Livewire Aircraft Packager

Download links are at the bottom of the page. Please read this entire page before attempting to use Livewire Aircraft Packager.

Livewire Aircraft Packager (LWAP) is an aircraft package creation tool, designed particularly for Fleet Management at Livewire. Using LWAP, the user only needs to maintain a single aircraft package, known as the template package, for each division aircraft model instead of many individual aircraft packages. In this way, if a change is made to any component of the package, such as textures, sounds, gauges, panels, aircraft.cfg or the FDE, those changes only need to be made once. Then, LWAP creates all the individual aircraft packages based on the template package.

It is, of course, up to the Fleet Managers of the divisions to decide whether or not to use this time-saving product.

Template Package

The most important element one must learn for using LWAP is the configuration of the template package. LWAP does not modify the template package in any way. The template package is based on the aircraft element of any normal aircraft package. Therefore, it contains at the least a model, panel, sound, and template subdirectories as well as an aircraft.cfg an an .air file. The aircraft must be using [fltsim.0] in the aircraft.cfg and the following values need to be set correctly:

• sim=
• ui_manufacturer=
• ui_type=
• visual_damage= (if necessary)
• kb_checklists= (if available)
• kb_reference= (if available)
• description= (if available)
• atc_heavy= (if necessary)

All other required values will be set by LWAP and will be overwritten in the output packages if included in the template aircraft.cfg. LWAP will automatically set the new parking codes fields as well.

The following elements, not usually found in an aircraft package, are necessary:

• An !AircraftIDs.txt in the root of the template package. This text file must contain one or more tail numbers. For each tail number included in this file, LWAP outputs a single aircraft package. The tail numbers should be listed one to a line.
• An !SimVersions.txt in the root of the template package. This text file must contain one or more flight simulator versions. The versions should be listed one to a line in the format FS####. (e.g. FS2004) For each simulator version found in this file, the Create Full Installation Structure feature will create a separate package.

The following elements, not usually found in an aircraft package, are allowed but not necessary:

• Zero or more aircraft-specific texture directories named texture.N###DD where ### is the number designation and DD is the division code. These directories contain only those textures specific to the individual aircraft. Usually, this will be either the fuselage or tail texture that contains the tail number. When LWAP is creating the output packages, it first copies the contents of the normal texture directory and then copies the contents of the aircraft-specific texture.N###DD directory over that. Additionally, an empty text file named !LWAircraftPackager.ignore should be included in these directories.
• A gauges.root subdirectory. This optional directory can contain any files that should be ultimately installed to the <MSFS>\Gauges directory. Additionally, an empty text file named !LWAircraftPackager.ignore should be included in this directory.
• A modules.root subdirectory. This optional directory can contain any files that should be ultimately installed to the <MSFS>\Modules directory. Additionally, an empty text file named !LWAircraftPackager.ignore should be included in this directory.
• A sound.root subdirectory. This optional directory can contain any files that should ultimately be installed to the <MSFS>\Sound directory. Additionally, an empty text file named !LWAircraftPackager.ignore should be included in this directory.
• A effects.root subdirectory. This optional directory can contain any files that should ultimately be installed to the <MSFS>\Effects directory. Additionally, an empty text file named !LWAircraftPackager.ignore should be included in this directory.
• Zero or more directories named after Flight Simulator versions listed in the !SimVersions.txt file. (e.g. \fs2004) Any files or directories found in one of these version-specific directories will replace the equivalent file or directory in the main template only for packages created for that simulator version. Because any subdirectory here will completely replace the main template directory, and not just "overwrite" it, all files that should be in the final package must be included. (e.g. If the only file that is different between the FS2002 and FS2004 versions of a panel are the panel.cfg, you will still need to have the panel image files in both the main panel directory and in the version-specific panel directory.) Additionally, an empty text file named !LWAircraftPackager.ignore should be included in these directories.
• Any other directory may also reside in the template package, such as paintkits and temporary directories. As long as an empty text file named !LWAircraftPackager.ignore is included, the directory will not be included in the final output packages.

User-Interface Usage

The LWAP user-interface consists of only a few elements. Most of the configuration of the aircraft packages is based on the configuration of the template package (see above).

• Template Folder - This should be set to the root of the aircraft template folder. To be clear, this is the directory that contains the !AircraftIDs.txt file, the aircraft.cfg and .air files, and all the normal and optional directories such as the texture, texture.N###DD, and modules.root directories.
• Output Folder - This should be set to any folder. All output from LWAP will be placed in this directory. This directory may not be the same as, or be a subdirectory of, the Template Folder.
• Division - This should be set to the appropriate airline division.
• Create Full Installation Structure - When enabled (default), LWAP will output the full directory structure required for Livewire aircraft packages. If disabled, only the aircraft portion of the package will be created, the zip options will be disabled, and any gauges.root, modules.root, and sound.root directories will be ignored.
• Create .ZIP - When enabled, LWAP, after creating the output aircraft package, will also create a properly named .zip file for each Flight Simulator version listed in the !SimVersions.txt file.
• File Ignore Filter - This optional field designates any filenames or filename wildcards that should be ignored when copying the files to the aircraft packages. This field can contain multiple values with each value separated by a semicolon (;). By default, targa (.tga) and photoshop (.psd) documents are ignored.
• Omit Manufacturer - When enabled, LWAP will leave out the manufacturer from the aircraft title and the aircraft directory. (e.g. An aircraft with ui_manufacturer=Aerospatiale and ui_type=ATR72-200 would usually be entitled (for LivewireExpress) LivewireExpress Airlines - Aerospatiale ATR72-200 N270LE. However, when this feature is enabled, the aircraft will be entitled LivewireExpress Airlines - ATR72-200 N270LE.)
• Single Tail Number - When enabled, LWAP will only create packages for the single tail number in the edit box. There is no command-line parameter for this function.

Command-Line Usage

All fields that can be set in the LWAP user-interface can also be set from the command line. The reason for this functionality is so that batch files (.bat) can be made for any template packages and the user-interface can be entirely avoided. The command line switches are as follows:

• /path_template="<Full Path to Template Folder>" (If present, Template Folder is set appropriately. Quotation marks must be used as shown.)
• /path_output="<Full Path to Output Folder>" (If present, Output Folder is set appropriately. Quotation marks must be used as shown.)
• /division=# (Replace # with: 0 for Livewire; 1 for EuroLivewire; 2 for LivewireExpress; or 3 for AeroLivewire.)
• /create_full (If present, Create Full Installation Structure is enabled, otherwise it is disabled.)
• /create_zip (If present, Create .ZIP is enabled, otherwise it is disabled.)
• /ignore_filter="<Ignore Filter Text>" (If present, File Ignore Filter is set appropriately. Quotation marks must be used as shown.)
• /run (If present, Create Packages is automatically launched.)
• /omit_manufacturer (If present, Omit Manufacturer is enabled, otherwise it is disabled.)
• /versions:FS####,FS#### (If present, will only create packages for the one or more MSFS version indicated. MSFS version name must match that from the !SimVersions.txt. There is no GUI version of this command.)
• /rotorcraft (If present, indicates that the aircraft is a rotorcraft. This is necessary for FSX.)
• [Deprecated] /create_2000 (If present, Create .ZIP for FS2000 is enabled, otherwise it is disabled.)
• [Deprecated] /create_2002 (If present, Create .ZIP for FS2002 is enabled, otherwise it is disabled.)
• [Deprecated] /create_2004 (If present, Create .ZIP for FS2004 is enabled, otherwise it is disabled.)

Therefore, if all of these fields are set properly, including /run, then the user-interface can be avoided entirely.

Notes

Due to time limitations and the small number of users, all of whom are competant with computers, this program is not multithreaded. Therefore, certain long operations, such as zipping the packages, will make LWAP appear to "freeze". It was a conscious decision to leave this functionality out and it would be a waste of time to include it. To cancel a Create Packages operation once launched, simply press the Cancel button on a file copy progress dialog boxe when it appears. The whole operation will then abort.

As of version 0.2, the !LWAPTemp folder will be deleted upon successful generation of packages. This has the additional benefit of allowing for batch files to call LWAP consecutively. (e.g. I ran a batch file last night that generated the entire LE fleet for FSX in 18 minutes.) LWAP will not, however, delete the unpackaged aircraft package folders (one per tail number) just as before. This is intended, as it makes it easier to spot check generated packages. Remember to delete these folders before running another LWAP package generation for the same tail numbers.

Step-by-step

1. Copy just the aircraft portion of an existing aircraft package into a new directory which will be the Template Folder.
2. Create an !AircraftIDs.txt text file in the root of the Template Folder and input all applicable tail numbers for the aircraft, one per line.
3. Create a !SimVersions.txt text file in the root of the Template Folder and input all flight simulator versions that this template package is applicable to, one per line.
4. If the aircraft includes textures that are different per-aircraft, create a texture.N###DD folder for each tail number and put only the aircraft-specific textures in each.
5. If any gauges, modules or sounds need to be included for the MSFS installation, put them into folders named gauges.root, modules.root, and sound.root in the template folder, respectively.
6. If any part of the package needs to use different files for one version of Flight Simultaor that another, create a directory named after the MSFS version (e.g. \fs2004) and put the files or directories in there, just as you would into the main template package.
7. Create an empty text file named !LWAircraftPackager.ignore in all texture.N###DD directories (step 3), any *.root directories (step 4) and any supplemental directories that should not be included in the output aircraft packages.
8. Launch LWAP and set all options appropriately.
9. Press the Create Packages button.
10. LWAP will take some time to copy and, optionally, zip all of the files. If Create Full Installation Structure, Create .zip, and at least one Flight Simulator version is selected, LWAP will output packages ready to be tested and uploaded to the Livewire FTP.

Sample Template

A sample template package is available for the LivewireExpress Airbus A320 (this package may become out of date, please do not use it or the aircraft packages it outputs for anything other than learning to use LWAP). The abridged package only contains two aircraft-specific texture directories instead of the original ten. To create output packages from this sample template do the following:

1. Download LWAP (bottom of page) and install it into any directory.
2. Download the full template package (~10 MB) or the abridged template package (~5 MB).
3. Create another directory and unzip the template package into it. This directory is your Template Folder.
4. Create another directory to be your Output Folder. This cannot be the same as, or a subdirectory of, your Template Folder.
5. Launch LWAP.
6. Set the Template Folder to the folder created in step 3.
7. Set the Output Folder to the folder created in step 4.
8. Set the Division to LivewireExpress.
9. Make sure Create Full Installation Structure, and Create .zip are checked.
10. Press Create Packages.
11. When complete, all the output packages will be located in your Output Folder.

Download

Most recent release shown in bold type. 'B' signifies a "beta" version.

Self-Extracting RAR Executable
LWAircraftPackager-v0.2.65.0B.exe

Compressed RAR Archive
LWAircraftPackager-v0.2.65.0B.rar

Compressed ZIP Archive
LWAircraftPackager-v0.2.65.0B.zip