simict assistant user manual assistant user manual.pdf · 2019-12-31 · https:/ page: 3 1...

https://www.simict.com

SimICT Assistant

User manual

https:/www.simict.com Page: 2

Table Of Contents

Table Of Contents .................................................................................................................................... 2

1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 3

2 Installation ....................................................................................................................................... 4

3 First time use ................................................................................................................................... 7

3.1 Adding Files to Documents .................................................................................................... 10

3.2 Searching and Filtering .......................................................................................................... 12

4 Delete File ...................................................................................................................................... 12

5 Add or Delete Folder ..................................................................................................................... 13

6 Icons .............................................................................................................................................. 14

6.1 Web Browser ......................................................................................................................... 14

6.2 Kneeboard ............................................................................................................................. 14

6.3 Download .............................................................................................................................. 16

6.4 Registration Information ....................................................................................................... 17

6.5 Settings .................................................................................................................................. 20

6.5.1 Basic settings ................................................................................................................. 20

6.5.2 Other settings ................................................................................................................ 22

7 Viewing PDF ‘Files’ or ‘Documents’ ............................................................................................... 24


1 Introduction SimICT Assistant is a program for flight simulation use only, that can be used for conveniently

displaying e.g. airport chart-files.

The program makes it possible to create shortcuts to different pages within the same file for quick

and easy access to certain charts or other information. Each shortcut can be given a description,

preferred page-number within the physical file, zoom-factor and a color.

Further, it is easy to temporarily add certain files or shortcuts to pages within a file to the kneeboard

function so it becomes easy to plan a flight and quickly view the necessary charts or information

while flying.

The program can be used also to organize PDF manuals, checklists and other information you might

need during flight simulation.

Additionally, the program has a built in downloader making it much easier to download chart files for

a certain airport and storing these downloaded files automatically in the appropriate folder.


2 Installation Run the ‘setup.exe’ program. By default the program will be installed in one of the following folders:

‘C:\Program Files\SimICT \SimICT Assistant’

‘C:\Program Files (x86)\ SimICT\SimICT Assistant’

The settings of the program will be installed in the following folder:

‘C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Roaming\SimICT \SimICT Assistant’

Below the several steps of the setup process are displayed.


3 First time use When starting the program for the first time, the program displays the following message, indicating

that a ‘Base Folder’ must be specified in the ‘Settings’.

You can specify this folder in the ‘Settings’ dialog that appears after clicking the ‘OK’ button. Fill in

the preferred base-folder on your computer where you want to place the PDF-files that the program

must display.


In below picture an example is displayed of how the program will look after specifying the ‘Base

Folder’. On the left side of the screen a folder-tree is displayed of the folders that are located on the

computer under the just set up ‘Base Folder’. As long as the program is not activated, a maximum of

10 sub-folders and 50 files per folder will be displayed.


The program searches for PDF-files in the selected folder in the folder-tree. In below example, four

PDF-files are present in the ‘Charts’ folder. These files are displayed in the grid next to the folder-

tree. The other grid that is empty in below picture can be filled with ‘shortcuts’ to one or more

physical PDF-files. This way it is possible to reference certain pages within the same physical PDF-file

by creating multiple shortcuts. These shortcuts will be called ‘Documents’ in the program and in this

manual. This in contrast to the physical files, that will be called ‘Files’ in the program and in this

manual.

On top of the program the selected folder-path is also displayed: ‘SimICT Assistant\Charts’.


3.1 Adding Files to Documents

You can add a certain file to the documents by double-clicking on it or by context-clicking on a file

and selecting ‘Add To Documents’.

After that, the file is now also available as a ‘Document’ in the grid next to the ‘File’ grid as shown in

below picture where for airport EBBR (Brussels) all files are added to the ‘Document’ list. As you can

see in below picture, it is possible to specify a certain page and zoom factor for each ‘Document’.

Also it is possible to change the description of each document, that initially has the name of the

physical file as the description. Just press the F2-button when a certain line is selected in the

‘Document’ list and you can change the description, page-number or zoom-factor. Or just use the

‘Document Details’ controls on the right side of the screen for changing these. As you can see, it is

also possible to change the color of a document. Click the ‘Update’ button when you’re done

changing the ‘Document Details’.

Instead of adding documents to the end of the list of ‘Documents’, it is also possible to insert a

‘Document’ on the selected row of the list with ‘Documents’. Change the ‘Add Document’ option on

the right side of the screen to ‘Insert’ instead of the default ‘Append’ option.


‘Documents’ can be moved up and down by pressing the corresponding button on the right side of

the screen or by pressing the F3 (move up) or F4 (move down) buttons on your keyboard. The other

buttons on the right side of the screen can be used to add a single file to the ‘Documents’ list, add all

‘Files’ of the current folder to the ‘Documents’ list, remove the selected ‘Document’ or remove all

‘Documents’. By removing a ‘Document’ from the list, only the shortcut to the physical PDF-file is

removed, not the physical file itself.

Removing a ‘Document’ from the list can also be done by context-clicking on a certain ‘Document’

and selecting ‘Remove Document’ or by pressing the ‘Del’ button on your keyboard after selecting

the ‘Document’.

Once you select another folder in the folder-tree (or close the program) and the list of ‘Documents’

has been changed in any way, the following dialog is displayed. After clicking ‘Yes’, the changes in the

list will be saved.


3.2 Searching and Filtering

The list of ‘Files’ and ‘Documents’ can be easily filtered by specifying a filter in one or both filter

controls on top of the program, as displayed in below picture. The left control is used for filtering

‘Files’ and the right control for filtering ‘Documents’.

4 Delete File Deleting a physical file can be done by context-clicking the file in the list of ‘Files’ and selecting

‘Delete File’ or by pressing the ‘Del’ button on your keyboard after selecting the appropriate ‘File’.


5 Add or Delete Folder You can add or delete folders within the program by context-clicking a certain folder in the folder-

tree, and choose the appropriate action as shown in below picture. Off course, when deleting a

folder, also all of the contents within the folder on the computer-drive will be deleted.

Please note that in the non-activated version of the program, a maximum of 10 folders is displayed,

even though a new folder will be added on the drive of your computer when already 10 folders are

being displayed by the program.


6 Icons On the top right of the screen, the following icons are displayed.

Each of these icons can be clicked and have the following functions:

1. Web Browser

2. Kneeboard

3. Download

4. Registration Information

5. Settings

The use of these icons is described below.

6.1 Web Browser

By clicking the ‘Web Browser’ icon, your preferred browser is launched. The advantage of launching

the browser from within the program is that you can have the browser displayed on top of your flight

simulator whenever in the ‘Settings’ the setting ‘PDF Viewer And Browser Stay On Top’ is active.

6.2 Kneeboard

The ‘Kneeboard’ icon can be clicked in order to display the ‘Files’ and/or ‘Documents’ that have been

added to the kneeboard. The ‘Kneeboard’ behaves exactly like normal ‘Documents’, except that only

one ‘Kneeboard’ is available. When the ‘Kneeboard’ function is active, this is indicated on top of the

screen. Also whenever the ‘Kneeboard’ function is active, the normal ‘Documents’ are no longer

visible.


Whenever the ‘Kneeboard’ function is active, whenever you add a ‘File’ it will be added to the

‘Kneeboard’ and not to the regular ‘Documents’ of the selected folder in the folder-tree. Upon

context-clicking a certain ‘File’ then it is also only possible to add the selected ‘File’ to the

‘Kneeboard’ and not to the ‘Documents’.

In order to view the ‘Documents’ again, just click the ‘Kneeboard’ icon again.


6.3 Download

After clicking the ‘Download’ icon the layout of the main screen of the program will be changed.

Open your preferred internet browser and go to a website where you can download chart files for an

airport, e.g. the LOWI airport.

https://www.vacc-austria.org/index.php?page=content/chartlist&icao=lowi

On the website you’ll find links to several chart-files which you can drag with your mouse into the

center box of SimICT Assistant as shown below. Each hyperlink to the online document will be added

to the box of the program.

Whenever you’re done dragging files to SimICT Assistant, you can download these files to your

computer by clicking the ‘Download’ button. During the download process, you’ll see each file that is

being downloaded will be removed from the center box and you’ll see the progress next to the

‘Download’ button. When the download is complete, the list of downloaded files will be updated in

the grid on the left side of the program.


6.4 Registration Information

Information on top of the program indicates that the program still needs to be activated. Click on the

‘Registration Information’ (the icon with the letter i).

After clicking the icon, the following dialog is displayed. Click ‘OK’ to close the dialog.

Enter your e-mail address in this dialog and click the ‘Update’ button.

After that, in the ‘Registration Information’ panel your ‘E

Info’ is displayed. Copy this registration information by clicking the ‘Copy’ button. This results in

copying the registration information to your Windows Clipboard. Next, you can paste this

information in an e-mail mail you send to:

in this e-mail.

For the moment you can now close this dialog. You can always fill in the activation key later on in this

dialog after you get this key. The dialog can always be displ

Information’ icon later on.

You can continue to use the program, even without registering or activating. Although then a

maximum of 10 folders and a maximum of 50 files per folder will be displayed. This way you can

evaluate the program.

Once you’ve obtained the activation key, you can paste it in the dialog and click the ‘Update’ button.

When the activation key is correct, the following dialog will be displayed.

Whenever you’ll activate the program later, the following dial

open the ‘Registration Information’ dialog by clicking the ‘Registration Information’ icon again on top

of the program.

https:/www.simict.com

After that, in the ‘Registration Information’ panel your ‘E-mail Address’, ‘Hardware Id’ and ‘Hardware

is displayed. Copy this registration information by clicking the ‘Copy’ button. This results in


mail mail you send to: [email protected] and request your activation key


dialog after you get this key. The dialog can always be displayed by again clicking on the




When the activation key is correct, the following dialog will be displayed.

Whenever you’ll activate the program later, the following dialog will be displayed whenever you’ll


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mail Address’, ‘Hardware Id’ and ‘Hardware

is displayed. Copy this registration information by clicking the ‘Copy’ button. This results in


and request your activation key


ayed by again clicking on the ‘Registration




og will be displayed whenever you’ll



6.5 Settings

6.5.1 Basic settings

A few basic settings must be filled in order for the program to function properly. The settings will be

displayed after clicking on the ‘Settings’ icon.

1. PDF Viewer. You will have to set-up the location of your PDF-file viewer. The program

currently only supports Adobe Acrobat reader® and Foxit reader®. Please download and

install any of these programs whenever you don’t have these yet. Put the complete path on

your computer to the PDF-viewer program, e.g.:

C:\Program Files\Foxit Software\Foxit Reader\FoxitReader.exe

2. Arguments. Choose the arguments belonging to the PDF Viewer of choice in the combobox

as indicated in below picture at number 3. The control below that combobox will

automatically be filled in after choosing the preferred viewer, either it being Acrobat Reader®

or Foxit Reader®. The program needs this information in order to display the correct page

and zoom factor of a chart you click, as described later in this manual. Leave this as filled in

by the program, there is no need to change anything in this control.

3. Use Internal PDF Viewer. Instead of using an external PDF-file viewer, you can use the

internal PDF-file viewer. Whenever you’ve checked this checkbox, the external PDF-file

viewer will not be launched when viewing a chart. For this to work however, actually you

need to have the Foxit reader® website browser plugin installed. This is an option you can

select when you install Foxit reader® on your computer as you can see in below picture.

After you’re done, click the ‘Update’ button and close the settings by clicking on the ‘settings’ icon on

top of the program again.



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6.5.2 Other settings

There are some other settings of less importance that will be explained here.

1. Base Folder. Explained earlier in this manual.

2. Airport Folder. The folder that is specified here is the base folder for airport sub-folders

containing 4-character ICAO codes. You place your PDF-chartfiles for each airport under this

‘Airport Folder’ in a subfolder named with the 4 character ICAO code of the airport, e.g. for

London Heathrow use subfolder-name: EGLL, for Frankfurt use subfolder-name: EDFF. It is

important that you will name each subfolder only with the 4 character ICAO code and no

other characters in the subfolder-name. The ‘Airport Folder’ settings is important for the

program when displaying Metar information. Based on the name of an 4 character ICAO

subfolder-name, the correct Metar information for that airport can be displayed when that

airport is selected in the program later on. Setting up the ‘Airport Folder’ is only useful

whenever the program is already activated, since the non-activated program will only display

a maximum of 10 folders that are present under the ‘Base Folder’.

3. Web Browser. This setting is default filled in with IExplore.exe. This is the filename of the

executable program of Internet Explorer®. This setting will be used when the browser is

started from the program. You can choose a different internet browser by specifying the

path to this browser program’s executable.

4. Default Zoom. The value of this setting will be used when you add a new ‘Document’.


5. Stay On Top. When this setting is checked, the program will stay on top of other programs.

6. PDF Viewer And Browser Stay On Top. When this setting is checked, the external PDF-viewer

and internet browser - when started from this program - will stay on top of other programs.

This settings is not used for the external PDF-viewer when you’ve activated ‘Use Internal PDF

Viewer’.

7. Display Metar. When checked, Metar-information will be displayed on the right side of the

program in the main screen when an airport-folder is selected in the folder-tree (see below

picture). In order for this to work properly, the appropriate ‘Airport Folder’ must be specified

in the dialog.

8. Taskbar. You can click this button whenever you want to hide or restore the Windows

taskbar.

9. ‘Icons’ button whenever you want to clear or restore all icons on your desktop. This way you

can easily temporarily clear your desktop while flying.

7 Viewing PDF ‘Files’ or Context-click a certain ‘File’ and select ‘View’ or just press the F6 button. For viewing a ‘Document’ in

the ‘Document’ grid, also context

button. Also double-clicking a ‘Docum

Please note: double-clicking a ‘File’ results in inserting or appending the

‘Documents’ list.

In below pictures you see the activated version of the

hierarchy of folders being displayed.

The PDF-viewer will open when you’ve set up everything correctly, showing the clicked chart in the

viewer on the appropriate page with the zoom

‘Security Warning’ like shown below. You can ignore this warning, click the checkbox and click ‘Ok’ to

continue.


iewing PDF ‘Files’ or ‘Documents’ click a certain ‘File’ and select ‘View’ or just press the F6 button. For viewing a ‘Document’ in

the ‘Document’ grid, also context-click the appropriate ‘Document’ and select ‘View’ or press the F8

clicking a ‘Document’ results in activating the viewer.

clicking a ‘File’ results in inserting or appending the selected

the activated version of the program with no restriction in the

of folders being displayed.

viewer will open when you’ve set up everything correctly, showing the clicked chart in the

with the zoom-factor you’ve specified for the chart.


Page: 24

click a certain ‘File’ and select ‘View’ or just press the F6 button. For viewing a ‘Document’ in

click the appropriate ‘Document’ and select ‘View’ or press the F8

selected ‘File’ in the

no restriction in the quantity or

viewer will open when you’ve set up everything correctly, showing the clicked chart in the

factor you’ve specified for the chart. You might get a



However, when you’ve indicated in the ‘Settings’ to use the internal PDF-viewer, the chart will be

displayed within the program itself. This will work when you’ve installed the Foxit reader® browser

plugin as described in the ‘General settings’ section in this manual. This might also work with other

browser plugins. You can rotate the chart by right-clicking on the chart and select ‘Clockwise’ when

using the Foxit reader® browser plugin or you can simply press Ctrl Shift + or press Ctrl Shift – to

rotate the chart counterclockwise. You can also choose ‘Show Navigation Panels’ in order to display

these panels in the viewer or press the F4 button.

Click the ‘Back’ button on top of the program in order to return to the main screen.