What's New in Version 6.1.3?
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Addon Installation
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- 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
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- 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
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- 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
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- 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
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- Improved the process of excluding previously imported addons, especially in the area of standalone panels and sounds.
- You can now add a file to an import addon group even if it is outside of the \Aircraft folder structure.
Addon Management
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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, SurClaro.com has a category called "Aircraft Repaints, Textures & Modifications". Other sites like SurClaro 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".
Gauge Processing
- Flight Simulator 2004 introduced gauge files that may optionally be located in an aircraft's panel folder instead of Flight Simulator's global gauges folder. Addit! Pro now: Validates all types of gauges located in the aircraft's folder tree, not just gauge collections housed in CAB archives.
- Installs gauges to the panel folder if the addon package specifies gauges are to be installed there.
- Picks up all types of gauges located in an aircraft's panel folder during the addon import process.
- Other miscellaneous improvements to gauge installation also appear in this release including improved installation and removal performance.
AFCAD2
- Unlike its predecessors, AFCAD2 compiles airport and facilities data into scenery BGL files. Thus, AFCAD addons no longer include separate data files that Addit! Pro must compile to install the addon. Instead, AFCAD addons now contain simple, pre-compiled BGL scenery files.
- Accordingly, Addit! Pro installs AFCAD addons just like standard scenery. You may install them to Flight Simulator's Addon Scenery\Scenery folder or wherever the addon's documentation specifies.
- The AFCAD setup and quick program launch feature were retained for convenience.
Other
- Improved automatic selection of aircraft and panel pictures.
- Updated the addon import process to pickup gauge files in an aircraft panel folder.
Customize Window
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- 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
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- 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
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- 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 03/1/2004 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 several other minor issues.
General Changes
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- 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.
Help System
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- 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
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- 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.
