Dan Gallacher, creator of SimToolkitPro, has today unveiled the latest update to the software. Building on the strong progress of v0.5, the new verison - 0.6 - brings to the table a completely overhauled user interface, among a number of other changes. The utility, a competitor to the recently updated projectFLY, offers electronic flight bag-esc features, flight logging and live-streaming tools and is compatible with X-Plane 11, Prepar3D and Flight Simulator X platforms.

Interestingly, the new update is comes completely optional as the developer has vowed to keep the old v0.5 online for users who prefer that version over the new application.

New with v0.6 is the airline route finder, which was first demonstrated on Facebook last week, allows users to search real-world routes and import them to use in-simulator. Additionally, another big ticket item shipping with 0.6 is the live map feature, which uses Open Street Map data to build a taxi map of all the airports in the world and feeding them into a 3D map viewer.

SimToolkitPro's latest update also brings in optional cloud account capabilities, allowing users to remotely store the flights in their logbooks and to sync it across all of their devices. When discussing this with a Threshold writer, it was made clear that this is an optional feature and that unlimited local storage is available on the user's computer as with previous verisons of the software.

While those are some of the larger new features with v0.6, the developer also provided us with this list of some others:

• Optional account for data backup and sync
• New local storage engine
• Improved performance
• New airline route finder
• Improved landing reports with better telemetry
• Fully customisable/scriptable streaming overlay
• Better plan import functionality

Also, as part of the refreshed front page user interface, we've worked with the developer to implement a Threshold news ticker so that users can stay up to date with all the latest information from the flight sim community. This is available in the bottom right hand corner of the application's interface.

Continuing with the UI-refresh theme, an overhauled website has just gone live, falling in line with the application's dark finish. Users can set up their accounts for backing up flight data from here.

To get your hands on SimToolkitPro 0.6 for yourself, see the group's official website.