FS Panel Studio

[Quickmarch 488]

I just bought a sim package for the Harvard and Texan.

The cockpit gauge sets are generally good (the aircraft are fantastic), but there are some glaring deficiencies in all of the pop-up panels. This is not the first time this has happened. There are some other aircraft in my hangar that are challenged in this respect as well. Most of those are freeware odd-balls and it is unfair to expect perfection. You get what you pay for. Unfortunately, sometimes you pay for what you get.

My question is: Does FS Panel Studio allow you to correct or produce replacement panels for problem software? Has anyone use it for this purpose?

I am aware that the virtual cockpit is off limits for the software as it is a 3d environment. This is a shame as one of the most annoying errors in the AT6 is that the programmer left out the starter switch in the AT6 VC.

Cheers,

March

[allardjd 1,853]

I don't have any experience with FS Panel Studio but with a little study you can do anything you want with 2D panels and pop-ups with no more than Notepad. It's really not hard, just requires a little trial and error. The Flight Simulator SDK is a great source of how things work in the aircraft.cfg and panel.cfg files and editing them is really all the panel studios do anyway.

 

John

[Quickmarch 488]

Thanks for that, John,

I'll look up FS SDK (sort of sounds like I should know what it is).

Cheers,

March

[allardjd 1,853]

It's the freeware Software Development Kit for FSX from Microsoft. Don't let the name scare you - it's full of great reference information. There are several different versions of it for FSX. You can go to the Microsoft site to download it but be sure you get the version that matches your installed version of FSX (Top-Line Menu -> Help -> About).

 

John

[Quickmarch 488]

Thanks John,

It's there alright. I have the boxed version of FSX Gold/Acceleration. The SDK sub-directory is there and I've started to read the documentation. You need to know that I'm a mech eng (retired) but not a sincere techie when it comes to things like C++ (I know WHAT it is not HOW to use it). This is going to take a bit of serious study.

Maybe I should drop the $25 on a WYSIWYG editor, but I will give SDK a try. It looks like a worthwhile project.

Right away, I'm confused: The docs talk about cab file "tools". All I can find is a command-line reference <cabdir [switches] source_dir [dest_cab]>. I'm assuming the "tools" refer to the switches available. The rest is pretty easy to understand; simple x-y axis references. I'll see how I do on the artwork.

Thanks again,

March

[Quickmarch 488]

Oh-oh.

I didn't mean to do that (see html in post, above). Must have something to do with the fact that I copied and pasted from the HTML in the CAB article. The final text looked a bit funny.

This is the guy who's about to start messing with the innards of FSX - I'll back-up the whole directory.

[allardjd 1,853]

Have a look in the panel.cfg file for any aircraft you have installed and just refer back to the SDK docs to help understand what you see there. There's no need to write C code unless you intend to create new instruments or controls from scratch. It's easy to "borrow" instruments from another AC and use them in one for which they were not intended,etc. Pop-ups are the easiest but adding, moving or deleting instruments from an existing main panel isn't too hard either.

 

I didn't mean to talk you out of buying a tool for all that - I'm sure it works fine and reduces the slope of the learning curve some.

By the way, I'm an Industrial Engineer of the retired variety too.

 

John

[Quickmarch 488]

Hello John,

Good to hear from a fellow professional. Congrats on your retirement.

Not sure of your comment about reducing the learning curve. It will probably just shift the curve's focus to another piece of software.

I think Ace.exe is broken.

I went through the entire example process of producing a fuel pressure gauge and including the airspeed indicator. I got the new panel with airspeed indicator to display in FSX, but no sign of the fuel pressure gauge.

Seems to me that the Layout pane in Ace.exe should display whatever I'm working on provided the appropriate button is pushed. Please see the screenshot, below. The Preview pane looks exactly the same, except that it is a particularly horrid green colour. (see screenshot #1, below)

I may have got something wrong in the initial set-up. I did check that all of the Microsoft stuff was present. I'm running Win7 Pro and it's up to date (updates) as of yesterday. I ran the ConfigSDK.exe file which appears to tell Aces where the FSX files are located.

However, Ace.exe sort of loads the sample gauges. I say "sort of" because the load process generates an error pop-up that goes away if you click on "ignore". The Layout pane has a white box in the top LH corner. The Preview pane shows the same box only in black. Neither pane shows anything else (see screenshot #2, below).

This will take some more study, unless you have the magic word that makes this gadget do the right thing.

Cheers,

March

[allardjd 1,853]

I'm afraid I don't even know what Ace.exe is. I work panels by opening the panel.cfg file for the airplane in question in Notepad and modifying that directly (make a safety copy). It's very easy to pull in a gauge from another AC that has something like what you want and once it's in it just works - there's no fooling around to "connect it" to FSX - just being there in the panel or on a popup makes it work.

 

It sounds as if you've jumped into the deep end of the pool.

 

By the way, if you're running ANYTHING in Win7, Run as Administrator. It solves many problems before they occur.

 

John

[Quickmarch 488]

Hi John,

Now we're getting closer to being on the same page. I understand what you are referring to. I was trying to find something where I could correct mistakes made by the developers. IE: their panels exist, just in an unusable way. Seemed simpler if there was something out there where you could; say, adjust the scaling of a panel that is truncated, then store the panels in correct CAB files in the correct directory.

Your suggestion to cherry-pick among the existing (obviously working) gauges supplied by MS and other developers is likely to be the shortest, best route.

However, enquiring minds MUST

[Quickmarch 488]

Hi John,

Now we're getting closer to being on the same page. I understand what you are referring to. I was trying to find something where I could correct mistakes made by the developers. IE: their panels exist, just in an unusable way. Seemed simpler if there was something out there where you could; say, adjust the scaling of a panel that is truncated, then store the panels in correct CAB files in the correct directory.

Your suggestion to cherry-pick among the existing (obviously working) gauges supplied by MS and other developers is likely to be the shortest, best route.

However, inquiring minds MUST know! It has been a bit of an eye-opener to start to understand how much work goes into a simple gauge.

I'll work on mastering the panels, then go on to repaints.

Cheers,

March

[allardjd 1,853]

Beware. You've probably already figured it out but once you start getting into the nuts and bolts of FS it's pretty much a bottomless pit. It is a lot of fun, however.

 

John

[Quickmarch 488]

Thanks for the encouragement

I should know better, but I've been taking things apart and putting them back together all my life. No need to stop now.

If you don't mind, I'd like to keep this thread alive a bit longer. I still have not solved my problem with the AT6/Harvard. Unfortunately, after tonight (it's noon on Thursday in this part of the world) I'm probably going to have to go dark for a few weeks. We're sailing to Bundaberg Australia on Monday morning, then down the coast to Brisbane. Internet will be spotty, but time will be abundant.

Cheers,

March