I created 4000 plans for FS9 using TTools without any problem but after 10 hours clicking I have not managed to make one plan with AIFP.I get error messages for nearly every thing I try to do.I once got a plan to appear in the lefthand flight plan box but I never saw it again.I load an aircraft into the aircraft box but the next time I try to write a plan it tells me there are no aircraft installed.Is it possible to post a twenty line instruction on what to click to get a basic A to B to A plan up and running.I drew 500 ww2 airfields in FS9 and populated them with aircraft of the period and would love to do the same in FSX.
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Aifp
- Thread starter collltip
- Start date
coltip, AIFP is not a TTools replacement. It is a fully integrated AI flight planning tool that happens to use the TTools text-file formats for intermediate storage of flight plans and aircraft. It will read and process FS9 TTools files, but that's where the similarity ends. Many others are using AIFP to create/update flight plans without reported difficulty. Perhaps you're trying to force AIFP to do things in a way it "doesn't understand".
AIFP contains a 20+ page user manual that, among other things, gives step-by step guidance on creating flight plans "from scratch". If that's not adequate, perhaps you could suggest a more practical way to present the information.
I trust you appreciate that when introducing a tool of this breadth and complexity into a general audience having widely-varied backgrounds and experience levels, there are bound to be a few "hiccups". I need the initial users to report those "hiccups" to me so that I can address them. The initially-released version of AIFP did have a few bugs that eluded detection during beta testing. They were fixed as they as they were reported and AIFP updates released. The updates were announced in this thread and are available also from the support website. If you have discovered additional bugs, please report the specifics so that I can find and fix them too.
Incidentally, AIFP will convert those FS9 flight plans for use with FSX - file-by-file in the current release and all at once in the new release to be made later this week.
Don
Thankyou for the response.I have not tried to transfer FS9 TTools plans to FSX because Horizons VFR scenery has different airfield site elevations to their gen.x for FSX and I suspect i
t will produce floating or burrowing aircraft.Following is a l
ist of what I click.
1.Start AIFP
2.Set GMT
3 Click Start new Flightplan
4 Leg list click 100% 24 hrs VFR
5 Click Aircraft in top left menu
6 Click Load new aircraft file,brings up window with work at top.
7 Click aircraft traffic EGBB.Txt
8 Click open at bottom rhs.ther are now 3 aircraft in aircraft list box.Select C172.put in a registration.
9 Click Flight No 140,EGBB,12.00,EGGD,30,FN
10 Click Save edits
11 click add leg
12 Click 141,EGGD,16.00,EGBB,30
13 Click Save edits.
14 Click Add flightplan to list.It now appears in top left FP list box.
15 Click this FP list box and in the drop down menu click validate.Get no error message.
16 click save file set in drop down menu.
I cannot see anything else to click but in my many attempts I must have tried every permutation of enabled boxes.Age must have destroyed my intuition.
I start FSX,go to EGBB at 12.00 and wait and wait......
the default AI performs but no sign of the 172.
can you give me any hints.
t will produce floating or burrowing aircraft.Following is a l
ist of what I click.
1.Start AIFP
2.Set GMT
3 Click Start new Flightplan
4 Leg list click 100% 24 hrs VFR
5 Click Aircraft in top left menu
6 Click Load new aircraft file,brings up window with work at top.
7 Click aircraft traffic EGBB.Txt
8 Click open at bottom rhs.ther are now 3 aircraft in aircraft list box.Select C172.put in a registration.
9 Click Flight No 140,EGBB,12.00,EGGD,30,FN
10 Click Save edits
11 click add leg
12 Click 141,EGGD,16.00,EGBB,30
13 Click Save edits.
14 Click Add flightplan to list.It now appears in top left FP list box.
15 Click this FP list box and in the drop down menu click validate.Get no error message.
16 click save file set in drop down menu.
I cannot see anything else to click but in my many attempts I must have tried every permutation of enabled boxes.Age must have destroyed my intuition.
I start FSX,go to EGBB at 12.00 and wait and wait......
the default AI performs but no sign of the 172.
can you give me any hints.
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The Horizon scenery does not include any airport information, the only effect will be the 5 metre mesh which is more accurate than the default and the cliffs may be more visible.
George
Colltip, your procedure seems OK. But, a couple of things do come to mind. First, I note you've set the traffic level to 100%. What are the traffic level settings in FSX? (If less than 100%, the AI won't show.) Try a lower traffic level in the flight plan. Second, there must be parking available for the AI the flight to materialize. There appears to be lots of parking available at EGBB, but if you're running with traffic at or near 100%, is there any space left for your 172? I'm assuming there's an AI aircraft in your SimObjects/Airplanes folder with the title of the selected aircraft.
With such a simple flight plan, it should be possible to tell from visual inspection of the associated text files whether or not it's correct (It should look just like a TTools file.) Another way to tell whether AIFP is at fault is to run the flight plan files through TTools and see if the resulting FS( traffic file works in FSX. (Doing so may temporarily disable your other FSX traffic, but that will be restored when you delete the FS9 test file.)
Re your concern about conversion, as far as I know, the airport parameters in the flight plan are used only to develop the sector tables in the traffic file. Once inside the final "sector", the behavior of the AI will be governed by the FSX airport parameters. A few meters difference in elevation between the flight plan airport and the FSX airport is unlikely to have any effect. Try converting a few files and see. AIFP makes a backup (.bak) of the FS9 raffic files before converting them.
Finally, please use AIFP Version 1.1 which I released yesterday on Avsim and Flightsim. It's also available from the support website http://members.shaw.ca/aifp.
If you still can't make it work, please send me the .txt and the traffic...bgl files and I'll take a look.
Don
With such a simple flight plan, it should be possible to tell from visual inspection of the associated text files whether or not it's correct (It should look just like a TTools file.) Another way to tell whether AIFP is at fault is to run the flight plan files through TTools and see if the resulting FS( traffic file works in FSX. (Doing so may temporarily disable your other FSX traffic, but that will be restored when you delete the FS9 test file.)
Re your concern about conversion, as far as I know, the airport parameters in the flight plan are used only to develop the sector tables in the traffic file. Once inside the final "sector", the behavior of the AI will be governed by the FSX airport parameters. A few meters difference in elevation between the flight plan airport and the FSX airport is unlikely to have any effect. Try converting a few files and see. AIFP makes a backup (.bak) of the FS9 raffic files before converting them.
Finally, please use AIFP Version 1.1 which I released yesterday on Avsim and Flightsim. It's also available from the support website http://members.shaw.ca/aifp.
If you still can't make it work, please send me the .txt and the traffic...bgl files and I'll take a look.
Don
Don I must be missing some fundamental move.My traffic is set to 100% to match my FSX setting.I am using default 172 which is not AI specific but I have 200 aircraft in FS9 and most of them work with TTools.I have also tried 2 AI specific aircraft but still no joy.I have deleted the program and installed v11.When I start AIFP there are no aircraft available so I click on Aircraft in top left menu and instal the 172.In drop down menu I click send to Text Editor.It appears in a screen like the TTools Text page.I click save in top left corner.With TTools I would then click the TT icon and click compile.The aircraft is then permanently in the Aircraft list.With AIFP when I restart it the list is empty and I have to instal it again.
I click Airports at top left and click collect Airports,click Go,get formatting data window.this produces co ordinates of all stock Airports.I can not see the bottom of this window.I scroll down it as far as I can.I get as low as US Virginia Parkaley and no further.Is there something at the bottom of this window which I should click?I click the red cross in top right hand to leave.
I fill in a plan as per my earlier post,click addFP to list,it appears in left hand FP list box.What do I do next?
Collltip
I click Airports at top left and click collect Airports,click Go,get formatting data window.this produces co ordinates of all stock Airports.I can not see the bottom of this window.I scroll down it as far as I can.I get as low as US Virginia Parkaley and no further.Is there something at the bottom of this window which I should click?I click the red cross in top right hand to leave.
I fill in a plan as per my earlier post,click addFP to list,it appears in left hand FP list box.What do I do next?
Collltip
You haven't told me what happens when you set a lower activity level in your flight plan, so I can't comment on that aspect. (In light of the final question in your post however, I must ask if you compiled the file and installed it in an active \scenery folder before running the sim.) I can only suggest you compile the same flight plan with TTools and see what happens.
AIFP does not maintain it's own aircraft list (like it does the airport list). Aircraft are loaded into AIFP when you load a flight plan file that has a companion aircraft file. Aircraft files may also be loaded directly. When you add aircraft manually, they are not saved unless you save them - either by saving the flight plan file (in which case a companion aircraft file is created automatically) or by saving the Aircraft List to a file of your choice. When you start AIFP, you must load the file(s) on which you wish to operate.
Unless you have add-on airports, there is no need to collect airports - and only then if the add-on airports are specified to be loaded some distance away from their stock counterparts.
Regarding not being able to get at the bottom of the "collect" window, that's were the "save" button is located. I'll have to move that. In the meantime, don't worry about collecting airports. (If you run with a lower screen resolution, you should be able to see the button.) Every stock airport in both FS9 and FSX is already available.
Don
AIFP does not maintain it's own aircraft list (like it does the airport list). Aircraft are loaded into AIFP when you load a flight plan file that has a companion aircraft file. Aircraft files may also be loaded directly. When you add aircraft manually, they are not saved unless you save them - either by saving the flight plan file (in which case a companion aircraft file is created automatically) or by saving the Aircraft List to a file of your choice. When you start AIFP, you must load the file(s) on which you wish to operate.
Unless you have add-on airports, there is no need to collect airports - and only then if the add-on airports are specified to be loaded some distance away from their stock counterparts.
Regarding not being able to get at the bottom of the "collect" window, that's were the "save" button is located. I'll have to move that. In the meantime, don't worry about collecting airports. (If you run with a lower screen resolution, you should be able to see the button.) Every stock airport in both FS9 and FSX is already available.
Visualize AIFP as TTools with a "front-end". With TTools, you had to create the flight plan, aircraft and airport file manually, which you saved and then called upon TTools to compile. AIFP helps you create those files, which you then should save and compile, specifying the \scenery folder in which the resulting traffic file is to be placed.
Don