Location Manager for MSFS
Turbocharge MSFS
Location Manager Benefits & Features – Version Comparison | Free | Pro |
SAVE locations of all types. Click saved location to auto zoom to it. Quick delete them. | Limited to 10 (plenty for casuals) | Limited to 200 (for sim stability) |
START ANYWHERE ON GROUND/WATER: Toolbar widget to teleport & start engine off from a saved location on land or water. Save new location. | N | Y |
START ANYWHERE IN THE AIR: Toolbar widget to teleport to saved locations in fly mode in air @ 1000′. Save new location. | Y (feature limited) | Y |
SORT by any info column to get insight into your locations. | 3 (Name,Type,Country) | 9 |
FILTER by any single or combined text/number value to compare/contrast. | 1 | 9 |
FAVORITES: Quick tagging/untagging of favorites + fast filter favorites. | Y | Y |
TAGS: Save, sort, and/or filter by your own custom tag system. | N/A | 30 characters + sort/filter |
NOTES: Save key information you’d like to remember about the location. | N/A | 200 Character Limit (for sim stability) |
Quick Reset: Button to quick reset all combinations of filters & sorting. | Y | Y |
INTEGRATED into the standard MSFS world map system | Y | Y |
Columns: Adjust column size by dragging column dividers | Y | Y |
User Experience: Improved visual feedback & other cues | Y | Y |
Get 15% off bundled with Aircraft Manager Pro
See Aircraft Manager for MSFS
Free Lite version available
Video Guide
Quick Help Guides
Tips
Want to get the best out of Location Manager? Use the included help tools.
There is a small learning curve with the Location Manager user interface, and the most efficient way to learn it is via a simple process.
- Use the tool tips that show up when you mouse over the column header
- Read the annotated quick help guide image that is included with the download, and shown above here. Click where shown, understand what happens as a result.
- Watch the videos linked above here for deeper insights.
- Ask support via the form at the bottom of this page if you don’t understand something, or have found a bug/issue to report.
You will then have a more complete understanding of how it works, and then you can decide how you want to use it, the way that suits you best. It’s quite flexible in that regard.
First time user and you clicked on the grid and all your locations disappeared, leaving a blank grid?
This is likely because you clicked on the favorites quick filter/unfilter trigger, which is accessed by clicking on any plane name in the grid. If you haven’t yet set any favorites (yellow F in far left column in image above) then nothing will show. Use the Reset Filters button (pro) or manually reset the Favorites Filter on the top of the far left column. To open the Favorites Filter on the top far left, make sure you click on the hamburger menu icon, the three little horizontal lines, and not the filter icon. Once open, press the reset button to clear the filter and all your planes will appear. It’s a narrow column to save space, so if you click on the filter icon just to the left of the hamburger menu (3 horizontal lines) you will actually trigger a sort of that column. You can see the sort icon by clicking on the column header when the filter is cleared, and you will see an up or down arrow on successive clicks, changing the sort order, and no arrow when the sort is cycled back to off.
Please check the quick help guide included in your download, as well as watch the videos for insights into how things work, then devise your own system using it that suits you.
Issues with 3rd party add-ons in MSFS?
MSFS Safe Mode is a new feature that will allow players to launch the sim in a basic state to ensure stability.
- MSFS Safe Mode FAQ
- To force start MSFS in safe mode, crash or force quit the app with alt+F4 or end the process from Task Manager. You will then get the prompt to boot normally or in safe mode on restart.
- It’s also possible to trigger safe mode on startup by dropping an empty file called running.lock into your local MSFS directory. This appears to be a lock file that MSFS uses to detect if MSFS exited correctly the last time it was used, and is deleted if MSFS successfully exits. If it exists, it triggers the safe mode selection screen. See this thread Command line parameter to start the sim in SAFE MODE for more info.
Installation
The product is delivered as an MSFS package to be installed in the MSFS Community folder.
Unzip the downloaded zip file to a location (and keep it for the included documentation), and move only the included Location Manager package folders “sonicviz-panel-locmanager” and “sonicviz-util-locmanager” into your community folder.
if you don’t know the path of your community folder or the package doesn’t show up in sim, please do the following while running the sim:
- Go to Options / General screen in the User Interface
- Click on “Developers” tab at the bottom of the list on the left
- Switch the Developers Mode to ON
- On the Developer Mode Menu which you will now see on the upper left of your screen, select Tools / Virtual File System
- The community folder location can be found under “Packages Folders”.
- Open it and move the package folders as described above into there.
See also: https://www.google.com/search?q=msfs+location+of+community+folder
Uninstall
Remove Location Manager from your MSFS community folder.
If it’s the MSFS Marketplace version (TBA) uninstall/delete the package from the marketplace in game.
FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Can I save specific airport gates or ground points as cold & dark start locations?
A: Short answer: not currently. Long answer: Location Manager is intended to be a generalised location manager for storage and retrieval of locations, to act as a starting point for your next flight. The intent is to zoom back to the saved location, THEN you manually select what you want to do for the flight by another click as per normal map use: start in the air in the general area, select a specific parking spot for a cold and dark, select a runway, select a water runway (in the case of a location with both land & water runways), or select the airport and let the sim decide the runway. In fly mode, you can teleport to saved locations at 1000′ AGL, then decide what to do.
Update 07/03/2023: Work in progress is showing this it’s possible to teleport to ground/water locations successfully in fly mode. It won’t be possible to start from map mode like that due to limitations, but with a little bit of a process we should be able to implement a system where you can arrive at a point to start your flight anywhere in world (obviously contrained by the realities of the geography). Stay tuned.
Update 09/03/2023:Start anywhere teleport functionality is released in V1.0.3
As mentioned, it won’t be possible to start from map mode like that due to limitations, but all you need to do is:
- Explore the map and save interesting locations as starting points as per the video guide
- Pick a starting airport and enter Fly mode in either cold or hot start mode.
- Once in Fly mode open Location Manager, choose where you want to go, and teleport there to start your flight.
Q: Can I uninstall the LM Toolbar widget and just use the main LM app?
A: No. Currently Location Manager requires both addons installed in order to be able to work properly.
Q: Why is there a size limit on the notes/tags you can save (and other things)?
A: There are currently unknown and undocumented aspects to the MSFS SDK, and storage limits are one of these fuzzy areas.
After doing my own testing to get some clarity, Asobo developers indicated there should be no issues based on some reasonable size tests they have done, and to let them know if any issues are encountered. Based on this, I’m taking a measured risk reduction approach for now with storage limits.
I’ve decided to initally release with smaller storage limits, see what people do with it, get feedback, and increase the limits as needed in measured steps based on real world usage.
There are also performance implications with loading/unloading huge blobs of text in the UI, and I’d like to strike a good balance between utility, value, and performance. There’s always trade offs with this kind of thing.
Known Issues
- Teleporting: Please turn all your Assistance Options/Failure and Damage options to OFF in order to avoid issues with loading conflicts that may happen with changing locations (ie: ground/aircraft while the new location loads in). Also be aware there may be some issues with Aircraft using custom damage modelling that may override these settings. I suggest testing first with a base aircraft that does not have these issues.
- Location Height: The altitude of saved locations should be correct, but it may be off if you saved the location zoomed way out on the map. Please zoom into the map to a close distance when saving to ensure the point saved is the most accurate resolution and is placed where you want it.
- Pro and Free don’t mix: Pro and Free versions will cause issues if used together. ie: AM Pro + LM Free or AM Free + LM Pro are not supported. This is due to underlying requirements.
- Addon Conflicts: There is a conflict with another 3rd party UI addon, Modern UI. If you wish to use both (not recommended) you could try renaming Aircraft Manager by prefixing the folder with a “z-” so it loads after and supercedes that part of the Wingman UI mod. There is,however, no guarantee this rename will work, or continue to work in the future. Due to current limitations, be aware that other apps that integrate into the MSFS UI may conflict with AM and LM (like Modern UI), so you may have to make a choice between them.
- Scaling to different screen resolutions. Due to issues encountered integrating into the MSFS UI it hasn’t been possible to implement a fully responsive UI that scales up and down like the MSFS UI does. The workaround for the moment is a manual font size change feature, so the user can adjust the font size of the data grid to their own preference. There are also some adjustments to column widths depending on the font size chosen. I would call it partially responsive. Free demo now includes this functionality.
- Font Character Accents: Due to limitations with the integration method, font character accents are currently not supported. You may get some strange looking characters in plane names and/or notes. Nothing I can do about that for now.
- Scrolling/Pagination: Due to memory issues with integrating into the MSFS UI a hybrid pagination/scroll system has been implemented to avoid any issues. Page size is currently set at 80 rows to stike a balance between utility, performance, and bug free use.
Release Notes
Pro Version
Location Manager Release Notes 1.1.0
https://sonicviz.com/project/location-manager/
Date: 26/05/2023
* Complete rewrite of the scaling for a much improved User Experience (UX)
* Other small UX adjustments
* Bug Fixes
* Performance Improvements
Location Manager Release Notes 1.0.4
Date: 28/04/2023
- Re-enabled sort on Notes
- Performance optimisations
- Library update
Location Manager Release Notes 1.0.3a
Date: 10/03/2023
- Teleport implemented correctly for multiengine aircraft + gear/flaps configured properly
- Teleport time dynamically adjusted based on distance from current location to teleport location. Quicker restarts!
Location Manager Release Notes 1.0.3
Date: 09/03/2023
- New: Start Anywhere – Teleport to saved locations on ground/water/air (geography permitting)
- Improved Teleport user experience
- Fixed correct row selection when sorted
- Performance Improvements
Location Manager Release Notes 1.0.2
Date: 23/02/2023
- Performance Improvements
- Fixed issue with missing country
- Fixed missing icons in filter popups
- Fixed horizontal scrollbar
Free Version
Location Manager Free Release Notes V 1.1.0
https://sonicviz.com/project/location-manager/
Date: 26/05/2023
* Complete rewrite of the scaling for a much improved User Experience (UX)
* Other small UX adjustments
* Bug Fixes
* Performance Improvements
Location Manager Free Release Notes V 1.0.3
Released 2023-05-20
- Added favorites for free
Free V 1.0.2 Released 2023-03-16
- Improved Teleport user experience
Free V 1.0.1 released 2023-02-16
- Bug fix with selected aircraft/location when sorting to maintain position
- Sorting in free versions of both synchronised to 3 (check version comparison help file for details)
- Performance tweaks
V 1.0.0 released 2023-02-14
Update 13/2/2023
- New free version release, no version number change.
- Many fixes and improvements.
- LM toolbar allows teleporting and saving locations
Update 2/2/2023
- New free version release, no version number change.
- Fixed saved height unit measurments
- Includes alpha test release of Location Manager toolbar widget to test teleporting to saved locations.
Teleports to the saved location at speed 100kts, Heading 360, pitch/roll level, @ 1500ft agl.
29/01/2023 Released
Refund Policy
Please try the free lite version/demo first before buying, to ensure the addon works ok on your system before buying.
Due to the nature of this product being digitally available, purchases of this product are non-refundable.
Support
Please contact us via this form if you have any issues to report.
Note: Free version support is limited compared to the payware version.
To resolve issues it’s important to be able to replicate them, so we need to have as much information as possible in order to reproduce the problem and hopefully resolve it.
Please include the following information:
- Your receipt information for proof of purchase
- Your version of MSFS (Steam or Microsoft store)
- Whether you are on the live version or the Beta version
- Describe what you were doing prior to the issue occuring
- Describe what happened to trigger the issue
- Does it happen all the time or only in certain situations?
- What addons you have installed
- Describe anything else you think is relevant.
Although it might seem irrelevant to you, unless I can replicate the issue it’s very difficult to solve, so all the above info is required. Thanks!