Hi all,
Release 18 of FSX Planner is now available. It can be downloaded at: http://www.zbluesoftware.com/clients/FSXPlanner.zip
Here 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 The Exclusion tab of the Prepare Options dialog is now no longer included as it has been replaced by this functionality.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
Release 18 of FSX Planner is now available. It can be downloaded at: http://www.zbluesoftware.com/clients/FSXPlanner.zip
Here 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
