Tractrix Cloud manual

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Tractrix Cloud is a shared workspace for airside studies: organisations and their members, projects, drawings, simulation runs and exports, with an API for the CAD add-ins and your own scripts.

Accounts

Create an account

1. Open the invitation link you received, or the sign-up page of your Tractrix Cloud address.
2. Enter your name, e-mail address and a password.
3. Confirm your address with the link in the verification e-mail. The link is valid for 24 hours; you can ask for a new one from the sign-in page.

Sign in and sessions

Signing in gives the browser a short-lived access token (15 minutes) that is renewed automatically through a refresh cookie valid for 30 days. The refresh cookie rotates on every renewal; if an old cookie is ever reused, the whole session family is revoked as a precaution and you are asked to sign in again. Sign out revokes the session.

Passwords

• Forgotten password: request a reset link from the sign-in page. It is valid for 60 minutes.
• Change password: under your profile. Changing it signs out your other sessions.
• Sign-in attempts are rate-limited to slow password guessing.

Organisations and roles

All work belongs to an organisation. Create one from the organisation menu — you become its owner — or join one by invitation. You can belong to several organisations and switch between them.

Invite members

1. Open Organisation → Members and choose Invite.
2. Enter the e-mail address and the role. Only an owner can invite another owner.
3. The invitation is valid for 14 days. The person must accept it while signed in with the same e-mail address. Pending invitations can be revoked.

Anyone can leave an organisation. An organisation always keeps at least one owner: the last owner cannot be removed or demoted.

Projects

A project groups the drawings and runs of one study. Give it a name, and optionally the airport and a description. Members create projects; a project can be deleted by its creator or by an admin, which deletes its drawings and runs.

Drawings

Upload the geometry you want to simulate on: centrelines, lead-in and pushback lines, pavement outlines and obstacles.

Supported formats

• GeoJSON (.geojson or .json): a FeatureCollection, Feature or geometry, in planar metres. GeoJSON in longitude/latitude must be projected first (in QGIS: Export → Save Features As with a projected CRS).
• DXF: lines, polylines, arcs, circles, ellipses, splines and points, including those inside blocks. Curves are flattened to polylines with about 2 cm chord error. Units come from the DXF header ($INSUNITS); a DXF without units is read as metres, with a warning.

After upload the drawing shows its layers, feature counts, extent and any warnings — for example structural errors in the DXF that were repaired on import. The maximum file size depends on your plan (5 MB on Community, 20 MB on Professional and Enterprise).

Runs

1. In a project, choose New run and the task: aircraft path, pushback / tow, turning, jet blast or GSE path.
2. Pick the drawing features that form the path (or positions), and optionally the pavement and obstacles.
3. Set the parameters: aircraft or vehicle, tracking, speed, standard and context, clearance override.
4. Start the run. It is queued, then runs; the list shows its status: queued, running, done or failed.

A finished run shows a plan view of the results and a pass/fail digest: steering exceedances, edge-margin breaches, conflicts. Each run keeps its exact tractrix/1 request, the engine version, the full result and its timing, so you can reopen or reproduce it later. Runs count towards the organisation's monthly limit.

Stand design and fillets are available in the engine and will be added to the Cloud interface with protocol v1.1.

Exports

API tokens

API tokens let the CAD add-ins and your scripts use the organisation's Cloud engine.

1. Open Organisation → API tokens and choose New token.
2. Name it after where it will be used (for example AutoCAD — J. Smith laptop) and optionally set an expiry date.
3. Copy the token immediately. It starts with tx_ and is shown only once; the service keeps only a hash and the first characters for display.

Members see and revoke their own tokens; admins see and revoke everyone's. The list shows when each token was last used. Revoke a token as soon as a device is lost or a person leaves. Tokens work with the machine API only; they cannot manage members or tokens.

Plans and usage

Organisation → Billing shows the plan, its limits and this month's usage. Only an owner can change the plan. When a limit is reached the service refuses the new action with a message naming the limit; nothing existing is deleted or blocked. See plans.

Audit log

Admins and owners can read the organisation's security audit log. It records, with time and IP address, events such as invitations sent, accepted and revoked; members leaving and role changes; API tokens created and revoked; projects created and deleted; the organisation renamed; and plan changes.

Data and privacy

• Projects, drawings and runs are visible only to members of the organisation.
• Deleting a run, drawing, project or the organisation deletes the corresponding data.
• Hosting location, retention and sub-processors are described in the privacy notice (draft during the preview).
• If drawings may not leave your network, use the desktop products with the local engine instead.