Version 1.22 of Flightplan Visualizer released

[pellelil 59]

Its been more than a year since the release of version 1.21.1, however now finally version 1.22 is here, and the installer comes bundled with with 1599 pre-imported flightplans, and +300 airline logos (optional install). As usual the installer is available for download from AVSIM using this link:
https://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=msfs20util&DLID=226777

 

If you have AIG AIM (AI Manager) installed on your computer and you have installed all/many of the trafic-files, you will have a folder on your computer containing airline logos for those files, and in settings of Flightplan Visualizer (FV) you can now specify the path to this folder (it should suggest the right path for you to pick). However if you don't have/use AIG AIM I've made a separate download containing +1400 airline logos (in a special ".CAL" format only for use with FV). This additional download is also available via AVSIM using this link:
https://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=msfs20util&DLID=226778

 

These additional airline logos comes without an installer (its simply a .ZIP file containing these +1400 .CAL files). But before you try to put these additional logo's on your system you should first download, install and run FV version 1.22. Doing so FV will create a "LogoCache" folder where these ".CAL" files should be placed. Here below is the full path to that folder, however you should naturally replace "[User-Name]" with your actual windows user-name:
C:\Users\[User-Name]\AppData\Roaming\FlightplanVisualizer\LogoCache

 

As per usual I have recorded a video explaining the delay for the release of version 1.22, and whats new in version 1.22. To see this video you can use the link below, or you can simply access it via the "Help" menu within FV (where you find menu-item for all of the tutorial videos):

 

 

Here below is a full history-list of all that have changed in this version (at least all I am prepared to share of what have changed):

• I had initially added a feature to download AIG airline-logos, however a later change in AIG's server setup rendered this feature useless. In stead you can now specify the local folder holding AIG's airline logo's (if/when you are using AIG AIM on your computer for AI-traffic). If specified, airline-logo's will be obtained from this folder.
• On the same note, I had to remove the menu-item to download AIG flightplans, as this program no longer have directly access to the AIG servers. For the same reason the menu-item to access the index with flightplans (up to summer 2021) was re-enabled.
• In the past when opening the Airport-Info form it defaulted to show in-/out-going traffic for the selected flightplan or active leg-search only. Now there is a new setting where you can set it up to in stead default to showing all traffic in/out of the airport (the Airport-info form still contains a combobox where you maually can choose what to see).
• "Owned aircraft" was renamed into "Simulator-aircraft", as these are the (flyable) aircraft you have available within your simulator of choise.
• When choosing to use calculated flight-times in a leg-search, you can now specify a percentage-difference (between leg-time and calculated-time). Only when the difference between leg-time and calculated-time exceeds this specified value will the calculated time be used during leg-search (e.g. "only use calc-times if diff. exceeds 50%, otherwise use leg-times").
• Began using (aircraft) short-names many places where the program in the past used IATA/ICAO-code (e.g. when hovering the mouse over a route, or list of aircraft servicing specific airports when editing flightplans). Also added short-name columns to aircraft browser and when choosing favorites (these stil contains columns for IATA/ICAO-codes).
• Pressing the "Usage" button when editing/viewing an aircraft-type or right-clicking an aircraft-type in the browser and choosing "View usage-report..." from the context menu, you will be shown a report that inform you how that aircraft-type is used: which simulator-aircraft are based on that type, which owned aircraft that have been marked as substitute for that type, which airlines are using that type (as carrier/operator), and finally in which (active) flightplans that type is used.
• Items in airline-browser are now by default sorted by (airline) name, and the usage-column shows the size of the airline if its in use. If available a logo for the selected airline is displayed in the upper/right corner.
• Improved performance when searching for ICAO-codes in the airport-browser. Also improved priority of the default selected item, in cases when an airport had a 3 letter ICAO-code, and another was using the same 3 leters for its IATA code.
• When searching for ICAO/IATA-codes in the airline-browser, it will now prioritize non-defunct airlines, if multiple airlines share the same ICAO/IATA-code.
• When enabling/disabling flightplans, you can now select all BizJet flightplans (those prefixed with "Bz_"), all Military (prefixed with "Ml_") or all Goverment (prefixed with "Gv_").
• Individual FP sub-folders can now be setup to leave (not move) defunct- and/or obsolete FP, even if the settings to automatic move these to the disabled folder is set.
• Performing "Search legs" you can now filter on aircrafts you are allowed to fly via type-ratings ("Must be type-rated").
• Performing a substitute of a user-airline, that airline will remain selected (previously the list scrolled to the top, and selected the 1st item).
• Added new check-box to "Search legs" that can exclude round-trips (legs taking-off and landing at same airport).
• Airline/Aircraft-repaint -filter can now filter on size of airline (e.g. "size=major"). Size is determined from usage as carrier/operator in active flightplans. Airlines not in use by active flightplans are listed with a size of "unknown").
• Added GPS-conversion (deg <-> deg,min,sec) to the conversion-form, as requested by a colleague. You can either manually enter lat/lon or look-up an airport to get it. There is both a primary lat/lon and a secondary, and the form will show the (GC)distance between these and the initial/final course.
• Added new "Max airport-distance" for airport-redirections. At the same time added new feature when importing/editing airports to permanent change an airport. If used, it is not saved/handled as a redirection (can't be restored) but rather as a perpament change.
• Reordered- and renamed some of the tab-pages in the Airport-info form.
• Reordered the length/distance-fields in the unit-conversion form.
• The Wind-calculator have been removed from the main-menu, in stead wind-calcuations can now be performed using the unit-conversion form. Also now the speed of the wind is always displayed as a positive value, and in stead the label will either say "Head-wind" or "Tail-wind".
• Added new "Country list" menu-item in the misc-menu. Will list all countries twice (sorted by names, and sorted by ISO3-codes).
• Showing airport-marker tool-tips on the main-map is now prioritized over showing route tool-tips.
• Added "Min take-off fuel ("MTFL") field to user-aircraft weight-fields. As of now its not set for any aircraft in the database, however it can be estimated as 60 minutes of flight at cruise.
• Moved several group-boxes of the settings-form to the 2nd tab-page, and added new fields for defalt simulator/logging-environment based on the File-prefix used when starting the program.
• Also now the header-names that was previous fixed to "Rank" and "Traffic-density" can be changed, so the selectable 6 values can be used for something entirely different, if anyone have the need for this. If/when changed, these new names are shown when editing an airport, or when performing a leg-search (as the leg-search can filter on these fields).
• MakeRunways (MkRwy) by Pete Dowson is challenged handling unicode in the scenery it scans/writes to XML. E.g. the Icelandic airport (BIFL) "Flúðir Airport" is exported by MkRwy as "Flúðir Airport". In this version FV will try to identify when this happens, and then it will fall back using the airport/city-names from the databases bundled with FV. This is not a perfect solution, but at least it improves the result.
• Various minor changes and tweaks to multiple forms (e.g. Unit conversion form can now be closed with ESC, renamed log-archives and so on).
• Fixed: If the main-form had an active flightplan filter when using the search-legs feature the flightplan combo-box still only contained the filtered context. Pressing the Clear button did not resolve the issue.
• Fixed: Since adding support for the AIGFP file-format, there could be flights departing from- and arriving at the same airport (e.g. helicopter flights). In previous versions the calculated flights-time would only consist of taxi-out/in times. In this version the flightplan leg-time will now also be uses for the calculated time, when the same airport is used both for departure and destination.
• Fixed: In some cases re-processing flightplans (resetting and performing redirection) could corrupt the flightplans and remove airport-data from the flightplans. This version will also try to add any missing airport-data to flightplans when re-processing them.
• Fixed: Selecting "only show favorites" in the Search aircraft-type form would filter out all aircraft (including those marked as favories).
• Fixed: In the leg-info form the fields to show times (Out, Off, On, In) were too narrow for multi-week flights, when showing the week-number (e.g. "TH7/14:37").
• Fixed: Issues when estimating cruise/taxi fuel-burn for user-aircraft, where in some cases some fields were not saved, and wrong calcuation if setup to show weight in Kg.
• Fixed: In some cases wrong TimeZone was used when calculating local time for OUT, OFF, ON, IN-times.
• Data: The airport redirection file ("UserAirportRedirect.xml") in the UserData folder have been updated to match the latest MSFS world update. However this new file is only installed by the installer if it does not already exists (in case you made your own changes), hence you need to delete this file manually prior to running the version 1.22 installer.
• Data: Quite a few airports in the airport-database were updated (had wrong names due to issues with unicode-letters). Also some additional airports were added.
• Data: The installer comes bundled with +300 airline-logos (optional install), and a separat package of +1400 airline-logos are avilable for download from AVSIM (in both cases these are encoded into a propriotary format using the ".CAL" extension).
• Data: Added the P2F (Passenger-to-Freighter) versions of the Airbus A320, A321 and A330. Also added the package freighter versions of CRJ100 and CRJ200.
• Data: Improved detection of Boeing 737-700/800 BCF/BDSF when importing flightplans utilizing these (passenger aircraft converted into freighters). Also improved a few other freighter detections.
• Data: Changed a few (aircraft) short-names to either shorten them a bit, or make them "more readable".
• Flightplans: All new/updated flightplans have been added to the installer, and all obsolete/defunct have been marked/removed. A total of 1599 active flightplans are bundled with the installer.

[pellelil 59]

I noticed a small issue regarding the naming of a few older Biz-jet flightplans, that does not follow my normal naming-scheme. On my system I will fix these names, hence for a future release these will have a different name than the names of the files bundled with version 1.22. I suggest that you also rename these files on your system to prevent you potentially could have the same flightplan more than once (if you both will have it with the current/wrong name, and the changed name from a future installer). Also I've begun working on version 1.23 where I've added a new feature to try to automatic try to detect obsolete flightplans, where it will try to locate "the same filename" with different seasons (e.g. "Air Belgium - Su21.bfp" and "Air Belgium - Wi21-22.bfp"). For this feature to work, the naming of the flightplans must follow the default naming-scheme, hence another reason to rename these following files. Here below is the list of filenames to change (from/to):

• "Bz_Auburn University Su18.BFP" -> "Bz_Auburn University - Su18.BFP"
• "Bz_Baldor Electric Su18.BFP" -> "Bz_Baldor Electric - Su18.BFP"
• "Bz_Paramount Pictures Su18.BFP" -> "Bz_Paramount Pictures - Su18.BFP"
• "Bz_Philip Morris Intl.BFP" -> "Bz_Philip Morris Intl - Su18.BFP"
• "Bz_Textron Su18.BFP" -> "Bz_Textron - Su18.BFP"

Last but not least I noticed I had two different seasons of flightplans for Tyson Foods active at the same time ("Bz_Tyson Foods - Su18.BFP" and "Bz_Tyson Foods - Su22.bfp"). I still need to check the installer if version 1.22 is bundled with both, and/or I forgot to flag the Summer-18 as obsolete. Anyway if you have both installed you should ideally remove "Bz_Tyson Foods - Su18.BFP", but for future installer I will both ensure it is not included and marked as obsolete.

[BerndB 4]

Hi Pelle, thank you for the new version. 

 

It seems that the later added function of filtering legs by day of the week doesn´t work anymore. Can you have a look please. Maybe it´s related to the change of the legs tab in the airport window.

[pellelil 59]

You are welcome Bernd. One of the things that have changed in version 1.22 is that when you go into the Airport-info form it will now default to show ALL traffic into/out-off this airport, even if a flightplan have been selected in the main-form or you have performed a leg-search. So by default it will show ALL flights with no restriction (hence will also disregard the filtering by weekday.

 

In order to ONLY see the flights of the selected flightplan or an active leg-search you need to go to the "Traffic-Charts" tab-page. Here you find the combo-box labeled "Traffic to chart" (as marked below). Here it will now in version 1.22 default to the value "All flights to/from this airport". You need to change this value to "Selected flightplan or last-search on main-form". This will both change what is charted, and the flights  that are listed in the "Traffic-legs" tab-page:

 

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[BerndB 4]

Ahhhhhaaaaaaaaa...! Indeed, that works quite well. Hell, and beat me, that i wasn´t prepared for such kind of sophisticated work in the details. 

 

Pelle, you are great! Thank you very much.