I have plan G and really like it except for one thing, I can't minimize it so I can see the map while flying. Is there a similar program that would allow me to see a small map on the same screen that I'm flying on and at the same time see my aircraft moving across the terrain ? Thanks in advance .

I use plan G for all my VFR flights and I see the map all the time.

I can turn on or off, or move away the window of the Flight Plan and that leaves the screen only with the map and the moving plane.Also one can run Plan G on a second PC on the home network and it works quite well.

I am not sure if that is what you are looking for....

Have you tried resizing the P-G window, to a size you would like, before starting the Sim.

 

Then it should remember its opening size whenever you restart it in the Sim. And of course you can "lose" the top ribbon once you have finished using it.

If you have an old monitor, attach it and run the map program of your choice over there.

First off, I'd like to say that when I'm in FSX, there is no Plan G listed in the drop down. I don't know if that's normal. I get Plan G by going into window mode. From there I can see the Plan G Icon from my desktop.I click on that, do my business , then I have to go back to full screen because the sim pauses and I can't un pause it when the Plan G map is visible. I have to go back to window mode to see the progress in the map. There is no time when I can see the map and run the sim at the same time.

The best option is to buy an old laptop and use it for running things like PlanG over the network.  This way you can run the sim in all its full-screen glory and not have to worry about windowed modes, etc.

 

Works for me!   :Peace: 

 

Peace,

 

Ilya

Good suggestion for another PC, but is what I'm experiencing normal ( see post five ).

I haven't run plan-g on my setup yet and I'm by no means an expert on any of these things, but it sounds like you have pause on task switch ticked somewhere in setting (it might be in general setting but I really don't know) - if you deselect this the when you switch to a different program like plan-g FSX will continue flying, whether you're in windowed mode or full screen mode.

 

I think it's normal not to have plan-g listed in the FSX menus because it runs as a separate program (just like an internet browser or email program) that links to FSX as opposed to running inside the sim.  This means that just like when you're in you're in a normal program and you switch to another one which "covers up" the first one, switching to FSX will cover up anything else "underneath" it (unless you put it in windowed mode and then resize the window so you can see plan-g behind it, probably not a great idea since you'll end up with FSX running in a smaller window than you'd probably want).

 

As to whether there's a similar program that actually runs within FSX allowing you to view it as a pop up in FSX like a 2D panel, I couldn't say.  However, I expect this wouldn't be as good as having plan-g on another monitor or, better still, another computer because being inside FSX, such a program would use up resources that could be put into other in-sim things, and might reduce performance a little - not great because FSX is hungry enough as it is, even on a monster PC.

 

Like I say, I'm no expert but hopefully this helps a bit and I expect someone will be good enough to correct me if I'm wrong on anything. Good luck and let me know if anything I said is unclear.

 

Finlay

Plan G does not show up in teh drop down it doesnt work taht way. i run it on a laptop and use simconnect. Can be a pain to setup but worthwhile.

Again I haven't had experience with setting things up on another pc but the simconnect program, which I believe is how the moving map part works, appears to have a reputation for trouble.  However, this video has been recommended in other places with software that uses simconnect.  If you go down the secondary computer route it might be worth watching the whole video the first time because the bits you'll need are at the beginning and the end: 

Thanks guys you have been very helpful,

This solution will cost you nothing and is I believe the answer to the question in your opening post.

 

Plan G has an option in the View menu called Keep on Top.

This will make it permanently visible over FSX and you can resize it into a corner of the screen.

As mentioned above, go to FSX\Settings\General and deselect Pause on Task Switch, then FSX will not pause when you select the Plan G window.

 

I does mean that you have to run FSX in windowed mode but you can achieve a full screen window

by using Pseudo Full Screen: pseudo_full_screen.zip at Avsim Library

 

It looks exactly like the FSX full screen mode but behaves like windowed mode.

 

Regards,

Nick

Can't you just click on the always ontop button and resize the plan-g window?

 

I have two monitors so it is not a problem for me, but I thought it was possible to have always on top and move and resize the window to suit your needs.

 

Plan-G does not show up in the drop down menu lists of FSX.

Can't you just click on the always ontop button and resize the plan-g window?

 

I have two monitors so it is not a problem for me, but I thought it was possible to have always on top and move and resize the window to suit your needs.

 

Plan-G does not show up in the drop down menu lists of FSX.

That's a good idea, I wonder why no one mentioned it earlier :rolleyes:

Plan-G seems to be on the ropes!  The older Plan-G v2 which is far superior to v3 is no longer fully functional due, apparently, to changes in Google maps.  The big loss is that you can no longer edit flight plans by dragging waypoints on the map - a feature not supported by V3 (it uses OSM).  In addition it seems Plan-g v3 is having problems with NETframework 4.5.

 

So where do we go from here? Are there any other Flight planners (freeware or payware I don't care) that have the on map waypoint dragging feature that made Plan-G v2 so useful? I would be more than happy to pay for a planner that the features of a fully functional Plan-G v2.

 

Bruceb