Hello and thank you for this amazing tool. I just have one question: how do I replace or delete multiple aircraft in the Aircraft List? If I select multiple aircraft and right-click and choose Delete or Replace, it only deletes or replaces one of them. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Replace/delete multiple aircraft
- Thread starter embeee
- Start date
Thanks for the quick reply, would it be possible to add that feature in the future? I often need to replace lots of aircraft with a single aircraft in traffic files that I download (especially from MAIW and AIG). Right now I either have to do that one-by-one in AIFP which takes a long time, or do it manually in a text editor using regexp which is faster but cumbersome. It would be super useful to be able to edit multiple aircraft at the same time.
=rk=
Resource contributor
Wow, read the above? Don has tried explain to you that each AI flight is generated for it's base aircraft. Now you want to take a group of flights, generated for different aircraft of differing capabilities, ranges, speeds, etc. and you want Don to create the algorithm that concatenates all these values, swapping weights and fuel capacities as required, in order to fulfill your unique requirement to have random aircraft replaced by a single one? Not the mention that these are flight plans created by other developers?
Well, that escalated quickly...
Yes, I read his reply, and he said "the Aircraft List context menu are intended for a single aircraft" (I don't see any additional explanation in his post of how the program works or why it's built that way). I then asked if he could add support for replacing/deleting multiple aircraft instead of one at a time. What that would involve is 1) remove those aircraft from the Aircraft txt file, and 2) replace the corresponding AC# in the Flightplans txt file with the AC# number of the replacement aircraft. It doesn't require an algorithm or any of the other things you bring up. In fact, the program already does exactly what I'm inquiring about but just for one aircraft at the time. I'm simply wondering if it could do that for several aircraft at the same time. I don't see how that's a strange question. If it is then I don't know what type of questions are okay to ask in this forum...
Yes, I read his reply, and he said "the Aircraft List context menu are intended for a single aircraft" (I don't see any additional explanation in his post of how the program works or why it's built that way). I then asked if he could add support for replacing/deleting multiple aircraft instead of one at a time. What that would involve is 1) remove those aircraft from the Aircraft txt file, and 2) replace the corresponding AC# in the Flightplans txt file with the AC# number of the replacement aircraft. It doesn't require an algorithm or any of the other things you bring up. In fact, the program already does exactly what I'm inquiring about but just for one aircraft at the time. I'm simply wondering if it could do that for several aircraft at the same time. I don't see how that's a strange question. If it is then I don't know what type of questions are okay to ask in this forum...
=rk=
Resource contributor
In this, you are mistaken. Simply replacing the names of multiple aircraft, in already compiled traffic files, would most definitely require an algorithm; it would have to open traffic files, parse to aircraft names, overwrite them, calculate a new traffic file, based on the characteristics of the replacement aircraft, check that traffic file for faults and then compile it.
If you make a flight plan for a 747 that covers a distance of 1000 miles and you try to replace that aircraft with a Cessna 150, you will see that the entry is not accepted. You may not understand that a calculation occurs, but that is exactly what happens each time you change an entry, before it is finalized and accepted, the software calculates the route. Now, you want to have a shell program, that automatically changes those text entries and somehow initiates each calculation, en masse, based on a presumably simple step of you entering an aircraft name and pressing enter. Imo, we've already typed more about it, than escalating into just doing it manually.
tgibson
Resource contributor
Rick, AI aircraft care nothing about whether their weight or fuel capacity is sufficient for the flightplan assigned. They will happily fly it all the way to the detstination. As long as you don't follow it the entire way, it will load 108 NM (or so) from the arrival airport at its predicted time (based on the speed in the aircraft.txt file) and land just fine. Since most jets, turboprops, recips, and GA aircraft have similar speeds (close enough), substituting one similar aircraft for another is usually quite successful. Yes, substituting a C150 for a 747 would probably not be advisable, I agree.
Since AIFP can swap single aircraft already (and could swap a Cessna for a 747), multiple selection does not create the danger, it simply multiplies the danger *already present* in the program.
The one time I see a good use for this feature is when a flight plan file specifies many "special paint schemes" which I do not want on my computer and want all plans to use the same aircraft in the basic livery. Doing this one by one would be somewhat tedious - multiple selection would make this faster. Since they are all the same aircraft no Cessna/747 issue applies.
Since AIFP can swap single aircraft already (and could swap a Cessna for a 747), multiple selection does not create the danger, it simply multiplies the danger *already present* in the program.
The one time I see a good use for this feature is when a flight plan file specifies many "special paint schemes" which I do not want on my computer and want all plans to use the same aircraft in the basic livery. Doing this one by one would be somewhat tedious - multiple selection would make this faster. Since they are all the same aircraft no Cessna/747 issue applies.
You asked a simple question. I gave you a simple answer and a simple explanation as to why.
Yes, that's what it would involve as a final step. But what about all the processing necessary to get ready for this step. While Rick may have overstated the difficulty, it's certainly more complex that you suggest.
That being said, while most Aircraft List context menu functions do operate on a single aircraft, Substitute and Replace do respond to multiple selections . (If you test the Delete function, you'll find that it also deletes any flight plans to which it is assigned - which is not what you want. ) Use one of those other features instead. If you use Replace, you'll still have unused aircraft in the list. If that bother's you, you can delete them individually or by editing aircraft.txt.
Perhaps I'll disable the menu items that don't permit multiple selections when multiple selections are made
embee, if you look in about the middle of the items in the Aircraft menu, you'll find an item name "Delete Multiple Aircraft from the Aircraft List".
AIFP has become a "Swiss Army Knife". In the ten or so years since I initially developed it, I've added more features than I can remember. So, when someone suggest there's something reasonable AIFP can't do, I believe them.
Enjoy
AIFP has become a "Swiss Army Knife". In the ten or so years since I initially developed it, I've added more features than I can remember. So, when someone suggest there's something reasonable AIFP can't do, I believe them.
Enjoy
Sorry for the late reply, for some reason I didn't get a notification from FSD.
Dropped you a donation since I've also used your ADE_GP plugin for ADEX. Complete life-saver for making GP lines without 3ds Max/Blender.
No worries Don, my remark was directed to rk who implied that your reply contained some explanation that I missed, even though as you say you just gave a simple response to my simple question.
Perfect, that combined with the Single Livery does exactly what I was looking for.
Dropped you a donation since I've also used your ADE_GP plugin for ADEX. Complete life-saver for making GP lines without 3ds Max/Blender.
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Yep, that's exactly it. As much as I love MAIW and AIG many of their flightplans use liveries that are identical except for small differences like the reg number or door configurations which I don't notice anyways from the cockpit. MAIW in particular has thousands of such repaints. Unfortunately that's a problem because it takes P3D something like 15 minutes to load with a full install of MAIW + AIG + various GA packages, despite using NVMe M.2 disks. In other words, the only way to speed up loading times is to consolidate those near-identical repaints. Being able to do that in bulk with AIFP saves an enormous amount of time.