FSBuild 2.0 Features - Last Updated Feb 5, 2003

System Requirements:
Minimum Pentium 700, 384 MB RAM.
Win98, WinME, WinNT4/2000, WinXP (Not tested on WinME, but don't see any reason why it wouldn't work there)

Will work with less RAM, but will run a bit slow at times, especially if FS2002 is running at the same time.

Fsbuild 2.0 will be payware/shareware.

Features Overiew

1. Map view to graphically display created flight plan routings and available Navaids airways, SIDs and STARs.
2. Enhanced coded route interpreter, interpret various coded route/Flight Plan formats
3. Flexible automatic route generation, can auto generate complete flight plans from scratch between DEP/DEST, as well was generate a route between two or more defined points.
4. Grapical SID/STAR display to assist in determining best SID/STAR route for direction of flight.
5. Airway, and Navaid Search in user specified areas for efficient route planning.
6. 'Plan mode' feature allows use of the Map view for manually creating flight plans from scratch using Navaids, Airways SIDS and STAR's.
7. Optional Step climb calculations for long range Flights.
8. Aircraft performance calculations climb cruise, descent, and fuel.
9. 10,000+ ready to use flight plans included.
10. Easy access to flight plans stored on the websites for easy copy/paste directly into Fsbuild.
11. Import routes created with external Flight Planners/Flight Planning web sites
12. Entire FAA Preferred IFR routes and Severe weather routes database included (can be easily updated by a download from FAA's web site).
13. Canada Preferred IFR routes database included.
14. Support for insertion of daily, and static North Atlantic and Pacific Track routings into Flight Plans.
15. Exporting of flight plans to several FlightSim, and FlightSim add-on formats.
16. Detailed Navigation log with aircraft climb, cruise,descent, and fuel performance information included.
17. Performance calculations adjusted for Winds aloft forecast at each waypoint (Available for SimWx, FSMeteo 5.2, and ActiveSkeywxRe)
18. Can be used with X-Plane,FS2002,PS1,FLY!2 FlightSims.

FEATURED DETAILS:

FLIGHT PLANS:

1. Database of 10,000+ ready to use stored flight plans included.
2. Save/Delete user created Flight Plans.
3. Log kept of recently Created/Built Flight Plans for easy retrieval and reuse.

CATEGORY:

1. Support user definition of stored flight plan categories linked to user defined flight plan files.
2. Search/Filter flight plan list display by departure, destination airport city name or ICAO code

BUILD:

1. Enhanced coded route interpreter, interprets various coded Route/Flight Plan formats.
2. Route Plotted over World Map after each Flight plan build.
3. Flight Plan waypoints displayed in Active route table/grid after each build.
4. Manual Flight plan creation using Navaids, Airways SID's and STAR Identifiers.
5. Map view automatically re-zooms to show only area between deprture and destination after each build.
6. Optionally Include or Exclude SID or STAR from route during build.
7. Step climb profile can be calculated for long distance routes.
8. Optionally insert TOC/TOD waypoints into flight plan.
9. Performance calculations adjusted for Winds aloft forecast at each waypoint (via fsmeteo,ActiveSkywxRe or SimWx).
10. Fuel 'Bias' adjustment support for use with different variants of the same aircraft type.
11. Expanded cruise fuel performance support (fuel flow calculations adjusted as aircraft's gross weight changes in cruise)
12. Automatically selects cruise alt based on aircraft capability, and direction of flight odd-even altitudes.
13. Automatic SID/STAR version number correction during Build.
14. Build Flight directly from route/table grid option to support user defined waypoints, and to specify certain Navaids.
15. Coded Flight Plan automatically placed in windows clipboard after build (optional) for squawkbox 2 users to paste flight plan int SB's flight plan dialog.
16. Route heading/bearing calculations adjusted for magnetic variation.
17. User defined fixes/waypoints supported using various lat/lon formats.
18. Automatic Export of flight plans to several FlightSim, and FlightSim add-on formats after build completion.

AUTOROUTE GENERATOR:

1. Auto generate complete flight plans from scratch between DEP/DEST.
2. Automatically selects stored flight plan route when dep/dest matches stored route (option can be disabled).
3. Wildcard option to allow single or multiple legs (or gaps) of a partial route to be autogenerated.
4. Recognizes single direction airways during auto-generation, and avoids wrong direction airways.
5. Automatically selects appropriate SID's STAR's and airways for route.
6. SID/STAR selection only includes SID/STARs available for the selected runway.
7. Optionally can Include/Exclude SID/STAR from flight plan autogeneration.
8. Takes into account preferred departure and arrival routings at specified airports (preffered DEP/ARR routes can be user defined).
9. Automatically selects or low high alt airway routes based on cruise altitude.
10. In plan mode auto generated routes can be modified for error correction or fine tuning by the user.

PLANNING/CREATING (PLAN MODE):

1. Plan Mode for manual creation of Flight plans using Map view display.
2. Each route modification or change is automatically replotted on the map display, so you can immediately see how your modification affects the routing.
3. Coded or ATS representation of route automatically updated with each route modication or change.
4. Route waypoint table automatically updated with each route modication or change.
5. Automatic new waypoint positioning. No need to drag and drop or specifically place selected navaids at a certain spot as Fsbuild knows exactly the appropriate place to position a selected Navaid in the Flight Plan.
6. Current stored or coded route built automatically when entering plan mode for easy modification existing or stored flight plans.
7. Great circle route optionally generated as a guide for long distance route planning.
8. Can manually type in airway by Identifier and have it highlight on map for better airway route identification/selection.
9. Current North Atlantic Tracks graphically displayed in map view
10. Can insert todays Daily North Atlantic Tracks routes into Flight Plan.
11. Available North Altantic Track Altitudes selectable from pulldown menu.
12. Can optionally select static North Atlantic Tracks used by online ATC organizations into flight plan.
13. Search specified Map area for Navaids, and Airways, search results can be inserted into the flight plan.
14. Airways can be inserted into flight plan by specified airway route segment (From,Via,To)
15. Automatic display of appropriate SID/STARs when new airport or runway is selected.
16. Can define display of airways that pass over a specified Navaid, for easier route planning via the Map.
17. Airway routes displayed highlighted on map upon selection for better indentification.
18. Automatic Insertion of selected SID/STAR route into flight plan.
19. SID/STAR airways highlighted when selected for better identification.
20. SID/STAR transitions highlighted on map separately upon selection.
21. SID/STAR and Airway waypoints highlight individually on map upon selection
22. Airway Map lines can be ID'd by mouse selection on map for better clarification of which map line represents which airway.
23. Airway waypoints highlight individually on map upon selection
24. Airways SID's, STAR's and Navaids can be identified on map no matter what the zoom level is. Allowing for better use of these items over longer distances.
25. Single Direction Airways displayed on Map with directional arrows indication route direction.
26. Insertion of lat/lon Map cursor position into flight plan as waypoint.

DISPLAY:

1. Grapical SID/STAR display to assist in determining best SID/STAR route for direction of flight.
2. Map view to graphically display created flight plan routings and available Navaids airways, SIDs and STARs.
3. Route Waypoint highlighting, so you can see exactly where each waypoint in your flight plan is located geograhically.
4. FL notation displayed when route waypoint is at or above defined transition altitude for the departure/arrival area
5. Online ATC situation display view (Only Vatsim supported at this time)
6. Insert relevent user configurable web sites into Fsbuild interface.

EXPORT

Exporting of Flight Plans to various FlightSim FMS/GPS add-ons.

Exporting formats available:

1. FS2000 Planner (.pln)
2. FSNavigator 3/4
3. 767PIC
4. PSS 747/777
5. PSS A320
6. FLY!II Planner
7. PMDG 777 for FLY!II
8. PMDG 757 for FLY!II
9. X-Plane 6.2+ FMS
10. Aerowinx PS1 (.rou and .via option)
11. ACS-GPS
12. GPS98
13. SquawkBox 2
14. Radar Contact

IMPORT

Importing of Flight Plans from various formats.

1. Squawkbox
2. FS2000
3. 767PIC
4. PSS 747/777
5. PSS A320
6. PS1.3

Via option availabe for PSSA320, PS1.3,767PIC, and FS2000 .PLN to import the route in ATS or coded formats.

AIRCAFT DATA/PERFORMANCE:

1. Detailed Aircraft, time, and fuel performance calculations (user customizable)
2. Takeoff and Landing V-speed calculations based on gross weight, elevation, temperature, and flaps settings.
3. Takeoff Gross weight automatically recalculated when fuel or payload weight values are modified.
4. After Build, Takeoff and landing Gross Weights are adjusted to include the projected fuel use for the flight.
5. If Max takeoff and landing Gross weights are exceeded user is notified by highlighted them in red.
6. Aircraft Performance data included initially for, A320,B727-2,B737-4,MD80/83,DC10-10, ERJ145.
7. Optional Step climb calculations for long range Flights.
8. Cruise performance/fuel flow changes as aircraft's gross weight changes during cruise.
9. Performance calculations adjusted for Winds aloft forecast at each waypoint (Available for SimWx, FSMeteo, and ActiveSkywxRe)
10. Performance data can be customized for a specific Flight Sim aircraft model.

NAVDATA

1. Database of SID's and STAR's, and Airways, Airports and Navaids included.
2. Preferred arrival and departures routings included for many airports (user customizable).
3. Complete High and Low alt Airways database.
4. US Socal TEC routes
5. US and Canada Preferred IFR routes.
6. VOR's, NDB's, and Intersections, and Airways databases will be updated every Airac cycle via Richard Stefan's Navdata service.
7. Program Database is simulator independent, can use the same database for different FlightSims.
8. Entire FAA Preferred IFR and Severe weather routes database included (can be easily updated by a download from FAA's web site).

MISC

1. Support of FL notation for user defined cruise altitude box.
2. Pulldown menu available when entered Navaid ID contains multiple ID's in the database (waypoint table/grid).
3. Can define Magnetic year used in magvar adjustments (range 2000-2005).
4. Displays latitude longitude position of cursor on map, automatically adjusts display when mouse moves.
5. Flight Plan Navlog printout with optional export to .pdf format.
6. Navlog can be customized to include your own or your organizations logo .
7. SID/STAR menu displays in synch with runways that support them as runway selection changes so does SID/STAR menu.
8. Map Zoom factor displayed.
9. Detailed Navigation log with aircraft climb, cruise,descent, and fuel performance information included.
10. Navlog includes column to display ARTCC/FIR sector for each Flight Plan waypoint
11. Optionally to display user defined aircraft callsign in Navlog
12. Import directly from multine ICAO/telex route format
13. Import directly from the numerous websites and applications that store or generate flight plans in coded format.
14. Import routes created with 'RoutFinder' website.
15. Automatic flight plan destination alternate selection (user confugurable).
16. Activity Log (to keep track of recently created flights)
17. Revision option for X-Plane. Since X-Plane does not support loading flight plans from previous versions, you can specifiy which X-Plane revision you currently have, so X-Plane will load Fsbuild generated plans in your release.
18. Easy access to flight plans stored on various flight plan/planning the websites for easy copy/paste directly into Fsbuild.
19. Miniplan version of Navlog dcan optionally be exported to FS2002's Kneeboard notes file with the abbreviated route and takeoff and landing data (v-speeds) information.
20. Navlog automatically exported to X-Plane for display inside X-Plane 6.5