GSX Menu closing

[kalibra]

Can anyone tell me why when activating GSX from the Custom Toolbar,
1. Sometimes you need to double click to get it to open.
2. Why does the menu not stay visible but close after selecting an option?
This is the only add-on I know of in MSFS which does this?
Are these MSFS issues? , if not are the developers going to address them in the next update?

is anyone else having a similar experience?

[Puuhbear]

this is wanted behaviour. for whatever reasons... you can hit the keybinding set in the options of the installer of GSX to open the menu again (default ctrl + shift + F12)

[AndyCYXU]

ROFLMFAO another one  yeah buddy, pretty much everybody grows to question logic or lack there of in this design after short while, but yeah whatever

[AthenaG]

If you had read the forum, or at least a done a search, you would have found this has been discussed multiple times and explained by the developer.  Suggest try it and get a full picture.

[Magic Man]

The reason has been fully explained in the forum and in the manual. If you're questioning the design logic then perhaps you can develop your own system so we can all benefit from your programming experience.

[virtuali]

1. Sometimes you need to double click to get it to open.

Please clarify if this "sometimes" seem to be ( even if it's not ) to be "random", or it's happening only AFTER you closed the menu from the Toolbar icon because:

1) If it seems "random" ( even if it's not ), it means you are using an outdated version of the program, because that WAS the TOOLBAR "Auto-close" feature that has been removed since the September 21st update. That now removed feature was made precisely to save you from *always* have to do a double-click to open it so, depending on the context, it auto-closed the TOOLBAR it automatically, so it was read to be reopened with a single click.

This logic doesn't exists anymore, since now there's an Hotkey (by default it's CTRL+Shift+F12, but can be changed ) to close/open the menu, meaning you don't always have to use the TOOLBAR Icon to open the menu: you only use it when *starting* a flight and never touch it again, then you should always use the Hotkey to open/close the menu, never the toolbar Icon. Because if you do that, you'll enter the 2nd case:

2) If always use the Toolbar icon to open/close the INSTEAD of of the Hotkey, you are forcing yourself to a double-click, one to close the Toolbar icon, another one to open it again, because that's not how you are supposed to use it now. Since there's an Hotkey now, you open the Toolbar with the mouse only the first time you start GSX, then you should always use the Hotkey.

2. Why does the menu not stay visible but close after selecting an option?

This has been explained so many times, it's how GSX always worked for the past 10 years, the ONLY difference in MSFS is that you need to open it the first time with the Mouse, and keep the Icon active, so it can both respond to the Hotkey and also displays pop-up menus when required, while in FSX/P3D, the Hotkey was always active, since there the SDK allowed to create a menu on the fly in any situation, which is not possible in MSFS unless you start it from the Toolbar once, and don't close it to keep the Toolbar Icon Active.

And yes, it's exactly the same with other Toolbar add-ons that have an Hotkey: Navigraph for example works the same way, you need to start it from the Toolbar once, and THEN you can use the CTRL+N Hotkey to open/close it. If you close the Toolbar icon, the Hotkey won't work anymore until you reactivate the Toolbar icon again.

This explains the "possible double-click" issue, which is not an issue at all, if you use the program in the way it's supposed to, also explained at Page 68 of the manual:

This is how your normal workflow should be:

• Open the GSX menu from the Toolbar icon when first starting Ground services .
• Don’t close it from the Toolbar while Ground services are performed, always use the Hot-key or the X icon to close the menu.
• Close the menu using the Toolbar icon when you are done with Ground services, usually before take-off.

In brief, the Toolbar Icon should always be left Active while Ground services are required.

Now to the other part of the question: why the GSX MENU ( not the Toolbar icon! ) closes automatically after selecting an option ?

What the GSX menu is really used for ? It's just an interface to send some commands that will then take some time to execute and, during that time, it's not you need to constantly check or use the menu so, what would be the point of keeping it open for no reason ? It would only take space on the screen, with no real benefit.

This is how GSX has always worked in years, and how most users wanted it to work, that is showing up only when strictly required, not taking valuable screen estate when there's nothing to do with it, until the next service starts.

Which brings to the last part of the question: why the GSX MENU closes automatically after some time ?

Because all menus have a TIMEOUT time, which differs depending on the menu and all have been of course carefully thought following years of users suggestions and, if you take the previously explained concept of "GSX menu should only stay on screen when required", it should be clear a Timeout is useful.

- Some menus have a longer Timeout, and when this expires, nothing usually happens. Example, the main menu itself, or the Pushback choice of direction: they have a longer Timeout to give you some time to think what to do, but if you let it expire, nothing happens and, in case of the Pushback direction, since the menu opened in a middle of a procedure, opening it again would give the option to "Continue Pushback". 

- Other menus have shorter Timeouts, usually just a few seconds, enough to give you time to choose something, but short enough that, if you let it Timeout, it will chose some Default option that won't have big consequences. A clear example of this is the choice of the Handling or Catering operator: the Timeout time is quite short, and if you don't choose anything, it will continue using a Default operator. This, of course, has been suggested by users during the many years GSX has been out, which satisfy BOTH users that want to choose the operator manually, but also users that don't really care which operator they get ( it will still be one proper for the airport ), and prefer a more "hands free" approach, so the menu Timeouts fairly quickly with a reasonable choice, without forcing those users to pause and make a choice.


Which brings to the usual last consideration: I would like to have the menu always opened

There are some usage cases where you might way to have the menu always opened, and are VR and Dual Screens, where you have enough space to place the menu in places where it wouldn't disrupt/cover the airplane instruments or the scenery, so you could afford to keep it always opened.

And of course, this also has been discussed so many times and, as CLEARLY indicated in the Sticky thread about the future ROADMAP here, this feature IS PLANNED for a future update:

https://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,27778.0.html

A proper VR/Dual Screen mode for the GSX menu

It will be possible to "pin" the menu, leaving it always open, which will be useful in VR or when undocking to a different monitor.

As also explained in so many other posts about this issue, it's not a trivial fix as a "just never close the menu", because keeping the menu always open would require keeping it updated when the situation in the ground services changes, changing the buttons status dynamically, keep the nearby airports list refreshed when you open the menu in flight so, it's not a quick fix, and since it might have some impact on performances AND traffic over Simconnect, it must be done with care.