Feedback - build 0.3.0.357

[BASys2]

Hi Folks

Tim -
Fedback on some minor issues.     :D

Options -
Changing zoom level causes de-activated options
to become activated and display.

Now realise from reading your version change notes,
the Options settings are stored specifically for zoom-level.

Can this behaviour be optionally disabled please ?



Runway Dimensions & QNH/Altimiter -
Are set as tick boxes,
yet they're operating as radio buttons.



Mouse Cursor -
When Plan-G is busy
redrawning the map for selected options, (e.g. Airspaces),
would it be possible to change cursor to timer  please ?



Norway CTA Class C -
Appears to extend well into where UK Scottish FIR should be.



Information -
Mouseover outside boundary areas
appears to be displaying information when cursor is outwith area.



HTH
ATB
Paul

[tim arnot]

1. You would prefer the settings to be global, yes? Trust me, if you accidentally zoom out too far, you could really regret that...

2. Those pesky radio buttons, always pretending to be something else! They've been told...

3. I'll see what I can do.

4/5. Google maps doesn't have hit testing for polygons, so it's currently reporting all airspace where the mouse pointer is inside its bounding rectangle. Obviously there's a significant chance for error when the airspace is not rectangular. It's on my list of things to investigate, but it's not a quick fix.

[dswo]

Wow! This is already pretty polished. A few desiderata:

1. Use mouse wheel to zoom.

2. Display waypoint labels on the map.

3. Display airport labels on the map when building plan. (Currently you get this with mouseover only.)

4. Make search filter settings persistent (e.g., country remains "Germany" until you change it to something else.)

[johnbla]

Great flight planner, well done. I've been looking for something like this for ages.

Any chance on the next build to be able to print the map and the flight plan on the same page, ie as they appear on the screen. This would be very neat.

Many thanks.

[tim arnot]

Wow! This is already pretty polished. A few desiderata:

1. Use mouse wheel to zoom.

You already can.

2. Display waypoint labels on the map.

3. Display airport labels on the map when building plan. (Currently you get this with mouseover only.)

It's a limitation of google maps that you only get labels when you mouse over. Maybe they will have persistent labels in their next version.

4. Make search filter settings persistent (e.g., country remains "Germany" until you change it to something else.)

Ok.  :)

[tim arnot]

Any chance on the next build to be able to print the map and the flight plan on the same page, ie as they appear on the screen. This would be very neat.

How about Print Screen? A dedicated side-by-side print would onlu work for short flight plans, after which it gets messy, or you only see part of the plan (which is no different from hitting PrtSc and printing the results...)

[falcon409]

This was posted over at SOH and since I've been looking for another planner since FSNav went south (mainly for FSX) I downloaded and gave it a few quick runs. First impression is that it's just what I've been looking for. Again, my use of the program thus far has simply been to map 4 or 5 airports together and then fly that route. One thing that I did notice was that the small alert pop ups that show time out from next airport or time/distance from final destination (don't remember exactly how it's worded), anyway, they pop up but are hidden by the FSX screen so I never see them until I close out the sim. I'm using two flat screen monitors so I run the map on one and the sim on the other, but those pop ups don't show.

Other than that, I've found nothing that would tell me this isn't the perfect FSX Planning tool. . .very nicely put together with a lot of great features
1) love the listing of AI aircraft information
2) Ability to include multiple airports into the flight plan (amazing how many others allow only a destination and arrival airport)
3) Being able to switch from several different map types (similar to FSWidgets map I used for FS9)
4) The comprehensive "Options setup panel"
5) the mouseover effect for AI Aircraft

Looks like a winner Tim. Very nicely done and very much appreciated!

[tim arnot]

Thanks  :)

The two alerts come from the VNAV profile. The first is one minute before top of descent and the second is 500ft from target altitude. They are just standard Windows message boxes at the moment (not sure why they pop up behind the main window), although I'm looking for a better way of presenting them. The VNAV feature is just the Garmin hand-held style feature, that aims to descend you at 500ft/min to arrive 1000ft above your destination at 3 miles out. (ie just right for pattern entry). It's coupled to the HSI on the User Aircraft expander, which will show ILS-style bars

[frankturley]

Thank you for producing this tool.

I currently use Flight Sim Commander on my second screen, plus FS Widgets if I need a map, but this gives me both in one display. I'm guessing I do lose my library of user waypoints though.

While testing the program I found it behaves perfectly if displayed on my primary screen, but some actions don't work on the secondary. For example, I found I could resize the window depth, but not the width. The mouse wheel zoom appears not to work, but after transferring to the primary display, then using it - it works - then moving the display back, it then seems to work.

I'll carry on testing.........

[frankturley]

Sorry, just found another odd happening.

Brief explanation first - Gerry Winskill's farmstrip scenery files deliberately lack runway information, because this automatically introduces runway flattens, and part of the farmstrip challenge is to land on sloping runways.

I have found that if I load a plan that links two farmstrips, I get no error message, the plan appears in the recent flight plans list, but it does not display. Just to check this -

(a) I loaded the same plan into FSX, it does show up on the GPS
(b) I tried chopping off the bottom of the plan relating to FSC, but still no joy.

Hence I suspect the problem is lack of runway info?????

[tim arnot]

Hi Frank,
It's a facility I have left in, because people want it, both for Gerry's farm strips and also for the OZx airstrips, many of which don't have entries the the FS airports list (ie there is no AFCAD file). Unfortunately, for FS to open the plan, it must start AND end at a recognised airport.

So, yes, you can make an "off road" flight plan in Plan-G, between airstrips (which FS won't do), but the limitation is that you can't open it in FSX.

I presume FSCommander stores its user waypoints in a file of some sort. Maybe if you sent it to me I could figure a way to import it...

Not sure why it should behave oddly on a second screen -- it's just a straightforward Windows app; no fancy screen/graphics handling at all. What OS? Graphics card? How is the second screen set up?

[normandean]

Hi Tim,

Several of our group, including me, had the same experieince as Frank with Plan-G on a separtae screen. In my particular case the second screen is set at 1064 x 768 and is an analogue display. My primary screen is digital and set at 1680 x 1050. It could therefore be a factor of the screen type and resolution.

Norman

[tim arnot]

Was FS in windowed mode or full screen?

I've certainly had Plan-G running on a second monitor hooked up to my laptop, and saw no issues. But then, FS wasn't installed on that machine (primary screen 1920 x 1200, ext monitor 1280 x 1024). Maybe graphics loading is a factor?

[normandean]

Both were in windowed mode.

Norman

[TangoEcho]

Being one of the group above, I could change my window on second screen without problem. (XP not Vista).

Tom