LVAR Support Installation

To support LVAR access from within SPAD.neXt it is necessary to install the SPAD.neXt Bridge into the Simulator. The bridge will allow SPAD.neXt to query LVAR and set values. However it might be possible that an LVAR change is not being picked up by the simulator, because it is a read-only value.

To function correctly the LVAR bridge requires the Microsoft Visual Studio C++ 2013 redistributables to be installed on the computer running the simulator. You will need to have the x86 version installed. If you installed SPAD.neXt using the installer, it will be installed automatically for you, if necessary.

To communicate with the simulator internally the LVAR bridge uses SimConnect version 10.0.61259.0. Even if you are running Prepar3D you will need to install this SimConnect version. You can grab the installation files and follow the readme to install it on the simulator computer.

Generally the installation should be done by the configuration wizard, but if necessary you can also done by manually

• Open the windows explorer and navigate to the SPAD.neXt installation folder ( C:\Program Files\SPAD.neXt by default )
• now navigate into the sub-folder simmodule
• Click into the address-line , mark the whole line and copy it to the clipboard (CTRL-C)
• To ease up thing, you should now paste the text from the clipboard into a temporary textfile/notepad, so you can pick it up later again.

• On the client open the windows explorer and navigate to the SPAD.neXt installation folder ( C:\Program Files\SPAD.neXt by default )
• now navigate into the sub-folder simmodule
• Copy the file SPDBridge.dll to the server ( computer running the simulator ) to a place of your convenience. e.g. Simulator maindir\Modules
• remember the path where you copied it for later use.

• In the address-line of the windows explorer enter %APPDATA% and hit enter

FSX

• Navigate to the sub-folder Microsoft\FSX

FSX:SE

• Navigate to the sub-folder Microsoft\FSX-SE

Prepar3D v2

• Navigate to the sub-folder Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2

Prepar3D v3

• Navigate to the sub-folder Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3

• if there is no file dll.xml in this directory skip the next steps and continue here: New dll.xml

• First make a backup-copy of the file dll.xml. Copy it (CTRL-C CTRL-V) and rename the copy as “dll.xml.BEFORE_SPAD_NEXT”
• Now open the file dll.xml in any text editor (notepad preferably, but not word or wordpad!)
• Scroll to the end of the file, and look for the text </SimBase.Document>
• insert the following snippet into the text just before the located text:

    <Launch.Addon>
        <Name>SPAD.neXt Bridge</Name>
        <Disabled>False</Disabled>
        <ManualLoad>False</ManualLoad>
        <Path>YOUR_LOCATION_HERE\SPDBridge.dll</Path>
    </Launch.Addon>

• Replace the text “YOUR_LOCATION_HERE” with the text you copied from the address-line earlier.
• the result should look like this (your path exchanged of course):

    <Launch.Addon>
        <Name>SPAD.neXt Bridge</Name>
        <Disabled>False</Disabled>
        <ManualLoad>False</ManualLoad>
        <Path>C:\Program Files\SPAD.neXt\simmodule\SPDBridge.dll</Path>
    </Launch.Addon>
 </SimBase.Document>

• save the file.
• Restart your simulator, load an aircraft, and confirm that in the Addons-menu you have an entry “SPAD.neXt” now.

• If the file dll.xml does not exist, create a new textfile with the following content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="windows-1252"?>
<SimBase.Document Type="Launch" version="1,0">
  <Descr>Launch</Descr>
  <Filename>dll.xml</Filename>
  <Disabled>False</Disabled>
  <Launch.ManualLoad>False</Launch.ManualLoad>
  <Launch.Addon>
        <Name>SPAD.neXt Bridge</Name>
        <Disabled>False</Disabled>
        <ManualLoad>False</ManualLoad>
        <Path>YOUR_LOCATION_HERE\SPDBridge.dll</Path>
  </Launch.Addon>
</SimBase.Document>

• save the file.
• Restart your simulator, load an aircraft, and confirm that in the Addons-menu you have an entry “SPAD.neXt” now.