Skyscraper Access Control Module

HID-style card access control for Skyscraper: badges, card readers, door strikes, elevator floor lockout, badge-driven destination dispatch, secured zones with anti-passback, time profiles and access levels, an event log, and an Access Control window to manage it all.

Built against eventhorizon5/skyscraper master at commit 385d53af (September 19, 2026). Licensed under the GNU GPL v2 or later, like Skyscraper itself.

Contents

• Features
• Files
• Installing and building
• Sample buildings
• How access is decided
• Floor labels
• Script reference
• Doors
• Card readers
• Elevator floor lockout
• Destination dispatch call stations
• Secured zones and anti-passback
• Virtual people
• Access Control window
• Console commands
• The event log and deny reasons
• Testing status
• Known limits

Features

Files

Installing and building

Get the files in

Use either method:

• Patch: from the root of a Skyscraper checkout at commit 385d53af, run git apply --3way skyscraper-access-control.patch.
• Copy: unzip skyscraper-access-control-files.zip over the checkout. It contains every new and changed file in place. On Windows, choose Replace when asked; on macOS, merge folders rather than replacing them.

Copying whole files over a newer Skyscraper version can undo the maintainer's later changes to the 13 changed files, so start from commit 385d53af, or use the patch with --3way.

Build

Follow Skyscraper's Compiling.md. Two things are specific to this module:

• Re-run CMake (Configure, then Generate) after adding the files. The build finds source files with CMake's file globbing, so new .cpp files are only picked up when CMake runs. No CMakeLists.txt change is needed.
• The module adds nothing new to link against.

Windows notes (Visual Studio 2026)

These came up while building on Windows with Visual Studio 18 (2026). None of them are caused by this module, but they're needed to build Skyscraper there.

Unit tests

The decision logic can be tested without building Skyscraper:

cd tools/accesstest
g++ -std=c++17 -DACCESSCORE_STANDALONE -I../../src/sbs/controllers accesstest.cpp ../../src/sbs/controllers/accesscore.cpp -o accesstest
./accesstest

Sample buildings

Load these from the main menu with Other Building.

Simple - Access Control

• Stair doors (floors labeled 2–10): locked from the stairwell side, with free egress from the floor side. To get back onto a floor from the stairs, badge at the reader beside the door. The top stair door also keeps its original key lock.
• Elevator 1: floors labeled 6–9 are secured. Badge at the reader in the bottom row of the button panel, then press your floor within 10 seconds.
• Floor labeled 6: a secured zone with hard anti-passback. Arriving without a badge, for example on independent service, rings an alarm bell until you leave.
• Doors auto-close 8 seconds after opening.
• Virtual people get Staff badges.

Simple - Access Control DD

• Every floor's destination dispatch call station has a reader under its keypad. Elevator 1's floors labeled 6–9 are secured.
• Jane's tap calls a car to her home floor, 6. Bob's calls one to 4.
• The night guard's tap unlocks every secured floor for 10 seconds, to choose on the keypad.
• The Visitor badge is refused.
• Typing 7 without a badge shows ??.

Badges in both samples

Use the sky time (F12 → Sky Control) to test the business-hours schedule.

How access is decided

Access is built from four things:

1. Time profiles (schedules) say when. Each is one or more windows of days plus a start and end time.
2. Access levels (groups) contain rules. Each rule pairs a place with a time profile. A place is a door access point name, or elevator floors such as Elevator 1:Floors 6-9.
3. Cards belong to one or more access levels. A card gets everything any of its levels allow.
4. An override level opens everything at any time, including during lockdown and despite anti-passback.

When a badge is presented, the checks run in this order:

1. Is the card enrolled? If not, UnknownCard.
2. Is it enabled? If not, Disabled.
3. Does it have an override level? If so, it's granted.
4. Is the building in lockdown? If so, Lockdown.
5. Does a rule cover this place? If not, NoRule.
6. Is that rule's time profile active now? If not, Schedule.
7. Would entry break anti-passback? If so, Passback.

The clock is the sky system's virtual date and time, the same clock as the %hour% and %minute% script variables. Without a running sky, the system clock is used.

Names of time profiles, access levels and places ignore case and spaces.

Floor labels

Wherever floors appear in access control (SecureFloors, elevator rules, ZoneEntry, home floors, the log), they're written as the labels on the buttons and keypads, not Skyscraper's internal floor numbers. In the samples, internal floor 0 (the lobby) is labeled 1, so the floors labeled 6–9 are internal floors 5–8.

Labels are matched when they're used, so the <Access> section can come before the floors are created. access elevators shows which floors each list matched.

Script reference

The <Access> section

<Access>
    AutoClose 8                                        #close access-controlled doors after 8 s (0 = off)
    StationUnlock 10                                   #seconds a call-station tap allows keypad entry

    #time profiles
    Schedule Business Hours, Mon-Fri, 07:00, 19:00
    Schedule Business Hours, Sat, 09:00, 13:00         #repeat a name to add a window
    Schedule Night Shift, Daily, 22:00, 06:00          #overnight is fine

    #elevator floor lockout
    SecureFloors 1, 6-9, 10                            #elevator, floors, unlock seconds[, autoselect]

    #access levels and rules
    Group Staff
    GroupRule Staff, Lobby Door, Business Hours
    GroupRule Staff, Elevator 1:Floors 7-9, Business Hours
    Group Security, override

    #virtual people
    PeopleAccess Staff
    ServicePeopleAccess Staff|Security

    #cards and the player's wallet
    Card 42, 10001, Jane Smith, Staff, 6               #facility, number, holder, levels, home floor
    WalletAdd 42, 10001
<EndAccess>

Placement commands (usable in any section)

Example: a stair door that's free from the floor side and badge-controlled from the stairwell side, with a reader:

<Floor 3>
    SetLock 2, 0                          #lock only the stairwell side
    SetAccessPoint Stair Reentry 3, 5, 30
    AddStairsDoor ...                     #any door command
    SetAccessPoint none
    SetLock 0, 0
    AddCardReader Stair Reentry 3, beep1.wav, buzz.wav, ReaderIdle, ReaderGranted, ReaderDenied, right, 1.7, 17.3, 0.35, 0.5, 4
<EndFloor>

Doors

• Locking: a door on an access point must be locked. If SetLock wasn't used before it, both sides are locked. Use SetLock 1 or SetLock 2 first to leave one side as free egress.
• Grant: a valid badge releases the lock for the unlock time. Open the door within that window, or it opens by itself with autoopen. When the window ends, the lock applies again; an open door can still be closed.
• Controller unlock: Hold Unlocked (Access Control window, or access unlock) keeps a door unlocked until Return to Normal. In lockdown, held-unlocked doors lock again.
• Auto-close: an access-controlled door closes itself that many seconds after it starts opening. Reopening restarts the timer. Like Skyscraper's own door timers, it doesn't detect someone standing in the doorway.
• Alarms:
  • HeldOpen: a door is left open past the held time.
  • ForcedOpen: a door is opened without a grant, for example by a script action. Opening from a free-egress side isn't an alarm.
• Keys: Ctrl+Shift-click can't change the lock of a door on an access point; the access controller decides.
• Existing doors without access points behave exactly as before.

Card readers

• Click a reader to present your active badge. Right-click it, or press G anywhere, to switch badges.
• Lights show the lock state, rechecked ten times a second:

• Textures: the reader commands take three textures. The green one is the unlocked light and the red one the locked light. The idle one only shows if the reader's place doesn't exist, which usually means a typo.
• Sounds: the grant sound plays for a valid badge, the deny sound for an invalid one.
• Panel readers take the panel's facing direction, ride with the car, and hide with the panel. Wall readers in a car ride with the car.

Elevator floor lockout

• SecureFloors lists the floors in an elevator that need a badge. Other floors work as before.
• Pressing a secured floor without a badge does nothing (the button doesn't light), and the car's readers flash red and green.
• Tapping a badge at the car's reader releases every secured floor that badge allows, for the unlock time. Selecting one uses up the release, so each tap is good for one floor.
• Autoselect: with autoselect set, a badge that allows exactly one secured floor selects it automatically.
• Service modes override lockout: independent service, fire service phases 1 and 2, and inspection.
• Keypad elevators use the same check.
• Lockdown refuses secured floors to everyone except override levels.
• Not yet covered: hall call buttons on secured floors. Skyscraper's existing SetLock with a key still works on them.

Destination dispatch call stations

• Station readers: put one on a call station with AddPanelReader in its CallStation section. The station's place name is CallStation F:N (internal floor, station number).
• Home floor: a badge with a home floor it may use calls a car there straight away, and the station shows which elevator to take.
• No usable home floor (none set, it's the current floor, or not allowed): a tap releases the badge's allowed secured floors for StationUnlock seconds, to type on the keypad. One selection per tap.
• Which destinations are secured: any secured floor of any elevator the station's dispatch controller uses. A badge may choose it if allowed on any of those elevators.
• Refusals:
  • Typing a secured destination without a badge shows ?? and flashes the station reader.
  • Unknown, disabled or no-access badges show XX.
• No second tap: cars sent by destination dispatch don't need an in-car badge for that trip, since the station already checked, as in real systems.

Secured zones and anti-passback

A zone is a box-shaped area, such as a tenant floor or server room, with badge-controlled ways in.

<Floor 5>
    AddSound ZoneAlarm, bell1.wav, 0, 8, 0, false
    AddAccessZone Tenant Floor 6, -20, 0, -20, 20, 10, 20, Hard, ZoneAlarmOn, ZoneAlarmOff
    ZoneEntry Tenant Floor 6, Stair Reentry 5
    ZoneEntry Tenant Floor 6, Floor 6
<EndFloor>
AddAction ZoneAlarmOn, Floor 5, PlaySound, ZoneAlarm, true
AddAction ZoneAlarmOff, Floor 5, StopSound, ZoneAlarm

• Badged entry:
  • A badge granted at one of the zone's entries counts for 60 seconds. An entry is its door, or a secured floor reached with a badge.
  • Walking in within that time logs ENTER with that badge.
  • Only badges you carry count for you.
• Unbadged entry:
  • Walking in any other way logs UnbadgedEntry, raises the zone alarm and runs the alarm-on action. Examples are tailgating, a propped door, or independent service.
  • The alarm clears and runs the alarm-off action when you leave, or with Reset Zone or access resetzone.
• Inside means within the box, but not riding an elevator or in a stairwell that passes through it.
• Anti-passback: once a badge enters, it can't enter again until its holder leaves.
  • Hard refuses the badge (Passback). For elevators and stations, floors leading into the zone are removed from that badge's choices.
  • Soft allows it but logs an alarm.
  • A grant that's never followed by walking in lapses after 60 seconds.
  • Override levels are exempt.
• Occupancy shows in access zones and in the Access Control window.
• Starting position: don't put the starting camera inside a zone, or the unbadged-entry alarm goes off at load.

Virtual people

• Getting badges: with PeopleAccess (and optionally ServicePeopleAccess) set, each virtual person gets a badge the first time they need one. It has facility code 0, is numbered from 1, carries the person's name, and is in the listed access levels.
• Using them: people tap automatically at call stations and in cars when going to a secured floor. Their taps show in the log, and they give up a trip they aren't allowed to make.
• Without badges: people without badges also give up trips to secured floors, rather than getting stuck.
• Zones: virtual people don't have positions within a floor, so they don't count toward zone occupancy or set off zone alarms.

Access Control window

Open the control panel (F12) and click Access Control.

• The window follows the active building and refreshes about twice a second.
• It's greyed out for buildings without an <Access> section.
• The top line shows the building, your active badge, and lockdown.

Keeping changes: changes made in the window last until the building is reloaded. To keep them, use Export as Script on the Cards tab and replace the building's <Access> section with the exported one. Zones, door access points and readers stay in the building file and aren't part of the export.

Switching badges: press G, or change the key with Skyscraper.Frontend.Keyboard.Badge in keyboard.ini.

Console commands

Type these in the console (F12 → Console), or use them in scripts.

The event log and deny reasons

Every event records the sky time, the event type, where it happened, the card, the holder and a detail. Event types are GRANTED, DENIED, ALARM, ENTER, EXIT and INFO. The log keeps the last 5,000 events.

Other details you'll see:

Testing status

• Unit tests: the decision logic passes its unit tests. They cover time windows including overnight, day parsing and formatting, every deny reason, lockdown and override, floor label matching, elevator rules, call station names, editing profiles, levels and rules, 26-bit Wiegand encoding and parity, and log capacity and CSV export.
• Compile check: every new and changed .cpp passes a compile check with the project's include paths, against OGRE 1.12, wxWidgets 3.2 and Bullet headers.
• Windows build: the full module builds and runs on Windows with Visual Studio 2026, OGRE 14.3.4 and the prebuilt dependencies.
• Confirmed in the simulator:
  • doors and readers, auto-close, and the console commands
  • elevator floor lockout, with readers on the wall and in the button panel
  • destination dispatch badge readers, home floors, and ?? and XX refusals
• Built but not yet confirmed in the simulator:
  • floor labels
  • zones and anti-passback
  • virtual people's badges
  • the Access Control window and its tabs
  • the G key and USB reader input
  • the red, green and alternating reader lights

Known limits

• On-screen indicator: there isn't one for the active badge in the 3D view. It shows in the console and the Access Control window.
• Badge models: there are no badges to pick up in the world; badges come from WalletAdd or the Access Control window.
• Hall call buttons: those on secured floors aren't badge-controlled yet; use SetLock with a key.
• Actions: access points aren't AddAction parents yet, so an exit button uses a script command (access exit door) rather than an action.
• Placement: zones, door access points and readers are placed in the building file, not the Access Control window.
• Per building: each building in a city has its own cards and settings; cities don't share them.
• Virtual people don't have positions within a floor, so zone occupancy only counts you.