I just updated ro SD 3.0.6 and wanted to try out the option to show airfield IDs on the map. I selected the appropriate option in the map layer setting but still see only the full names. This is true for large, medium and small airfields in several European countries as well as Florida, US.

Is it me or a glitch in the program?

-- Chris.

The chart styles are classes in their own right and take full charge of drawing airspace, waypoints, geography etc, and formatting the display of labels. We do a LOT of work on our SkyDemon (1 and 2) chart styles (they're actually identical now apart from terrain colours) fine tuning them to display every single element in the very best way possible at every different zoom level. It's a huge piece of work with many subtle changes to ensure we're the best vector chart on the market by a long way.

The other chart styles were developed to ease people away from static charts by presenting a simple vector chart - which does not appreciably change at different zoom levels - whose colours and line styles roughly match the paper chart they are used to. They are primitive by design, and I wish we had never included them, because people who are used to them are getting nowhere near the full power of SkyDemon's charts.

Ah, I thought that the chart styles behaved somewhat akin to CSS (cascading style sheets) in html in that they set certain style elements, with contents provided from a different source.

If you encapsulate design AND function in each chart style then you're in a pickle. It's not nice. Now you have to think about how to wean people off their style which they grew accustomed to. And if you decide to implement a new feature you now have to implement it in every style (or leave the user wondering why some things don't seem to work in his preferred style). If you change a feature, ditto. Implementing a higher degree of user customization (i.e., change the colors) becomes difficult.

It's probably way too late in the game for a paradigm shift, but I still think that separating appearance and function is the way to go.

Anyway, thanks for the answer. I will try to get used to one of the SD chart styles.

Thanks, -- Chris.

I agree with ckurz7000 that the SD GUI does most thing right. It is truly a great piece of software. If it wasn't then I wouldn't make the effort of complaining about things I think are done wrong. So, please Tim, take any complaints as compliments