New MAIW Menu Creator & Prop Texture Replacer

Post by **gsnde** » 12 Jan 2009, 18:52

Each MAIW package comes with a very good package description, which gets displayed once after installation and then is buried somewhere below the Military AI Works folder. I often want to have a look at the descriptions, e.g. to find out what airports or aircraft models are covered by a package. Finding the right MHT file is often not easy - at least for me

I have written a tool which scans your Military AI Works folder and creates shortcuts for all found package descriptions in your start menu. You have a top level folder called MAIW, under which you will find four regional folders (APAC, EMEA, LATAM & NAFTA). Below those the fitting country folder is created, in which the link is placed.

Aside from the initial creation of the MAIW start menu folder, you can run the tool again after you installed another MAIW package to update the shortcuts, or you can remove the MAIW shortcut folder completely.

I would appreciate if you test the tool and tell me if it is working as supposed and if you find it useful.

Download link

Thank you for your support and feedback.

Jaymom · Post by **Jaymom** » 12 Jan 2009, 22:38

Works good i think. Found 1-130th Attack Helicopter Battalion which is all i have installed.

Harold

tjwhite56 · Post by **tjwhite56** » 13 Jan 2009, 00:20

Worked for me. I found 61 packages, I tried the links for some of them just copied and pasted them into the explorer address bar, is that correct? they were not actual links that you can click on and it opens them. Makes things much easier anyway.

Thanks

Terry

Post by **btaylo24** » 13 Jan 2009, 01:02

Does it not pick up the "old" WOAI/MAIW packages?

barry

Post by **gsnde** » 13 Jan 2009, 06:33

tjwhite56 wrote:... I tried the links for some of them just copied and pasted them into the explorer address bar, is that correct? they were not actual links that you can click on and it opens them....

Hi Terry,
No, that is not the intention. Click on your OS start button and you should see a new program group MAIW. Below that you will find the clickable shortcuts for your installed packages.

btaylo24 wrote:Does it not pick up the "old" WOAI/MAIW packages

It should, Barry. I have all MAIW packages installed, and it picks up all 120. Which one is missing?

Post by **gsnde** » 13 Jan 2009, 18:59

don't make me beg, please

a bit more feedback ?

Ford Friendly · Post by **Ford Friendly** » 13 Jan 2009, 19:06

Martin, I'd love to give you feedback but I never retain the mht's after the initial installation. Sorry.

Post by **gsnde** » 13 Jan 2009, 19:41

Thank you, Ford.

Is this what most people are doing? And if so, why?

Information not relevant after installation?
Information too hard to retrieve?
Disk space saving considerations?

CelticWarrior · Post by **CelticWarrior** » 13 Jan 2009, 19:49

gsnde wrote:Is this what most people are doing? And if so, why?

Information not relevant after installation?

Ford Friendly · Post by **Ford Friendly** » 13 Jan 2009, 19:53

gsnde wrote:Thank you, Ford.

Is this what most people are doing? And if so, why?

Information not relevant after installation?
Information too hard to retrieve?
Disk space saving considerations?

I used to cut out the unit and scenery information and save it to a big-ass file for later text-based searches (should I need that for whatever reason). Most recently, I have found I just don't "look back" and can get any info I need about the packages by just looking at the aircraft.cfg files and/or traffic files themselves (which I always store as text files).

Installation instructions (who needs them after a succesful install?) Gone and space saved though space savings isn't a consideration.

I save all the zip files on a backup data-DVD just in case, but have only had to resort to it twice.

Now, if I were starting over, your tool would definitely cause me to do things a bit differently.

Post by **Firebird** » 13 Jan 2009, 21:14

I keep them all installed, and the vcpmods, you never know when a disaster might strike.

Blank Fang · Post by **Blank Fang** » 13 Jan 2009, 21:33

Martin

It works fine also on my (swiss)german locale system.
Strangely I find mention of Dyess AFB Version 2, Ellsworth AFB Version 2 and MCBH Kaneohe Bay Version 3 cant figure out where these version numbers come from!

Clicking [Find] then [Select...] then [Cancel] crashes the app to desktop.

However neat tool!
-----
Willy

Post by **btaylo24** » 13 Jan 2009, 23:42

Martin

Ignore my post, i thought it had skipped the old woai packages.
But after digging around found that I dont have any of them installed
looks good and very useful
barry

Post by **gsnde** » 14 Jan 2009, 06:53

Blank Fang wrote:Martin

It works fine also on my (swiss)german locale system.
Strangely I find mention of Dyess AFB Version 2, Ellsworth AFB Version 2 and MCBH Kaneohe Bay Version 3 cant figure out where these version numbers come from!

Clicking [Find] then [Select...] then [Cancel] crashes the app to desktop.

However neat tool!
-----
Willy

The version numbers are indicated in the description itself and are part of the title if you go to the download page on avsim (e.g. see here for Dyess and here for Ellsworth).

The crash to desktop is confirmed and fixed. Silly me.....
Download link

Thanks a lot for the feedback, guys

Keith Jones · Post by **Keith Jones** » 14 Jan 2009, 15:27

On my setup, the program says there are "127 package description shortcuts found", but in the Menu Creator pop up it says that "102 shortcuts for MAIW package descriptions have been created". That means that 25 of the packages are not being 'read'.

Post by **gsnde** » 14 Jan 2009, 20:24

Could it be that you have an MAIW program group that was not created by my program? Something youself or another installer created?

Please check if there is something else than the folders APAC, EMEA, LATAM & NAFTA in the MAIW program group.

Don't press the remove button for the time being.

Keith Jones · Post by **Keith Jones** » 14 Jan 2009, 23:31

Thanks for the reply, Martin. There are just the four folders in the MAIW program group. I've checked all the folders in FS9\Military AI Works\ directory and they all contain the appropriate Readme.mht

Any suggestions?

Cheers,
Keith.

Post by **gsnde** » 14 Jan 2009, 23:51

Keith - to be honest - I have no idea

But in a day I will release an updated version. MAIW has decided not to add shortcuts to the start menu from their installers. Therefore I have integrated an update function into my program which is now able to retrieve updated information which shortcuts to create from my website.

I have done the same with the prop texture replace tool, because more and more prop-hs.bmp files get reported to me which are not from MAIW packages, but share the name. Seems like this is the only thinkable name for a propeller texture

This tool is now able to download new textures from my web.

I will make both tools available to be tested later this week.

Regarding your question: make a file search for *.mht in your Military AI Works folder. The number of files found (minus 1 in case you have the Sunset package installed which contains the invalid file ~$IW_TOPGUN_Miramar_NAS_Readme.mht) is the number of package descriptions you have.

If you are then brave enough to count the shortcuts then we know more.

Post by **gsnde** » 15 Jan 2009, 09:02

OK, here you go:

Prop Texture Replacer download
Menu Creator download

How to test:
Download the tools from the links above
Decompress both Zip files, preferable into a dedicated folder
Start the executable
You should see the notification that no textures respective no menufile is found
Use the update button to download these files
Create menus and replace textures
Provide your feedback here

Thanks a million!

Post by **Firebird** » 15 Jan 2009, 17:33

Martin, tried your menu tool.
It found 118 but created menus for only 17 !? Does this seem right?