Helpful tool for working with CHM's (P3D SDK)

[Guest]

I'm not affiliated with this product at all, I'm just sharing my experience with a tool I've used to work with P3D's SDK (CHM files).   The tool is called Dr. Explain and it can open CHM's and convert allow you to edit the CHM directly and save back to CHM or other formats (PDF, HTML).

I find the tool extremely useful for searching and adding my own notes and documentation and/or corrects.  Dr. Explain is payware - the advanced version is $290 US.  After years of begging for a more modern formats for deployment of P3D documentation and nothing happening, I finally caved and found something that is extremely useful to me (and I hope others).  As we all know the P3D SDK is changing on each point release and so does the documentation.  Sample screenshot of Dr. Explain in action.

Again, I'm not affiliated with this product at all ... I knew about it form projects I had done many years ago and this is the latest iteration of it.

Cheers, Rob.

[simbol 5,819]

On 10/3/2018 at 2:42 AM, Rob Ainscough said:

 Dr. Explain is payware - the advanced version is $290 US.  

Cheers, Rob.

Hi Rob,

I think this is an amazing tool, many thanks for suggesting this to everyone. I noticed the text below just inside their download section:

You may use the free unregistered copy of the Dr.Explain software as long as you wish. The free unregistered copy is almost fully functional though all output images are watermarked. To use all the benefits of the program please order the Dr.Explain license.

Not sure how they watermark the images, perhaps it will just put the word "unregistered on top of the images" but it would allow many users to use this fantastic tool, unless of course the unregistered version has other limitations not mentioned by the website, but it is truly a wonderful find and advise.

Kind Regards,
S.

[Guest]

If one isn't "publishing" (probably the majority of cases) then the free version will probably work just as well.

The initial importing of the P3D CHM is a very long process (left it overnight) as there are over 5000 pages of content, but once it's imported the project can be saved as a .GUI and later loaded as .GUI which is considerably faster.

For larger development teams the documentation can be cloud based and collaborated (Ultimate version) so that everyone involved could add their own experiences/information/clarification ... as we know, LM's documentation is not "perfect" there are errors and there are sections that need some additional clarification.  As you know, there are many "oddities" with FXTool and how FX work when applied vs. how it's documented ... and practical testing and quirks around that ... all notes can easily be integrated directly into the document.

The shear size of the SDK makes this tool invaluable for me ... if more users would just take a look at the documentation (don't need to understand it just look) it would help them understand why writing a new product from scratch would be a daunting 10+ year ordeal and nothing something that one can just whip up with a new "graphics engine".  I'm still amazed at just how powerful the SDK/Platform can be ... I honestly don't think there is any other SDK ever produced that is as robust and as flexible ... it's mind boggling and I can understand why LM selected the ESP.

Cheers, Rob.

[simbol 5,819]

1 hour ago, Rob Ainscough said:

I'm still amazed at just how powerful the SDK/Platform can be ... I honestly don't think there is any other SDK ever produced that is as robust and as flexible ... it's mind boggling and I can understand why LM selected the ESP.

Cheers, Rob.

That is two of us, I keep repeating how powerful the P3D SDK is to everyone as much as I can with the hope that it can open their eyes....

Simbol