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Addit! Pro For Flight Simulator 2002
Revision History
Improvements and Changes in Version 5.5.9
Addon Importing
 | The new Filter Bar on the Import Addons window allows you
to show addons in a certain category such as aircraft. This makes it much easier
to import specific types of addons. See General Changes for more information concerning Flip Bars
and the Filter Bar. |
| Substantially improved addon search performance. |
| Added a button to the Import Addons window that opens the
Import Options window. Click the Options
button to change the import
settings from within the Import Addons window. |
| Pressing Import (in the lower right corner of this
window) now only imports the addons currently
shown in the Addon list. |
| You can now cancel during the search for addons as well
as cancel the import process itself. Click on the progress bar at the
bottom of the window to abort the operation. |
| You can also click Import
on the Toolbar to open this window. Right click on the Toolbar and
select "Choose Buttons" to enable this feature. |
Addon Installation Wizard
| Individual files can now be installed to Addit! Pro's
storage folder. Right click on a file then select Install to Storage Folder. You can use this feature to place unneeded
files—but files you wish to retain—in Addit! Pro's storage folder for
safekeeping, instead of marking them "Do Not Install". |
| A new option automatically advances the Wizard to the
next step after you make a choice. For example, in the Configure Scenery
window, immediately after selecting a scenery installation folder, the
Wizard moves forward as if you had pressed the Next button. After making
your final choice, the window will close automatically as if you had clicked
the OK button. This option is disabled by default. Advanced users
may
enable it to work through the Wizard more rapidly. See Customize below
for more details. |
Addon Removal Wizard – Select Addon Window
| A Flip Bar now appears on this window (see General
Changes below). |
| You can limit the addons shown by Date Installed. For
example, you can show only addons installed in the past week. |
Customize Window
| Added a Choose Buttons feature to "Toolbar", under the
Appearance Options section. This feature allows you to customize Addit!
Pro's main toolbar. |
| Added an option "Automatically advance Addon Installation
Wizard steps" to "General", under the Addon Installation Options 1 section.
See Addon Installation Wizard above for details. |
Edit Aircraft Window
| A Flip Bar now appears on this window (see General
Changes). |
| Rebuilding the display after an aircraft status filter
change is now faster. |
| Added right-click menu options to the picture menus to
show the aircraft and panel pictures "One Above the Other" or "Side by
Side". |
Fixes
| Fixed a bug where effects texture bitmap files could be
incorrectly reported as missing during validation. |
| Fixed a few problems interpreting comments inside INI
files. |
Flip Bars (NEW!)
General Changes
| You can now cancel the addon removal process. Click on
the progress bar at the bottom of the window to abort. |
| During the removal of a group of addons, you can opt not
to show the Removal Results window by unchecking the box "Show this report". |
| The program will no longer attempt to optimize the
database when Addit! Pro is closed by Windows due to a shutdown, or closed
by the Task Manager. |
| Improved the installation of addons with multiple related
panels. Addon installation, in general, has also improved with fewer "red
dot" scenarios. |
| Small performance boosts when building lists. |
| A Toolbar button is available to exit the program. Right
click on the Toolbar and select "Choose Buttons" to enable this feature. |
| A Flip Bar now appears on the Edit Panel and Edit Sound windows (see General
Changes). |
| Rebuilding the display after a panel status filter change
is now faster. |
Import Addons Window
| A Flip Bar now appears on this window (see General
Changes). |
| CONTROL-W now works as a shortcut to the Work With Addons
function. |
| A Toolbar button can open this window. Right click on the
Toolbar and select "Choose Buttons" to enable this feature. |
Toolbar
| Toolbar buttons are now customizable! You can choose
which buttons to display and rearrange their order on the toolbar. |
| Right click on the toolbar and select
Choose Buttons to
customize the toolbar. You can also use the Customize window (press
Choose
Buttons under Appearance Options). |
| Added some new buttons: Import Addons, Work With Installed
Addons, Addon History, and Exit. |
Work With Addons Window
| A Flip Bar now appears on this window (see General
Changes). |
| You can limit the addons shown by Date Installed. For
example, you can show only addons installed in the past week. |
| A series of removals can now be aborted. Click the
progress bar at the bottom of the window to cancel a removal. |
| You can also click Installed on the Toolbar to open this
window while displaying only installed addons. Right click on the Toolbar
and select "Choose Buttons" to enable this feature. |
Improvements and Changes in Version 5.5.7
Addon Importing
| Streamlined the Import Options window by removing some
confusing options. The default option for "Include non-critical files (e.g.
Readme.txt files)?" is now Yes. |
| Added confirmation for group removal. |
| Pressing the DELETE key on addon import screen now
activates the "Remove from group" action. |
Addon Installation
| Improved the installation of aircraft skin/repaint
addons. New repaints will automatically default to the next available
texture "slot" (i.e. if Texture.2 is the last slot, a new repaint will be
slotted for Texture.3). |
| Improved the automatic selection of pictures to represent
aircraft and panel addons. |
| Improved automatic pulling of text from file_id.diz files
to fill in an addon's name and description. |
| Better support for aircraft paint kit texture files. |
| Various other minor improvements to make installation go
more smoothly. |
Addon Installation Wizard–Select Picture Window
| A few right-click functions related to installing addons
were incorrectly being offered on this screen. These were removed. |
| Double clicking on a picture now selects it. |
Edit Aircraft Window
| Added a new aircraft model texture validation check. |
| The previous item in the Aircraft list will now be
selected after you delete an aircraft variant. |
| Improved effects file validation. |
| The aircraft filter bar, even when turned off, would
sometimes appear near the bottom of the window. This has been corrected. |
Fixes
| Fixed a rare "Overflow" error that could occur in the
Select Addon Files window (or Browse Files window) when extremely large zip
files were selected. |
| Fixed a bug in Edit Aircraft, Edit Panels and Edit Sounds
where renaming a folder could result cause a permanent cursor switch into an
hourglass. |
| Fixed a bug in Import Addons where two messages were not
being show properly. |
| Fixed a bug that would cause panel gauge CAB files to be
incorrectly installed to the wrong folder during an aircraft install, when
you modified the aircraft installation folder. |
| Fixed a bug in the Select Folder window where sometimes
nothing would happen after making a selection and pressing the Select
button. |
General Changes
| Pressing the Delete key when an item in a ListView is
selected now deletes or removes that item, if possible. |
| The Tools menu option "Clear Default Aircraft and Panel
Pictures" is now "Clear Default Addon Pictures". The
option "Reload Default Aircraft and Panel Pictures" is now "Reload Default
Addon Pictures". |
| Added a shortcut key (CONTROL-W) that allows you to
quickly open a Work With Addons window for the selected items. This feature
was added to Edit Aircraft, Edit Panels and Edit Sounds. |
| The Rename Folder window can now be resized and the
program will remember your preference next time. |
| Included an updated starting database so Addit! Pro will
no longer update the database during the first run. |
Help System
| New help topic: Designating Target Folders. |
| Updated help topics covering all changes made in this
release. Updated Keyboard Shortcuts. |
Improvements and Changes in Version 5.5.5
Addon Installation
| Cascading style sheet definitions are no longer treated
as texture files. |
| Added code enhancements to improve the installation of
some addons and file types. |
| During installation of an addon having both an original
panel.cfg and an alias panel.cfg, where the alias points to the original,
Addit! Pro will automatically update the alias during installation to ensure
it always points to the original, no matter where you install the original
panel. |
Addon Management
| Effects texture bitmap files located in Flight
Simulator's global texture folder were being incorrectly reported as
missing. |
Edit Aircraft Window
| Added an Import Addon feature to the aircraft list's
right-click context menu. This feature allows you to import the selected
aircraft into Addit! Pro's database. |
| If you try to work with an aircraft that is not in Addit!
Pro's database, the program will now offer to import it for you. |
| Changing or Clearing the panel picture when the
underlying panel is simply a reference to a real panel will now process the
real panel directly, instead of issuing a "move to the real panel then try
again" message. |
| The program now remembers the last folder accessed when
you browsed for a new aircraft picture. |
| Added a few new context menu options under a new menu
called "Aircraft Configuration". These options are: "Open Aircraft.cfg",
"Open Model.cfg", "Open Checklist", "Open Reference", "Show Aircraft
Configuration Errors" and "Suppress Aircraft Configuration Errors".
Likewise, "Open Panel.cfg" and "Open Sound.cfg" now exist under their
respective configuration menus. |
Edit Panels Window
| Added an Import Addon feature to the panel list's
right-click context menu. This feature allows you to import the selected
panels into Addit! Pro's database. |
| If you try to work with a panel that is not in Addit!
Pro's database, the program will now offer to import it for you. |
| Changing or Clearing the panel picture when the
underlying panel is simply a reference to a real panel will now process the
real panel directly, instead of issuing a "move to the real panel then try
again" message |
| The program now remembers the last folder accessed when
you browsed for a new panel picture. |
Edit Sounds Window
| Added an Import Addon feature to the sound list's
right-click context menu. This feature allows you to import the selected
sound packages into Addit! Pro's database. |
| If you try to work with a sound that is not in Addit!
Pro's database, the program will now offer to import it for you. |
Fixes
| Fixed a bug in Import Addons where two messages were not
being show properly. |
| Fixed a bug in Edit Aircraft, Edit Panels and Edit Sounds
where renaming a folder could result cause a permanent cursor switch into an
hourglass.
Fixed a potential cause of an "Out of stack space" error
in the Select Folder window. |
| Fixed a bug that could create a zero-length aircraft.cfg
under certain circumstances. This might occur when reinstalling an aircraft
skin/texture set from the File Cabinet. |
| Fixed an issue that could cause some XML gauges to be
installed to the global gauges folder instead of a panel folder. |
| Fixed a problem that could, in rare cases, cause a
"subscript out of range" error. |
| Addressed a few other minor issues. |
General Changes
| The Optimize Database window now features a "Thorough
repair" option. Use this option if Addit! Pro's database becomes damaged and
the self-repair mechanism is unable to resolve the problems. |
| Addit! Pro now checks the integrity of its database on
startup and offers to fix any problems it finds. |
| When pasting a picture from the Windows Clipboard into an
image control, you will no longer be prompted for confirmation if the
current image is empty. |
| The right-click context menu option called "Set Aircraft
Picture from Clipboard" has been renamed "Paste from Clipboard" to be more
conventional. This change was made to "Set Panel Picture from Clipboard",
too. |
| Made a few more general performance improvements. |
| Zip error reporting has been enhanced to provide more
detail in error messages. |
Help System
| Reworked the sections covering how to select addon files
and added a Getting Started area. |
| Added a new Tutorial guide: How to Install an Addon (a
basic overview of the installation process). |
Work With Addons Window
| If there are no addons in Addit! Pro's database when you
open the Work With Addons window, a button appears allowing you to import
some. |
| Performing a task on several addons in the Work With
Addons window resulted in annoying mouse cursor flutter so that has been
fixed. |
| Some addon-level tasks (e.g. Copy to Folder) were
generating a number of annoying pop-up dialog boxes when files were missing,
sometimes with no option to cancel or respond "OK to all". These dialogs
have been removed altogether (missing files are listed on the Reporting
Results window shown after a task completes). |
Improvements and Changes in Version 5.5.3
Addon Import Process
| Bitmap textures are now imported along with the effects files that use them (an
effects file is a ".fx" file that specifies one or more bitmap textures needed
to create the effect). |
| Made two changes to boost addon loading performance. |
Addon Installation
Scenery Installation
| Scenery files, such as custom A.I. traffic, that have zip entries pointing to
Flight Simulator's Scenery\World\Scenery folder will now install to that location by
default. |
| Some scenery exclusion files (.xcl) were improperly defaulting to the scenery
texture folder instead of the scenery folder. This has been fixed. |
| Static aircraft textures are now installed to the addon's scenery folder if
specified that way by the addon (before they were installed to Flight Simulator's global
scenery folder by default). |
| Scenery files are now organized by group. For instance, if a scenery addon
includes several sets of BGL files where each set is designed to go its own scenery
folder, you can easily accomplish that by specifying a unique scenery folder for each
group (see Addon Installation Wizard-Configure Scenery Window below). |
Other
| Improved the installation of addons that include multiple, similar aircraft.cfg
files. Improved the installation of MP3 audio files. |
| Addit! Pro can automatically name and describe addons based on an included
"file_id.diz" file. However, because not everyone names this file exactly the
same way, some forms were not processed. Now all forms of "file_id.diz" files
are now considered where before only a file strictly named "file_id.diz" was
read. |
| Improved Addit! Pro's ability to automatically determine an addon name and give
it a description. |
Addon Installation Wizard - Configure Aircraft Window
| Miscellaneous aircraft textures are now shown here instead of on the Configure
Scenery/Misc. Textures window. |
Addon Installation Wizard - Configure Scenery Window
| Added a new option to install scenery to "the folders determined by Addit!
Pro". This is the new default option. |
| The Quick Picks button in the Set Installation Folder step now lists items based
on your choice of default scenery installation folder (See Customize below). |
| Tabs are now used to present scenery groups (see Addon Installation above). Click
on a tab to work with scenery files in a particular group. |
| When you select a custom installation folder for a scenery group, your choice of
folder is now used to name the scenery library title so you don't have to waste time
resetting the title. |
Addon Management
| MP3 audio files are now treated like WAV sound files and handled accordingly. |
| Improved handling of effects (.fx) files and their underlying bitmap textures. |
Addon Removal
| Addit! Pro now analyzes and cross-checks all effects file (.fx) dependencies as
well as underlying bitmap textures during the removal of these files. |
Customize Window
| Moved the option called "In tabbed displays show the 'All' tab first"
from Addon Installation to Appearance, under the Tabs category. This option now applies to
the new Reporting (Results) window since it has been upgraded to a tabbed display (see
General, below). |
| Split the category "Addon Installation Automation Options" into
"Addon Installation Automation Options 1" and "Addon Installation
Automation Options 2" to accommodate new options. |
| You can now specify a default installation folder for scenery addon files. For
instance, if you usually install your scenery under "Flight Simulator\Addon
Scenery\", you can specify that as the default folder. So if you installed a scenery
addon called Denver International Airport Enhancements, Addit! Pro would default the
custom installation folder to "Addon Scenery\Denver International Airport
Enhancements\". The default installation folder is also used in for scenery Quick
Picks. |
Edit Aircraft Window
| The aircraft configuration report now lists missing effects (.fx files), missing
effects bitmap textures (.bmp files) and missing MPEG-3 sounds (.mp3 audio files). |
| When viewing an aircraft's configuration report, modeling aliasing (where an
aircraft's model.cfg file just points to another aircraft's model configuration) no longer
produces the message, "The aircraft's model configuration file does not specify a
normal model file". |
Fixes
| Improved the truncation/abbreviation of long text contained within certain
display controls. This was not working perfectly for controls inside frames and often
resulted in cutting off really long text. Now, really long text that is too long to fully
display is abbreviated properly. |
| In the Configure Panel window the Quick Picks button, when the Customization
option "Place panels in a subfolder named" was unchecked, was displaying
inappropriate items. Same story with the Configure Sound window. Both of these issues have
been fixed. |
| Fixed an issue in the panel configuration report where a texture displayed with a
double extension (e.g. "texture.BMP.bmp") was incorrectly reported as missing. |
| Fixed an assortment of other minor issues. |
General Changes
Results (Reporting) Window
| Enhanced the Reporting (Results) window to display results based on categories
represented by tabs. For instance, the Addon Installation Wizard report is now organized
by these categories: files Installed, Not Installed, Special Actions and Failed Special
Actions. An All tab includes messages from all categories. Organizing this screen using
categories makes it easy to identify files that were not installed, scenery library areas
that were not removed, etc. |
| A Save Report button has been added to save the report to a file along with a
Copy to Clipboard button to save it to the Windows Clipboard. |
Other
| Browser thumbnail files are now treated as "other" files instead of
general textures so they will appear in the Configure Other window instead of the
Configure Scenery/Misc. textures window. Log (.log) files are now treated as document
files. |
| After the Optimize Database operation completes a final status message now
appears in the status bar. |
| Improved zip file display performance in the zip file item lists and addressed a
performance issue with all ListView display controls where using Shift-PgDn or Shift-End
to select large numbers of files resulted in slow selection. |
| Improved performance when moving from item to item in the zip file item list when
the source zip file contains a large number of files including imbedded zip files.
|
| Added a Report a Bug option under the Help menu. Use this option to submit a bug
report via a web page or by email. |
| Adjusted how columns are automatically sized to show their entire contents
(before a column might sometimes be a bit too narrow but now all columns should be wide
enough to show their longest value). |
Help System
| Added a new topic: Submit a Bug Report. |
| Updated several other topics and added new links. |
Improvements and Changes in Version 5.5.1
Addon Installation
| Enhanced addon installation for several types of addons. |
| Added an option to prevent installation of scenery.dat files. These files often
cause duplicate file conflict issues and Flight Simulator rebuilds them dynamically as
needed. This option is enabled by default. |
| Gauges with incorrect/badly designed zip folder entries that map to a panel now
install to the proper locations. |
| Increased addon installation performance. |
Addon Installation Wizard
| All addon file lists now show the Zip Folder Entry column by default. |
| The Installation Wizard now guides you better with more helpful messages. |
Addon Installation Wizard - Select Addon Files Window
| The current addon folder is now used as the default folder when you press the Add
New Favorite folder button in the Favorites tab. |
Addon Installation Wizard - Configure Scenery/Misc. Textures Window
| Tabs are now used to represent various groups of texture files that are not shown
in any other step. |
| Added a new Quick Picks button next to the installation folder field. For
skin/repaint textures, pressing the Quick Picks will produce a list of compatible aircraft
that could receive the new skin/paint scheme. |
Addon Import Process
| You can now add a file to an import addon group even if it is outside of the
\Aircraft folder structure. |
Addon Management
Texture Skin/repaints
| Added the ability to easily install texture skins/repaints and apply them to
existing aircraft. Texture skin addons (also called "repaints" and sometimes
just "textures") are texture file sets that provide a different external paint
scheme for an aircraft. Some popular online addon sites offer dedicated sections for
skin/repaint addons. For example, AVSIM.com has a category called "Aircraft Repaints,
Textures & Modifications". Other sites like FlightSim.com offer repaints among
their standard categories. |
| Addit! Pro fully automates the process of installing a texture skin/repaint addon:
 | Addit! Pro scans your aircraft to see which are compatible with the skin/repaint
addon and designates a new aircraft variant accordingly. |
| An aircraft picture is automatically selected for you if one is included with the
addon. |
| The aircraft exclusion list ensures Addit! Pro will not waste time scanning
undesirable aircraft. |
| Several skin/repaint sets stored inside a single zip file can be easily installed
and applied to the same aircraft or to several planes, all in one step. |
|
| Use the Configure Scenery/Misc. Textures window to customize the skin/repaint
installation:
| For your installation method choose "an existing or new texture
folder". |
| Check the box labeled "Create aircraft variant for use with these
textures". |
| Press Next and select the aircraft to receive the new textures. Tip: Use the new
Quick Picks button next to the installation folder field to select compatible aircraft
that might receive the new skin/paint scheme. |
| Press Next and specify aircraft variant details (title, variation name, panel and
sound). |
| Press Next a final time to designate a picture to represent the aircraft variant. |
|
| Addit! Pro leaves existing aircraft intact and creates a new aircraft variant
automatically. |
| The new variant will use the new textures and the panel and sound package of the
base aircraft in the aircraft set by default. You can select a different panel and sound
package if you wish. |
| For more information open the Help system and read the topic, "Getting
Started with Skin/repaint Addons". |
Other
| Several improvements to gauge installation also appear in this release including
improved installation and removal performance. |
| Improved automatic selection of aircraft and panel pictures. |
| Updated the addon import process to pickup gauge files in an aircraft panel
folder. |
Customize Window
| Added an option to prevent installation of scenery.dat files. These files often
cause duplicate file conflict issues and Flight Simulator rebuilds them dynamically as
needed. This option is enabled by default. |
Edit Aircraft Window
| Addit! Pro now detects out-of-continuous order aircraft section problems and
presents the error in the aircraft's configuration report. An aircraft defined by a
section that is out-of-continuous order will not appear in Flight Simulator. E.g. if an
aircraft.cfg file specifies [fltsim.0] then [fltsim.2], the second aircraft will not
appear in Flight Simulator. In some cases Addit! Pro will automatically repair this
problem. |
Aircraft Variants
| Quickly add a new variant to any existing aircraft. To do so, select an aircraft,
right click, pick Aircraft Variant followed by Add. |
| New variants are based on the selected aircraft but a pop-up appears allowing you
to customize the details. |
| Adding a new variant does not change the original aircraft in any way and you can
remove a variant quite easily. |
| To remove an existing variant select an aircraft, right click, pick Aircraft
Variant followed by Remove. |
| Open the Help system and refer to the topic "How to Add a New Aircraft
Variant" for more information. |
Fixes
| Fixed a problem in Edit Aircraft where using the Rename Folder function on an
aircraft containing several panel folders might cause a harmless but annoying database
error dialog. |
| Some sub folders underneath Flight Simulator's \Gauges folder were not being
deleted properly during addon removal. |
| Fixed a problem with gauge handling where some gauges were not being processed
properly. |
| Fixed a problem in the A.I. Traffic Manager where a large flight plan text file
could generate a runtime error. |
| Addit! Pro prevents the removal of the aircraft used by default flight. This
process kicked in even when simply copying or removing addon records, preventing those
actions from happening. This has been corrected. |
| Fixed a display problem in the Configure A.I. Traffic window where, if the All
tab was shown first, the A.I. Traffic controls mistakenly appeared. |
| Fixed a problem in the Configure A.I. Traffic window where, if a flight plan
already exists, it was not properly flagged "Do Not Install". |
| Fixed a potential problem in Select Addon Files that in rare cases could cause an
'ActiveX component can't create object' or ' Class does not support Automation or does not
support expected interface' error. |
| Fixed a quirk in Select Addon Files where if an image file was selected in the
zip file list, the image preview was not always shown. |
| Fixed a bug in Quick Picks where if a choice like "Addon Installed 05/1/2004
4:50:39 PM" was selected, no folder could be made because of the invalid characters
contained in the name (/ and :). |
| Fixed a setup/distribution problem where in certain situations when you tried to
launch Addit! Pro, the Windows Installer would appear asking for the program's MSI file. |
| Fixed an "Overflow" bug that could happen when Addit! Pro read some
very long text files within an addon. |
| Fixed several other minor issues. |
General Changes
| Improved zip file error handling. |
| Added a new menu option in Addit! Pro's Addons menu called "Work With
Aircraft Skins and Repaints" that allows you to do just that. |
| Added a right-click "Copy to Clipboard" option to all picture controls.
Use it to copy any displayed image to the Windows clipboard. |
| When working with aircraft, panels and sounds Addit! Pro may create backups of
configuration files. If an addon having such a backup configuration file was moved to the
File Cabinet, the backup configuration file was ignored and left installed. It is now
integrated into the addon. |
| All versions of Addit! Pro can now make full use of all scenery installation
options. |
| Improved addon installation and addon removal performance and sped up a few other
functions as well. |
| Addressed a performance issue with all ListView display controls where using
Shift-PgDn or Shift-End to select large numbers of files resulted in slow selection. |
| Improved performance when moving from item to item in the zip file item list when
the source zip file contains a large number of files including imbedded zip files. |
| Improved zip file display performance in the zip file item lists. |
| Improved file display performance in file item lists. |
Help System
| Added several new topics: Getting Started with Skin/repaint Addons, How to
Install an Aircraft Texture Skin/repaint Addon, How to Add a New Aircraft Variant, and Add
Variant Window. |
| Updated several other topics and added new links and glossary terms. |
| Made a distinction between original definitions and original configurations and
renamed a few functions accordingly and updated the help system. |
Work With Addons Window
| Added a new category called Aircraft Skins and Repaints to the category Filter
box. This box is located at the bottom of the window. Use this category to show only your
aircraft skin texture sets and repaint packages. |
| Reduced the amount of mouse cursor "fluttering" when moving from addon
to addon. |
Improvements and Changes in Version 5.4.1
Addon Import Process
| Improved aircraft loading performance. |
| Added an option to avoid importing addons that were previously imported. Check
the box called "Do not include previously imported addons" in the Import Options
window. |
| Rather than showing all addon files bunched together in a single list (which
quickly became overwhelming), the Import Addons window is now divided into two parts, an
Addon list and an Addon file list much like the Work With Addons window. It's now much
easier to locate and modify individual addons. |
| Effects (.fx) files are now included in the import process. |
| The addon group description is now filled in automatically for aircraft. |
| You can now add a file to any import addon group even if it is outside of the
\Aircraft folder structure. |
Addon Installation Wizard
| Added "Quick Picks" buttons to all Addon Installation Wizard windows
that feature a Change Folder button. Pressing Quick Picks allows access to a list of
choices for selecting a folder or name. The items presented are based on the addon's
configuration, text files as well as the folder from which you install the addon. For
example, if you install a custom sound addon and in the Configure Sound window you select
"install to a custom sound folder", then press Quick Picks you will see several
possible installation folders. |
Set Installation Options Window
| The addon source folder name will now appear in the list of pre-determined names.
Press the button to the right of the Addon Name field to access this list. So if you
install an aircraft from, say, a folder called "Focke-Wulf Ta283", this term
appears in the name list and you can opt to name your addon based on that term. |
Addon Management
| Added support for gauge CAB files present within panel folders. |
| Effects (.fx) files are now considered in several additional processes. |
| Improved installation of effects texture bitmaps. |
| Created a means to exclude aircraft from the Edit Aircraft and Import Addons
windows. Use "AExclude.txt", located in Addit! Pro's \Settings folder, to
specify aircraft to exclude. Aircraft can be excluded by exact folder name or by a prefix
or suffix. Access this filter in the Customize window, under Aircraft Options. |
| Improved handling of DLL files installed to \Modules. |
| Added new items for Quick Picks including the name of the folder used to install
the addon and the name of the source zip file. |
| Addit! Pro now prevents removal of the aircraft used by the default flight. |
| Improved automatic selection of aircraft and panel pictures. |
Customize Window
| Added a new section under Aircraft Options called Aircraft Picture Presentation.
You can opt to display aircraft and panel pictures:
| Side by side - the panel picture is always shown to the right of the aircraft
picture. Use if you prefer larger images. |
| One above the other - the panel picture is always shown beneath the aircraft
picture. Use if you prefer a wider Aircraft List. |
| Automatic - a combination of the above based on the window size. "Side by
side" is used until the window is large enough to switch to "One above the
other". |
|
| Added the option to exclude MyTraffic aircraft. Visit the Aircraft category and
check "Exclude MyTraffic aircraft". |
| Added a Customize button to exclude aircraft from the Edit Aircraft and Import
Addons windows. Aircraft can be excluded by exact folder name or by a prefix or suffix.
Press Customize to open the filter for complete instructions. |
Edit Aircraft, Edit Panels, Edit Sounds Windows
| Redesigned these windows to show more detail, eliminate dead space and to be more
functional at higher screen resolutions. |
| Aspect ratios on all images are now correct regardless of window size. |
| Configuration file validation reporting is now integrated into the window itself,
accessible by visiting the Report tab. If you prefer the old pop-up style (or if you want
to view only a specific type of report) just click on one of the View Configuration Report
buttons. |
| Added a Validate option to specifically check the integrity
of the selected addon. |
Edit Aircraft Window
| Introduced an aircraft filter bar to the Edit Aircraft window. Use the filter bar
to display aircraft by manufacturer, model (type) and variation similar to how Flight
Simulator presents aircraft in its Select Aircraft window. |
| New options exist to control aircraft and panel pictures positioning. See
Customize for details. |
| Added validation of aircraft effects (.fx) files. |
| Improved aircraft loading performance. |
| The right click context menu structure is now better organized. |
| You can now always right click on an aircraft or panel image to modify it (before
this could only be done if something was shown, preventing you from using it to set an
image for the first time). |
| Added several shortcut keys:
| F6 - Change aircraft picture. |
| F7 - Change panel picture. |
| F9 - Assign new panel. |
| F10 - Assign new sound. |
|
Edit Panels Window
| Added a button in the Edit Panels window to open the selected panel configuration
file. |
| New options exist to control panel picture positioning. See Customize for
details. |
| You can now always right click on a panel image to modify it (before this could
only be done if something was shown, preventing you from using it to set an image for the
first time). |
| Added a shortcut key for setting pictures, F7. |
Edit Sounds Window
| Added a button in the Edit Sounds window to open the selected sound configuration
file. |
Fixes
| Fixed a problem installing aircraft model files and model configuration files
where the aircraft.cfg file specified they be installed to some subfolder beneath the
"Model\" folder. Applied the fix to other scenarios involving panels, sounds and
textures. |
| Sometimes during removal of an addon, some folders were not being deleted
properly. This happened only when the folders to be deleted were named a certain way. They
are now fully removed regardless of naming. |
| Fixed a display problem in Configure A.I. Traffic that reared its head when the
option to display the All tab first was enabled. |
| Fixed a display problem in the Configure A.I. Traffic window where, if the All
tab was shown first, the A.I. Traffic controls mistakenly appeared. |
| Fixed a problem in the Configure A.I. Traffic window where, if a flight plan
already exists, it was not properly flagged "Do Not Install". |
| Fixed a potential problem in Select Addon Files that in rare cases could cause an
'ActiveX component can't create object' or ' Class does not support Automation or does not
support expected interface' error. |
| Fixed a quirk in Select Addon Files where if an image file was selected in the
zip file list, the image preview was not always shown. |
| Fixed a bug in Quick Picks where if the choice "Addon Installed 11/1/2003
4:50:39 PM" was selected, no folder could be made because of the invalid characters
contained in the name (/ and :). |
General
| Program Information now displays your …\Documents and Settings path and your
…\Application Data path. |
| Added a means to work with multiple installations of Flight Simulator using
multiple installations of Addit! Pro. Normally, Addit! Pro searches the Windows Registry
to discover Flight Simulator's installation folder. Addit! Pro is then tied to that
installation. You can override this behavior to force a copy of Addit! Pro to work with a
second installation of Flight Simulator. See the new help topic "Using Addit! Pro
with Multiple Installations" for details. |
| The startup sound event works fine now under Windows XP and is enabled by
default. |
| Traffic Tools V2.02+ is now supported and required. If you have an older version
Addit! Pro will explain how to upgrade to 2.02+. |
| Under some Windows XP themes the buttons on the bottoms of many forms were too
close to the edge of the window. This has been fixed. |
| Added an option to the Tools menu called "Clear Default Aircraft and Panel
Pictures" to delete all stock aircraft and panel pictures. The previous, seldom used
option to clear all pictures was removed. |
| Increased the tolerance to zip files that generate recoverable warnings. |
| Improved gauge and texture installation. |
| When working with aircraft, panels and sounds Addit! Pro may create backups of
configuration files. If an addon having such a backup configuration file was moved to the
File Cabinet, the backup configuration file was ignored and left installed. It is now
integrated into the addon. |
Work With Addons Window
| Added a tabbed area displaying the addon files, description and details each on a
separate tab. |
Improvements and Changes in Version 5.3.3
| Under Windows 98 the A.I. Traffic Manager window could take a considerable amount
of time to close. Closing is now instant. |
| Sorting the flight plan list by Aircraft ID now provides accurate results. |
Improvements and Changes in Version 5.3.1
Addon Installation and Management
| Fully automatic installation and removal of AFCAD airport and facilities data
addons and Traffic Tools A.I. flight plan addons. |
| The Addon Installation Wizard includes a new Configure A.I. Traffic step to
manage the installation of airport and facilities data and A.I. flight plans. |
| Added a progress bar to the bottom of the Addon Installation
Wizard window to show progress when analyzing an addon. |
|
Addon Installation Wizard - Configure A.I. Traffic Window
| The new window allows you to specify how airport and facilities addons and A.I.
flight plan addons are installed. |
| Easily installs addons from multiple source text files (such as when flight plans
are specified across several TXT files). |
| Analyzes flight plans for errors. |
| Selectively install individual flight plans. |
| Identifies redundant flight plans and prevents them from being installed. |
| Presents flight plans in an easily readable format. For example "Flight plan
#6 appears when Flight Simulator's A.I. traffic threshold is set to 97% or higher. Beech
Baron 58 (AC#1, tail number N39112) flies this route every 12Hr and is designated an IFR
flight." |
| Shows you actual airport names in addition to airport IDs.
|
| Describe an entire flight plan in complete detail in an easily readable format. |
|
A.I. Traffic Manager Window
| This new window allows you to manage your A.I. aircraft and flight plans. |
| Work with flight plans associated with a specific aircraft or work with all
available flight plans (toggle the option "Link Flight Plan List with Selected
Aircraft"). |
| Selectively remove individual flight plans. |
| Validate flight plans to check them for errors. |
| Presents flight plans and legs in an easily readable format. For example
"Flight plan #6 appears when Flight Simulator's A.I. traffic threshold is set to 97%
or higher. Beech Baron 58 (AC#1, tail number N39112) flies this route every 12Hr and is
designated an IFR flight." |
| Shows you actual airport names in addition to airport IDs.
|
| Open any flight plan source text file. |
| Quick access to the source text file. |
| Describe a flight plan in complete detail in an easily readable format. |
|
Customize Window
| Created a new category for A.I. Traffic Management settings. |
| Specify the location of AFCAD and Traffic Tools (Addit! Pro will find them
automatically if installed to their default locations.) |
|
Fixes
| Fixed a bug where installing straight to the File Cabinet could result in saving
bad data for document files. |
| Fixed a problem validating sound configuration files. Some perfectly valid WAV
filename statements were being incorrectly reported as missing. |
| Fixed a problem in the Addon Removal Wizard where pressing Finish without first
visiting every step resulted in no action. |
| Fixed a problem in Work With Addons where if you selected a certain individual
addon file when the addon was in the File Cabinet, the result was an error. |
| Fixed a runtime error in the View Image window when you "grabbed" a
full-size image and moved it. |
|
General
| New main menu items to access the A.I. Traffic Manager, AFCAD and Traffic Tools
utilities, and Traffic Tools data files (aircraft.txt, airports.txt, flightplans.txt). See
the Tools menu. |
| New main menu items to work with airport and facilities addons and A.I. flight
plan addons. See the Addon menu. |
| Improved performance of many array searches. |
| When installing an addon directly to the File Cabinet no subfolder will be
created under \Addit! Pro\Addons, only under \Addit! Pro\Cabinet. |
| When moving an installed addon to the File Cabinet the subfolder under \Addit!
Pro\Addons will be deleted. |
| When reinstalling a File Cabinet addon the subfolder under \Addit! Pro\Cabinet
will be deleted. |
| Enhanced the performance of most ListView controls. |
|
Help
| Updated help system includes new topics covering A.I. management: Configure A.I.
Traffic Window, A.I. Traffic Manager, Glossary, How to Install an A.I. Flight Plan,
Getting Started with Traffic Tools, The A.I. flight plan I installed doesn't work, Getting
Started with AFCAD, How to Install an Airport and Facilities Data Addon, and A.I. Traffic
Management Options. |
| Most of these new topics include cross references. |
|
Work With Addons Window
| Added options to filter the display to show AFCAD addons and
Traffic Tools addons. |
|
The free utility suite AFCAD V1.3.2 or V1.4 is required to
install and remove airport and facilities data addons. To install and remove A.I. flight
plan addons, the free utility suite Traffic Tools V2.0.2 or better is required. Both
suites, written by Lee Swordy, are available at www.avsim.com
(search by author for "Lee Swordy").
AFCAD and AFInstaller Copyright © 2003 Lee Swordy.
Traffic Tools was created by Lee Swordy.
Improvements and Changes in Version 5.2.3
Addon Import Process
| New options are available to prevent Project AI aircraft and SquawkBox Common
Shapes Library aircraft from being imported. See the Customize Window section below. |
|
Addon Installation
| When installing scenery to a "new scenery folder" (i.e. a custom
folder), and when using the automatic Scenery Library options, the Scenery Library Title
now defaults to the addon name for convenience. |
| Added a button next to Scenery Library Title to pick from among several possible
Scenery Library Title names. |
| Panels and sound packages may now be installed automatically without having to
first assign a folder name. This means you may not experience a "red dot"
preventing you from quickly installing a panel or sound. If the folder name chosen by
Addit! Pro is not to your liking you can change it later using the new Rename Folder
feature. See Edit Panels Window and Edit Sounds Window below for more information. |
| You can now install panels and sound packages directly to a designated sub folder
to better organize them. For example, you can place all of your panels in a folder called
"Panels" or "FSFSConv". See Customize Window section below. |
|
Addon Management
| A panel configuration file that does not define a 2D file but does define a 3D
panel is now treated as an original panel definition. No error will appear in the
configuration file report. |
|
Customize Window
| Added an option to install panels to a designated sub folder (e.g.
"FSFSConv", "Panels"). Look in the Addon Installation Automation
Options section. |
| Added an option to install sound packages to a designated sub folder (e.g.
"FSFSConv", "Sounds"). Look in the Addon Installation Automation
Options section. |
| Reorganized the Addon Installation Automation Options section and created a new
Aircraft Options section. |
| Added an option to exclude Project AI aircraft from the import process and Edit
Aircraft window. |
| Added an option to exclude SquawkBox CSL aircraft from the import process and
Edit Aircraft window. |
|
Edit Aircraft Window
| Added the ability to rename aircraft folders. For instance, you can rename an
aircraft folder called "B-52" to "B-52 Stratofortress". Panels and
sounds that alias the one you rename are automatically updated as is Addit! Pro's
database. To use this feature, open Edit Aircraft, select a plane, right click then pick
Rename Folder. |
| New options are available to hide Project AI and SquawkBox Common Shapes Library
aircraft from view. See the Customize Window section. |
|
Edit Panels Window
| Added the ability to rename and move panel folders. For instance, you can rename
a panel folder called "B-52 Panel" to "B-52 Stratofortress Panel".
Panels that alias the one you change are automatically updated as is Addit! Pro's
database. To use this feature, open Edit Panels, select a panel, right click then pick
Rename/Move Folder. |
|
Edit Sounds Window
| Added the ability to view sound event names alongside sound filenames. |
| Added an option to open the selected sound WAV file. |
| Added the ability to rename and move sound folders. For instance, you can rename
a panel folder called "B-52 Sounds" to "B-52 Stratofortress Sounds".
Sounds that alias the one you change are automatically updated as is Addit! Pro's
database. To use this feature, open Edit Sounds, select a sound package, right click then
pick Rename/Move Folder. |
|
Fixes
| Corrected a rare "subscript out of range" error when removing addons. |
| Some MDI child windows, when maximized, were not resizing correctly when moving
from window to window. |
| Corrected "Object variable or With block variable not set" issue when
removing sound addons from the file cabinet. |
|
General
| Improved disk file I/O performance of Edit Sounds, Edit Panels and Import Addons.
These windows will load faster than before. Made a couple of other performance
improvements. |
| When adding a new Favorite folder in the Select Addon Files window or Browse
Folder window, the last folder used will be remembered. |
|
Improvements and Changes in Version 5.2.1
Addon Installation Wizard - Configure Options Window
| Added a button to quickly pick alternate addon names from list of available
names. This list includes potentional addon names from any included file_id.diz file. |
|
Addon Management
| Added an option to name the addon using the header found in an included
file_id.diz file. |
| Added an option to describe the addon using the description found in an included
file_id.diz file. |
| Added an option to automatically assign image files to aircraft and panels during
installation. When screenshots or other image files are included with an addon, Addit! Pro
will attempt to use them for aircraft and panel pictures. |
|
Customize Window
| Completely redesigned this window to better organize and present program options
and to allow for more of them. |
| The new categories are:
| General Options, Appearance Options, Startup Options. Addon Installation Options,
Automation Options, Reinstallation Options. Addon Removal Options |
|
| Added a Default button (in addition to the Default All button) to reset only the
settings for the current page. Also added an Apply button. |
|
Fixes
| Made a change to bitmap image processing because XML gauge bitmaps, when
installed with scenery, were defaulting to global texture destination folder. |
|
General
| Deleting addons from the File Cabinet is now considerably faster. |
| Eliminated flicker/jerkiness during resizing of windows. |
|
Help System
| Rewrote Addit! Pro's Help and converted everything to HTML Help format. HTML Help
has many benefits over the older WinHelp system:
| Full Text Search pane with search term highlighting. |
| Table of contents pane for easy navigation. |
| Index pane and a favorites pane. |
| Smaller compiled help file. |
| Improved formatting, font sizing and use of tables. |
| Improved printing features. |
|
| Added several new help topics that explain how to install various types of
addons, change panels/sounds and otherwise get the most out of Addit! Pro. |
| Redesigned many help topics. Now, when help is accessed from a screen, you are
given a list of available help topics instead of being assaulted with technical details of
the window in question. |
|
Set Picture Window
| The Set Picture Window has been redesigned. This window is used to associate a
picture with an aircraft or panel during installation. |
| Performance has been dramatically improved (no more long load times). |
| You can now filter the images by category (Show All Images, Show Only GIFs and
JPGs, Show Unmapped BMPs and Show Mapped BMPs). |
| The file list can be sorted and you can view file date/time stamps, zip folder
entries and other details. |
|
Improvements and Changes in Version 5.1.7
Fixes
| Fixed a problem reading a certain type of gauge statement from a panel.cfg file.
A gauge statement without a coordinate specification would produce an "Invalid
procedure call or argument" error. |
|
Improvements and Changes in Version 5.1.5
Addon Management
| Changed the default option for overwriting files from "unconditionally"
to "only if newer". |
| Improved the panel configuration file missing gauge reporting. |
| Uncompressed gauges defined by XML are now handled correctly. |
| Leftover Scenery.dat and Filelist.dat files are now deleted during scenery
removals. |
|
Addon Installation Wizard
| Scenario: You mark something 'Do Not Install' in an Addon File Box then press OK.
You go back to a previous step and make a change that affects the file you had marked 'Do
Not Install'. When you return to the first window you see that file is now marked
'Install' again. The correct setting is now retained. |
| For steps with file problems, the first showing of that step window now presents
those problems immediately. Before you had to press OK to see them. |
| When a file is selected and its status or target folder changed, the related
Addon File Box is refreshed and file problems are automatically re-evaluated. |
| Made some minor cosmetic changes to some windows. |
| When first reconfiguring an Addon File Box to present file problem information,
the Zip Folder Entry column now appears along with Problem Details and Item Number. This
should make it easier to troubleshoot file problems. |
|
Fixes
| Configuration file entries prefixed with a slash were not being handled
correctly. |
| Fixed a problem with aircraft bitmap textures defaulting to Not Selected when no
panel.cfg was included. |
| Fixed a few other minor (and very rare) problems. |
|
Setup
| Created a new installer. The new Addit! Pro distribution features better
installation, a self-repair capability, cleaner removal and decreased package size. |
|
Improvements and Changes in Version 5.1.3
Addon Installation Wizard
| Added the ability to install multiple aircraft, panels, sounds, etc. in one
phase. These situations are handled automatically:
| Several aircraft defined by one or more aircraft.cfg files. |
| Any number of model/texture sets defined by one or more aircraft.cfg files. |
| Several panels defined by one or more panel.cfg files. |
| Several sounds defined by one or more sound.cfg files.
Multiple aircraft/panels/sounds are shown in their respective steps using a tabbed
interface. They are no longer considered "duplicate file problems". |
|
| Eliminated the Resolve Conflicts Window (with extreme prejudice) and overhauled
the conflict resolution process. Duplicate filenames are no longer considered a problem
unless all of them have the same target (installation) folder. Addon file problems are now
handled in their respective steps as needed. |
| You can now rename files globally. |
| Simplified the installation options for a number of wizard steps. |
|
Addon Installation Wizard - Configure Aircraft Window
| Added a tabbed interface to handle multiple aircraft. |
| Added an "Other" tab for aircraft files that don't belong in any
particular aircraft tab. Added an "All" tab that lists all aircraft files. |
| Added new columns to the Addon File Box: Zip Folder Entry, Problem Details, Item
Number, Date and Size. |
| You can install individual aircraft in their own folders. |
| You can assign pictures to individual aircraft. |
| Textures belonging to an aircraft are now shown here to make it easier to
identify what belongs to an aircraft. |
|
Addon Installation Wizard Configure Panel Window
| Added a tabbed interface to handle multiple panels. |
| Added a "Gauges" tab to show only gauge files. Added an
"Other" tab for panel files that don't belong in any particular panel tab. Added
an "All" tab that lists all panel files. |
| Added new columns to the Addon File Box: Zip Folder Entry, Problem Details, Item
Number, Date and Size. |
| You can install individual panels in their own folders. |
| You can assign pictures to individual panels. |
| Textures belonging to a panel are now shown here to make it easier to identify
what belongs to a panel. |
|
Addon Installation Wizard Configure Sound Window
| Added a tabbed interface to handle multiple sounds. |
| Added an "Other" tab for sound files that don't belong in any
particular sound tab. Added an "All" tab that lists all sound files. |
| Added new columns to the Addon File Box: Zip Folder Entry, Problem Details, Item
Number, Date and Size. |
| You can install individual sounds in their own folders. |
|
Addon Installation Wizard Configure Other Window
| New installation step! Addon files not covered in the other steps are shown here
(e.g. adventures, briefings, videos, documentation, image files, etc.). |
| Includes tabbed categories for "Documentation", "Other" files
and "All" of them combined. |
| Includes options to deal with addon file problems. |
|
Addon Import Process
| Aircraft are imported wholesale now meaning one aircraft.cfg equals one imported
aircraft. Before, aircraft were imported by variant, which meant one aircraft.cfg might
equate to several imported aircraft. So, for example, importing the stock Cessna 182S now
produces one complete aircraft instead of one for the 182S, one for the first paint
scheme, one for the second paint scheme, etc. |
|
Browse/Select Folder Window
| Eliminated the confirmation dialog when you use the window to create/select a new
folder. |
|
Customize Window (Program Options)
| Added an option to show the "All" tab first in Addon Installation
Wizard windows featuring tabbed displays. |
| Added a new option called "Confirm Actions On Multiple Items". If
checked, whenever you perform an action on more than one item you will be asked for
confirmation before proceeding. |
| Added options to always ignore thumbs.db files and pspbrwse.jbf files.
|
| Added an option called "Enable drive pull-down controls". These
controls may appear on screens showing drives, folders and files (eg. Browse Folders
dialog). |
| Added an option called "Allow folder tree view controls to display all
namespaces and drives". This allows folder tree view controls to display everything
on your system (My Computer, My Documents, all drives, etc.). When unchecked, folder tree
view controls are restricted to the current drive. The folder tree view controls appear on
screens showing drives, folders and files (eg. Browse Folders dialog). |
|
Edit/Select Panels and Sounds Windows
| The mouse cursor now turns into a crosshair over configuration fields to indicate
that clicking on these fields will open the corresponding files. |
| When using the filter, if there are no items to display, the configuration fields
and picture, though disabled, still show information from the previously valid selected
item. This has been remedied. |
|
Fixes
| When you pressed Next or Previous on the Addon Installation Wizard or Addon
Removal Wizard, the focus on the column of command buttons would become out of sync with
the current step. They are now synchronized. |
| Fixed a theoretical problem in the Work With Addons window where clicking on a
file then selecting some action for that file might cause an error depending on the
situation. |
| Fixed a bug in the Select Files window where opening document files from the
document list view might cause an error if the view mode was "favorites" or
"recent". |
| Fixed an overflow error in the Browse Folders and Select Files screens. This
error would appear when the total file size of all files in a folder exceeded a certain
value. |
| Under Windows XP, for some reason all list view controls, when either horizontal
or vertical scroll bars were shown, had double borders around the edge of the control.
This is been fixed. |
| Fixed a rare "subscript out of range" error that could occur during
installation from a zip file. |
| Fixed a problem reading the last section of an INI file. In an aircraft.cfg, for
example, if the [fltsim.x] section was at the tail end of the file it was not read
properly. |
| Fixed a problem with invalid pictures causing hard errors and abnormal program
termination. |
| When a large number of items were selected in many list view controls, certain
code was being executed over and over again needlessly hurting performance. This is no
longer the case. |
|
General
| When an HTML document is opened from a zip file, Addit! Pro also extracts other
HTML pages and images that are linked to or shown on that HTML document. Sometimes the
main HTML document expects these additional files to exist in sub folders. Addit! Pro now
extracts these dependent files into their proper locations so the first HTML file can be
viewed as designed. |
| Improved performance of internal zip processing. |
| When displaying the description text from an aircraft.cfg file's Description
section, symbols are now converted into proper formatting (tabs, new lines, etc.). |
| During a long process, interactivity with the window is now prevented until the
process completes. |
| Improved gauge file installation. Gauges with sub folder requirements are now
installed to the proper locations. Enhanced support for gauges inside cabinet archives
(CAB files) and gauge collection files. |
| Switched from accessing the zip library via an OCX control interface to a DLL API
interface. |
| Improved panel and sound dependency checking. |
| Reduced mouse cursor fluttering (where the cursor quickly changes back and forth
between the arrow and hourglass). |
| In some cases, on screens showing drives/folders/files, the drive pull-down
control might not display correctly. This happens only under certain versions of Windows.
It makes the drive pull-down control very difficult to use. To address this issue, an
option was added to toggle this control on or off. Another option was added to allow the
expanded folder tree view control to show all namespaces and drives along with folders. In
effect, this control can now be made to appear exactly like the left-side pane in Windows
Explorer. See Customize above for more details. |
| Updated the help text and all documentation. |
| No more "always on top" for help text. |
| The Program Information screen now shows your Windows version. |
| Added support for "PALETTE=" statements within panel.cfg files. |
|
Improvements and Changes in Version 5.0.7
The following list describes most of the changes and additions since Addit! Pro
For Flight Simulator 2000.
Addon Import Process & Window
| If the import process encounters a problem with an addon, it will continue on and
process the remaining addons instead of halting prematurely. |
| When importing just one addon (e.g. group #13) from a bunch of addons, the status
bar message reported "importing 13 of 1". This has been fixed. |
| Fixed a bug that caused an 'Object variable or With block variable not set' error
message. Very nasty. |
| Added a folder date column. Very handy for quickly finding the most recently
installed addon regardless of whether or not Addit! Pro installed it. |
| Added the ability to customize columns. |
| Toggling Show Icons would reload the addons and rebuild the display. Now it
simply rebuilds the display which is quicker. |
Addon Installation Wizard
| For panels and sounds, Addit! Pro can now automatically create an alias when you
install an aircraft but opt to store the panel and sound in custom folders. For example,
say you're installing a new Boeing 777. It comes with its own panel and sound package. You
want to store the panel in its own custom panel folder and store the sound files in their
own custom sound folder. You've always been able to do this but after installation you had
to manually associate the Boeing 777 with the split panel and split sound. Now Addit! Pro
can do this for you. In the Configure Panel and Configure Sounds window, simply check the
box titled "Assign panel/sound to the aircraft currently being installed".
|
Addon Installation Wizard - Configure Scenery
| Added a new option for Flight Simulator 2002's \Addon Scenery folder. This is now
the default for FS 2002 scenery instead of FS's global scenery/texture folders. |
Addon Installation Wizard - Select Files
| When you open an html file for viewing, Addit! Pro will now extract other html
and image files needed by that document. So, the document should appear with links intact
and you'll see images instead of image placeholders. |
| The Select Files window title now displays the name of the selected folder. |
| Updated handling of executable files with links to the Help file for tips on
installing them. |
Addon Installation Wizard - Resolve Conflicts
| The column "Zip folder entry" now appears by default. |
Addon Management
| Added validation for panel bitmap files. Addit! Pro will look for the presence of
all valid panel BMP files specified in the panel configuration file (panel.cfg) and report
if any are not found. |
| Changed the aircraft and panel pictures managed system. Before this change all
images were stored in Addit! Pro's database as binary image data. Unfortunately, Microsoft
Access databases have an inherent size limit and a few people reached that limit and could
no longer save new images. Pictures are now saved externally (outside the database) in the
\Images folder. There are many advantages of this change:
| No more size limit. |
| You can access the images outside of Addit! Pro. You can easily back them up,
quickly delete some to free up disk space in a pinch, copy them, etc. |
| You can resize the images using your favorite image software, change color depths
and even formats (provided you stick to one of the following formats: GIF, JPG, BMP). This
will work as long as the root filename remains the same. |
| Addit! Pro's database will no longer be burdened with binary image data so it
will be much smaller and more efficient. The Optimize function will take far less time to
complete. |
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| You can include the pictures you assign to aircraft and panels when you recreate
these addons. To do so, check "Include aircraft and panel pictures when recreating
addons" under Customize-->Addon Removal. The pictures will then be stored in the
folder or zip file along with the other files. |
| Added full support for Flight Simulator 2002's scenery.cfg file. |
| Updated gauge handling because Flight Simulator tucks several inside CAB (cabinet
archive) files. |
| Added support for Flight Simulator 2002's new \Addon Scenery folder structure. |
| Internet shortcuts (URL files) are no longer treated as textures. |
Addon Removal
| Recreating an addon by copying or moving it to a zip file now saves folder names
in the zip file. |
| Recreating an addon by copying or moving it to a folder now generates subfolders
as needed (e.g. in the case of duplicate filenames). Otherwise, files will be placed in
the same folder as before. |
Edit Aircraft
| When changing a panel picture, the default search folder was Addit! Pro's Images
folder. Now, if the panel is part of an addon managed by Addit! Pro, the default folder is
the addon's custom folder. This makes it much easier to use a picture included with the
addon. |
| Added a right-click menu item "Work With Addon(s)". This function
allows you to open a Work With Addons window for the selected item. For example, if you
use this function on your default Sopwith aircraft, Addit! Pro will open a Work With
Addons window showing this addon (provided you imported it into the database). |
| Added "tooltip" help text. |
| Added a folder date column. To quickly find the addon you last installed simply
sort the Aircraft box by Folder Date in descending order. The first item shown is the last
one installed. Neat. |
| Added an option to suppress configuration file error messages. Sometimes
configuration files have small technical problems that don't always translate into
functional problems. In these cases, it's useful to hide these errors. To suppress
aircraft errors, select the aircraft, right click and check "Suppress Aircraft
Configuration Errors". Uncheck this option to show all errors. Note if the
configuration file changes in any way, the error suppression will automatically disengage.
Panel and sound configuration file errors can be suppressed in the same manner by checking
their respective options in the right click menu. |
| Adjusted the way the configuration section (lower middle of the screen) resizes.
This was done to allow the Aircraft File, Panel Name and Sound Name fields to show more of
their contents. |
| Added tabbed categories for aircraft configuration, description and identity
details. The Configuration tab shows you configuration file details as before. The
Description tab allows you to view the description and flight parameter information. The
Identity tab lists ATC, manufacturer and type details, if available. |
Edit Panels
| When changing a panel picture, the default search folder was Addit! Pro's Images
folder. Now, if the panel is part of an addon managed by Addit! Pro, the default folder is
the addon's custom folder. This makes it much easier to use a picture included with the
addon. |
| Added a right-click menu item "Work With Addon(s)". This function
allows you to open a Work With Addons window for the selected item. For example, if you
use this function on your default Sopwith panel, Addit! Pro will open a Work With Addons
window showing this addon (provided you imported it into the database). |
| Added "tooltip" help text. |
| Added a folder date column. To quickly find the addon you last installed simply
sort the Panel box by Folder Date. The first item shown is the last one installed. |
| Added an option to suppress configuration file error messages. Sometimes
configuration files have small technical problems that don't always translate into
functional problems. In these cases, it's useful to hide these errors. To suppress errors
for a panel, select the panel, right click and check "Suppress Panel Configuration
Errors". Uncheck this option to show all errors. Note if the configuration file
changes in any way, the error suppression will automatically disengage. |
| Added a filter box with these choices: "Show All Panels", "Show
Only Original Panels" and "Show Only Alias Panels". |
Edit Sounds
| Added a right-click menu item "Work With Addon(s)". This function
allows you to open a Work With Addons window for the selected item. For example, if you
use this function on your default Sopwith sound, Addit! Pro will open a Work With Addons
window showing this addon (provided you imported it into the database). |
| Added "tooltip" help text. |
| Add folder date column. To quickly find the addon you last installed simply sort
the Sounds box by Folder Date. The first item shown is the last one installed. |
| Added an option to suppress configuration file error messages. Sometimes
configuration files have small technical problems that don't always translate into
functional problems. In these cases, it's useful to hide these errors. To suppress errors
for a sound, select the sound, right click and check "Suppress Sound Configuration
Errors". Uncheck this option to show all errors. Note if the configuration file
changes in any way, the error suppression will automatically disengage. |
| Added a filter box with these choices: "Show All Sounds", "Show
Only Original Sounds" and "Show Only Alias Sounds". |
| Adjusted Listbox sizing. |
Fixes
| Fixed a problem with reinstalling addons that contain read-only files. |
| Fixed a problem where some validity checks for root level folders like
"C:\" were not issuing the correct answers. |
| Fixed a problem in the Recent items tab in all Select/Browse windows. Switching
to and from some root level folders wasn't working properly. |
| Fixed 'Object variable or With block variable not set.' bug that could appear
during the addon import process. This error occurred when importing an addon having two or
more files sharing the same name. |
| Fixed a small problem with the scenery library management system. |
| Fixed a bug where the program would refuse to close when an Addon Installation
(or Removal) Wizard window was open. |
| Fixed an "Element not found" that popped up when the Addit! Pro
executable was launched while Addit! Pro was running. |
| Addressed a problem with the splash screen sound effect. The startup sound would
sometimes be garbled or might cause an error to appear. |
| During some addon removals an "unknown error code" message was shown in
the status bar even though there was no error. This has been fixed. |
General
| Changed the default value for the "number of items to remember" from 5
to 10 for all Select/Browse File windows. |
| Added a Favorite Items list to all Select/Browse File windows. You can use this
personal list to store folders and zip files for quick and easy access. Depending on how
you organize your addons, this feature may save you many navigation clicks over the long
haul. |
| Added indexes to the details table for quicker searching. |
| You can now access the Rename function in the Resolve Conflicts and Work With
Addons window by simply pressing F2. |
| Added a keyboard shortcut to bring up all right-click context menus. Press
SHIFT-F10 or F4. |
| When you install an aircraft the name of the addon defaults to the name of the
aircraft. For example, the title "Beechcraft D50 Twin Bonanza" in the
Aircraft.cfg file means you get "Beechcraft d50 twin bonanza aircraft" as the
addon name. However, the program was not capitalizing the addon name properly. Now it
does. |
| Added keyboard shortcuts for all right-click context menus. For example, in the
Edit Aircraft window, if you right-click to bring up the context menu then press the
"p" key it will activate the Change Panel function. |
| Included larger, high-color toolbar icons. If you prefer the old 16-color icons,
simply uncheck "High-color icons" in the General tab of the Customize window. |
| Improved performance of all ListView controls. |
| Converted separate date and time columns into a single date/time column. |
| Increased the default window size of the progress report window. |
| Created new Addon Installation Wizard images and new aircraft and panel pictures. |
| Updated Setup program, Help text and documentation. |
Work With Addons
| Added the ability to copy an addon to a folder or zip file. To use this feature,
select an addon right click and pick "Copy to Folder" or "Copy to Zip
File". You can then copy the addon's files to a folder or zip file of your choice.
The addon will be left intact and will be retained in Addit! Pro's database. To copy and
delete an addon to a folder or zip file use "Move to Folder" or "Move to
Zip File". Moving an addon to a folder or zip file will also remove it from Addit!
Pro's database. |
| Adjusted the way the Addon Type filters some addons. For example, now when you
choose to list panels you will only see panels that are not part of any aircraft. Showing
sounds now works the same way - you will only see sounds listed if they are not part of an
aircraft. Showing textures will only list texture addons that are not part of any scenery
or panel addon. |
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Release History
Version 5.5.9
is current and was released in December, 2005.
Version 5.5.7
was released in July, 2005.
Version 5.5.5 was
released in January, 2004.
Version 5.5.3 was
released in August, 2004.
Version 5.5.1 was
released in May, 2004.
Version 5.4.1 was
released in November, 2003.
Version 5.3.3 was
released in July, 2003.
Version 5.3.1 was
released in July, 2003.
Version 5.2.3 was
released in March, 2003.
Version 5.2.1 was
released in December, 2002.
Version 5.1.7 was
released in September, 2002.
Version 5.1.5 was
released in September, 2002.
Version 5.1.3 was
released in July, 2002.
Version 5.0.7 was
released in January, 2002. |
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