The Group Path tool is used to analyze movements with a group of airplanes. Depending on the CAD platform, the tool can be started from the AviPLAN Airside Pro 2024 ribbon, toolbar, or menu.

After selecting and placing the airplanes in the drawing, they can be moved forward to a new position by moving a point on the object known as the construction point. Three construction points are available: Cockpit over centerline, Nose gear over centerline, and Most critical over centerline. If you use the latter, AviPLAN Airside Pro  2024 will automatically select the reference point which is farthest from the main gear center. In the drawing, the construction point is represented by the pointer.

Group path construction may be carried out by following existing drawing entities in the form of lines/polylines, arcs, etc. or by selecting an existing Path or Fillet session. Each step in the path building process that is confirmed with a click in the drawing is called a segment, and together all segments form a path.

If you want to construct several paths to complete a taxiway routing exercise, using the Target insertion method to select the airplanes at the end of the previous session will have SmartStart to align all airplanes at the start of the new path with those at the end of the previous one.

To comply with (FAA) regulations conceived to prevent excessive tire scrubbing while turning through taxiway intersections, a limit can be set to the amount of effective steering angle used by any airplane in the group during path construction.

There are two options:

1. Limiting the effective steering angle in degrees (the default value is 50°).
2. Limiting the effective steering angle in percent (the default value is 80%).

Setting a limit in degrees will result in a different percentage of used nose gear angle per airplane. Setting the limit by percent will result in a different maximum nose gear angle per airplane. If both limits are applied, AviPLAN Airside Pro 2024 will use the most restrictive one. The results can be viewed in the Results or Reports dialog boxes which can be opened from the Quick Access toolbar.

Elements such as main gear clearances, jet blast, and engine paths can be selected in the Session Manager.

The simulation is saved as a Group Path session.

Note: Many of the AviPLAN Airside Pro default values can be set to user-defined default values (see Program Defaults).

Useful links: Program Defaults | Taxiway/Taxilane Clearances | Steering Angles, Speed and Turning Radii | Jet blast | Transoft Design Airplanes | Main/Body gear steering