Andrew Godden 945 Posted March 9, 2016 Report Share Posted March 9, 2016 For those who have never delved into the panel.cfg file of aircraft, it may appear daunting at first, however, it is relatively easy to work with when adding 2D pop-up windows. This quick tutorial is using FSX. The 2D pop-up window is the simplest method for quickly adding the FTime timer gauge for use during the MEBAR. IMPORTANT NOTE. For the timer to commence counting during the take-off roll, it MUST be displayed. Instructions. 1. Unzip the contents of the FTimeV4 zip file to a temporary folder. 2. From the temporary folder above, copy the Gauges folder into your main FSX folder. The contents of this Gauges folder will be merged with the existing content in your Gauges folder, creating a folder called Digital in your Gauges folder. The Digital folder contains the required FTime.xml and Box.bmp files for the timer. 3. Navigate to the panel folder of the aircraft you are flying. 4. Make a back-up copy of the panel.cfg file. 5. Open the panel.cfg file with a text editor, Notepad works fine. 6. We are adding a 2D pop-up and this is defined as a 'Window' in the panel.cfg file. To do this, there are two specific entries to the panel.cfg file which we need to make. The first entry is to add the 'Window' in the 'Window Titles' section at the top of the panel.cfg file, and the second entry is to define the parameters of the 'Window'. The panel.cfg file example below is the FSX default Cessna 172. The required entries are displayed in red and this will display the timer in the top left corner of the monitor by pressing Shift + 7, being the 7th entry in the 'Window Titles' list. // Panel Configuration file // Cessna 172sp // Copyright © 2001-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. [Window Titles] Window00=Main Panel Window01=Radio Stack Window02=GPS Window03=IFR Panel Window04=Landing View Window05=Mini Panel Window06=Timer [Window06] size_mm=45,25 position=0 visible=0 ident=Timer gauge00=Digital!FTime, 0,0,45,25 [Window00] file_1024=cessna_172_background.bmp file_1024_night=cessna_172_background_night.bmp size_mm=640 position=7 visible=1 no_luminous=1 ident=MAIN_PANEL zorder=0 windowsize_ratio=1.000 window_pos=0.0,0.0 window_size=1.000,1.000 view_window_rect=0,0,8192,4000 gauge00=Cessna!Altimeter, 346,167, 79, 79 gauge01=Cessna!Annunciator, 517,159, 62, 15 gauge02=Cessna!Avionics Switch, 288,426, 37, 47 gauge03=Cessna!Flaps, 467,415, 48, 64 7. Save the file. If you are making changes to the panel.cfg file with FSX running and you want to see the affect of the changes, you must reload the aircraft after saving the file. 8. In the 'Window Titles' section, it is important the Window number, e.g. Window06, is the next number in the sequence and that this corresponds with the section defining the parameters of the 'Window'. 9. As previously mentioned, this will display the timer in the top left corner of the monitor. There are nine predefined fixed display positions in FSX, numbered 0 to 8, where a 2D pop-up window can be displayed. Changing the 'position=' entry will display it accordingly. These positions and the corresponding numbers are below. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10. If you want to adjust the size of the displayed timer (sometimes this will be a need due to the aircraft add-on used), make the necessary adjustments to the 'size_mm=' entry and the last two corresponding numbers in the 'gauge00=' entry. 11. Here is a screenshot of finished result. Cheers Andrew 3 Link to post Share on other sites
needles 1,013 Posted March 10, 2016 Report Share Posted March 10, 2016 Thanks for that Andrew, I remember doing it for a previous MEBAR. Very useful and necessary. Much appreciated. Link to post Share on other sites
stu7708 244 Posted March 10, 2016 Report Share Posted March 10, 2016 Perfect mate, I've done it before but always forget how to do it right And that position matrix was good info, haven't seen that before! Link to post Share on other sites
mutley 4,498 Posted March 10, 2016 Report Share Posted March 10, 2016 I can confirm this works in P3Dv3 as well, this is the Alabeo Aztec Link to post Share on other sites
needles 1,013 Posted March 10, 2016 Report Share Posted March 10, 2016 Installed ok also. Thanks again Andrew. Link to post Share on other sites
JoHubb 1 Posted March 10, 2016 Report Share Posted March 10, 2016 Is the FTime gauge in the Mutley downloads? I can't find it anywhere. Thanks, John Link to post Share on other sites
mutley 4,498 Posted March 10, 2016 Report Share Posted March 10, 2016 Hi John, The link is on the downloads page of the MEBAR (Near the bottom of the page) http://mebar.mutleyshangar.com/downloads.htm Link to post Share on other sites
JoHubb 1 Posted March 15, 2016 Report Share Posted March 15, 2016 Dopey old me! Thanks! Link to post Share on other sites
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