Flight plan editing by moving handles does not work when connected to FSX

[ivanrk]

Hi Kurt and Tim

A strange thing.  It actually does work.  What I have found is that the location of where the mouse touches the handles is critical when Plan-G is connected to FSX.  When it is not connected you can click in the centre of the little white square and drag.  However, once it is connected you need to actually click on a handle and not in the white square.  You will notice the link jump a little and the arrow will position itself into the centre of the white square and it is at this time you must drag it.  Time it wrong and start again.  It was annoying at first but now after practising for a few minutes I get it right almost first time every time.  I even played around with my mouse settings to see whether I could improve it.  Not sure if this is how it is meant to work but at least it does work with a little practice.  It seems that once connected to FSX Plan-G sees the actual white square as a part of the map instead of an edit symbol.  It is like it is transparent.  Maybe there is a transparency option you need to set Tim.  Hope this all makes sense.

Cheers
Ivan

[Kurt2404]

Hi Ivan,

looks like a great finding you made! I also realized that minimal jitter when clicking on the handle with FSX connected but I did not recognize the dependency on the white square's properties.
I can imagine that Tim will use your finding for further steps to fix this problem.

[ivanrk]

Hi Kurt

I think I spoke too soon.  Today I cannot get them to move like they did yesterday.  Today when I click exactly on the handles, they jump or jitter but instantly return to there starting position and will not allow me to move them so I guess we are back to the start.  Maybe at least it will give Tim something to consider.  By the way I am using Windows 7 64 bit and FSX Gold Edition.  As far as the connection I am using SIMCONNECT, IPv4, LOCALHOST, 0.  I have tried all the other connection options and where they connect, the result is exactly the same.  I also have several FSX addons which are active automatically such as GSX so I will try disabling them all and see if any of these are causing the problem.

Cheers
Ivan

[ivanrk]

Hi again.

The add-ons I use do not seem to make any difference.  However I did find something interesting which suggests it may have something to do with timing or refresh rate.  When I open up the Altitude Map and try to move the handles it all works.  Somewhat terribly because the Altitude Map causes the whole of Plan-G to go so slow it is almost unusable.  Do you have the same situation that when the Altitude Map is open it causes Plan-G to go slower than a snail?  I use several monitors with Plan-G on one monitor and FSX on another but all running off the same PC.

Ivan

Added:  I also notice that I have no simconnect.xml file.  Should I create one and place it in the folder along with fsx.cfg. 

[tim arnot]

Thanks Kurt :)

[ivanrk]

Hi

I have now installed Plan-G on a different PC running a single monitor and Windows 7 and the result is exactly the same.  Cannot drag handles to change flight path when connected to FSX.

Ivan

[tim arnot]

*** THIS IS A TEST BUILD - NOT FOR GENERAL USE ***

Please do exactly the following:

1. Copy your Plan-G3.exe to a safe location (you will need to put it back when the test is complete)
2. Unzip the attached file and replace your old Plan-G3.exe with it.
3. DELETE your log file (Plan-G Files\Plan-G_Log.txt)
4. Start FSX and Plan-G as you would Normally
5. Open a flight plan and Connect Plan-G to FSX
6. With FSX connected, attempt to move a flight plan marker. Make only one attempt.
7. Close down Plan-G. DO NOT DO ANY OTHER ACTIVITY or you will make the log file big and unwieldy.
8. Attach the log to this thread.


Thank you. :)

http://www.tasoftware.co.uk/plan-g/files/Test-B96-w7.zip

[ivanrk]

Hi Tim

It worked.
Here is the log.

[tim arnot]

It worked.

Sadly I didn't want to hear that, since all I did was add logging messages to the mouse handlers :(

[ivanrk]

Hi Tim

It was not all in vein.  I backtracked to see what was different in my setup and I found what was causing the problem.  In OPTIONS/WEATHER/WHEN CONNECTED TO FS I had UPDATE LOCAL ticked and this is what is causing the problem. When it is ticked I cannot move the handles.  As soon as I untick that option the handles work correctly.  So indirectly we have solved the problem.

Another Question:  Is there a way to turn the log file OFF?

Thanks for all your help Tim.

Ivan

[tim arnot]

No, you can't turn the log file off. You can periodically delete it though, if it gets too large.

Thanks for the info re Update Local - I'll investigate that angle :)

[Kurt2404]

@ Tim:
Please find the log-file attached, procedure made as requested.

@ivanrk:
You are right - the moveability of the handles depends on the tack box "Update local" in the option "Weather Parameters: When tacked no movement is possible, when untacked everything works fine.

[tim arnot]

Can you try the test build attached to this thread and report if the issue is now fixed?

http://www.tasoftware.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=2887.msg14546#msg14546

Thx.