FSX Planner release 17 now available (June 18)

[rf360m]

Hi all,

Release 17 of FSX Planner is now available. This cleans up several bugs as well as incorporating several new features.

Here's the list of what has been updated or added:
* Exclusion Rectangles have been added, allowing you to delete taxiway signs, windsocks, etc. To include an exclusion rectangle use the Exclusion tab of the Prepare Options dialog. You can specify the exact location of the rectangle, or have one created that covers the entire airport. You can also specify exactly what this rectangle should delete.

* The cut/copy/paste feature has been implemented. You can now cut, copy and paste most objects. To copy or cut an object select it then use the right click popup menu or the ctrl-x or ctrl-c commands, When pasting an object it will be pasted at the current cursor location. Aprons and fences are pasted so that the center of the apron or fence is at the current cursor location.

* Added the ability to specify default values for Runway Threshold Offsets, Blast Pads, Overruns and VASIs. These are available under the Runway tab of the Preferences dialog.

* FSX Planner now recognizes Latitude/Longitude coordinates in five different formats. These formats can be used to enter lat/lon coordinates in any lat/lon text field within FSX Planner. They are: N40 46.6345, N40 46 38.07, 40 46.6345N, 40 46 38.07N and 40.77724167.

* A Clean Taxiway Points check has been added. This searches the airport for taxiway points and parking locations that have no taxiways associated with them and deletes them.

* A Clean All check has been added. This is a convenience option that runs all the Clean... checks.

* The Clean... checks menu options have been moved to the Compile menu from the Edit menu. The Find Airport menu option has been moved to the File menu from the Compile menu. This was done to better group similar functionality.

* Modified the handling of NDBs so that terminal NDBs can now be opened, saved and edited.

* Tweaked the object property displays to help keep similar properties together.

* A dialog is now displayed when you close an airport display within FSX Planner to ask you if you want to save the airport before it closes, or to cancel the close action.

* The color used to highlight selected objects is now user definable via the Colors tab of the Preferences dialog.

* The user can now specify whether selected objects should be outlined or highlighted. The default is to outline a selected object. This can be changed in the Display tab of the Preferences dialog.

* The Compile Dialog has been adjusted to allow for more user configurability with regards to the final placement and name of the compiled BGL file.


Bug fixes:
* Fixed a bug that sometimes caused incorrect taxiways to be deleted when a taxiway point or a taxiway parking location was deleted.

* FSX Planner was looking at file names in a case-sensitive manner. This would cause it not to display files with .XML extensions in the open dialog. This has ben fixed and file names are now case insensitive.

* Fixed a bug in the Error Checking display that prevented taxiways, runways, NDB and VORs from being displayed when you clicked on their name in the results table.

* Fixed a bug that caused VASI values to be read incorrectly from the XML file.


As usual it can be downloaded here: http://www.zbluesoftware.com/clients/FSXPlanner.zip

-Russell

 

[Paavo]

Let me just say that the work you are doing is simply amazing.

 

[rf360m]

Let me just say that the work you are doing is simply amazing.

Thanks very much!

-Russell

 

[fame]

Sterling work

Hi Russell:

I would like to second "Paavo's" comments. I've got to stay on my toes or I'll miss an update

First rate, absolutely first rate.

All The Best

Tom G, Sr.

 

[canuck21a]

Awesome ! Simply Awesome.

Now I can hardly wait for some free time to test out one of my airports to see if I can exclude those pesky autogen trees and shrubs that dot my modified airport.

Do you fellows take donations? I am not rich but this kind of work deserves some hard rewards.

 

[scruffyduck]

to see if I can exclude those pesky autogen trees and shrubs that dot my modified airport.

Sorry to dampen your spirits but if we are talking about FSX here then I would not expect XML Exclusion Rectangles to remove them

 

[GHD]

Jon is correct, you need Shp2Vec exclusion polygons.

George

 

[rf360m]

As stated above autogen is not deleted by these exclusion rectangles. Maybe in the future we'll add that capability in as well. But for now here's the list of what can be deleted with exclusion rectangles:

Beacon Objects
Effect Objects
Extrusion Bridges
Generic Building Objects
Library Objects
Taxiway Signs
Trigger Objects
Windsocks

-Russell

 

[l52]

Hi Russel

In the FSXPlanner is there a function to seach a airport by ICAO name in the scenery of FSX to work it by FSXPanner?...for example search LIRF or KORD into the scenery of FSX and then convert them in xml format and work them to add objects...ILS....Jetway...etc, etc?

thanks

Lucio

 

[rf360m]

Hi Russel

In the FSXPlanner is there a function to seach a airport by ICAO name in the scenery of FSX to work it by FSXPanner?...for example search LIRF or KORD into the scenery of FSX and then convert them in xml format and work them to add objects...ILS....Jetway...etc, etc?

thanks

Lucio

Yes you can search by ICAO code within FSX Planner. Look under File -> Find Airport. This dialog lets you enter the ICAO code of the airport you are searching for. It will tell you which folder and file the airport is located in. You can then convert that bgl file to an xml file, using something like BGL2XML. The ability to directly convert a bgl file to xml has not yet been implemented within FSX Planner.

Also, note that a single BGL file contains multiple airports. So after you convert it to xml, opening that xml file within FSX Planner will show you a dialog that lists all the airports in the file. You then can choose which airport, or airports, you want to open by ticking the checkbox next to the airport's name. This will open just that airport within FSX Planner.

After opening it I'd suggest performing a Save As so that you can save the airport as its own xml file, instead of continuing to work with the huge original xml file. (This gives you a single airport source file, much better, in my opinion, that continuing to work off the original bgl or xml file.)

I hope that helps to explain it.

-Russell

 

[canuck21a]

Sorry to dampen your spirits but if we are talking about FSX here then I would not expect XML Exclusion Rectangles to remove them

Any suggestions as to what existing software might work as a front ends that is relatively easy to use and can exclude those items that FSXPlanner cannot do?

 

[José]

Posted before in the wrong place

Hi, Russell and meshman


I found the exclude function where you pointed out and would like to add some suggestions about:

1. As you use icons for others tools, why not for that one, too?

2. To work properly the rectangle should be graphically drawn. You need only two points: a North-West point and a South-East. The rectangle's sides should be N-S and W-E oriented. latmax > latmin and lonmax > lonmin;

3. In the configuration window, avoid to repeat the word exclude for the 9 options, since all are for exclude something.

I hope this could help.

Thanks,

José

 

[scruffyduck]

Any suggestions as to what existing software might work as a front ends that is relatively easy to use and can exclude those items that FSXPlanner cannot do?

FSX KML or SBuilderX

 

[rf360m]

Hi, Russell and meshman


I found the exclude function where you pointed out and would like to add some suggestions about:

1. As you use icons for others tools, why not for that one, too?

2. To work properly the rectangle should be graphically drawn. You need only two points: a North-West point and a South-East. The rectangle's sides should be N-S and W-E oriented. latmax > latmin and lonmax > lonmin;

3. In the configuration window, avoid to repeat the word exclude for the 9 options, since all are for exclude something.

I hope this could help.

Thanks,

José

Hi Jose,

We are looking at improving the exclusion rectangles in a way similar to what you describe above.

-Russell

 

[canuck21a]

FSX KML or SBuilderX

Thanks so much.
I have found a short 82 page manual on SbuilderX to keep me occupied for a day or so.

 

[José]

Prepare Options... Delete Options

Hi, Russell

Hi Jose,
We are looking at improving the exclusion rectangles in a way similar to what you describe above.
-Russell

I took look at the option in the title, and saw you listed 9 options for deleting an airport. FSX SDK list 12, as below:

<DeleteAirport
      deleteAllApproaches = "TRUE"
      deleteAllApronLights = "TRUE"
      deleteAllAprons = "TRUE"
      deleteAllFrequencies = "TRUE"
      deleteAllHelipads = "TRUE"
      deleteAllRunways = "TRUE"
      deleteAllStarts = "TRUE"
      deleteAllTaxiways = "TRUE"
      deleteAllBlastFences = "TRUE"
      deleteAllBoundaryFences = "TRUE"
      deleteAllControlTowers = "TRUE"
      deleteAllJetways = "TRUE"/>

You didn't include: deleteAllFrequencies, deleteAllRunways and deleteAllStarts.

Any reason for that?

Regards,

José

 

[rf360m]

Hi, Russell



I took look at the option in the title, and saw you listed 9 options for deleting an airport. FSX SDK list 12, as below:

<DeleteAirport
      deleteAllApproaches = "TRUE"
      deleteAllApronLights = "TRUE"
      deleteAllAprons = "TRUE"
      deleteAllFrequencies = "TRUE"
      deleteAllHelipads = "TRUE"
      deleteAllRunways = "TRUE"
      deleteAllStarts = "TRUE"
      deleteAllTaxiways = "TRUE"
      deleteAllBlastFences = "TRUE"
      deleteAllBoundaryFences = "TRUE"
      deleteAllControlTowers = "TRUE"
      deleteAllJetways = "TRUE"/>

You didn't include: deleteAllFrequencies, deleteAllRunways and deleteAllStarts.

Any reason for that?

Regards,

José

They are all there. The deletes for frequencies, runways and starts can be more detailed than the rest. So you can choose to delete all the runways, or just a specific one. This is the same for frequencies and starts. FSX Planner allows you to specify if you want all runways (frequencies or starts) deleted, or if you want to delete only certain ones.

In the Deletes tab of the Prepare Options dialog, look at the bottom half of the dialog and there are three tabs. One for the runway, frequency and start deletes.

-Russell

 

[José]

Delete.. keep it in a block.

Hi, Russell

Perhaps, the goal for those options in FS is not to modify my proper airport but delete a default one in the place I want to put the mine.

So, I need to delete the one that exists, not modify the mine. At the same time, I don't want delete everything that is not present in the old airport and so be selective when deleting.

I think the delete options should be keep togheter.

Regards,

José

 

[rf360m]

Hi, Russell

Perhaps, the goal for those options in FS is not to modify my proper airport but delete a default one in the place I want to put the mine.

So, I need to delete the one that exists, not modify the mine. At the same time, I don't want delete everything that is not present in the old airport and so be selective when deleting.

I think the delete options should be keep togheter.

Regards,

José

I'm not exactly sure what you mean here.

The various delete options allow you to specify which part of the default airport should be deleted. So depending on what you want to do you can turn them all on, all off, or just some of them on or off. FSX Planner allows you to have very fined grained control of these delete options. With this control you can create a bgl file that just adds certain items to an airport, or replaces certain items, or replaces the entire airport.

The delete options are all together under one tab in the Prepare Options dialog.

-Russell