AI Aircraft Editor.NET Initial Release

[gsnde]

It is done!

After a much longer period of fine-tuning, changes and bug fixes than expected I now feel that AIAE.NET can be released.

To write this tool from scratch in another programming language was a great experience. I hope you are happy with the result.

I would especially like to thank Pete Bramley, Sean Galbraith, Steve Holland and Hartwig Ulrich for their thoroughness while testing and for the many great ideas they have brought into AIAE.NET. It was a pleasure to work with you!

AIAE.NET is available for download in the MAIW Download Center and at The Owl's Nest. It will be successively added to AVSim and FlightSim.com in the next weeks.

Feature list

Code: Select all

• application is self-updating via web
• application sending crash reports back to developer (hopefully you never see this)
• detection and support for FS9/FSX/FSX-SE/P3Dv1/P3Dv2/P3Dv3
• all fields in [fltsim.x] sections editable
• for all fields where it makes sense changes can be applied to all sections
• aircraft type changeable (normal, helicopter, AI)
• error checking for selected aircraft for:
     o duplicate [fltsim.x] sections --> if duplicates found you can renumber sections
     o duplicate titles --> if duplicates found you are asked to correct this
     o [fltsim.x] sections numbered --> if sections like [fltsim.xxx] are found you can renumber sections
     o [fltsim.x] sections in sequence --> if not true you can renumber sections
     o defined models found
     o defined textures found
     o defined sim (*.air) files found
     o duplicate non-[fltsim.x] sections
     o duplicate [fltsim.x] keys
• renumbering of [fltsim.x] sections
• sorting keys in [fltsim.x] sections
• remove all comments from aircraft.cfg
• format aircraft.cfg and align all comments at the same column
• edit wing_span value (with parking spot size calculator)
• edit FS8/FS9 model size in model file
• edit keys of the [general] section
• edit the [exits] section (needed for finger operation)
• easy removal of non-AI relevant sections
• easy removal of non-essential unwanted [fltsim.x] keys
• model viewer integrated (thank you, Arno!)
• model viewer optionally in separate window (great if you have two screens)
• texture list for currently loaded aircraft with detailed per-texture analysis (resolution, bit depth, compression, mips)
• texture viewer in separate window
• option to define external texture editor
• backup aircraft.cfg before each change
• removal option for aircraft.cfg backups
• logging of all AIAE.NET operations
• optional tooltip help for every AIAE.NET element


Make sure you read the Manual (Help --> Open Manual). There are some know issues you should be aware of.
Please also make sure to check the acknowledgements so that you know which components from other authors I use in AIAE.NET.

And this is how it looks like:

[Ian Warren]

Looks one hell of a program Martin, I simply did not even a spear minute to test but pleased you got this result.

[deeknow]

Very cool !!! will defo be using this. Thanks.

[gsnde]

Thanks a lot for your nice comments!

Not a problem, Ian - that was just an offer :-)

[Splitpin]

Martin , you are a genius

[gsnde]

I like it that you like it, Marty

Everybody here have a Happy Easter.

[gsnde]

A belated Merry Christmas.

I took the opportunity of my first vacation in the new job to add P3Dv4 support to AIAE and fix about 20+ bugs reported by Dr. Dump Crash Report. Hope it turns out well. The update should be advertised when you start AIAE the next time.

I will also update the Owls Nest during the next days.

I wish you all a great time.

Kind regards
Martin

[Splitpin]

Danke mein Freund.

[gsnde]

Marty, you are all way prepped to come over to Germany! :-)

I wish you all a very good start into a healthy and great year 2018.

From mobile hence short

[gsnde]

During the last weeks AIAE.NET has gone through a major update cycle. The last missing feature from the VB6 version is now back - the analyze and report for either the selected aircraft or all aircraft below a given folder.

The report can be either overview, detailed and errors only.


The P3Dv4 add-ons.xml are now used to populate the SimObjects quick select box (although I learned today that I missed the add-ons.cfg in the ProgramData folder which I will add soon).


Many improvements in the interface have been realized (resizing, configurable size of the folder tree width, mass changes for only selected items etc.).


If you want to request a new feature you can use the web based feedback form in the Help menu to tell me



The model viewer - thank you, Arno!



The detailed report:

[gsnde]

Today I have released Version 4 of my AI Aircraft Editor.NET.

After some intensive time of coding these are the major changes:

- Application Interface restructured
- Major code rewrite to increase performance and eliminate bugs
- New: Aircraft Effect management
- P3Dv6 Support
- P3D autodiscover path support
- Utilize current MCX viewer components

I would like to thank Arno for his great support in integrating the new MCX viewer components.

I would also like to thank the group of beta testers who have tested each new version over and over again to find the bugs: Firebird, shaggy22, geoffj, bvanhout, hgschnell, jetpilot1980, jimrodger.

Their help and support has been absolutely amazing and indispensable to the development.

If you are already using AIAE, the update will be offered to you automatically. If you want to try the application, you can find the download at The Owl's Nest, at MAIW and at AVSim.

[gsnde]

Important Note to all users of a Windows Version below Windows 10.

I have been using a function call that is only supported as of Windows 10. In consequence AIAE is crashing before the interface is loaded on earlier versions.

Please update to Version 4.2.2 if this affects you. You must re-download the installer because for obvious reasons the internal update will not work.

The installer at The Owl's Nest and at MAIW have been updated.

I apologize for this inconvenience!

[Charl]

... and what follows is the obvious question:
Any plans for MSFS 2024?
Wow that would be something.

[gsnde]

I don't want to rule it out in principle, Charl, but there are no plans for it in the foreseeable future.

[gsnde]

Hi Charl.

I learned that many people were using AIAE for MSFS for sitting and editing the aircraft.cfg.

I therefore brought back this into the new version. Version 4.2.21 has an option in the settings menu: "Strict FS9/FSX/P3D Mode". If you disable this option, you should be able to use AIAE on MSFS aircraft like before. The viewer and effects handling is not possible.

Once Arno has solved everything related to his viewer I will take another look if I can support this as well.


Send from mobile hence short

[Charl]

Well done, Martin.
I look back in this thread, all the way to 2017!
You certainly have dedicated enormous resources to this, through three issues of flightsim and countless updates.
With a little bit of luck, MSFS 2024 won't undo everything that works in the present sim...

[gsnde]

@All

It has been a hard ride to fix the crash that happened for some people during the SimObject analysis and the other one I introduced for everyone when I switched to the current version of the Updater component.

I apologise for all the inconvenience this has caused and would like to thank all the people who helped me find the bugs that were never triggered on my development and flightsim computer.

To get to a safe installation please download the installer for Version 4.2.27 and update your AIAE installation. You can find the installers @ MAIW and @ The Owl's Nest.

Thank you for using AIAE!

[gsnde]

It is extremely unpleasant for me, but I must ask you to download the installer again, hopefully for the last time. I am very sorry about this!

The AIAE self-updater needs three more DLLs, but only if an update is actually available. I only noticed this today when I activated version 4.2.8. Unfortunately, the missing DLLs cause the program to crash.

Therefore, I will not push the update to the current version for the next few days. Please download the new installer from the two usual locations: here @ MAIW and here @ The Owl's Nest.

Besides fixing the self-update mechanism, the following changes have been made:

- the latest DLLs from MCX (fixes a bug with texture loading)
- Texture directories using the standard "texture. Something\texture" are now supported.
- The log file contains the information for which simulator all models in an aircraft folder have been compiled.