Gauge removal software

[Guest rogue1]

I am beginning work on the development of a freeware gauge removal program. I am hoping for compatibility with FS98, FS2000 and FS2002. At this point planned features are fairly simple:- Set gauges which will never be deleted (already includes the default FS gauges)- Identify and allow for selection of unused gauges for removal- Allow for backup of gauges prior to removal in a user selected folderThe program will read all panel.cfg files in every folder under the Aircraft folder and present a list of gauges that are not being used, this includes the FSFSConv folder if found.GAU and CAB gauge types will be supported.I'm hoping to have a working prototype before the end of the year for anyone that is interested in assisting in testing the program.JimEdit - Oh yeah, I'm shooting for it running on Win98, Win2K and WinXP. Sorry, I don't have a machine running WinME to test with, if you'd like to be the WinME guinea pig let me know.

[Guest]

Best of luck with it Jim!I have to say that I've seen too many nightmare posts regarding gauge removal software to ever use any of it, but if I were to, I'd be looking for a spec similar to the one you describe.

[barryward12345 0]

Personally , I don't see the point of a gauge removal programme. Most harddrives these days are so large that a few extra coupla hundred megs are hardly noticed. I have an old machine with a 20 gig Hdd and it is only half full.. They don't even make such small Hdds anymore I think - all new machines seem to have 30+ gig Hdds.Even more importantly - I have downloaded and installed lots of aircraft over the last couple of years . If I delete the aircraft , then invariably the gauges remain in the gauges folder. But as I have become more conversant with FS2002 , I now find myself playing around with panels , putting in extra gauges to my liking, altering gauges , etc -- the fact that I have a LARGE number of gauges in my gauges folder is a real asset -- I would not want to delete any of them , even those which are currently not being used in any aircraft.If you really want to design something useful for the Fsim community, then what we need is a good gauge browser programme which is fully FS2002 compliant. I have my computer programmer son working on such a thing at the moment -- but he is not a flight simmer and does not know anything of the internal workings of FS2002 so I don't know if I will be successful in getting him to create what I want.There are gauge browser programmes around but they are mostly outdated and don't work on a lot of gauges Barry

[Guest rogue1]

Thanks for the comments so far. I for one find it rather useful to remove gauges that I don't use. I've been tweaking my own panels for years and like the ability to remove the clutter after fixing on a good set of gauges for my panels.I don't know about a gauge browser, I'll take a look at it and if possible will add that as a feature. I don't do graphics programming so this might take some doing.I came up with a new feature last night - Identify missing gauges from panels. Probably will have this one allow the user to select one panel to work on or the entire set.Jim

[Guest N247BK]

Bless You my friend! And even with my 80 gig HD, I know it will help me to keep my structure as clean as can be.I hate not knowing what's cluttering up certain folders (especially FSim).Let me know if you need some help!

[Guest rogue1]

I'll be looking for beta testers in the coming weeks. And my 80gb HD will be thanking me. My current gauges folder is over 700mb and growing. Add-on scenery is probably close to 15gb now. Woohoo.Jim

[Guest]

As the subject has been raised, I also do a fair bit of panel work and the problem I have is trawling through over 2,000 gauges when I'm looking for a particular type of gauge.I've not heard of a "gauge browser" before, but if anyone knows where I can find one, or if the author of the original post in this thread is considering the possibilty of creating one, then I'd be extremely happy!

[Guest rogue1]

What type of functionality would you be looking for? It would be difficult to automatically categorize your gauges (no standard naming conventions), but not to difficult to let you do it within the program. You'd then be able to quickly show say all the radio gauges.Let me look at the SDK and see what I can do.Jim

[barryward12345 0]

>As the subject has been raised, I also do a fair bit of >panel work and the problem I have is trawling through over >2,000 gauges when I'm looking for a particular type of >gauge. >>I've not heard of a "gauge browser" before, but if anyone >knows where I can find one, or if the author of the original >post in this thread is considering the possibilty of >creating one, then I'd be extremely happy! There are a number of "gauge browsers" around - some freeware , some shareware . If you do some searching around the internet , you will find them . The problem with these though is that they are generally outdated and some will only handle FS98 single gauge GAU files while others will only handle FS2000 multigauge GAU files. There is a programme called "Resource Hacker" which is quite good -- but it is not very "graphics based" -- seeing as how the bitmaps inside gauges are meant to be seen visually, a gauge browser programme that was a bit more "visual" and could handle all current gauge types would be great.Barry

[Guest]

Thanks Barry. In light of your comments, I think I'll persue the possibility of Jim doing me (us) one.Jim? If you can find the time, I'm sure it would be widely appreciated.I recognise the problems in gauge categorisation, but personally, this is something I wouldn't mind doing myself within the program. In fact, I think I'd prefer it that way, particularly if the format allowed me to add comments/categories as well.In short, what I'd like to see is something that can recognise all gauges, and display the bitmap. If this could then be slotted into either a pre-defined or user-defined category, with an option to sort by category, that would be the ideal scenario (for me at least). Don't want much do I... lol.Anything you can come up with would be great, particularly if it can access xml format gauges.

[Guest rogue1]

Let me get the core functionality working. Then we'll see about doing something about gauges.What I have in mind is a system that will allow you to create your own gauge categories, then assign 1 to many gauges to that category. It could even allow 1 gauge to be in more than one category. Right now, I'm leaning towards storing all of this in an XML file, but I may need to switch to a real database. Probably MSDE or worst case MS Access. Don't worry you won't need MS Access to use the program. I am doing the whole interface in Visual Basic (it's what I know, at least for this type of application).I've got the screen for adding gauges to a permanent list 90% complete, just need to clean up the code that saves the data to an XML file.I need to do some x-mas shopping tomorrow, but will hopefully get the code done to search the panel.cfg files done on Sunday. Then just need to code to figure out if the gauge is not used (this is like 50% done) and the stuff to allow you to select which gauge(s) you want to delete (can copy this from the stuff I've already done). And the gauge backup stuff (simply a copy to another folder).So if all goes well, I'm hoping to have something that will actually work by Wednesday or Thursday next week.Then I'll look into coding the category stuff. Will start with just adding categories and gauges to categories. Then I'll need to figure out how to display gauges within the application.More as this flushes itself out. Need to print the SDK and put it under my pillow, maybe it will absorb. :-)Jim

[Guest]

Well that sounds VERY promising! Thanks for all your help and I'll e-mail you the pillow size version of the SDK a.s.ap. ;) LOL

[Guest rogue1]

I've got the following functioning: Add gauges to the permanent gauges list Identify and remove unused gauges (still testing) Backup gauges on removalStill need to code: Identify missing gauges Restore backed up gaugesLet me complete testing of the gauge removal function, then I'll post a beta for anyone interested in testing. And continue working on the missing gauges and restore gauges code.Then once that is done we'll go for beta 2, and I'll start working on the gauge categorization functionality and figure out how to display gauges.Jim

[Guest]

Terrific. Thanks for that.

[Guest rogue1]

Just uploaded version 0.1. Calling this a beta release but the gauge removal functionality is pretty tight. Look for GaugeMaster in the FS2002 Utilities section. It should work with FS2000 and FS98 also.Please let me know if you have any problems. I'll get on them ASAP.Jim