AC# in flightplans.txt

[GHD 21]

Can anyone confirm that the aircraft number in aircraft_xxx.txt is used only by the corresponding flightplans.xxx.ie, can I have AC#1 as a B737 in aircraft_xxx.txt/flightplans_xxx and AC#1 as an F-16 in aircraft_yyy.txt/flightplans_yyy.txt?George

[Guest Bob Z]

GeorgeYes, the AC# only purpose is to be a correlation between the Aircraft.txt and Flightplan.txt line entries. You can have the same number in seperate FP's as long as you don't merge them together via cut and paste or such.However, if you use AITM you can merge the FP's without regard to the AC#. The 'golden gate' of AITM is that it renumbers the Aircraft and Flightplan AC#'s as it merges them. With that accomplished it opens up a whole world of possibilities, which AITM certainly does.

[GHD 21]

Thanks Bob,That's what I thought.I tried AITM today, but it couldn't find 9 out of 19 aircraft which I had used in my flightplan. Ttools doesn't have a problem and all 19 are displayed in FS9.George

[Guest Bob Z]

George, at what point were the AC reported incorrectly? For instance, on the Export/Search function, the Timetable, the Statistics?I use AITM to report the number and type of aircraft at an airport at a given time in order to modify AFCAD parking and if there is a discrepency it is always either my AFCAD or FP or fltsim entry that is in error, so I am almost totaly certain that AITM operates correctly.Correctly except in one instance. When you merge FPs and hit cancel instead of OK, it merges the FPs anyway. Minor flaw.Questionably in another. The Statistics are totalled according to the AITM_AC.CFG file in the AITM folder. If the AC type is not found in the lists in this file it is not counted in the AC types on the Statistics display. There should really be a 'not recognized' counter to account for those not in the lists. If I'm mistaken about this would someone correct me.If you mean the Statistics, maybe this is why.Use the F6 key often as it catches several common errors, such as 'texture not found'.

[GHD 21]

Hi Bob,Unfortunately this does not seem to be the case. Here is a shot showing the Timetable with #NOT FOUND# against AC#4041, the Aircraft.txt showing AC#4041 and the Aircraft Editer showing the aircraft.As I said, the flightplan compiles correctly and the aircraft appears in the correct place at the correct time in FS2004.George

[Guest Bob Z]

George,I haven't seen that before. The Aircraft field displayed in AITM appears to be the ui_manufacturer and ui_type in the fltsim= entry in the Aircraft.cfg. I changed one of my fltsim entries to ui_manufacturer=xxx and ui_type=yyy which resulted in xxx/yyy being displyed in that column in AITM for that AC.I don't think these fields have anything to do with the AC in-game operation but are notational only, so your FP's should be working OK and that appears to be the case.Anyway, the two fields I mentioned have something to do with it.The stats I meant were the AC type counters (Mid Prop, Large Jet etc) of the AC present at various times at an AP that are displyed when you press the Statistics button.It looks like your getting it set up pretty well. When I first started I cut and pasted FP's together and that was certainly no fun. Fortunately I learned of AITM fairly soon and I have to say that AITM ranks at the very, very top in the amount of time it has saved me.

[GHD 21]

>George,>>The Aircraft field displayed in>AITM appears to be the ui_manufacturer and ui_type in the>fltsim= entry in the Aircraft.cfg.>Bob,I'm sorry, that doesn't fit the facts, the entries in the cfg are:ui_manufacturer=British Aerospaceui_type=T.MK1 A HawkDue to this discrepency I am unwilling to create or modify flightplans with AITM. I will stick with tried and trusted method of creating the airports.txt/airports.txt and flightplans.txt manually.George

[Guest Bob Z]

OKSounds good to me.

[NicolasCYOW 0]

Greetings everyone,I just started installing AI (and it's making me stay up late wondering why I've been flying all these years in empty skies) and had the same question. So, if I understand correctly, you can have an Airline X B767 numbered, say, #3 in one aircraft_xxx.txt and an Airline Y B757 numbered #3 in another aircraft_yyy.txt without having any problems? In other words, I assume each AI airline has its independent numbering system (so you can have dozens of AC #3), right? Sorry if I'm sounding ignorant , but I've just started doing all this -- right now I'm using the MRAI wizard, which works great, but since not all FPs are available in MRAI format, I do need to learn using TTools and benefit from its flexibility.Thanks in advance,Nicolas in CYOW

[Guest Bob Z]

NicholasTechnically, each airlne does not have to have it's own numbering system because you can have multiple airlines in the same FP or a single airline spread over multiple FP's. However, each individual aircraft entry in an aircraft.txt must have it's own individual number within that aircraft.txt along with a matching number in the flightplan.txt. Every FP can, for instance, begin with AC#1.After adding the FP to your AITM Project you can forget all about the numbers. It will handle them.A couple of things to be aware of which might save you a lot of time:Sometimes you will get a user FP which has one or more entries with the "ac" in small letters, not capitals. This will give an error and can be quite difficult to diagnose if you aren't aware of it.On either the MRAI or PAI forum, I forget which, there is a thread from several months back called '@ sign revisited'. It's quite lengthy and discusses the effect of the @ sign as well as the speed parameter in the FPs. you'll need at least 4 characters for a search word there, so do searches for 'revisited' and 'speed'. These parameters have an effect on AI traffic and although MRAI and PAI use the @, 200 speed for their newer FP's, some user FP's do not.I have all my FP's in one merged AITM flightplan because with one FP you can list all aircraft at an airport at a given time and makes it easier to determine how many and what type of parking spots to add to AFCADs. The 'seperate flightplan/bgl' method has the advantage of compile speed.

[tgibson 11]

Hi,AITM apparently doesn't like any punctuation (other than a dash) in the title= line (and perhaps other lines too?). So remove any periods, apostrophes, etc. and see if AITM will see them now.Also, open your aircraftxxx.txt file and make sure that all entries start with AC# and not ac#.Hope this helps,--Tom GibsonCal Classic Propliner Page: http://www.calclassic.comFreeflight Design Shop: http://www.freeflightdesign.comDrop by! ___x_x_(")_x_x___

[NicolasCYOW 0]

Thanks Bob!This clears things up quite a bit!Nicolas in CYOW

[GHD 21]

>Hi,>>AITM apparently doesn't like any punctuation (other than a>dash) in the title= line (and perhaps other lines too?). So>remove any periods, apostrophes, etc. and see if AITM will see>them now.>>Also, open your aircraftxxx.txt file and make sure that all>entries start with AC# and not ac#.>Hi Tom,Yes, on the AITM forum, we ascertained that my problem was due to lower case ac#. This seems only to affect the Timetable function.George