panel design

[Guest]

Hiya all,I am just now getting into fs and would like to learn about panel design for fs2002, are there any good freeware programs out there?and also any good tutorials?Thanks

[Guest]

There is CfgEd, the old version being a freeware release for moving instruments around your panel bitmap. Quite good, but you'd have to pay for support for the new xml standard.I'd rather use Notepad though, as it gives you a better insight on what is goin on in there.I would also consider programming your own gauges using xml. It looks very strange and hard in the beginning, but once you get the grip on the syntax, it's quite easy. Programming your own gauges also enables you to move and resize and get your own functions in there as needed. A seamless blend with your panel bitmap with switch shadows adds a new depth to it all (ala the default Baron). xml does have it faults though, as usual with MS products, such as missing events, but it is a good starting point and I'm sure much of this will be addressed with the next version.If you're not interrested in making your own gauges, you'll have to resort to Gau2Bmp, MakePink and all those neat little utilities, but don't expect too much cooperation from the original creators in distributing them with your own graphics (I never did anyway, leading to panels never released).If you have Photoshop or GIMP (freeware) graphics packages to create your gauge graphics with, and knows how to use them, you'll be designing your own gauges in no time.