How do I Connect ADE to the Flight Simulator?
There are a lot of times where it is a good idea to have ADE connected to the Flight Simulator. ADE will show the position of the user aircraft and there are a number of functions that can use the position of the user aircraft in FS
Before you Start
ADE uses FSUIPC and the appropriate version needs to be installed before you can connect. FSUIPC is used by a lot of addons so you may have it already installed. To check
- Start your simulator and load an airport.
- Check the Menu Bar for Add-ons and see if FSUIPC is there. If it is then you are good to go. If not then you need to install it
Installing FSUIPC
- Go to http://www.schiratti.com/dowson.html which is the official site for Pete Dowson's tools
- Select the correct version for your sim. The download for FS9 is further down the page
- Make sure your Sim is not running and follow the instructions in the download package to install FSUIPC - you do not need a license, the free version is all that is needed
- Run your simulator again and check that you do have FSUIPC under the Add-ons menu
Start ADE
Start ADE and load your airport. This is KHUT.
Start the Simulator
If your sim is not running then now is the time to start it, Open the airport and then choose Top-Down view from the Right Click Menu
- If you are not in Slew Mode (SLEW will flash in the lower right corner) then press the Y key
- The red cross shows that the location of the user aircraft
Connect ADE to the Simulator
Click the Connect Button near top right of the ADE screen
If the connection is successful then
- The indicator will turn Green,
- The connect button will be disabled and
- The disconnect button and the Lock button will be active
If you Can't Connect
Connection is usually reliable but if you get an error message then first check again whether FSUIPC is actually installed. Second the sim must be running - if it is not then ADE won't be able to find it
Finally make sure that the version that you have ADE started for is the same one that you are running.
Check the User Aircraft Location
The aircraft symbol should now be visible at the same location that it is in the Simulator
Locking ADE and the Sim
When you first start the connection it will be unlocked. That means that the ADE display will always remain where you set it and the user aircraft symbol will move across the display as the user aircraft is slewed in the simulator. Sometimes though it is useful to have the aircraft symbol always centered in the ADE display and the display to move as the user aircraft is slewed in the sim. Click the Lock button to change the behavior to this. Click the Lock button again to unlock and return to the default connection method.
Disconnecting
Just click the Disconnect button. If you forget to disconnect and you close the sim then after a few moments ADE will tell you it lost the connection and complete the disconnection automatically
What's Next?
You should now be connected to the simulator and there are a number of things that you can do in moving things or setting locations. Look out for future articles on the functions available when ADE is connected to the Simulator
I wonder if anyone can help me with a problem relating to connecting ADE to FSX. I can open an airport in ADE, open FSX with my aircraft at the selected airport, and then select 'Connect' and everything seems to work correctly. The 'Connect' light changes to green and, if I move the mouse pointer and select 'move aircraft here' the aircraft moves in FSX. This seems to suggest that ADE is indeed connected to FSX. However, my problem is that I can't get the red aircraft symbol in ADE to appear in the same place as my aircraft in FSX, it is stuck 3,000 miles away on the equator (location lat / longs are all zeros). I have seen in this forum that other people have had similar problems in the past and they have resolved the problem by selecting 'slew' or changing the aircraft symbol wingspan setting. Unfortunately nothing seems to work for me. Any new thoughts on this problem? Your help would be very much appreciated.