Aircraft.txt and the Neverending Edit...

[Guest]

In my neverending anal-rententive quest for simplicity and organization, I've finally developed a way to keep my aircraft.txt file easier to maintain. I thought I'd share what I've done, as it may help someone else who's tired of endlessly renumbering the aircraft.txt file as they add new a/c and liveries! :)Since ttools doesn't truly care *what* numbers you use for each a/c in the file, I decided to use a five digit numbering system:AC#xxyyyy where xx is a number representing the manufacturer and yyy can range from 001 to 999, for each a/c from that manufacturer.For example:AC#14016,420,"Boeing 737-200 AA"AC#12011,240,"BAe Jetstream 41 American Eagle"AC#12012,240,"BAe Jetstream 41 British Airways"AC#12013,240,"BAe Jetstream 41 SA Airlink"AC#40004,240,"Piper Malibu Meridian"AC#49001,450,"Tu-154B-2 Aeroflot"Manufacturers.txt10 Aerospatiale11 Airbus12 BAe 13 Beechcraft 14 Boeing 15 Britten Norman 16 Canadair 17 Cessna 18 Convair 19 DeHavilland20 Dornier 21 Embraer 22 Extra 23 Fairchild 24 Falcon 25 Fokker 26 Grumman 27 Gulfstream 28 Hawker Sidley29 Jetstream 30 Lake31 Learjet 32 Lockheed 33 Luscombe 34 Maule 35 McDonell Douglas 36 Mitsubishi 37 Mooney 38 Piaggio 39 Pilatus 40 Piper 41 Pitts 42 Rockwell 43 Ruschmeyer 44 Saab45 Shorts46 SIAA Marchetti47 Stinson48 Taylorcraft49 Tupolev50 YoughtBill

[Guest]

Bill:Before anyone else tries this there are a few things to keep in mind."Since ttools doesn't truly care *what* numbers you use for each a/c in the file, I decided to use a five digit numbering system:" This is not entirely true. TTools does care what numbers you use when numbering aircraft and won't let you go above a certain value.There are 166 manufacturers and model types listed in the phrase.txt file for aircrafts. If you apply a numerical value to each one then it would look something like this as an example:Numerical to AlphaAC#1 AeroncaAC#2 AerospatialeAC#25 BoeingAC#41 CessnaAC#59 De HavillandAC#67 EmbraerAC#163 VoughtNo problem until you get to AC#66yyy (AC#66001 which would be Duke Aircraft)TTools does truly care and will not compile above the value of 66001This is not to say I find fault with your numbering system, it works and I am now using a modified version (3 to 4 digits only). It makes since and you can add aircraft into the proper sequence at any time. However, I spent alot of time re-numbering, changing all flightplan AC#, and re-compiling just to find out there are limits and I am trying to save someone else a little time.

[Guest]

>There are 166 manufacturers and model types listed in the >phrase.txt file for aircrafts. If you apply a numerical >value to each one then it would look something like this as >an example: >TTools does truly care and will not compile above the value >of 66001 >However, I spent alot of time re-numbering, changing all >flightplan AC#, and re-compiling just to find out there are >limits and I am trying to save someone else a little time. Thank you for the additional information. I did not know that ttools had a such a limit, but then on further reflection realized that there is a finite value that can be represented in a two-bit field... :)I briefly considered categorizing by a/c types, but dismissed that as too unwieldy, so I settled on the aforementioned list of the 50 specific *manufacturers* listed in the SDK, eliminating the redundant entries for all the types from each manufacturer... :)So, sticking to that scheme, one would never exceed the limit cited.An alternative would be to code AC#'s according to type, but that would quickly reach the limit imposed by ttools.The same thing would happen if we try to code AC#'s according to Airlines, except the limit would be hit even sooner! :)

[Guest]

Bill: So if I do not count the reduntant types and numerically stay with only the manufacturer I should be able to list all aircraft without exceding AC#66?I would like to be able to use AC#xxyyy and get every manufacturer listed if possible.Thanks

[Guest]

>Bill: >>So if I do not count the reduntant types and numerically >stay with only the manufacturer I should be able to list all >aircraft without exceding AC#66? >>I would like to be able to use AC#xxyyy and get every >manufacturer listed if possible. Yes, that is why I included the list of the 50 a/c manufacturers... :) While there certainly are more manufacturers than those 50, it makes no real sense to included any not recognized by the sim's ATC engine.Even so, there is room in the scheme for up to 15 more manufacturers (51-65), but also 9 more at the beginning (01-09).Also, for those rare exceptions one might encounter, designating say, 65 as "Other" would take care of that.Originally, I had thought that xxyy might be adequate, but setting the limit to only 99 variations from one manufacturer seemed quite unreasonable, especially when you consider the number of carriers currently flying 737's in various configurations! :)With the creation of the new "yRoute" planner though, this scheme might not be necessary for most folks though, since the program will easily 'filter' any a/c when creating flights: e.g., set the filter to "KLM" and *only* KLM liveries will be displayed. Thus, you could then enter a/c in strict sequence without regard to any form of sorting.I will stick to the scheme outlined though, since I don't *always* need or want to load any flight planner utility to create a 'quick and dirty' test plan... :)

[Guest]

Bill:Thanks for your time in responding to my quest.As a yRoute user I also fall back on the txt files for making test flights with different types of aircraft. Your method makes the txt files easier to read at a glance.