FSX/FSX-SE Aircraft and Panel Design Forum - How To

HiIm trying very badly to link the cowl flaps animations to fuel level.I know I asked about it in another thread,but that was concord nose animation which didnt work.So Im back to the prob but this time using the cowl flaps,as I can now use the _set comand.This works kind of :) (A:FUEL TOTAL QUANTITY,gallons) 20 > if{ (A:RECIP ENG1 COWL FLAP POSITION, percent) 95 < if{ 16383 (>K:COWLFLAP1_SET) } } els{ 2 < if{ (A:RECIP ENG1 COWL FLAP POSITION, percent) 5 > if{ 0 (>K:COWLFLAP1_SET) }}But what I need is min 3 settings(full 1/2 empty) prefered 5 (full 3/4 1/2 1/4 empty) at present the gauge only has 2 full and empty Any help much appreciatedThanksWarwick

Hi,I'm a Newbie with panel design, but I've been tweaking my panels slightly. I'm looking for a gauge which can trigger a reload of the entire panel so I don't have to swap planes back & forth in FS2002.I spotted the following in the XML FAQ thread at the top of this forum:6Q Do I need to reload the aircraft to view the effects of editing?6A No. If a certain key called RELOAD_PANELS is triggered the, the changed gauge is reloaded. It is also necessary to trigger RELOAD_PANELS before storing the .xml file the first time. Personally I changed the "Map Icon.xml" part of "simicons" to:since it is on almost all panels, and ther is a menue item if the map is really needed.S…

Every thing in my code works except where I put two rotating element at the same axis point. One element is for the next waypoint bearing, A:GPS WP bearing. The other element is for the magnetic heading, A:Plane heading degrees magnetic. The next waypoint indicator appears at the correct heading at startup but it will not rotate. It makes no difference which element is the top element. I tried placing a spacer, non-moving element, between them but it did not help. If the compass indicator is removed, the next waypoint indicator works. I have tried every thing I can think of to make it work. Does anyone have an idea on how to make this to work. Here is the BAD COD…

The title says it all, I would like to know what I have to do to use Peter's merge method for the Dreamfleet 734 panel to the FFX 737-300 and -500 series.ThanksChris

I downloaded the boeing_757-767_panel.zip and installed it in my POSKY 757 aircraft file. It is a really nice photo-realistic panel which matches the VC really well. The only thing I don't like is that the main panel opens with 7 sub-panels (windows)overlayed. I have to right-click and close each of these before I can start flying. I thought it might be possible to hide these windows by changing them to visible=0 in the panel.cfg file. However, I find that the aircraft will not then load (halts during 'loading scenery objects') and then FS9 crashes. Can anybody suggest a way to overcome this please ?

Hey, I have always had a small passion for the Tristar, and the serious lack of a quality/B] model for MSFS is really starting to get to me. Therefore, I want to start work on my own package for the Tristar Series and see where I get with it. Would any of the people in here know where I can get a good set of drawings that are accurate enough to model from? Any other information would be great too!Matthew Murray,[bR]British Airways Maintainence Glasgow.

Well, hard as I tried, my addiction to the sim is firm... after a few weeks hiatus (ribs healed, sun shining, bike calling) I have found myself back in front of this darn screen playing still. So... I ran through the gmax tutorials a few times, and poked out a few models of poor quality, figured I was in over my head until I discovered a few free gmax model sources, including one for the model 18... nice I think, and grab it... When it comes time to do anything however, I must admit, the tutorials that came with GMAX did little to educate me. So here is my first really stupid question:I managed to export it to the sim and while in the 2d panel and vc, everything looks nor…

Hi,For my Vspeeds Callout gauge, I'm looking for Vspeed tables for the B747-400 and B777-300.In other words: the V1/Vr/V2 speeds depending on Total Weight and allowed Takeoff flaps.This data is usually specified in Performance specs, like I already have for many other aircraft.But I can't find any for the B747-400 and B777-300.Any download links ?Rob Barendregt

hi guys, hope someone can or will answer this. i have noticed on a few different addon panels for various aircraft that if i make a GPS only flightplan and only to airport to airport no VORs or NDBs just the airports, when i switch the nav/gps switch to gps, nothing will show up in the HSI. sometimes i want to check out a certain something or whatever and make a quick GPS flightplan from one airport to another say 100 miles away. i takeoff and fly the omni bearing needle in the HSI to stay on course. that will work with the default heavy aircraft but alot of the addon panels i have for my addon aircraft won't let me do that. i have to put a VOR in the flightplan for the …

I need to create a gauge that will allow the user to enter lat/lon coordinate pairs. I can't find anything in the docs that indicates how you create a text entry field. Any ideas?

Hey all, I'm having a problem with setting up my nav lights. I'm using fx_navgrec.fx and fx_navredc.fx so they will show up in the VC. The problem is, there seems to be a minimum viewing distance requirement. If my eyepoint is closer than 16.4 feet (which happens to be exactly 5 metres. Coincidence? Probably not.) to the light, it doesn't show up. If I back up (using Active Camera) the light shows up fine. The funny bit is, my lights are about 15.5 feet from the centerline on each side. My pilot viewpoint is 1.5 feet left of center. So, the left navlight is 14 feet away, and the right navlight is 17 feet away. I therefore can see the right light but not the left o…

Do you know if there is a limit in the number of bitmap resources defined in the .rc file?I have a srange "Out of memory" error that I can't understand, and it may come from th eincreasing number of bitmaps used in my gauge.Thanks for any help.Eric

I am trying to adapt an FS2002 panel to FS2004 and am pretty much there except for one frustrating problem. This panel has a separate bitmap in addition to the conventional panel bitmap that is a full 1024x768 pixels in size but contains only the control yoke - the rest of it is transparent. Both the main and the yoke bitmaps are declared visible=1 and both show as desired in the normal panel view.So far so good.There are also two icon-activated auxilliary bitmaps whose declarations are visible=0, however, one depicting an overhead panel and one a throttle panel - both are also 1024x768 pixels in size and both, when activated fill the whole screen, completely overlaying…

I am looking for some advice, please, about creating a pop-up window in the 2D view of an enlarged Radio Compass [about 200x200]. I have had a go, but finished up with the row of secondary instruments and the radio compass overlapping each other, added to the top of the screen and I thought it time to ask for advice!Thanks,Andy.I was trying to add a simicon at the end of the bottom row but I think I just added the compass to the other things and it all went pear shaped quite quickly after that.

I'm exploring the possibility of using FS2004 to demonstrate air refueling concepts. I know that Lago has an AR module but it's really nothing more than a novelty that is unrealistic.I want to simulate a KC-135 passing gas to another heavy. Unlike Lago's probe and drouge system, we would need the boom system. An important part of this is the director light system which tells you your X,Y,Z position relative to a position envelope. As you get out of certain ranges, the lights change. We would need this emulated to exacting precision. Additionally we would need a way to emulate the additional drag and turbulence caused by AR. For a big airplane refueling another big …

For background, this is how I like to fly. I have a three monitor setup, with the outside view on a large 21" CRT (purchased for less than $100 on Craigslist - got to love the move to flat screens), my main panel on a 17" flatscreen directly below the CRT, and my radios, GPS etc on a third CRT. I like flying planes without VCs becuase you can pan in that view, unlike the 2d cockpit view (at least to my knowledge - is there a mod that allows panning in the 2d panel mode?)This is not an issue with most new add-ons, which now mostly come with no VC options. However, FSD's older aircraft, and Flight One's Conquest do not. I did some playing around last night with a hex edit…

I am looking for a detailed tutorial on virtual cockpit design and modification. I looked at the Panel SDK but there is no helpful info. I want to know how to add gauges to the virtual panels. I have FSPanelStudio and can display the virtual cockpit sections of the panel.cfg but it is not just a simple matter of adding the gauges there, as it is in the 2D cockpit panel. I have added gauges but they don't show up in FS9. Any help sure would be appreciated. Thanks, regards, Bob.

Hi all,Still trying to work through the C examples from the SDK and I am confused by the whiskey compass....Looking at the code below you can see that val (used in the x direction callback) will return a value between 0 and 360.However when you look at the BMP used it is 651 pixels wide - so how does it relate? If it only moves 360 pixels in the X direction it cannot cover the whole width?!Also, at what position does the BMP start? I.e. in the make_moving macro we set 22,41 as the pos for the mask, will the top left of the moving image align to that? Any help would be much appreciated!!Cheers,Paul.FLOAT64 FSAPI wiskey_moving_card_x_cb( PELEMENT_MOVING_IMAGE pelement ){ FL…

Does anyone know how the A380 bogie beams are tilted? I know that the body gear is tilted slightly forward... is that correct? What about the wing gear bogy?Who can tell me? :) if nobody of you knows, where else could I ask?Regards from Munich,Oli

I'm looking for a way to make a toggle switch hold a position fora second or two. For example I need a switch that extends and retracts a landing light. I want it to hold the Extend position for a few seconds after being clicked on (and turn the landing lights on) and then return to neutral. Then I'd like it to do the opposite when you click the landing light off the opposite for retract. Any help is greatly appreciated.Dave

Hi all,Working through the SDK at the moment trying to get to grips with this C business....When you look at the code below which is trying to work out the compass value, I can't understand where the code is accessing the FS compass variable?Can anyone explain it to me?FLOAT64 FSAPI compass_moving_card_x_cb( PELEMENT_MOVING_IMAGE pelement ){ FLOAT64 val = 360.0 - pelement->source_var_x.var_value.n; if( val >= 0 && val <= 360 ) return val; else return 0;}Many thanks,Paul.

Hi all,Just starting to make C gauges and have got a question...Are non linearity tables only for use with the MAKE_NEEDLE macro, or can I use them with MAKE_MOVING? If so how?Many thanks,

Hello everybody,I compiled the SDK gauge with VS.net, and then I tried to use part of the code to draw a flight plan route.Everything seems to work fine when the flight plan has short legs, but the longer the legs, the larger deviation between aircraft position and the flight plan line in the MFD. The aircraft get closer to the FLP line route when reaching the waypoint, that's to say, the plane always pass over the waypoints, but it doesn't follow the line in long legs of the flight plans.This is the part of the MSFS SDK C code I use:for (i = 0; i < gpsinfo->lWpCounts; i++) { if (gpsinfo->pWpData && gpsinfo->pWpData.dwSize == sizeof (GPS_WP_INFO)) { …

I have two gentlemen that have been helping me beta test a panel and they have this problem, however on my system I do not. When they use the "E" command to isolate an engine, be it 1,2,3 or 4 all they get is number 1 and can not return to all 4 with the command of E,1,2,3,4. On my system I can do any combination I want and return to all 4. I have looked at the code I have for the throttles and it is the same as the default Beech Baron, FSDZigns original panel, the Howard and several others. If anyone has an idea, please let me know.ThanksMitch

I need help getting started with developing gauges with C++. I have VS.NET 2003 and have been going through the posts on this forum. I have found some information on setting the IDE up and so on. I need help compiling the sample gauge that is included in the SDK. I start out with a blank dll project and then add all the files for the sample gauge and try compiling it. It gives me numerous errors including------ Build started: Project: AAFID, Configuration: Debug Win32 ------Compiling...SDK.Wiskey.cc:Documents and SettingsJayMy DocumentsVisual Studio ProjectsAAFIDSDK.Wiskey.c(5) : error C2065: 'GAUGE_NAME' : undeclared identifierc:Documents and SettingsJayMy DocumentsVisua…