Hi Michael,Glad that helped someone :-)In fact, I had an all-XML panel once with all gauges in a something-like 15 Mbyte cab file, and unzipping the .cab to a subfolder reduced the loadtime of the aircraft from 40 to 15 sec. (on my PC of course).Cheers, Rob

"They" say there is no such thing as a stupid question, but this may be one. Can I simply delete all the 'unused gauges' that show in my Gauge Explorer or should I be more discrete? Like placing them in a back-up folder....just in case. None of these gauges are showing that they are being used in any FS file. I've never used this tool and any help would be appreciatedJohn M

>Hi Michael,>>Glad that helped someone :-)>>In fact, I had an all-XML panel once with all gauges in a>something-like 15 Mbyte cab file, and unzipping the .cab to a>subfolder reduced the loadtime of the aircraft from 40 to 15>sec. (on my PC of course).>>Cheers, RobI did this now for the ** B17 II and it reduced the loading time from about 150 secs to about 40 secs - this really makes a difference!

John, that depends on which tool/version you are using..(I don't use any myself).I did try one such tools two years ago (can't remember which one), but that tool stupidly enough removed also default FS9 gauges that were not referenced in any default aircraft.Now, this isn't very clever, since addon aircraft that are installed later may expect such a default gauge to be present.Even worse, some people also are in the habit of deleting default aircraft; which could also cause default gauges to be removed because they might not be referenced anymore.Again, I don't know how todays "gauge cleaner" tools behave, but realise what you are doing when you really delete "unused gauges" .Rob

Thanks Rob. I thought that would be the case. I'm a 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it ' kind of guy ,so I not going to mess with this unless my panel loading times start to suffer. The information you posted above is interesting though and well worth a look next time I get into a tweaking mood.John M

Hi Rob,This may be a dumb question, but understanding with new addons, that gauges can be kept in the aircraft file instead of the simulator "Gauges" file, what if anything, can be done about the planes that are already installed with the gauges installed in the simulator "Gauges" file instead of it's own aircraft file? I have a lot of addon planes installed in FS9 & the gauges have been installed in FS9 "Gauges" per the instructions usualy given. Is there anyway to get the gauges back into the aircraft file?Thanks,Bob Anderson

Hi Bob,That would be a very cumbersome process, which I would never do (nor advise).Because you would have to investigate each panel.cfg for the used gauges, and then move them to the appropriate panel folder.However, this is very tricky, because you cannot see if a particular gauge is used in other panel as well. Which you have to know before you move it out of the gauges folder.Maybe there are utilities out there that could help with that process, but I wouldn't know which one.Rob

Hi Bob,What I do is create a temporary folder in my Windows Explorer C drive, giving it any name, to which I download and then open the new add-on, rather than installing it directly to FS9. Then I can see all the files contained in the add-on,including the Gauge files, and ultimately do a copy and paste to FS9 . The point is I have control over where to paste the files, ie, placing the Gauge files in the Panel folder. Or, if you prefer you can still place the Gauge files in the FS9 Gauge folder.Hope this helps.Jack

Thanks Rob & Jack for your replies.Rob, That is pretty much what I speculated as I hadn't heard of someway of moving gauges back into the aircraft file. It would be an enormous undertaking & probably impossible.Jack, Your suggestion is good & is pretty much the way I install now, to a temporary file & then move from there to the proper locations. I just have not been dealing w/the gauges in the way you mentioned. I may try doing that.Thanks again to both of you.Bob