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

A couple of interesting questions if I may..The Radar Altimeter measures the height of an aircraft from the ground beneath the aircraft. In FS does this equate to the mesh you have loaded? I assume that loading a new mesh will affect the RA calculations.If so then how about jumping a step further - could the autopilot be reprogrammed to follow RA height instead of a barometric height? I think you'll see what I'm getting at.. To complete the idea I should also be asking one more. If FS knows the height of the mesh underneath the aircraft can it also predict the height of the mesh ahead of the aircraft at a certain point? This is obviously trickier as predetermined point wo…

Hi,I cant seem to get my VC gauges centered on my main panel. I copied the code from the 2d panel and pasted it under the vcockpit section.Ive tried a number of variables defined in the sdk:X=Y=Window_pos=nothing seems to have any effect on the overall position in 3d mode.Am I missing something? or do I have to reposition each gauge individually?In the past I just repositioned the gauge bitmap in gmax by trial and error, got to be a better way.thanks guys

I have a problem. I'm making Altimeter for new hawk-panel. Altimeter is like Boening 747-400 standby-altimeter in FS2002. Put there is a problem with sliders (Or what are they called?). My 1000 meter and 100 meter sliders work fine. They go around. But there is slider which shows 100 meters and should go around after that.(A:Indicated Altitude,meters) 100000 + 100000 % d 100 % 100 / r 100 / flr d 10 / 10 % flr r 10 % 9 == if{ + } I have this kind of code in 100 meter slider. How do I modify it to go around after 100 meters? The bitmap is like this!00!!50!!00!I hope you understand my questionCan anyone tell me what that code means? I don't understand it fully.

Hi all,I have a problem with my gmax. A few weeks ago I received the gmax file of Robert Versluys A321. But I had to rescale it +2000 or something to get it the right size (it was really small). Later I sended the file to Kris Bentley, he said "the plane had the size of England" (really big). Again later he sended it to me back after he rescaled it, and guess what... it was really small on my gmax / fs2002. WHY?????I hope somebody can tell me why this happens? Thanks :-( PS, I use Meters, but every time I run Makemdl, it says I don't use meters???

Thanks Barry,I will go and check out the lines of code using Notepad as you suggest. Do you or anyone else know of a math formula for converting inches of mercury to millibars? I have been asked to try and do this for a fellow simmer. The gauge in question is the Baron altimeter.

I have seen small gauge lights which are only about 30x20 -- but which have very fine lettering on them . I want to have a small light which has a word "FUEL" on it which lights up when activated. So I need to create two small lights - one says FUEL in a kind of dull colour lettering which is almost indiscernable (this is the light off bitmap) -- the other says FUEL in a bright, light colour ( this will be the light on bitmap.BUT -- I can create a small light bitmap OK -- but when I try to use Paintshop Pro and place lettering on the bitmap, it is very coarse and the lettering looks all wrong. It has either something to do with the type of font -- or the way in which …

As I seem to be in a very steep learning curve with everything I do related to FS2002, I have discovered that I learn more by trying to find out why some things don't work in some aircraft that I download -- rather than to try to create one myself , which is a task way to big for me at the moment.So, I have this aircraft and panel which , amongst other things, has a battery master switch and an old style .GAU low voltage warning light. The warning light is out of the Extra300 and it will not light up when I turn on the power. The rest of the panel does light up.So I installed an additional warning light - an XML one that has featured in this forum recently as a tutorial …

Hi,This method works........but it is way too messy and my fusalage ends up looking as if I have bashed it in with a hammer.I have done every tutorial I can find on this subject and have had no luck thus far.Is there a better way to cut in the cockpit windows? I see all these beautiful gmax jets with great looking, smooth fusalages around the cockpit windows, so I know there is a better way, I just don't know what is is yet.I have tried adding new edges and deleting the polygons. But the problem I run into is that I can only add edges from vertice to vertice and I don't have enough of those on my fusalge mesh to create the shape that I need for the windows.I would great…

I have 2 good tutorials -- one describing how to create a simple on/off warning light and the other for a fuel gauge.Does anybody know any other reasonably simple tutorials -- I'm not quite ready to start designing a complete EFIS !! :)Thansk Barry

Hi all!two questions:can anyone here point me to a website or pdf ebook or something that has information about the MOI (moment of intertia)? It'd be great if you could please share any good source of info with solid and complete knowledge of aerodynamics in general (online or offline) :)I have a few books but I couldn't find anything related to MOI, and google brought a bunch of information that is more physics-related than anything (well, MOI has to do with physics obviously!).Wich brings me to question number two:How do FDE developers calculate the MOI for their aircrafts?Using the suggested numbers included in the SDK seem unrealistic, and I've been calculating these …

Hi,I was asked to make wipers for an EC135-Panel but there is one big problem. The Wiper-Bitmap is invisble when it moves from the "visible" into the "transparent"-part of the background-bitmap. I've tried several things but none of them works. Any solutions??regards,Franz Haider

Hi Gang,First thing, I am always seeing questions with lines of code in them. Where does this code come from? When I look in the gauge files all I see are lines of strange symbols. Is there an editor which converts them to lines of text that can then be edited?Secondly, I would like to make an altimeter gauge display in millibars rather than inches with regard to pressure settings. Is that an easy thing to do and if so how do I do it? I have no experience of programming language. At present I just move gauges around with FS Panel Studio.Thanks

Several have mentioned that the FSDS beta testers are no longer bound by their NDA...Simple question, is it an easier product to grasp than GMAX? I want to start designing my own aircraft, especially homebuilts, ultralights, etc.... GMAX just eludes me. I configure routers, switches, servers, workstations, design network layouts, write specs....and I'm still a stupid idiot when trying to do anything with GMAX. My best creation? A flying cylinder with a flat piece of wood for a wing. Could FSDS help, or will I be forced to seek treatment?-John

Hi, we (ASAD) have a problem and I hope someone of you can help. We get an error but we haven't got any idea why. I hope someone knows something about it. :-beerchug

HII downloaded a B747-475, B737-200 and a A320 with Air Canada livery and and when installed all appear with black fuselage, I would like to now if something wrong with Gmax aircraft or I missing one file or one program to run that type of aircraft...Thanks...

Hey folks, just wanted to tell ya about a program I tried and bought recently. It's called Panavue Image Assembler. Website:www.panavue.comI'm working on the aerostar...albeit slowly. I have several photos taken from some aerostars recently; but they weren't very good. So I found a website that had panel and plane pics callled www.aircraft.com..lots of planes for sale with pics. At any rate, I was able to find a pretty decent aerostar panel. The thing nice about this site, some of the panel you can actually zoom closer. Well, this particular panel was very sharp even close up. So, when all was said and done, I had 164 small pics of approx.900x600. I then used panavue to…

is there a way to get the default strobe lights come on faster.Glen Lewis :-kewl / [email protected]://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3dc6255737bc49b7.gif

The definition of the default section of the panel in not in the Panel SDK. Can anyone point me to something that will help me with this?Day=255,255,255Night=223,80,88Luminous=240,86,92

I found something out about Gmax, it doesnt want to do certain things on Sundays.If you use the Material Navigator, then click on the material editor button on the navigator, Gmax will error out, and close down. I did this a dozen times, thinking Gmax was screwed up. I changed the date to tomorrow, and the error goes away.This must be Discreet's subtle way of saying take a rest on Sunday. Dave

I'm looking into creating an HF xml gauge. As FS doesn't support these frequency bands - I would imagine it would have to use L:vars? I have no experience using strings - so I'm probably jumping right in at the deep end! I have looked at COM/NAV/ADF xml gauges, however these all use A:vars. Concorde HF1 gauge: -http://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3dbed56e1ef0a614.jpgBoth strings (or maybe 1?) have increments of 1MHz/KHz and range from 0.000 to 30.999. Can this work with L:vars? Thanks for any help/suggestions. Andy

Hello again, A simple question this time, Which is the difference between battery and hot battery, in FS2002?Thank youRafael

What is actual track?If you read the definition of the variable GPS_GROUND_TRACK, it says that it corresponds to Heading + Magnetic Variation.If you calculate the actual track by taking the current heading (variable PLANE_HEADING_DEGREES_MAGNETIC) and adding the Magnetic Variation (variable MAGNETIC_VAR), the result is different.So what is the correct definition of the actual track?Is it related to the wind?Does it correspond the the current heading corrected with the wind deviation?Please let me know.Eric

Hello Gentleman,It is with great pride that I announce to you the opening of my new site. Thanks to the kind help of Bjorn Martens for providing the space. Here you will find news on my current projects and those for the future. Please point your browser to //projects.fsxperience.com .For any one looking for space to host his project, send a request to Bjorn. He is the webmaster, so it will be hard to miss.Take Care,Udo.:-wave

I want to know how to design aircraft with Gmax version 1.1 how hard is it I am new to designing aircraft with Gmax I heard that is was very hard to design planes with Gmax

Hello, I am trying to have weather effects i.e. raindrops appear on my windscreen. This is a modified landing panel for PIC 767, so I have added this in the panel Cfg as a fixed window view, which was originaly the rear looking view of PIC's panel. I know when you pan to the side views there are no raindrops on those views by default. Is it possible to have the rain on this mod? DF's Piper Archer has TWO views also, one for the main panel and a VFR panel that indeed has the rain effects on the 2nd VFR windscreen. Any help from others who deal in panels would be appreciated............................Best Wishes,Randy J. Smith