Notepad is easyest. If it is not decoded, download the SDK pack It has all the files decoded and easy to use. Hope this helps.

Michael "Finalday"
In Memory Of WLB

It didn't come with a readme, so I installed it, now what?

Now copy the entire folder over your original one - it will replace all the encoded ini's with decoded ones.

Ok, so I've done all that, so I am making a ship, do I just copy that then edit and re-name it?

Making a ship has a lot more to it than simply editing shiparch.ini, unless you want to have it look (exactly) like an existing ship, in which case, yes, you can simply copy and alter

"There are 10 kinds of people in this world: those who understand binary and those who don't"

Ok, how do I change the appearance of it, I have the models done already.

The files are still .cmp what did I do wrong?

sparky, might i suggest downloading drizzit's ship creation tutorial? it is occasionally a bit garbled, but overall it's designed to take a person from no knowledge of creating/adding ships to FL to being able to make simple ships.

you can find it at
http://www.lancersreactor.com/t/downloa ... asp?id=867

I have it but it didn't really help.

I might be reading you wrong but it seems like you're not interested in the shiparch.ini. Are you trying to open a .cmp file for a specific ship? SDK only allows you to see .ini's decompiled.
From what limited knowledge I've picked up here is what the different files are:
.cmp = the ship model
.mat = the textures that go on the model
.ini = tells the game what your model does.
If you're trying to look at a .cmp you'll need milkshape with a importer plugin. If you have your own models and you want to put them in the game you can't just copy them into an existing .cmp. If that's what you want to do I second Schizm. Go back through Drizzt's tutorial from start to finish and do what he says step by step.
If I did get you wrong, no offence intended, just trying to help.

No, I was looking to create a shiparch.ini I already have a model made and textured.