Excuse this posting in this area of the forum...I had posted it in the Panel Design section but there's not much activity down there...

This is my first try at anything relating to panel design...Is there a simple (?) way to attach a gauge to another panel? For example: I would like to attach the Lear autopilot to the Baron panel...(Both stock airplanes)...Can this be done by "cut and paste" or is a panel design program required? Thanks for the advice...

 

Steve

 

 

Can this be done by "cut and paste" or is a panel design program required?

 

No you don't really need a panel design program. What you are wanting to do is possible, The question is why? The Baron has a perfectly usable and somewhat realistic AP.

 

That said, . . . . . . . . . the first thing to do is make a back up of both aircrafts panel folders ( always make backups!). In this case, and for the L45 as a example, just right click on the panel folder, select copy, then paste. You will get another folder named "Copy of panel" right in the lear45 folder. If things get messed up you can simply delete the "panel" folder and rename "Copy of panel" folder to "panel" and you are back to the original - same with the Baron.

 

Now, the 'fun' begins. Your first problem is the Baron already has a autopilot on the radio stack, although that shouldn't interfere with the Lear autopilot working. An even better solution is simply to replace the Baron AP on the radio stack with the lear AP. In the Baron 58 panel folder find the panel.cfg text file and open it with notepad. The radio stack is in the [Window01] section. Gauge06 is the one that needs to be changed.

 

Start by putting two / marks in front of 'gauge06=Bendix_King_Radio!Bendix-King Radio AP, 0, 262' so you see; "//gauge06=Bendix_King_Radio!Bendix-King Radio AP, 0, 262". That leaves the text in place but leaves it commented out so it will not be 'read' or used.

 

Copy or type the gauge06 portion to a new line above or below the original such as;

 

gauge06=
//gauge06=Bendix_King_Radio!Bendix-King Radio AP, 0, 262    *** note ***  {gauge numbers must be in numerical order}

 

Now add the lear45 AP which is gauge29 in the Lear panel.cfg file under [Window00] so you will now have;

 

gauge06=Lear_45!Autopilot,
//gauge06=Bendix_King_Radio!Bendix-King Radio AP, 0, 262

 

Add the two coordinates 0 , 262 so you have;

 

gauge06=Lear_45!Autopilot, 0, 262
//gauge06=Bendix_King_Radio!Bendix-King Radio AP, 0, 262

 

The next thing you need to do is add two more coordinates to properly size the Lear autopilot. Please notice that the background size is 'size_mm=156,308' that means 156 wide by 308 high this holds true whether you are working with a background color (as in this case) or a bit map. As in the above  0, 262; 0 represents the left edge and 262 of the 'area' is how far down from the top. The two new coordinates you need to add define the width and the height of the added gauge where gauge06=Lear_45!Autopilot, 0, 262 becomes;

 

gauge06=Lear_45!Autopilot, 0, 262, w, h

 

The background is 156 wide so w is easy - gauge06=Lear_45!Autopilot, 0, 262, 156, h to get the height so that the gauge fits and appears completely, simply subtract 262 from 308 and that is your value for 'h', I'll leave that for you.

 

Once you are done - Ctrl + S to save it and close it (the panel.cfg) and you are done.

 

It took me 5 minutes to make the changes and check the results, took much more time to explain. I hope this helps and have fun flying your Le Baron! Any more questions? Feel free to ask!

 

Best regards,

Thanks for the great lesson in panel design...I printed it out and followed it exactly...Worked perfectly! I really appreciate the time you spent on this...Now I'm hooked!

 

Steve