OPUS2PFPX Manual
OPUS2PFPX by Max Connor (EXPERIMENTAL!)

1. Purpose

OPUS2PFPX is a tool which is able to create a weather file from OpusFSI weather information and export this to a format PFPX (Professional Flight Planner X) can read. This enables a user to use wind information for flight planning without subscribing to Aerosofts weather service or using (buying) another software product.

2. How does it work?

OPUS2PFPX makes use of 3 sources of information.
- The GRIB data which is used by OpusFSI for weather simulation inside FSX or Prepar3d
- METAR information from the internet (weather.noaa.gov)
- METAR location information (lat/lon) from OpusFSI (OpusFSI_MetStations.dat)
It uses this information to generate a file called "current_weather.txt" which can be imported into PFPX as a FSGRW data source

3. How to setup

OPUS2PFPX is a standalone application based on Microsofts .NET Framework 4.0 which must be installed first. It takes care of everything it needs to export weather by itself. If something is missing it will be generated or downloaded. Just execute the EXE file and the tool will do its business. The result of the programs work is stored in Weather subfolder of the OpusFSI main program folder. When its done you just have to point PFPX to the Weather subfolder using FSGRW weather option.
First, execute opus2pfpx.exe which is installed in your OpusFSI main folder. If you like you can first edit opus2pfpx.exe.config file to configure the settings (-> see "4. Options" below) but you don't have to.
If opus2pfpx finished its work without error you will find a file called "current_weather.txt" in the subdirectory "weather".
Point the weather source for FSGRW in PFPX to this folder and you are good to go planning with winds.

4. Options

OPUS2PFPX has two options which can be configured by editing the OPUS2PFPX.exe.config file.
In the section
you can change the parameter "Detail" to "Standard" or "Full". Full raises the resolution by using the waypoints file of OpusFSI or the installed AIRAC cycle to create way more wind information points than just with the METAR stations. Instead of an approximately 1.5 MB textfile you will end up with a 50 to 60 MB text file. I am not sure if this option makes sense. I am not sure if PFPX uses the additional information. I am also not sure if this degree of detail isn't far over the top. If you like big files and 100% CPU load for 30 Seconds or so, you may use it. But I think its just not necessary.
In the section
you can set the parameter "Multithreading" to True or False. True enables parallel processing on Multicore CPUs. But be aware that this option also puts quite a bit of pressure on the HDD, since both computing and file I/O is done parallel. Just try what fits your hardware best. Default is False.

5. Limitations and known bugs

- OPUS2PFPX only works with the provided OpusFSI installation. It does not support the original licensed, trial or cracked versions or older licensed, trial and cracked versions.
- From time to time the tool downloads new GRIB data even if the existing data is still valid.
- GRIB data download can get stuck. If the program hangs while downloading GRIB-data just restart it.
- If you get a decoding error and your FSIDECODER.LOG says "incompatible library" start FSISERVER.EXE and close it again.
Decoding should work now.