? (Just wondering if I should display a warning or something if it is not combined with red.)

ILS critical and Runway Boundary signs do not work at all in Flightgear (Git) at the moment, but that is not a problem of yours

I noticed when I tried to implement Runway Boundary signs at KBFL. But shouldn't there be a note on the wiki that these signs are not implemented?

EDIT: Just noticed the new table at the wiki page. Thanks, looks good!

[Gijs]

So what happens if they are combined with other colors? (Just wondering if I should display a warning or something if it is not combined with red.)

With other colors, they won't be displayed. It is a bit silly IMO to make a color mandatory, while there is just one color for that sign... But I did not create the sign system

[skyop]

New version available: 1.5.0

Changelog:

• Implemented no-entry signs in the previewer
• Implemented spaces in the syntax checker (warns user that underscores should be used instead)
• Major modifications made to the sign previewer, including simplified code and no more area/edge images (COMPLETELY forgot about the CSS border property when I was writing 1.0.0 )

Download link in the first post