Description

The APECS Animator is designed to animate the output results from JSIMMOD and SIMMOD. Support for INM radar data is also included.

The APECS Animator is provided free of charge and with distribution rights so that the aviation community can have an Animator program on which it can rely much like the old PC 1.2 SIMMOD Animator from several years ago.

Please note, this program may have bugs, errors, and/or inadvertent omissions. If you find something you feel is not correct please feel free to contact AirportTools about the issue.

Every attempt has been made to adhere to standards set by the FAA's SIMMOD versions 2.0, 2.1, and 2.2 in the early to mid 1990's. Those standards were well publicized and served the SIMMOD community well.

Additionally, the APECS Animator incorporates a new innovative object oriented, internal structure that will encourage third-party add-ons in the form of Java plugins and Jython scripts. This functionality will be exposed (along with API details) further in later versions of the software so that a reasonable period of beta-testing basic functionality can be accomplished.

Current advanced features include:

• Curved paths - Aircraft fly curved paths when the smoothing option is enabled. For both ground and airspace segments of flight a new advanced algorithm computes a quadratic curve representing where aircraft would have probably traversed if not constrained by the link-node structure of SIMMOD.

  
  For ground movements, this same all-new algorithm also computes the location on the curve where aircraft held. The result is that aircraft hold at a more natural mid-link position, rather than bunching up at a node or slowly inching their way forward.

• Internal reload of changed simulation data - When a JSIMMOD run finishes the Animator can reload the new outputs without exiting the program and restarting it.
  
  
• Switching between SIMMOD and INM radar data - The Animator can quickly switch between pre-compiled files containing either JSIMMOD outputs, SIMMOD outputs, or INM radar data. It is not necessary to exit the program to switch between these data sources.

• Trade Show Manager - A tool to automatically script what happens in the Animator is provided. Scripts can consist of changes of the Animator's scene, time, and speed. The scripts can also instruct the Animator to pause at a certain time, print the screen, load a graphics layer, or run a Jython script.

  
  Additionally, it is possible to lock all, or portions of, the Animator's buttons and menus so that inadvertent usage is avoided. It is also possible to lock the mouse as well.

• Vector graphics (SVG format) export capability - SVG is the new advanced vector format graphics file which is now a recognized standard for Internet applications. SVG is supported by Adobe, JASC, Microsoft, Sun, and others.

  
  The SVG format is vaguely similar to the CGM format in concept but incorporates new XML technologies to allow advanced graphics to be included in ASCII text based files.

• SVG Viewer - Included with the Animator is the Batik SVG Viewer application from the Apache XML Project.