Hi all,
It's been a while since we've had an updated release of FSX Planner. This has been due to a lot of work having to be done on other projects, as well as some significant improvements to FSX Planner. We have also started work on our next major project for FSX which will build upon FSX Planner, and create a platform which will go far beyond an airport editor. As this is still in the basic stages we can't reveal too much, but look for more information on this in the coming months.
Also, thanks to everyone I met at DevCon this past month for your kind words and great ideas!
So, here's what's new in release 27:
Updates:
* Improved the graphics engine to provide for better performance when scrolling. This varies from about 2x to 10x faster than the previous versions, and is much more apparent at big airports.
* Improved the graphics engine to allow for clip rectangles to be used when dragging certain items. This provides for approximately a 2x to 4x improvement when dragging these items. This is more apparent when multiple items are displayed on the screen at once.
* Taxiway paths can now be highlighted by clicking on the Highlight Taxiway Path button in the Taxiway Path properties display. This option will highlight every taxiway path that has the same name as the currently selected taxiway path.
* The open dialog displayed when opening BGL files now returns to the last directory used when it is displayed.
* The text area in the compile dialog now displays which elements of the airport were included in the BGL file so that you can easily ensure the BGL file contains the appropriate elements.
* There is now an option in the Compile Dialog to create an additional airport elevation bgl file. This small bgl file is necessary if you change the elevation of the airport. If you select this option, FSX Planner will automatically create the BGL file and place it in the specified folder, which by default is the Scenery\World\scenery folder within your FSX installation directory.
* A new object count display is now available. Selecting Edit -> Display Counts will show a window that displays the current totals of each type of object (aprons, runways, etc). This window is constantly updated whenever a new object is added or removed from the airport, allowing you to easily see the total number of objects being used.
* Fonts can now be customized by the user via the Fonts tab in the Preferenmces Dialog. Fonts for the following items can be specified: Menus; the Latitude and Longitude coordinates drawn on the map; the Parking Location descriptions; the Jetway descriptions; the ILS ICAO codes; the Scenery descriptions; the VOR ICAO codes; and the NDB ICAO codes. Note that font sizes are scaled up or down based upon the current scale of the map. Data is not displayed if the resulting font size is less than 6 point.
* Object locking can now be controlled from the object properties display as well as the Object Locking dialog. Clicking the padlock icon will lock or unlock the object. If the padlock is locked then the object cannot be moved. If the padlock is unlocked then the object can be moved.
* Parking locations are now color coded to their airline code. If no airline code is associated with the parking location then the default green color is used. If more than one airline code is associated with a parking location, then the color of the first airline code is used. A new 'Select' button is now included next to the airline code text field. Clicking this button displays the airline code chooser. This chooser can be used to easily select the airline code associated with over 6,000 different airlines.
* Right click popup menus have been added to all text fields. The popup menu allows you to cut, copy, paste and select all text in the text field.
* Exclusion Rectangles now save whether or not they should be displayed as a border only or as a full rectangle.
Bug Fixes:
* Fixed a bug which created duplicate scenery objects, windsocks, etc, when saving a file that had been created from either decompiling a bgl file that contained more than one airport, or from opening an xml file that contained more than one airport. This bug would manifest itself in xml files that would double in size every time you saved the airport.
* Fixed a bug that caused negative altitudes to be incorrectly read from bgl files.
The updates are avilable through the automatic updater, or by downloading the new installer here: http://www.zbluesoftware.com/fsxplanner/FSXPlanner.zip
Enjoy and thanks for everyone's support!
-Russell
It's been a while since we've had an updated release of FSX Planner. This has been due to a lot of work having to be done on other projects, as well as some significant improvements to FSX Planner. We have also started work on our next major project for FSX which will build upon FSX Planner, and create a platform which will go far beyond an airport editor. As this is still in the basic stages we can't reveal too much, but look for more information on this in the coming months.
Also, thanks to everyone I met at DevCon this past month for your kind words and great ideas!
So, here's what's new in release 27:
Updates:
* Improved the graphics engine to provide for better performance when scrolling. This varies from about 2x to 10x faster than the previous versions, and is much more apparent at big airports.
* Improved the graphics engine to allow for clip rectangles to be used when dragging certain items. This provides for approximately a 2x to 4x improvement when dragging these items. This is more apparent when multiple items are displayed on the screen at once.
* Taxiway paths can now be highlighted by clicking on the Highlight Taxiway Path button in the Taxiway Path properties display. This option will highlight every taxiway path that has the same name as the currently selected taxiway path.
* The open dialog displayed when opening BGL files now returns to the last directory used when it is displayed.
* The text area in the compile dialog now displays which elements of the airport were included in the BGL file so that you can easily ensure the BGL file contains the appropriate elements.
* There is now an option in the Compile Dialog to create an additional airport elevation bgl file. This small bgl file is necessary if you change the elevation of the airport. If you select this option, FSX Planner will automatically create the BGL file and place it in the specified folder, which by default is the Scenery\World\scenery folder within your FSX installation directory.
* A new object count display is now available. Selecting Edit -> Display Counts will show a window that displays the current totals of each type of object (aprons, runways, etc). This window is constantly updated whenever a new object is added or removed from the airport, allowing you to easily see the total number of objects being used.
* Fonts can now be customized by the user via the Fonts tab in the Preferenmces Dialog. Fonts for the following items can be specified: Menus; the Latitude and Longitude coordinates drawn on the map; the Parking Location descriptions; the Jetway descriptions; the ILS ICAO codes; the Scenery descriptions; the VOR ICAO codes; and the NDB ICAO codes. Note that font sizes are scaled up or down based upon the current scale of the map. Data is not displayed if the resulting font size is less than 6 point.
* Object locking can now be controlled from the object properties display as well as the Object Locking dialog. Clicking the padlock icon will lock or unlock the object. If the padlock is locked then the object cannot be moved. If the padlock is unlocked then the object can be moved.
* Parking locations are now color coded to their airline code. If no airline code is associated with the parking location then the default green color is used. If more than one airline code is associated with a parking location, then the color of the first airline code is used. A new 'Select' button is now included next to the airline code text field. Clicking this button displays the airline code chooser. This chooser can be used to easily select the airline code associated with over 6,000 different airlines.
* Right click popup menus have been added to all text fields. The popup menu allows you to cut, copy, paste and select all text in the text field.
* Exclusion Rectangles now save whether or not they should be displayed as a border only or as a full rectangle.
Bug Fixes:
* Fixed a bug which created duplicate scenery objects, windsocks, etc, when saving a file that had been created from either decompiling a bgl file that contained more than one airport, or from opening an xml file that contained more than one airport. This bug would manifest itself in xml files that would double in size every time you saved the airport.
* Fixed a bug that caused negative altitudes to be incorrectly read from bgl files.
The updates are avilable through the automatic updater, or by downloading the new installer here: http://www.zbluesoftware.com/fsxplanner/FSXPlanner.zip
Enjoy and thanks for everyone's support!
-Russell