Build 14 of FSX Planner is now available (June 2)

[Guest]

Well, I just tried it again and indeed it does say Airport file found. So either I was not reading it right or something is changed. It's quite possible - even probable - that I was not reading the dialog correctly. You can be sure of one thing... if I did indeed make that mistake, others with dubious eyesight will too. Is there really any reason to have a dialog at all when the airport is found?I added an ILS to PATK just for the heck of it and got some compiling errors until I included an identifier - that one didn't take long to figure out at all, but in your release you might want to have a warning to fill in an identifier in your error checking.Again, this is a marvelous program!

[Guest rf360m]

I'll look at ways to make the dialog more clear. I have it put up a dialog either way because you could search for multipel airports, that are all in the same folder and file. If a dialog didn't come up after each one it might look like nothing happened.There is an error check for that I believe. I'll have to check to make sure though. (Or maybe I'm thinking of the NDB and VOR identifier check.)-Russell

[Rossco 23]

G'day Russell,I believe this version has still not addressed the wrong Aussie airport search. Is that correct?Also I thought I read in one of the posts that the next version will show your aircraft location in FSX. As there is no mention of that in your list I assume this is yet to be implemented. Am not at my FS computer at present & didn't have time to check this myself as yet.Cheers,Ross

[mjrhealth 820]

No you are right the two bgl files it finds that supposedly contain those runways dont exist in the folders it says they are in. Thats with latest version.ybud ybtl

[Guest rf360m]

I had thought that the find airport feature had been fixed, but unfortunately it seems that it is still incorrectly identifying certain airports, especially in Australia.We are working towards integration with FSX to show aircraft location, etc, but have not yet implemented this feature, as we are not yet fully happy with how it works.-Russell

[Guest rf360m]

Hi all,Release 18 of FSX Planner is now available. It can be downloaded at: http://www.zbluesoftware.com/clients/FSXPlanner.zipHere are the details:* Windsocks can now be added or edited. The tool for creating them is in the Navigation Toolbar.* Exclusion Rectangles are now created by using the Exclusion Rectangle tool from the toolbar. You click and drag the create the rectangle. To modify the size of the rectangle after it is created you can either enter exact lat/lon coordinates into the Exclusion Rectangle properties display, or when using the exclsuon rectangle tool, you can click and drag a vertex. The Exclusion tab of the Prepare Options dialog is now no longer included as it has been replaced by this functionality.* Apron Edge Lights were not being handled correctly. They were being loaded as individual points instead of as a string of lights. This has been fixed. Apron Edge Lights are now treated similarly to fences in that they consist of a series of vertices which are connected by a 'string.' They are midified in the same fashion as a fence. To create a new string of edge lights, select the Apron Edge Light tool and click where you want the first vertex to be, then click at the location of each additional vertex. Double click to end the string. If you hold down the shift key when double clicking the string of lights will be closed by adding an end vertex at the same location as the start vertex. To insert a vertex into an existing string of edge lights, select the apron edge light tool, then click on the string of edge lights to select them, then shift-click at the location on the string where you want to insert the new vertex. To delete a vertex, follow the same procedure, but control-click on the vertex to be removed.* Modifyied the add taxiway tool so that holding the shift key down when you are creating the start or end point of the taxiway will allow you to insert the start or end point into the middle of an existing taxiway.* The undo/redo/history functionality was not recording or undoing some of the runway details. This has been fixed and now all runway details are undoable.* You can now specify whether or not the DeleteAirport information should be written to and/or read from the airport xml file. This option can be set in the preferences dialog and is on by default. This allows for xml source files shared between different users to maintain what parts of the airport should be deleted instead of just blindly setting all delete flags to true.* There is a new preference option under the Option tab of the Preferences dialog which allows you to specify whether or not you want to read and write exclusion rectangles from/to the airport's xml file.* Added error checks for ILSs without Idents; and taxiway points that have incorrect types or orientations.* Added an error check for parking locations that don't have an appropriate Type assignment.* Airports can now be printed. You can specify the size of the page, allowing you to print from a regular letter size sheet up to a huge banner size many feet across.* The latitiude and longitude coordinates of a vertex associated with an Apron, Boundary Fence or Blast Fence are now displayed in the properties display when a specific vertex is click on during the editing process of the apron or fence. This allows for fine control over the exact placement of a vertex associated with the apron or fence.* There is a new preference in the Preferences Dialog that allows you to specify if lines should be drawn between the vertices of an edge light string when it is not selected. This option is off by default.* The Taxiway Names menu item has been moved to the Edit menu. The Lists menu has therefore been removed as it only had that one option under it.* Improvements have been made to the Taxi Name dialog to make it easier to handle taxi names. In addition the default blank taxi name is now assigned properly to all new taxiways even if no taxi names have been created for the airport. Note this does not affect taxiways that are being copied or created by extending an existing taxiway.* Cleaned up some of the UI to be more user friendly.NOTE: There seems to be some sort of issue with exclusion rectangles. If they are too small they do not exclude anything. In my tests is seems that any rectangle less than about 25 seconds or so to a side does not exclude anything. Also it seems that they are not exact rectangles, almost as is flight simulator was rounding them off, which might explain the minimum size issue. Alternatively FSX Planner could be writting the xml incorrectly. If some people have time to test this and see what they find, that would be extremely helpful!Thanks!-Russell

[Guest rf360m]

Hi all,Release 19 of FSX Planner is now available.This fixes several bugs associated with the Leg elements, as well as adding more runway detail and several new peices of functionality.In this release:* The 'smart' taxiway option has been added. This option will set the properties of a taxiway drawn on top of a runway to inherit the properties of that runway. This should reduce the time needed to develop an airport as the taxiway will automatically be assigned as a RUNWAY type as well as being assigned the correct width, surface type, runway number and designator. This option will override the option of inheriting the properties of the previous taxiway path if the new taxiway path is drawn over a runway. This option can be turned off by unchecking the 'Taxiways drawn on runways should inherit the runways properties' checkbox in the Properties dialog.* You can now cut apron edge light strings, boundary fences and blast fences into multiple segments. To do this, select the apron egde light string, boundary fence or blast fence you wish to cut, and then select the vertex that you want to cut it at. The vertex must be displayed in the object properties display for the cut button to be enabled. Clicking the cut button in the object properties display, or right clicking and choosing the option from the popup menu, will cut the object into two objects after the selected vertex. This is useful for many things such as correcting apron edge light strings that are incorrectly read, or for creating space in an existing fence for a road, etc.* You can now join two boundary fences, blast fences or apron edge light strings together. To do this drag an end vertex of one fence over an end vertex of another fence and hold the shift key down as you release the mouse button. The two fences, or apron edge light strings, will be joined at that vertex into one longer fence, or apron edge light string.* Runway VASI, PAPI, etc lights are now displayed as appropriate.* Runways numbers (idents) are now displayed on the runways as appropriate.* Runway precision and alternate precision markings are now displayed properly.* Single ended runways are now displayed properly.* Inserting an new object will now cause that type of object to be displayed if it is not already so. This is intended to remove issues resulting from trying to insert a VOR, for example, when the Display VORs option is not selected.* The selection and dragging of vertices has been improved. Aprons, apron edge lights, boundary fences, blast fences and their vertices are all now displayed using the same visual style when they are selected. Vertices associated with boundary fences, blast fences and apron edge lights can now be moved with the generic pointer tool. Just click on a edge light string or fence to select it, then you can click and drag a vertex. You still need to use the specific tools to create, add and remove vertices. This also allows you to cut these strings and fences into two parts without having to use the specific tool.* There are now shortcut buttons for adding and ILS to a runway. These appear in the runway properties display and allow you to add an ILS, with DME and Glide Slope, to either the primary or secondary end of the runway. Right clicking on a runway will display a popup that also contains the option of adding an ILS to that runway.* The Clean Up Aprons option has been enhanced to also check for Apron Edge Light strings that have only one vertex. Any that are found will be deleted.Bug fixes:* Adding objects and copying and pasting objects was causing extra unneccessary undo/redo events to be generated. This has been fixed.* Fixed a bug associated with the airport test radius. FSXPlanner was not converting nautical miles to feet or meters. This had a side effect of not reading in VORs, NDBs, Markers and Windsocks if the airport test radius was in nautical miles.* Fixed a bug associated with writing the XML code for approach Leg segments when the leg had a distance of zero.* Fixed a bug associated with writing the XML code for approach Leg segments when certain optional parameters were blank.It can be downloaded here: http://www.zbluesoftware.com/clients/FSXPlanner.zip-Russell

[Guest rf360m]

Hi all,Release 20 of FSX Planner is now available. This release has several significant additions, most notibly triggers, scenery objects and background images.It is available here: http://www.zbluesoftware.com/clients/FSXPlanner.zipHere's what is new in this release:* Background images are now supported. You can have as many background images as your copmputer's memory and cpu speed can support. Each one should be a 72 dpi jpg. You will also need to know the lat/lon coordinates of the top left and bottom right points of the image. The images can be displayed either above or below the aiport diagram. This, along with the transparency of the images can be specified in the Preferences dialog. To add or remove background images from the airport select Edit -> Manage Background Images. Images are also saved with each airport.* An example background image for LaGuardia airport is included. It covers the end of runway 31. To view it select Edit -> Manage Background Images. Then click the Select Image button and browse to and select the LaGuardia1.jpg image file. It should be in the same folder as the FSX Planner application. The top left lat/lon is 40.7746187308/-73.8644635677. The bottom right lat/lon is 40.7697436836/-73.8558804989. Make sure that background images are set to be displayed (Display -> Show Background Images) otherwise you won't see the image.* Fuel Triggers are now supported. You can add a fuel trigger by selecting the fuel trigger tool from the navigation tool bar (View -> Navigation Toolbar) and then drawing the fuel trigger in the same fashion as you would draw an apron. Fuel triggers are necessary in order to have your plane be refueled at a fuel parking location. You should create one that covers at least the fuel parking space. Fuel triggers can be displayed or hidden by selecting Display -> Show Fuel Triggers, or by using the ctrl-####-F key command. They are hidden by default.* You can automatically add a fuel trigger to a parking location by pressing the fuel icon in the parking location properties display, or by selecting Add Fuel Trigger from the right-click drop down when a parking location is selected.* The color used to draw the Fuel Trigger polygons can be set via the Colors tab of the Preferences Dialog (File -> Preferences).* Scenery Objects are now supported. You can add a scenery object by selecting the scenery object tool from the navigation tool bar (View -> Navigation Toolbar) and then clicking on the airport where tou want to add the scenery object. After placing the scenery object you have to specify what it should be. You can do this by selecting from a drop down of default flight simulator scenery objects from the Scenery Type drop down. If you want to enter a specific GUID for the object, then choose Custom Scenery Object from the drop down and enter the GUID into the Name text field. Scenery Object can be displayed or hidden by selecting Display -> Show Scenery Objects. They are hidden by default.* You can automatically add a fuel station scenery object to a parking location by pressing the scenery icon in the parking location properties display, or by selecting Add Fuel Station from the right-click drop down when a parking location is selected.* You can automatically add a localizer array scenery object to an ILS Feather by pressing the scenery icon in the ILS properties display, or by selecting Add Localizer Array from the right-click drop down when an ILS feather is selected.* You can automatically add a VOR Station scenery object to a VOR by pressing the scenery icon in the VOR properties display, or by selecting Add VOR Station from the right-click drop down when a VOR is selected.* You can automatically add an NDB Antenna scenery object to an NDB by pressing the scenery icon in the NDB properties display, or by selecting Add NDB Antenna from the right-click drop down when an NDB is selected.* The color used to draw the Scenery Objects can be set via the Colors tab of the Preferences Dialog (File -> Preferences).* Airport Fuel Services can now be edited. Select Edit -> Airport Services to open a dialog that allows you to modify the fuel services available at the airport. Note that this does not create locations at the airport where a plane can refuel, but rather controls the list of available fuel options that is displayed for the airport in the gps.* Tower properties have been updated to allow you to edit or add tower scenery objects for each tower. A list of stock tower scenery objects is available for you to choose from, or you can create your own and use that. This allows for you to have a physical tower associated with the tower viewpoint.* The corners handles of exclusion rectangles have been made much bigger in an effort to make it easier to grab and resize them when zoomed out.* The color used to draw the Exclusion Rectangles can be set via the Colors tab of the Preferences Dialog (File -> Preferences).Bug Fixes:* Fixed a bug that caused the Find Airport dialog to occasionally incorrectly identify airport bgl files for airports in the southern hemisphere.* Fixed a bug which caused the Secondary Landing attribute of a runway to be incorrectly recorded.* Fixed a bug that caused FSX Planner to freeze during compilation if BglComp.exe was not found.-Russell

[Guest]

Just keeps getting better and better - thanks!

[Guest rf360m]

Thanks, I'm glad it is useful!I just looked at your fs economy website. It looks very interesting. I'll have to spend some more time on it to see what it is all about.-Russell

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Truly revolutionary, Russell. Congratulations!Best regards.Luis

[Guest rf360m]

We have created a web page that will allow you to easily (we hope!) create background images for use in FSX Planner. The url is: http://www.zbluesoftware.com/fsxplanner/maps.cfmThis page allows you to specify a lat/lon coordinate to jump to, or allows you to scroll the map in the usual manner to move it around.We have provided several different resolutions to choose from, allowing you to find the one that best fits your monintor.The top left lat/lon and bottom right lat/lon coordinates of the image are also displayed. You will need these to enter into FSX Planner. The easiest way to do this is just to copy and paste from the browser int oFSX Planner.To get the image you'll have to take a screen shot, and the use an image editing program, like photoshop, to crop the image down to just the map image.Thanks to Google for the maps. :)-Russell

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Great initiative, thanks very much, Russell.To get a background image, I just used SBuilderX - it has an image server function that will get all the aerial images (or maps) from Ask, Google, Microsoft Virtual Earth, and Yahoo.I just got those images at multiple resolutions, created a Map with the extents that I wanted, SBuilderX made a bitmap and generated a text file with the corner coordinates, that can be seen in the Map properties window.All that was left to do was to convert the bitmap to JPG, and change the resolution to 72 dpi (why this resolution, by the way?)The image projection using this method is in the correct WGS 84 datum/geographic projection, so there will be no alignment mistakes. If anybody wants to see the basic method, please check the SBuilderX forum at:http://www.ptsim.com/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=22and the topic on using the image server:http://www.ptsim.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1059and making a background image Map from the aerial images:http://www.ptsim.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1060Best regards.Luis

[Guest rf360m]

>All that was left to do was to convert the bitmap to JPG, and>change the resolution to 72 dpi (why this resolution, by the>way?)>72 dpi was chosen as a suggested size because it's a standard screen resolution. You could probably use a higher one, but them more memory is required to store the image, and more cpu time would be needed to scale the image.Thanks for the links BTW!-Russell

[Alvega 2,124]

Hi RusselI see it is still not possible to open a bgl file directly in this version. When will this feature be available?Thanks and regards.