I am looking at FS Panel Studio Utility and I have a few Qs.1. Can I use panels or Guages in an aircraft from another (another default/Payware/freeware)?2. Is it legal/copyright to copy/move panels/guages from one payware to another for personal use (not for resale)?I basically want to use the heading indicator and VOR/GS (from any of the payware. Not decided which one yet) as a floating guage that I can move it into my second monitor.

I don't see why not, unless you distribute the copywrited gauge by uploading the panel to a web site. I would recommend you check the agreement of use for the panel or gauge you intend to use.Dale

You can do pretty much anything you want to with your gage and panel files as long as it's just for your personal use. Make sure you back up your existing files and folders first. If something goes wrong, you're not likely to get much help from the original aircraft developer, understandably so.Also, keep in mind that custom gages in a payware aircraft are often "locked" to that aircraft. For example the Garmin 430, weather radar, and Sandel EHSI in the DF A36 are hard-wired to the A36 and cannot be used in other FS9 panels.

What about using the Meggit heading indicator from Flight1 Meridian?I'd like to use the Floating window for other aircrafts. Hmm..thats probably not possible...cause its got lots of stuff behind it. Its lot more than a heading indicator..right?wish they would sell that one as a seperate item like reality XP does. Then I can buy it.

My motive for this is... I am looking at getting actual physcial guages...from Flight Illusions for a homebuilt cockpit.The are a new company and they are not done with building all the guages. They do not yet have a heading indicator nor a VOR/VOR GS.I was thinking..to get all their guages and use TFT LCD Monitor to the right of my Avionics...and use a floating guages for the Heading indicator and a VOR... until the time they finish building those two.And I don't like the Sandel thingi. Its too crowded/noisy and poor grpahics (Not Reality XP's fault. even the real thing looks like that).

I purchased FS Panel studio a few days ago and have been a little disappointed so far. Wonderful product as far as it goes but almost all gauges in my payware aircraft are not recognized (generates an error either complaining about an absent bitmap or saying not avaiable). I wanted to replace the AP in the FDS Commander 115TC with one from the F1 C172R (the commander one will only increment altitude presets in 1000s due to some resouce bug) and I wanted to use the ADF from my DF A36 (which has a nice flight time feature and a better interface) in my 115TC. I'm working on the hunch that XML gauges present problems but I really have no expertise in this area. More importantly, in the 2D panel I swapped by hand the audio switch in my F1 172 and 115TC for a more sophisticated one, and bought FS Panel Studio to help me edit the VC panels. But FS Panel studio doesn't open VC panels at all as far as I can discern. I find VC panels the hardest to edit by hand. I do plan to do further reading (finished the manual) tho -- perhaps I missed a setting/workaround, etc.

FSPS opens VC panels fine for me. It can be a little tricky to place the gauges, as it does not display the background texture, just the gauge placement. It may be helpful to note the position and size of the original gauge and put the replacement in the same place. Just remember, depending on how the designer has created his VC panel, the organization of the gauges in FSPS may not resemble the organization of the gauges in the sim. For example, look at this thread, and how Bill Leaming sets up his VC panel: http://www.aerodynamika.com/cgi-bin/yabb/Y...;num=1122072108As far as it not recognizing your payware gauges, some aircraft store their gauges in the panel subfolder of the aircraft. This is a feature new to FS2004, and is a great convenience for the end-user (no more having to clutter up the "gauges" folder), but I believe that FSPS will not look in the panel folder for the gauges. If you copy them to the "gauges" folder, I'd bet they would work fine.Dan

Firstly I should say that I can see no reason that you cannot use any gauges payware or otherwise as long as it is for your personal use and as long as YOU have paid for those payware gauges yourself.Secondly I would suggest that if anyone is unsure with respect to gauge use in any way for peace of mind send an email to the freeware gauge designer(s) and/or the company who sold you the package which has the gauges you wish to use. Just a thought to ease a troubled mind if you have one. Need only take a few minutes. I suppose you could do the same for any textures if you want to reuse them for your own personal use.Me? I would just go ahead.Andrew Brownhttp://www.gordiusfs.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

You will not have any luck trying to open the FSD planes as they have "locked" their panels for copyright reasons - hence the error messages in FS Panel Studio.Graeme

You can set your gauges source folder in FSPS settings. I have used it with FS2K2and upgraded it for FS9. Earlier versions had some trouble saving gauges stored in .cab files but I have not seen this happen in the current version.Protection can be set in .cab xml files if the developer chooses to lock it.

Adding to what has already been said:1. Try opening the settings within FSPS and select the "resolve gauge dependencies" check-box.2. Many of the DF A36 gauges are locked to that aircraft and cannot be used eleswhere. This may apply to the ADF3. You can select a VC window, but need to load FSPS with one of the "regular" windows first. Once loaded (say, in the 2D Panel) go to the Window pull-down box and the VC window(s) should now be selectable. Be aware that in some cases the gauges need to be "warped" from the normal ratio to appear correctly in the VC. This can be easily seen by trial & error. Also many VCs have "holes" coded for the night lighting, so added gauges may not be correctly lit at night or lit at all.I've been using FSPS for some years now and it can do most things one needs. Any problems, ask here or at the dedicated Forum:http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_topics.asp?FID=13Alastair