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FSXA error selecting a airplane

Flattermann

Flattermann

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690
Country
austria
Hi,
today I have for the first time a errormessage selecting a AI-airplane with AIFP.
A long time ago I divided my simobjects folder for AI-Aircraft, AI-DC3, Airplanes, Animals ....
In my memory this works til today. I tried to select a texture from my AI DC-3a folder and got the message wich I give as attachment. The german text translated would be "...startIndex shouldn't be longer as the length of the string. Parametername: startIndex"

What could be wrong?

Edit: I think the path is not the problem. I put the DC3 folder to the AI-Aircraft folder and the result was the same. None of the textures of the DC 3 (I think they are from CalClassics) I can load. The other airplanes I have no problem. But I knew I have this textures in the past time without problems selected???
 

Attachments

  • AIFP_Sol-de-America.jpg
    AIFP_Sol-de-America.jpg
    358.7 KB · Views: 553
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Nothing you did wrong, Christain. It's an internal problem that, apparently, I introduced when I enhanced the Aircraft Editor and that's causing an exception. Unfortunately, I am unable to reproduce the problem on my system.

When you say
I tried to select a texture from my AI DC-3a folder
Click to expand...
do you mean that you attempted to make a selection from the Title combobox in the dialog section labelled Aircraft List Data, or something else. If something else, could you please be a little more specific and either send me the details from the exception message (you'd have to reproduce the error to get that) or alternately, a step-by step description of what you were doing (i.e., what buttons did you press, what entries did you make) immediately prior to the exception being thrown.

Also, please send me the aircraft.cfg file and the model folder of the aircraft you were trying to access. In fact, if the system allows it, the entire aircraft folder would be better.

Don
 
Hi Don, thank you for answering so quickly.

I have made as I every time used to do. In the meantime I put the (renamed) AI DC-3a folder - now AI DC3 - in my simobjects AI-Proplinersold -folder (Yes I made the neccessary changes in the FSX.cfg).
There I have no selecting problems with the other AI-aircrafts. Only with the DC3 aircraft textures. I don't know why maybe the aircraft folder suddenly isn't so as it should be.

I do the follow:
after opening AIFP > Aircraftmenu> Add Single Aircraft to List>in the Aircraft Folder> searching by Path Data from FSX (by Title it would be the same) > Select Aircraft Folder > (in my case) AI-Proplinersold>subfolder AI DC3 (Double-click) In the Aircraft List Data "red" Select Aircraft (because there are more textures, I could select 14 textures)> click on a texture> and immediatly I get the errormessage I posted as attachment.

If I select a other subfolder-aircraft in the same folder(AI-Proplinersold) I have no problems.
So I think the problem would be the DC3 aircraftfolder. The same folder I often used without problems!

I put the DC3 aircraftfolder as attachment. ---
Sorry but this doesn't work. The ZIP aircraftfolder would content more than 40 MB!! The modelfolder more than 8 MB! The aircraft.cfg is forbidden (cfg). So I changed it to a txt-file;)
I could give the aircraftfolder in a dropbox and send you the link? Would it be OK for you?
Thank you for help.
 

Attachments

Hi Don,
Instead of Edit I use a new answer. I found a solution but not the reason how the selection goes wrong.
The last days of May 2015 I had a FSX-crash. I remeber I had used the DC3 very often because I love this airplane.
And so I reconstructed the DC3 folder from a backup I made in February 2015. An now it works again. :)
It is difficult to proof the difference between the two folders because it could be in a special file of this folder? Who knows?
 
I suspect it's going to forever remain a mystery, since I am unable to reproduce the issue with the aircraft.cfg you sent either.

Don

PS: But, if you still have the old folder that was giving you the problem, I'd sure like to take a look at it.
 
If you send me the new aircraft.cfg file, I can at least compare the two. Perhaps that will shed some light on the issue you did experience.

Don
 
Thanks for sending the folders. I am still unable to reproduce the error. I have noticed several things, though.
  • The two aircraft.cfg files differ from each other in the [fltsim.0] entry - which is the one you selected. So, I'm not surprised you are getting different results. I have not checked for other differences.
  • There are errors in both that, I suspect, would prevent intended AI operation. Specifically, in several cases, there's a leading space in the texture assignment.
  • Your two folders contain some unusual subfolders, e.g, alt, altsoundai, soundai. Perhaps their presence is legitimate. At this point, I don't know - but I will investigate.
  • For some reason, AIFP "thinks" your two folders are not aircraft folders. (That's why you are able to expand them in the folder listing associated with the Aircraft Editor.) AIFP makes certain assumption about what is and what is not an aircraft folder. Perhaps the shortcoming is there.
I suspect the issue you experience has to do with the latter situation, depending on which sub-folder you then selected.

I will get to the bottom of this. (AIFP should be able to handle such situations without crashing.) But, it may take a while. In the meantime, you might check the validity of including those other folders.

Don
 
Thanks for your answer. I knew some evident differences and I try correct to answer.
The aircraftfolder is from calclassic.com Classic AI Airliner Traffic for FS2004 AI File One (ai2k41.zip). I tried to change not too much. But something I tried because they are FS9 folders and I would insert some own textures.

The subfolders alt (=old) contains only off-files, the sound-folder, the soundai-folder are attemts to give the plane a better sound as the FSX-default sound. The new (and working folder) contains only the soundai-folder with the alias sound from Grumman_Goose_G21A_HP plane. You can delete this subfolders and I don't believe this was the reason for "notworking".

First I selected [fltsim.9] texture=solamerica. It doesn't work and all the other don't work.

The empty spaces between model="" and texture= contained panel= and sound= which I deleted as attempt.
Both [fltsim.0] entries differ only with this spaces and the missing "a" in the title.

Maybe there are errors in the new DC3 folder - I put it now in my AI-Aircraft folder, which is a subfolder of SimObjects - but it works nevertheless with AIFP. I can use all the textures!
So I think the new folder is recognised as a aircraftfolder by AIFP. Otherwise it wouldn't work.

Leading spaces in the texture assignment I didn't find (or I don't understand this problem).

Christian
 
Christian, let's not complicate the issue at hand. Your concern was with the Aircraft Editor (into which I've just introduced some major upgrades) and that's all I was addressing. Please don't assume a problem in this area will be reflected by other problems elsewhere. The extra folders are a potential concern to me (regardless of their contents) because of the way AIFP determines how to display an aircraft folder in the directory tree. They may be perfectly valid. At this point, I just don't know. But, since no one else is reporting similar issues and that area of the code hasn't (intentionally) changed in some time, I need to take a very careful look at your aircraft folder contents/structure.

If AIFP isn't handling a legitimate situation properly or is crashing for any reason, I will fix it. Unfortunately, at the moment, there are a number of demand on my personal time. Please leave it with me for a couple of days.

Don
 
Hi Don, there is no need of hurry:). AIFP works with my new DC3 AI folder easy and properly.
The first time I wrote this thread I was shocked by the error message which I never had seen before with this planes. So I cried for help. Searching for the reason I remebered my FSX Crash and tried to substitute the folder from a backup. And now it works.
Some other folders were changed before in a bad way (excluding aircraft.cfg, textures and so on). Such things could disturb the structures and well programs are helpless in that situation:yikes:
My intention now was to help you finding out the reason for the error with the old, damaged folder.
Also, eventually you find the mistake in the future or maybe never;)
Christian
 
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AIFP works with my new DC3 AI folder easy and properly
Click to expand...
Actually, it doesn't - at least not on my system. If you open the Aircraft Editor (Add Single Aircraft or any other way) you'll see that you are able to expand both the old and the new folders. You shouldn't be able to do that with an aircraft folder when using the Aircraft Editor. So, while AIFP may not crash when using the new folder (I still haven't been able to make it do so with the old folder either), something is still not right. Fortunately, whatever it is seems of little consequence.

I had an unexpected short trip come up yesterday, so any resolution will be a couple days later than I previously expected.

Don
 
I had a few minutes before I left on my trip and took another look. The problem has now been solved and the fix is available in Development Release 3.1.09(q), now available at http://stuff4fs.com.

There were, in fact, two issues. The first, the crash, was a Day-1 typo that "reacted" to those extra folders. The second was, even without those problems, AIFP didn't "like" the blank-but-surrounded-by quotes entries in your aircraft.cfg file. Both have been addressed.

Don
 
Hi Don
Gratulation. I tested again the new DC3 folder with my AIFP Version 3.1.09(o) and there all was ok. The aircraft folder wasn't empty so as with the old DC3 folder (see the attached picture).
The blank-but-surrounded-by quotes entries in my new aircraft.cfg file doesn't disturb in any way:).

Edit: I downloaded AIFP Version 3.1.09(q) and now it works with the new and the old folder .

Best regards
Christian

AIFP_Sol-de-America new.jpg
AIFP_Sol-de-America new.jpg
 
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The blank-but-surrounded-by quotes entries in my new aircraft.cfg file doesn't disturb in any way:)
Click to expand...
Not any more. In your case, their effect was masked by the typo. Had the exception not been thrown, you would have received a "can't find model folder message".

I intend to generally release all the recent fixes today.

Don
 
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