NAV: Another Flight Simulator BGL file viewer - flight planner
What is it?
NAV is yet another Microsoft Flight Simulator compatible scenery file (BGL) viewer, and includes a simple flight planner. NAV will show (and print) a map of all the navigational aids, runways and airports in your scenery files, let you measure distances between places, search the files for specific items, and create a simple flight plan showing navigational aid frequencies and distance, fuel, and estimated time between references points.
- It will keep a list of all the BGL files you use often, and load them all with one menu command. This is handy for people who might have BGL files scattered through several directories. It can also search a directory tree and add all the BGL files it finds to the list.
- It will export VORs, NDBs, Airports, Runways, and ILSs in a format suitable for import into Flight Simulator Flight Shop (with the help of Robert M. MacKay’s database import utility: FSFSIMP).
- (with the help of Adam Szofran’s flight data recorder: FSasmLib.dll). If you are running FS6, Nav can also display your crafts current position, heading, altitude and airspeed on its map – updating as you fly. Additionally, you can set a "Fly-To" waypoint on Nav’s map and the FS6 autopilot will fly you to that point.
Nav is a 32 bit program, and requires a 32 bit environment. Nav versions 1.6 and higher do not work at all with 16 bit Windows.
Revision History
New in Nav version 1.7
- added FS6 Link, Move To and Fly To features (requires FSasmLib version 6.0.0)
- updated Flight track display to be compatible with FSasmLib version 6.0.0
- reorganized flight plan window, added saving, loading, and ASCII export of plans
- fixed print-preview bugs
- fixed drag and drop problems
- fixed "file mapping failed" bugs (I hope)
- fixed a variety of minor bugs
New in Nav version 1.6
- expanded flight planner to account for wind and aircraft performance
- added ATIS display
- added closest airport to ILS, runway, and ATIS details display
- added Map - Center At dialog
- added mag deviation to ILS details display
- added keyboard shortcuts (&) to the flight plan buttons
- added optional automatic GPS insertion in flight plan routing
- use d-m-s degrees instead of decimal degrees for GPS waypoints
- smarter label placement algorithm
- spherical world view mostly works
- file-search-new puts the focus in the edit box
- improved great circle distance algorithm
- ID button now works with airport names
- fixed very high latitude runway position errors
- fixed cursor keys in flight plan
- fixed GPS fixes in Search and Database reporting
- fixed duplicate airport label bugs (mostly with FS6 scenery)
- fixed crashing when BGL file contains bogus section pointers
- fixed flight plan iconizing to desktop instead of taskbar
- fixed bug when loading multiple map files
- NavMap now included with Nav distribution
New in Nav version 1.5
- added maps (by popular demand) with the optional navmap.zip file
- added multiple scenery list capabilities
- added user defined waypoints ("GPS fix")
- added drag and drop file opening (double-click on your BGL files to open them)
- added Zoom-To-Fit command
- added airport zone option to turn off gray area around airports
- added double-click item in flight plan to get Details dialog box
- added "Center" button to Details dialog box
- added export of only the currently viewed data
- changed the "right-drag" display to show both magnetic and true heading
- changed Inner, Middle, and Outer markers to different colors (orange, green, red)
- improved Magnetic Variance handling
- fixed slow gridline algorithm
- fixed more bugs that showed up under Win32s
New in Nav version 1.4
- switched from true headings to magnetic headings in flight plan (both are still printed)
- added a menu item to allow switching to large symbols without zooming in as far (useful if you are mapping flight plan data only, or if you have a large printer or plotter)
- added runway type information
- added runways to the kinds of items you can search for
- improved font handling
- fixed Win32s related bugs in the display routines (the "zoom" bug)
- fixed the "runway name not found" bug
New in Nav version 1.3
- added large symbols option (big VORs and NDBs for better printing)
- added progress bars and cancel button during Flight Shop export
- added option to use Magnetic Variance information from nearest VOR during export
- added ground track import (from Fltrec) and display
- should now compile on Intel, MIPS and Alpha processors
- more bug fixes, including runway heading distortions due to the flat map display and bad ILS assignments during Flight Shop export
New in Nav version 1.2
- Navigational Aid, Airport, and Runway data can be exported in Flight Shop format
- Grid lines now scale and have labels for latitude and longitude
- Location and scale information was moved from the map to the status bar
- Several bug fixes, including display bugs and the "File-Add to scenery list" bug.
New in Nav version 1.1
- Each runways is now plotted instead of just the airport location
- Optionally plots heading and distance information on map when showing flight plan
- Better IDs are generated on printed flight plans
- Added magnetic course in addition to true course on printed flight plan
- Added reciprocal headings on printed flight plan
- Several bug fixes
Ted Wright
NASA Business: wright@lerc.nasa.gov, Remainder: wright@en.com