isolating gauges

[Guest dswo]

I'm sure there must be instructions for this somewhere, but I have looked for about an hour with no luck. (Browsed this forum, checked the SDK docs, Googled.)What I would like to do is install a third-party aircraft without dumping all of its gauges in my main gauge folder. The AC only has one panel, so I believe it should be possible to have the gauges for this AC in their own "gauges" subfolder within the AC folder:AircraftpaneltexturemodelgaugesBut just putting the gauges in a subfolder named "gauges" does not work. What else do I need to be doing?

[ddawson 35]

You need to place the gauges in the Panel folder, not a separate Gauges folder. Have a look at the newer default aircraft - DC-3, Jenny, etc.Doug

[rcbarend 37]

Below, some info I publushed a while back on another forum..********************Placement of gauge files========================Assume the panel.cfg is in the folder:....aircraftyouraircraftyourpanelIf your panel.cfg contains a definition like:gauge** = filename!gaugename, ..,..FS seaches for that gauge in the following order:1. The gauge "gaugename", in file "filename.gau" in folder ...yourpanel2. The gauge "gaugename.xml", in file "filename.cab" in folder ...yourpanel3. The gauge/file "gaugename.xml" in folder ....yourpanelfilename4. The gauge "gaugename", in file "filename.gau" in folder ...gauges5. The gauge "gaugename.xml", in file "filename.cab" in folder ...gauges6. The gauge/file "gaugename.xml" in folder ....gaugesfilenameA few notes===========1. As you can see, with the same panel.cfg definition, you can choose to place your gaugefile (.gau or .cab) either in the ....gauges or ...yourpanel folder. Avantage of ...gauges:- Only one, shared gauge file (saves diskspace)- Installing a newer version of the gauge, you only have to overwrite one file for all panels using it.Advantages of ....yourpanel:- Allows for multiple versions of a gauge.- You never (accidentally) overwrite a gauge with an older version.- Easy maintenance if you decide to remove a plane with it's panel: you simply delete the whole aircraft folder (and panel subfolder) without leaving (potentially unused gauges) in the gauges folder; or accidentally delete a gauge that is still used by another aircraft panel. So you can decide yourself which "strategy" best suites you.2. For XML gauges, you can decided to unpack the .cab file into a subfolder with the same name as the .cab filename.Adavantage:- easy change/replacement of a single .xml or .bmp file, without bundling/replacing the whole .cab file.This has no noticeable performance gain or loss.And these are only the main options and advantages To name two other possibilities:1. You can put gauge files into a subfolder of ...gauges.E.g. gauge** = foldername/filename!gaugename, ..,..when the gauge file is placed in folder ....gaugesfoldernameNot very usefull given the other options, but still ....2. Modify the bitmap of an xml gauge for a specific panel.Suppose you want to adapt the bitmap of an XML gauge in a .cab file, for one specific panel.What you do: Extract the .bmp file from the filename.cab file, eg. with Winzip, to folder ...aircraftyouraircraftyourpanelfilename and modify it.Now this particular panel will use the modified bitmap and NOT the bitmap from the .cab file.***************************************************Hope this clarifies a few things.Cheers, Rob Barendregt

[Guest dswo]

Many thanks for both these responses: I recently reinstalled from scratch, with MANY add-ons, and have resolved to be more tidy this time around. This will help.