XPlaneUpdate User's Guide, last modified 1/24/04

The master version of this document is maintained in Adobe Go Live, and is available online at http://www.XPlaneUpdate.com

Notes:

The screenshots in this document may not exactly match your system and/or your version of XPlaneUpdate. We are constantly refining XPlaneUpdate, and don't always have time to keep all the screenshots up-to-date.

Table Of Contents (toc)

Overview
Starting
Choose Your X-Plane Folder
Starting / Running

Additional Features
The XPlaneUpdate Menu
Manage Ignore List
Confirm/Display/Edit Files To Get Before Download/Installation
Synchronize Aircraft Folder After Download/Installation

Overview

XPlaneUpdate is used to update an existing installation of X-Plane (version 7+ only) to the latest released (or, for subscribers, either the latest FINAL or the latest BETA) version.

It does this by downloading the individual files that make up X-Plane, and puts them exactly where they belong!

When a new version of X-Plane is released, we update our servers with the latest files, and you can then run XPlaneUpdate again to download/install just these new files, all automatically!

This manual shows mostly Mac OS X screenshots, but XPlaneUpdate for Windows looks nearly identical and works exactly the same way.

You currently must have an installation of X-Plane Version 7+ ... For example, the following shows the X-System folder on a Mac after copying the file X-System 7.00 Beta-0 For Macintosh.sit from the v7 beta 0 CD, and then using StuffIt Expander to extract it:

toc

Starting

XPlaneUpdate is distributed as either a zip file (Windows), or as a dmg file (Mac). Once you extract the XPlaneUpdate folder, copy/move it somewhere convenient on your system - like Program Files (win) or Applications (mac).

Then open it's folder:

And double-click on the Application, pointed to above.

The first time you launch it, you will get a dialog similar to the following:

Mac OS X Users - if you get a dialog from the system indicating that this application requires Java 1.4+, you need to run Software Update from System Preferences and download/install Java 1.4.1

The warning above is rather important - XPlaneUpdate updates an existing installation of X-Plane, and it does this in pieces (downloading many or just a few files, just the ones you need), and until it has completed successfully, as it says:

toc

Choose Your X-Plane Folder

Next up (again, first time users), you will be presented with a dialog like:

This explains that in the dialog that follows, you need to choose the X-Plane Version 7+ application so that XPlaneUpdate will know what folder to use:

In this example, we have picked X-Plane 700 Beta-0 OS X

You will next be presented with a confirmation dialog:

This is indeed what we want to do, so we say Yes

toc

Starting / Running

Once you have chosen the directory (and on future launches you will not have to go through the above steps - XPlaneUpdate remembers your settings)...

You will see a window similar to the following:

Not much spectacular, except for the information that explains that the current version (on our servers) is 7.00FINAL (which is the same as RC4/7.00 final you could download from x-plane.com)

We're now ready to Start, so press the Start Button, and you will soon see activity and something similar to the following:

This is while comparing your system to the 7.00FINAL release ...

Important Note: XPU uses advanced 128-bit encryption technology known as an MD5 digest that guarantees the uniqueness of a file. This means that XPU can take several minutes to compare to your system, so please be patient, the delay is worth it!

When this completes (which will take several minutes), you will see something similar to the following:

Click on Yes, and XPlaneUpdate will begin downloading and installing the files needed to bring your system up to the latest release.

Note: This example is a "worst case" scenario, because version 7.00 beta 0 was the first release and is now almost 3 months old. You will usually not have this many new files to install.

There are about 1700+ files that make up all of x-plane, so this will download 814 newer ones, almost half the number of files that are part of X-Plane.

On my particular system (DSL), it took about an hour to get to about the 90% mark:

And here's what it looks like when it has completed successfully:

You can now quit XPlaneUpdate...

toc

Go ahead and double-click on the new X-Plane Application (first make sure the XPLANE7 CD is in the drive), and you'll soon be greeted by the new X-Plane v7 startup screen:

Congratulations! You have now updated your system automatically!

toc

The XPlaneUpdate Menu

This menu is in different places, depending on whether you are running XPU on Mac OS X, or on Windows.

On Mac OS X, this is the 2nd menu in the menu bar when XPlaneUpdate is the front-most application.

On Windows, this menu is at the top-left corner of the XPlaneUpdate window.

We'll briefly explain the functionality of each menu item:

• About... - tells you the version of XPU you are running, and who it is subscribed to
  
  
• Visit Our Website... - pretty obvious :-)
  
  
• Choose X-Plane Folder... see above
  
  
• Use latest BETA X-System for Updates..., Use latest FINAL X-System for Updates... - These items (subscribers only) allow you to choose whether to use the latest BETA/Release Candidate or the latest FINAL X-System to update to
  
  
• Set CPU Usage... - allows you to set cpu usage (1-100%) approximately if the default is too hi or low
  
  
• Clear File Cache... - alllows you to remove the files that XPU uses to keep track of the current X-System version and where you were during an update. You usually don't need to use this, but it can be useful if you wish to force XPU to recheck your system.
  
  
• Delete XPlaneUpdate Preferences... - allows you to remove the XPU preferences, sometimes handy for troubleshooting
  
  
• Automatically Start When Launched, Automatically Install Without Confirmation - these checkable items allow you to automate things when XPU starts. We generally don't like to use them as we like to see exactly what's happening.
  
  
• Manage Ignore List... - Please see here
  
  
• Confirm/Display/Edit Files To Get Before Download/Installation - Please see here
  
  
• Synchronize Aircraft Folder - Please see here
  
  
• Enter Transaction ID... - allows you to enter a transaction ID so that XPlaneUpdate knows you are a subscriber, and may be used in the future to allow you to use XPlaneUpdate to update 3rd party add-ons such as scenery and aircraft.

toc

Manage Ignore List

This very powerful mechanism allows you to add files/folders to the Ignore List, and XPU will ignore these items when comparing to your system.

Like the Confirm/Display/Edit Files feature, be very, very careful here as you can easily end up with an incomplete x-system. If, for example, you choose "/Resources", as in the screenshot below, XPU will ignore ALL files and folders starting with "/Resources" ... See the remove warning below

This new list is saved by XPU, and replaces the prior menu items for ignoring just certain folders. You now have complete control of what XPU gets/looks at, and downloads...

This operates just like the confirm list below, but you can choose Add Item... which will bring up a file/folder selection dialog so you can add any file or folder from within your current x-system folder.

toc

Confirm/Display/Edit Files To Get Before Download/Installation

If you check this menu item, you have complete control of exactly which files XPU will download/install, but be sure to read the warning below!

This allows advanced users who might change some of their X-System files and not want XPU to overwrite them to tweak their XPU usage.

We like to enable this feature just to see what files XPU will be getting.

If you enable this feature, after comparing to your system and before download/installing any files, you will see something like this:

This dialog allows you to remove 1 or more files that XPU has determined are new / different.

There are 3 buttons, which we'll discuss here:

1. Restore List allows you to restore the list to it's initial state if you have removed 1 or more items. This is essentially an "undo" function.
   
   
2. Remove Selected allows you to remove 1 or more of the selected items as shown above. This removes them from the list of files that XPU will download/install.
   
   You can select 1 or more items with your mouse/keyboard:
   
   Single click - select 1
   
   Command (OS X), Control (Win) click - add/remove from the selection
   
   Click one, then Shift click another - select all items between the first item selected and the last item selected (inclusive)
   
   
3. Done - when you are finished editing or just reviewing the list, make sure you press the done button

WARNING!:

If you are not very careful when removing items, you most likely will end up with an X-System installation that does not run, crashes, etc.

If this happens, choose Clear File Cache from the XPU menu, and run XPU again, letting it get all the files that it knows are needed.

toc

Synchronize Aircraft Folder After Download/Installation

This feature allows you to synchronize your aircraft folder with whatever you are using as a source to update from.

XPlaneUpdate does not normally delete any files that are not part of the source fileset (on our servers or otherwise).

Austin often changes the aircraft that he includes with X-System - both their names / locations, and the files that make up each aircraft.

If you use XPlaneUpdate to install just the "newer/different" files, you can end up with old aircraft in your Aircraft folder that cause the current version of X-Plane problems as Austin has made changes to X-Plane that may make old aircraft incompatible.

We have now added a new menu item:

that allows you to synchronize your Aircraft folder after download/installation.

If you check this item and hit start (you may need to use the Clear File Cache menu item to guarantee some files get downloaded), after XPlaneUpdate has downloaded/installed everything, you might see something like this:

This list allows you to fine-tune (remove) any files you don't want XPlaneUpdate to delete, and you'll also get a confirmation dialog after this to make sure you don't accidentally delete important aircraft.

NOTE: This is a list of files to DELETE - if you REMOVE things from this list, they will NOT be deleted!

You'll note in this example, that we have created a folder in Aircraft called "_mine".

We suggest that you do the same and do NOT put your downloaded aircraft into the standard Aircraft folders (General Aviation, Heavy Metal, etc.).

There are 2 reasons for this:

1. It makes it easy for you to keep track of what are your downloaded aircraft versus "standard" x-system aircraft.
   
   
2. It makes it easy to tell XPlaneUpdate to ignore your "_mine" aircraft folder and any contents.

The Syncrhonize Aircraft feature will use your Ignore List and skip over any aircraft that are in your ignore list when synchronizing.

Here's an example:

SO, before using the Synchronize feature, we would suggest that you:

1. Create a folder like "_mine" in your Aircraft folder
   
   
2. Move or copy your aircraft (that you have downloaded or that you want to keep) into this folder. You can add subfolders like General Aviation, etc. if you wish. to keep Aircraft/_mine organized
   
   
3. Add Aircraft/_mine to the Ignore List (choose Manage Ignore List from the menu...)

If you use the above technique, your Aircraft folder should always end up with "official" aircraft released by Austin, and Aircraft/_mine will be ignored by XPlaneUpdate.

If after using this feature, you have problems with X-Plane and any of your Aircraft/_mine aircraft, you can now easily move your _mine folder out of the Aircraft folder to get up and running, and then gradually add in your aircraft to find which aircraft(s) are causing problems.

Please use caution with this feature so that you don't inadvertently delete any important aircraft! If you do, you're on your own :-)