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Discussions Common Database (CDB) CDB General Discussion

Papi Lights in CDB

I am trying to configure Papi lights in CDB.

There seems to be 7 CDB Light types specified in CDB 3.2, they are all white. Is there a new type for the red Papi light. Or is there another way of configuring Papi lights.



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For PAPI lights, the red and white lights are combined. Since their directionality needs to be fixed between the two lights, there is only a single light type in CDB

The directionality is the same between the red and white light but not the rgb. Does that mean you can not associate a correct rgb value from the red light?

The directionality and color are client specific information. CDB suggests a client_light.xml to store this information. As such, the CDB stores the light type as "PAPI" and the client must "control/represent" the light correctly.


The PAPI can either be created as a single light with code 311 or separate light with code 314-317.


It would be nice for followers to jump in to based on best practices on how they create PAPI.


We consider the color as specified by FAA/ICAO or other appropriate authorities, and do not directly use the rgb value found in the CDB specification, since they do not always line up with regulatory bodies. Also, in OGC CDB 1.0, there is no longer a rgb value associated with each light type. We use the four individual light codes, so that we can make the directionality work correctly on approach

How should we represent PAPI lights with different pitches?  Majority are 3 degree but I have one airfield with a 2.5 degree glideslope.  Is there a way to offset the pitch in the point attribution?

If you model PAPI with Environmental Light Points (CS1=005) of the GSFeature dataset (D100), then you would need to use extended or vendor attributes to provide the angle.


More likely, you model PAPI using OpenFlight models, in which case the light point normal can be used to override the default value in LightTypes.xml (set to 3 by default). You will need to validate the compatibility of this solution with your CDB client.


Can you give me a quick overview on how I can add extended attributes via Terra Vista to a papi light point vector?


One other way to set the angle for PAPI lights modeled as an airport light point, would be to use the Navigation dataset, and set the glideslope for that runway. It really depends on what the client you are using supports. Not every client will support the Navigation method, and not every client will support setting the angle in extended attributes.

We can tailor our runtime to support the extended attributes.  I can create these manually but I was curious how I can create the extended attributes tables using Terra Vista

It sounds like you are not modeling the PAPI with OpenFlight then (which is what we do at Presagis).


TerraVista does not currently support extended attributes publication. The work around is to create a CDBAPI based application (or other shapefile library) to create the extended attributes.


Thanks for the information.  I will look into ways to extend the CDB attributes outside of TV.  Is this something we could put into the roadmap for future releases?


Certainly. I will communicate the request to the product manager for consideration in the roadmap.


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