New to Panel Design - Opening Windows by Clicking

[bob34 124]

Hey guys. I'm VERY new to messing with panels so please help me with very simple answers if you could.I have added my Reality XP JL2 gauges to a generic twin jet panel for practice (with the help of Abacus Custom Panel Designer).All the gauges are in place and look good.The part the still baffles me is clicking on icons or gauges to open a window. For example, the RXP gauge lets you click on it and open a larger window of the panel.I have Window06 and Window 07 working using the shift keys - and there seems to be click spots on the gauges. But the windows don't open. I'm not quite sure how to assign the open/close command.I also have the RTU icon set in there, but I don't know how to open the RTU Window (window05) by clicking on the icon.Any help is always appreciated. Thanks,BobKMEM

[ddawson 35]

Bob,In order to open a panel window with a gauge/mouse click, the window has to have an ident number (as distinct from a window number, how's that for confusing...)There are 3 FS commands to open, close, and toggle windows, based on this ident number.The commands, in XML, look something like this:500 (>K:PANEL_ID_TOGGLE)You need to assign the window an ident number and then add to your panel a gauge which opens/closes that ident number.From the default 737:[Window02]size_mm=456,378window_size=0.5position=8BACKGROUND_COLOR=0,0,0VISIBLE=0ident=GPS_PANELgauge00=fs9gps!gps_500, 0,0In this case, the ident assignment is:ident=GPS_PANELThere are several values that have been assigned text equivalents, mostly for ease of understanding... They are:MAIN_PANEL 0THROTTLE_PANEL 10RADIO_STACK_PANEL 50COMPASS_PANEL 75MINI_CONTROLS_PANEL 100ANNUNCIATOR_PANEL 125ANNUNCIATOR2_PANEL 150IFR_MAIN_PANEL 175IDENT_COLLECTIVE_PANEL 200GPS_PANEL 225OVERHEAD_PANEL 250USER 10000USER_MAX 19999AIRCRAFT_HUD_3D_PANEL 20000HELICOPTER_HUD_3D_PANEL 20001CONTROLS_HUD_3D_PANEL 20002TEXT_HUD_3D_PANEL 20003DAMAGE_HUD_3D_PANEL 20004SCORE_HUD_3D_PANEL 20005LSO_WINDOW 22000So, for exampleident= RADIO_STACK_PANELis the very same asident = 50and the GPS_PANEL reference is the same as 225.Note that you are not limited to the values in the table above. A reference likeident = 352is perfectly acceptable. You just need an appropriate gauge to toggle that panel ident.If you download a file called cptts1.2.zip from the Avsim library, you will discover that one of the CABS contained within (cpt.icons.cab) has a bunch of panel switch icons that are appropriate for just the task you have in mind.Hope all that helps...Doug Dawson

[bob34 124]

Doug - Perfect answer. Well explained and fully understood.I'm going to print this and hang it on the wall to cover the marks from my forehead. :)Thanks again.BobKMEM

[3Green 80]

Thanks Doug for the great answer... Helped solve my problem here...