ChartViews

ChartViews is a small ‘stand-alone’ Windows utility for Flight Simulators allowing a number of airport charts to be stored and available on screen whilst still flying.

The programme can load up to 4 files, either pdf files (commonly used for available IAS charts etc.) using Adobeâ Acrobatâ Reader (download separately at http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/main.html) or most formats of picture files (.bmp, .gif, .jpg etc.). It also allows the user to zoom in and out of each of the files displayed or scroll around them.

The user can save any combination of charts as a user VIEW, for use another time.

The application has 4 tabs within which user defined charts can be displayed. The labels for the tabs are initially set as SID, STAR, APP1 or APP2, but the user is able to change these for each VIEW saved.

Installation

Pre-requisites

In order for the programme to operate you must download the Adobeâ Acrobatâ Reader (see link above).

Then simply unzip the file ChartViews2.zip into a temporary directory and run the Setup.exe programme. During the Setup you can choose the directory in which you wish to install ChartViews or choose the default provided. Note that this document is not included as part of the Setup and would need to be copied separately from the zip.

Running ChartViews

After the Setup has finished, you will find the application within your Windows [Start][Programs] list. Simply start the programme in the normal way. Once started the screen below will be displayed. All programme functions are driven from the MENU command.

Obtaining Charts and storing them

There are many sources on the web, where one can obtain electronic charts for various airports. A good starting point is either: http://www.navdata.at/

which have charts or links for many airports around the world.

If you currently have Jeppersonâ SimChartsâ for example, then in order to load the charts into ChartViews, the charts must first be saved as a picture. Unfortunately it is not possible to save the chart from within SimChartsâ. However, if you have a programme such as PaintShop Pro or some other screen capture programme, then it would be possible to capture the chart from the screen and save accordingly as a .bmp or .jpg etc., which can then be loaded into ChartViews in the normal way and referred to over and over again.

Having obtained or created your files, you can then save them to disc. The structure of your chart folders is entirely up to you but you may wish to follow the example below, where all charts relating to a specific airport are saved within a folder for the location, e.g.:

Setting up a ‘View’ of charts

Select Menu option Settings. The following dialogue box will display:

Tab Labels

You can reset the tab labels to whatever you wish. If for example you are going to display an Airport chart, and maybe two departure charts (SIDS), you may wish to change the labels to read, APT, SID1, SID2, or even the names of the Airport and SIDs themselves.

File / Path

For each chart file that you wish to view, locate the file using the browse buttons provided and select it.

You do not need to include a chart in each of the 4 tabs if you do not wish to. Any empty tabs will simply display the information backdrop.

SAVE VIEWS

To save the configuration to allow the chart set to be recalled easily at another time, click this button and enter an appropriate file name that you may remember e.g. EGKK_DEPART. The file will be saved in the ….Chartviews\Views directory as a .VEW file and can be re-loaded at any time using the Load button (see below).

LOAD VIEWS

To load a previously saved chart set simply click this button and select the appropriate .VEW file that you have previously saved.
Note: Chartviews does not physically store the carts only the path to the selected charts. Therefore if any charts previously referenced in a View are subsequently moved or deleted they will no longer be viewable when reloading that View.

Startup View

If you wish to have a previously saved View as your default startup, then define the View file here, and when next starting Chartviews the .VEW file will be preloaded.

Make Translucent

This facility is only available to Windows XP and 2000 users, as it utilises a particular function specific to those operating programmes.

The user can make Chartviews semi transparent to allow the underlying Flight simulator programme to still be visible.

Using ChartViews

Once you have set the charts that you wish to use, simply minimise the programme. It minimises to your Windows Task Bar.

When flying and wishing to see the charts, simply click on the task bar button for ChartViews (or use the Alt Tab Windows key combination) and the programme will pop-up on top of your Flight Sim session. By clicking on the Flight Sim screen you can continue flying, adjusting frequencies etc. and still view ChartViews. Note ChartViews can be moved around the screen by clicking and dragging the window title bar. If you had previously toggled off the title bar, simply toggle it back on again to move the window.

The Chartviews window can also be resized itself by dragging any of the sides or corners.

Note that ChartViews will remain ‘on top’ of your simulator, even if you click back within the Flight Sim window. This is done on purpose so that charts can remain viewable, and radios / VOR frequencies etc. changed whilst viewing the chart.

Zooming

If you have loaded a .pdf file, then you can zoom using the Adobeâ Acrobatâ Reader functions. Full button functions within the Adobeâ Acrobatâ are available.

If you have loaded a picture file (.bmp, .gif, .jpg etc.) then to utilise the zoom function:

Select appropriate zoom mode from the [Menu] button.
Click within the chart to zoom in or out.

The zoom mode can simply be

To reset the zoom to the pictures original size simply select Zoom Reset from the [Menu].

To zoom the picture to the best within ChartViews select Best Fit from the [Menu].

Panning

After zooming in, it is possible to move around the chart using the scroll bars, in Picture Mode or navigation scroll buttons etc. when viewing an Adobe PDF file.

To remove ChartViews from your screen, simply minimise it again, or use ALT TAB keys.

Note that if loading a .pdf file with several pages, then this can be loaded into the single tab and all pages can be viewable within that tab. Some available PDF files contain various charts and so, for example, all departure information could be viewed under one tab. The choice is yours, depending on what charts you have available.

Using ChartViews with other programmes

If you currently have Jeppersonâ SimChartsâ for example, then in order to load the charts into ChartView the charts must first be saved as a picture. Unfortunately it is not possible to save the chart from within SimChartsâ. However, if you have a programme such as PaintShop Pro or some other screen capture programme, then it would be possible to capture the chart from the screen and save accordingly as a .bmp or .jpg etc., which can then be loaded into ChartViews in the normal way.

Restrictions

Note that since ChartViews is a Windows programme which minimises to the System Tray, it cannot be run when running Flight Simulator in ‘Full Screen’ mode, only when the simulator is being run within Windows.

Support / Suggestions

If anyone has any questions or suggestions, or any other support issues concerning this software please send an Email to Xhytex@BTInternet.com and we shall do our best to get back to you as soon as possible,

Disclaimer

This programme has been developed using Microsoft Visual Basic 6 and supplied with all necessary runtime files. The software and associated files have been virus checked and the programme should run successfully under Windows 9x (95 or 98) ME, XP or 2000.

This programme should not damage your PC and software in anyway, but even if you believe it has, myself or ‘XHYTEX’ cannot be held responsible for any problems that may result through its use. Users install and run the software at their own risk.

Copyright and Distribution

This software and all files contained within the “CHARTVIEWS2” ZIP file is Copyright Alex Hyett and XHYTEX 2002. You may not sell it to others. You may NOT use ANY code or textures for your own work without the prior written permission of myself . You may NOT 'dis-assemble' the EXE files and

Utilise in other programmes.