VATGlasses

[Lenny Colton]

Those of you who frequent the VATSIM UK forum will likely have already heard of a project named VATGlasses. VATGlasses is a new who's-who mapping tool for use on VATSIM, with a large set of new features. You may find many of these to be similar to those implemented by the now-discontinued AccuMap client, which is unfortunately no longer available for download (the main reason why I decided to have a go at making one, myself).

Currently implemented features include:

• Automatic updates from one central, open-source data repository. Anybody can contribute!
• Modular data format, designed with easy development and testing in mind.
• True ATC Sectors, rather than the whole-FIR sectors currently available within VAT-Spy.
• System Notifications for emergency squawks and when you're approaching active airspace.

Planned features include:

• Light/Dark colour modes.
• Intelligent route drawing.
• Features requested by the community!

VATGlasses is currently written in C#.NET and is designed for Windows, but if anybody is interested in helping with porting to different platforms (particularly macOS) or with development in general, please do let me know!

If you'd like to try it out, Version 1.2.0.1 is currently available here, or through the website.

Please feel free to ask any questions, below. If you'd like to find out more, you can follow the project, report bugs, and submit feature requests at the website.

Edited May 4, 2020 at 11:00 PM by Lenny Colton
Updated download link to latest version

[Lenny Colton]

Version 0.5.2.1 has now been released and is available at the website. This version contains a major bug fix. It is recommended that all users update to this version.

 

Changelog:

 

• Fixed UI bug which prevented the program from loading.

Edited April 7, 2020 at 11:24 PM by Guest

[Lenny Colton]

The Euroscope Sector File P[Mod - Happy Thoughts]r has now been released and is available through the GitHub repository.

 

This allows anybody to create VATGl[Mod - Happy Thoughts]es files from a Euroscope .sct/.ese file pair.

[Lenny Colton]

Version 0.5.3.0 has now been released and is available at the website. This version contains minor bug fixes and major new features.

 

Changelog:

 

• Added Dark Theme
  
• Added Zoom Mode Control
  
• Fixed Zoom In/Out Buttons
  
• Softened FIR Boundary/Label Colours

[Lenny Colton]

Version 1.0.0.0 has now been released and is available at the website. This version contains major bug fixes and new features.

 

Changelog:

 

• Fixed dark mode on search results panel.
  
• Added detailed search filters.
  
• Fixed bug which caused crashing on start if “data” directory deleted.
  
• Introduced installer package.

 

VATGl[Mod - Happy Thoughts]es is now distributed through an installer file. Simply run the installer file to install/update your copy of VATGl[Mod - Happy Thoughts]es.

 

On first run, the data file updater will offer a new data file package. You must allow this to be installed, as VATGl[Mod - Happy Thoughts]es does not ship with data files included. VATGl[Mod - Happy Thoughts]es will not load unless a data file package is installed.

 

Data file updates are automatic. The updater will inform you when there are new data files available to install.

 

VATGl[Mod - Happy Thoughts]es updates are not automatic. There are currently no notifications when an update to the core program is available, but these are currently being released regularly, so be sure to check the website from time to time!

[Richard McDonald Woods]

Hi Lenny!
Useful looking addition to our tools.
Many thanks for your efforts 

[Lenny Colton]

Welp, that broke quickly...

Version 1.0.1.0 has now been released and is available at the website. This version contains minor bug fixes.

Changelog:
 

• Fixed bug where Filter button appearance did not change between light and dark mode.
• Fixed bug where settings were not saved after the program was closed.
• Moved all current runway/favourites files to %AppData%\VATGlasses
  • Fixed issue where these files could not be written as the user had read-only access to C:\Program Files (x86)\VATGlasses.

[Lenny Colton]

Version 1.1.0.0 has now been released and is available at the website. This version contains a major bug fix and new features.

Changelog:

• Removed VATSIM Status API version check.
• Added option minimise to system tray.
  • Double-click tray icon to restore window.
• Added top-down airport control support.
• Updated airports.txt file format.

[Lenny Colton]

Aaaaand it broke within 5 minutes...

Version 1.1.0.1 has now been released and is available at the website. This version contains a major bug fix.

Changelog:

• Moved all data files to appdata folder.
  • Fixed bug which prevented data files from being updated after initial download.

[Adrian Bjerke]

Hello.

Could I get some help using the SectorFileParser for Norway? What file do it want with the airport file path?
What FIR am I supposed to enter? I can see you have ENOS, ENSV, ENBD, ENTR and ENOB FIR's defined for Norway. ENTR do no longer excist and havent excisted for many years now. ENOR is not defined as a FIR. ENOS, ENSV, ENBD is AoR inside ENOR FIR. Our sectorfile includes data for both ENOR and ENOB. Should it be run in 4 runs, one for ENOS, ENSV, ENBD and ENOB?

[Lenny Colton]

7 hours ago, Adrian Bjerke said:

Hello.

Could I get some help using the SectorFileParser for Norway? What file do it want with the airport file path?
What FIR am I supposed to enter? I can see you have ENOS, ENSV, ENBD, ENTR and ENOB FIR's defined for Norway. ENTR do no longer excist and havent excisted for many years now. ENOR is not defined as a FIR. ENOS, ENSV, ENBD is AoR inside ENOR FIR. Our sectorfile includes data for both ENOR and ENOB. Should it be run in 4 runs, one for ENOS, ENSV, ENBD and ENOB?

Hi Adrian,

For the airport file path, you can use the airports.txt file from either the master branch of the repository or the latest data release (as pushed to VATGlasses clients).

In terms of the FIR code; whilst the FIR ICAO code is generally the most sensible option, you can technically use any identifying string (though I haven't tested how VATGlasses would respond to a spacebar or other special characters). The FIR code is generally the best idea, as it's short and unique, but if it works better to use ENOR, that should work fine. The same can be said for creating 4 separate files.

I'd hazard a guess that 1 (or maybe 2?) files would be easier than many files, as you need to ensure that Runways are not duplicated across sector packages (if you need to access a runway from multiple packages, the best practice is to add it to the package for the FIR/country containing it, then reference it from other packages, rather than creating two separate entries in different packages.

[Adrian Bjerke]

2 hours ago, Lenny Colton said:

Hi Adrian,

For the airport file path, you can use the airports.txt file from either the master branch of the repository or the latest data release (as pushed to VATGlasses clients).

In terms of the FIR code; whilst the FIR ICAO code is generally the most sensible option, you can technically use any identifying string (though I haven't tested how VATGlasses would respond to a spacebar or other special characters). The FIR code is generally the best idea, as it's short and unique, but if it works better to use ENOR, that should work fine. The same can be said for creating 4 separate files.

I'd hazard a guess that 1 (or maybe 2?) files would be easier than many files, as you need to ensure that Runways are not duplicated across sector packages (if you need to access a runway from multiple packages, the best practice is to add it to the package for the FIR/country containing it, then reference it from other packages, rather than creating two separate entries in different packages.

I am having troubles using the Parser at all, just getting errors no matter how I am entering the path's, even tried renaming the ese and sct files to have no special symbols in them, but still not working, neither coming up with any understandable errors.

If I understood correct, I can use ENOR for our whole package, or do I need to split the data between ENOR and ENOB?

 

I am also unable to start the vatglasses application, submitted it as a issue though the webform.

Edited April 15, 2020 at 05:18 PM by Adrian Bjerke

[Lenny Colton]

23 hours ago, Adrian Bjerke said:

I am having troubles using the Parser at all, just getting errors no matter how I am entering the path's, even tried renaming the ese and sct files to have no special symbols in them, but still not working, neither coming up with any understandable errors.

If I understood correct, I can use ENOR for our whole package, or do I need to split the data between ENOR and ENOB?

 

I am also unable to start the vatglasses application, submitted it as a issue though the webform.

Hi Adrian,

That error suggests that one of your airport entries has a corrupted latitude or longitude value.

You can use one .sct/.ese combo for the whole package, so long as it contains all of the data.

With regards to VATGlasses not starting, which version are you running? Have you updated the data files since you first installed?

Edited April 16, 2020 at 04:15 PM by Lenny Colton

[Adrian Bjerke]

Running latest version 1.1.0.1, and I have not manually updated any data, only accepted the message that asked me when I runned it the first time.

I used the airport file which is in your github.

Edited April 16, 2020 at 04:32 PM by Adrian Bjerke

[Lenny Colton]

On 4/16/2020 at 5:32 PM, Adrian Bjerke said:

Running latest version 1.1.0.1, and I have not manually updated any data, only accepted the message that asked me when I runned it the first time.

I used the airport file which is in your github.

Hi Adrian,

I've identified (and hopefully fixed) a few possible causes of your issue in previous releases, but something might not be right. Can you confirm what language/dialect/keyboard layout your computer is running? Does the issue resolve if you set your computer to English (UK) with the UK keyboard layout?

Can you also confirm that your C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\VATGlasses\data folder looks similar to this one (the presence of "currentrunways" and various "fav" files doesn't matter)?

With regards to the parser, I recently pushed an update to GitHub, due a file format change. Could you please confirm that you're using the latest parser version?

[Lenny Colton]

Version 1.1.1.0 has now been released and is available at the website. This version contains minor bug fixes and improvements.

Changelog:

• Fixed bug which could prevent sectors from displaying on click..
• Changed data file parser to remove whitespace from the start/end of Sector names/descriptions and Controller voice callsigns. This refers to the in-built parser which loads VATGlasses files, not the sector file parser.
• Fixed bug which could cause crashes on the next automatic reload after the reload button was pressed.
• Implemented software-enforced minimum and maximum VATGlasses versions for data file releases.
• Altered data file updates to show name of update, not GitHub tag.
• Moved preference (Current Runways and Added Items) files from “data” directory to “prefs” directory.
  • Allows preferences to be retained across data file releases.
  • Implemented automatic transfer of preference files from “data” directory to “prefs” directory.

[Adrian Bjerke]

Norwegian keyboard layout, Norwegian Bokmål as display language, however same issue even when changing to an UK keyboard layout. The files is there in appdata, and your latest release has the exact same issue as before. 

This is still an issue with the sectorfile parser (downloaded today), I am using the airports file from your github.

Edited April 19, 2020 at 10:53 PM by Adrian Bjerke

[Lenny Colton]

34 minutes ago, Adrian Bjerke said:

Norwegian keyboard layout, Norwegian Bokmål as display language, however same issue even when changing to an UK keyboard layout. The files is there in appdata, and your latest release has the exact same issue as before. 

This is still an issue with the sectorfile parser (downloaded today), I am using the airports file from your github.

Hi Adrian,

That error appears to be different to the previous one. The error message given means that the system couldn't find the airports.txt file. Usually this is just a spelling/typing error. Could you please check the file path and try again?

A crash during the "Loading Files" phase suggests that file was corrupted or not found, especially since the Locale change had no effect. Could you please post a screenshot of your AppData\VATGlasses\data folder?

I'm going to set the next version of VATGlasses to display error messages during loading, rather than close silently when an error is encountered. Hopefully, this will give a better idea of what the issue is.

Edited April 19, 2020 at 11:25 PM by Lenny Colton

[Adrian Bjerke]

Wops my bad, but still no luck.

 

 

 

Appdata folder:

I have also tried to delete all data files and let it download them again without luck.

Edited April 19, 2020 at 11:44 PM by Adrian Bjerke

[Lenny Colton]

Version 1.2.0.0 has now been released and is available at the website. This version contains major bug fixes and new features.

Changelog:

• New Features:
  • Implemented advanced sector filtering, based on altitude and owning (logon) callsign.
  • Implemented advanced pilot filtering based on altitude and departure/arrival airport.
• Alterations:
  • Changed search/filter buttons to image buttons.
  • Altered behaviour when attempting to open multiple instances of a single dialogue box.
  • Removed silent crash behaviour when errors encountered on load. Verbose error logging implemented.
• Bug Fixes:
  • Fixed bug where more than one instance of the Search Filters window can be opened at any one time.
  • Fixed bug where sectors with modified minimum/maximum altitudes may not be correctly displayed.
  • Fixed bug where approach/en-route sector colouring depended on the owning (logon) callsign, rather than the data files.
  • Fixed bug where search breaks when searching for pilots by departure/arrival ICAO if flight plan not filed.
  • Fixed bug where data file updater fails silently on every use.
  • Fixed bug where data file updater fails to correctly recreate “data” directory structure in “olddata” directory.
  • Fixed bug where searching or changing display filters when an API pull is in progress may cause the program to crash.

Edited May 1, 2020 at 11:07 PM by Lenny Colton

[Lenny Colton]

On 4/20/2020 at 12:42 AM, Adrian Bjerke said:

Wops my bad, but still no luck.

 

 

 

Appdata folder:

I have also tried to delete all data files and let it download them again without luck.

The data file updater in 1.1.1.0 had some issues which caused it to crash on every use. Could you please retry with 1.2.0.0?

[Torben Andersen]

Vatglasses can't run on my win7 computer. Any reason for this?

Torben

[Lenny Colton]

2 hours ago, Torben Andersen said:

Vatglasses can't run on my win7 computer. Any reason for this?

Torben

Hi Torben,

What version of VATGlasses have you got installed? Do you get any error messages when you try to run it?

[Torben Andersen]

Latest 1.2.0.0

No error messages from VATGlasses - it is an error from Windows

Quote

 

Problemsignatur:
  Navn på problemhændelse:    CLR20r3
  Problemsignatur 01:    VATGlasses.exe
  Problemsignatur 02:    1.0.0.0
  Problemsignatur 03:    b3d05794
  Problemsignatur 04:    System
  Problemsignatur 05:    4.8.4001.0
  Problemsignatur 06:    5d37b3ae
  Problemsignatur 07:    a25
  Problemsignatur 08:    21a
  Problemsignatur 09:    System.Net.WebException
  OS-version:    6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
  Landestandard-id:    1033
  Flere oplysninger 1:    0a9e
  Flere oplysninger 2:    0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
  Flere oplysninger 3:    0a9e
  Flere oplysninger 4:    0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789

Læs erklæringen om beskyttelse af personlige oplysninger online:
  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=104288&clcid=0x0406

Hvis onlineerklæringen om beskyttelse af personlige oplysninger ikke er tilgængelig, kan du læse den erklæring om beskyttelse af personlige oplysninger, som er offline:
  C:\Windows\system32\da-DK\erofflps.txt

 

Torben

[Adrian Bjerke]

1.2.0.0 does not work

 

 

After I press OK this error comes:

Edited May 2, 2020 at 02:24 PM by Adrian Bjerke