Newest KB Articles

The main 2D panel is corrupted when I open it with the VC view active

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:51:08 GMT

This is a limitation of how our gauges communicate between their 2D versions and VC versions. You cannot have the main 2D panel open while also in the VC view. If you require the main 2D view, switch to it using the A and S view cycle keys or by using the the Views menu either at the top of the screen or via the right click context menu to select the "Cockpit" view, which is the main 2D panel. Do not use Shift+# keys to select 2D views in the NGX.

Within the VC, we've provided numerous 2D popups for the DUs, the FMC CDUs, the MCP and so on - these are activated with mouse clickspots and are detailed in the Introduction manual.

The activation window pops up every time I load a 600 or 700 variant

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:22:33 GMT

The 600/700 addon has a separate license key from the 800/900. Check your 600/700 purchase confirmation email for the key at the bottom. Enter the correct key into the 600/700 activation window and you won't see the box again.

V speeds don't show on the PFD speed tape and VNAV won't arm or engage

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:19:40 GMT

This is most likely caused by failure to execute the performance initialization on the PERF INIT page. The white light will be lit after you finish filling out the required fields and you must press the EXEC key for it to "take" the data. After that, the V speeds should show and you'll be able to arm VNAV.

How to install liveries

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 18:27:36 GMT

The PMDG 737 NGX is the first product to contain our new Livery Manager application. The process for installing liveries with it is as follows:

Create a folder somewhere on your computer for liveries - it can be anywhere as long as you know where to find it. We suggest making subfolders for the different variants - 800, 800WL, 900, 900WL.

Download liveries (zip files) from the PMDG website into the folder you created in step 1.
Unzip all the liveries, which contain .ptp (PMDG Texture Pack) files inside.
Run the livery manager. (Use the "Run as adminstrator" right click option if in Windows Vista or Windows 7)
On the left side of the screen click the variant you wish to install liveries for. (this is why we set up folders for the variants in step 1)
Click the "Select Liveries to Install" button.
A standard windows Open File dialog will appear - navigate to the folder where you downloaded and unzipped the liveries.
Select the livery or liveries you want to install. You can select multiple liveries in the folder with the standard Shift and Control + left click commands for selecting multiple files, or you can select all files in the folder with Control+A, the standard Windows "Select All" command.
Click OK, and the liveries will be installed. You'll see them appear in the list on the right side of the Livery manager.

Livery Manager crashes while trying to install liveries

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 18:09:09 GMT

This issue can occur on Windows Vista or Windows 7 when FSX is installed in the Program Files or Program Files (x86) folder.

Windows will sometimes not give the livery manager the necessary permissions to write files to the FSX folder - this causes the crash.

The solution is to run the Livery Manager with the "Run as adminstrator" command. You can do this each time you run it by right clicking the livery manager icon and choosing it from the menu, or you can set it to run this way permanently by right clicking the Livery Manager icon, choosing "Properties", then the "Compatibility" tab, then placing a check mark in the bottom box that says "Run this program as an adminstrator."

How to send PMDG 737 NGX saved flights

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 18:04:36 GMT

When you save a flight in the PMDG 737 NGX, 6 files are normally created, all preceded by the name of the flight you picked.

From My Documents/Flight Simulator X files:
- a FLT file
- an FSSAVE file
- a WX file

From PMDG\PMDG 737 NGX\PanelState:
- a RTE file (will not be there if there's no active route in the FMC)
- an FMC file
- a SAV file

To send someone your saved flight, you'll need to zip up those 6 files. The person on the other end also needs to have the same livery you were using installed.

Load manager doesn't work in Vista or Win7

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:22:41 GMT

In certain instances, the 737 load manager may not work in Windows Vista or Windows 7. The sliders won't move and the boxes are all zeroed out.

The root cause here is file permissions - the 737 and FS9 itself were both created long before Vista and Win 7 existed. These OSes drastically changed how the "rights" of users logged onto the system work. The problem happens when the system thinks for whatever reason that the load manager's exe doesn't have the necessary rights to write to other files - namely the loadmanager.ini file and the aircraft.cfg files that it needs to be able to edit and write to.

Here are the steps to fix the issue:

1. Download Flight 1's Registry Repair Tool found here:
http://www.flight1.com/view.asp?page=library

Run it - IMPORTANT: make sure you right click and choose Run As Administrator - select the FS9 option. Then, browse to your FS9 root folder and select the main exe file (either FS9.exe or FSX.exe) and press open.

This is making sure the registry entries are correct, which can also play into this problem.

2. Download "TakeOwnership.zip" from this website:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/add-take-ownership-to-explorer-right-click-menu-in-vista/

Extract it to your desktop and double click the "InstallTakeOwnership.reg" file. This adds information to the Windows registry that will create a new option in your right click menu that allows you to easily assign full control of files and folders to your Windows user account.

3. Using Windows Explorer or My Computer, locate your root FS9 folder, right click it and select the new "Take Ownership" option - a DOS-style terminal window will appear and you will see it run batched permissions commands for several minutes. Wait for this to finish.

4. Navigate to your FS9\PMDG folder - right click on the "LoadManager_FS2004.exe" file. Select Properties at the bottom, then select the compatibility tab. Place a check mark in the bottom option, "Run this program as an administrator".

5. Double click the "RemoveTakeOwnership.reg" file if you wish to get rid of the right click menu option.

The problem should now be solved and the load manager should work.

dll.xml Information and Troubleshooting

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 01:38:35 GMT

DLL.XML INFORMATION AND TROUBLESHOOTING

Several addons (most notably several by Wilco/FeelThere) corrupt the FSX dll.xml file, which can render inoperative any addon that relies on dlls loaded from it, including the PMDG 747-400 and MD-11. Numerous attempts at getting these developers to fix this issue have gone unanswered. This article explains the source of the problems and how to fix it yourself. If you're a PMDG customer and are not comfortable trying this yourself, simply send us a copy of your dll.xml file in a support ticket and we'll fix it for you.

WHAT IS THE DLL.XML FILE?

The dll.xml file tells FSX which dll (dynamic link library) modules to load into the sim at startup. In previous versions of Flight Simulator, any dll that was placed in the "Modules" folder would load automatically into the sim. Microsoft changed this in FSX and such dlls can now be loaded from anywhere via the dll.xml file. What they didn't foresee is that corruption of this file is now a single point of failure for any installed addon that loads a dll via the file.

The dll.xml file contains data entries surrounded by "tags" that describe the dlls and various options pertaining to how they load into the sim.

At it's most basic level with no actual addon dlls loading, the dll.xml file looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="windows-1252"?>

<SimBase.Document Type="Launch" version="1,0">

<Descr>Launch</Descr>

<Filename>dll.xml</Filename>

<Disabled>False</Disabled>

<Launch.ManualLoad>False</Launch.ManualLoad>

</SimBase.Document>

The first line declares the type of xml file it is, and the next block contained within the SimBase.Document tags sets up the basic load options for the file.

Actual entries for loading dlls look like this and are placed after the Launch.ManualLoad tags but before the ending SimBase.Document tag in the basic structure shown above:

<Launch.Addon>

<Name>PMDG Options</Name>

<Disabled>False</Disabled>

<Path>PMDG\DLLs\PMDGOptions.dll</Path>

</Launch.Addon>

Most of a dll.xml is made of up a succession of these entries that tell the sim to load particular addon dlls. For the PMDG aircraft, there are three of them - PMDGOptions.dll, PMDGSound.dll and PMDGEvents.dll.

HOW TO FIND YOUR DLL.XML

The dll.xml file is normally located in a hidden location. Here's how to find it.

1. First you need to open the Windows Folder Options. You can get to this either from Control Panel, or by going to Tools/Folder Options from any Explorer window that shows your drives and folders such as My Computer.

2. In the Folder Options, you need to change two options on the View tab away from their default settings:
a. The first is "Hidden files and folders" - you need to change this to the 2nd option down that says "Show hidden files, folders, and drives."
b. The second is "Hide extensions for known file types" - uncheck this option. Extensions are the second half a filename, for example .doc, .jpg, .mp3, or in this case .xml. For some reason, Microsoft decided to hide these by default, which can make it difficult to identify the exact files in a list.

3. Now, you need to browse your main C: drive, and go to one of these locations depending on whether you have Windows XP or Windows Vista/Windows 7:

Windows XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\(Your Windows Account Name)\Application Data\Microsoft\FSX

Windows Vista\Windows 7:
C:\Users\(Your Windows Account Name)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX

The dll.xml file is in this folder. (Note that this is also the location of another very important file - your fsx.cfg)

HOW TO FIX COMMON PROBLEMS WITH DLL.XML

Problem 1 - newline characters:

There are invisible formatting characters that make up what's called a "newline" in a text file. In Windows and a couple of other operating systems the newline sequence is "CR LF" - those stand for "carriage return" and "line feed" - they're terms that originated a long time ago with telegrams and mechanical typewriters. In Unix or Linux based operating systems however, the standard is just a single LF character. This is what happens with certain installers by other companies, they're stripping the CR characters out of each newline the file and making it the Unix/Linux format with just LF. Windows Notepad can't read Unix style newline formating, so you'll see just a string of text with no line breaks when you open one of these corrupted files with it.

1. Download a copy of Notepad++ here (which can read Unix/Linux text files) and you can actually see these characters and fix them:
http://notepad-plus-plus.org/download

2. In the program, go to View/Show Symbols/Show End of Line.

3. You'll now see a bunch of black and white boxed CR and LF characters at the end of each line in a good dll.xml file. If you see just LFs, the file's been corrupted.

To fix the LFs, you can do one of two things:

a. Go through manually, position the cursor before each LF and then press Ctrl+M, which inserts a Windows newline. (CR LF)
b. The much easier method is to go to Edit/EoL Conversion and Select Windows Format. If Windows is greyed out, select Unix Format first, and then move it back to Windows. It'll automatically convert all the LF to CR LF.

If that's the only thing that was wrong with the file, you're good to go and your addons should start working again because FSX can now read the file.

Problem 2 - truncated/orphaned pieces of entries:

Sometimes the file structure itself is corrupted and you'll see something similar to this at the top of the file in Notepad++:

<Launch.Addon>

<Name>FSUIPC 4</Name>

<Disabled>False</Disabled>

<Path>Modules\FSUIPC4.dll</Path>

</Launch.Addon>

<Launch.Addon>

<Name>PMDG Options</Name>

<Disabled>False</Disabled>

<Path>PMDG\DLLs\PMDGOptions.dll</Path>

</Launch.Addon>

<Launch.Addon>

<Name>PMDG Events</Name>

<Disabled>False</Disabled>

<Path>PMDG\DLLs\PMDGEvents.dll</Path>

</Launch.Addon>

<Launch.Addon>

<Name>PMDG Sounds</Name>

<Disabled>False</Disabled>

<Path>PMDG\DLLs\PMDGSounds.dll</Path>

</Launch.Addon>

</SimBase.Document>

bled>False</Disabled>

<Launch.Addon> etc

What has happened here is that the correct header for the file has been completely deleted and there's a small orphan of it sitting there after the PMDG entries and the SimBase.Document end tag.

To fix this:

1. Paste the following into the top of the file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="windows-1252"?>

<SimBase.Document Type="Launch" version="1,0">

<Descr>Launch</Descr>

<Filename>dll.xml</Filename>

<Disabled>False</Disabled>

<Launch.ManualLoad>False</Launch.ManualLoad>

2. Delete the SimBase.Document end tag (which is already there at the end of the file again, where it should be) and the truncated/orphaned line:

</SimBase.Document>

bled>False</Disabled>

3. Fix any newline CR LF problems that may be present in the file. (See Problem 1 above) Often the first part of the file up until the truncated/orphaned line will have the correct newline characters, but anything below that point has just the Unix/Linux LF character and needs to be fixed. In normal Windows Notepad, this type of file will appear correct with line breaks up until that point, where it will turn into a constant string of text.

CONCLUSION:

The above information should allow you to fix 99% of all dll.xml troubles you may come across. It is a very good idea to back up your dll.xml file before installing an addon, just to ensure that you have a good working copy to refer to in case the addon corrupts it.

If any more information becomes available, I will update this post to reflect it.

How to send saved flights to someone

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 06:56:10 GMT

If you want to share an exciting flight or route with the community or send the PMDG team a flight that demonstrates a potential issue with the product, here's the steps to take to ensure you have all the files you need:

Go to the File menu and choose Save Flight... just as you would with any other aircraft. The difference that happens behind the scenes is the creation of a 747-400 panel state that will automatically be saved along with the normal FSX flight files. You do not need to use the PMDG menu Save Panel State option unless you are only trying to create a cockpit setup such as a Cold and Dark file. Assume for the sake of this example that you've saved the file as "PMDG Flight".
Create a zip file that has the following files in it:
- PMDG Flight.flt and PMDG Flight.wx and PMDG Flight.FSSAVE from the \My Documents\Flight Simulator X Files folder.
- PMDG Flight.sav and PMDG Flight.rte from the \Flight Simulator X\PMDG\747400\PanelState folder.
You now have everything you need, upload or email the zip file and others will be able to load your saved flight by extracting those files to the correct folders on their own machine.

J41 default flight related issues

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:48:22 GMT

FSX actually loads whatever aircraft you have set as the default in the background while the sim loads. When the default flight is another complex aircraft (or even a different livery of the same one you're trying to load), it confuses FSX's internal panel state system and can result in numerous strange errors such as but not limited to:

The FMS not turning on
Other aircraft systems not powering up
Engine shutdown after turning the pumps off

To ensure that you have the correct default start up configuration, please check for the following:

If running Windows Vista or Windows 7, Right Click on the FSX Icon and select "Run as Administrator" from the drop down menu. This will ensure that FSX is loaded with proper administrative privileges.
Start FSX and select Free Flight. Check that the default AirCreation Trike ultralight at Friday Harbor is displayed.

If it is not, you need to shut down FSX, open your FSX.cfg file (located at C:\Users\(Your User Name)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX in Windows Vista or 7 or C:\Documents and Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\FSX in Windows XP) in Notepad and run a search for "SITUATION" - a line should be found under the [USERINTERFACE] section of the cfg - this is the current default flight. Simply delete this whole line from and save the file. This will reset the default flight to the Trike at Friday Harbor.
Once you have ensured that you have the correct default flight showing in the Free Flight window, you may proceed with loading the J41 from Free Flight by pressing Fly Now, which will load it at the selected airport with the engines running.

From there you can load saved flights from within the sim. (this is due to the FSX quirk mentioned in the manual - do not try to load a saved J41 flight directly from Free Flight, it will cause problems - you must load the sim first)

Taking these steps should solve 99% of the strange issues we've seen reported with the J41. If it doesn't solve your issue, please submit a support ticket.