Hi everyone,I thought I'd post a few screen shots of the Panel Maker that I'm writing for Fly!II. The programme will allow users to create brand new panels, import and edit existing Fly!II panels, cut and paste gauges between panels including gauges from Fly!II panels into brand new user created panels. As can be seen from the screen shots, gauges can be position graphically, and the gauge properties set though the panel maker interface. I've still got a fair bit of work to do on it, mostly defining and adding all the supported gauge types.Comments and suggestions will be much appreciated! :-)(I had to save the pics as jpgs, which is why the quality isn't particularly good).http://www.btinternet.com/~matt.horridge/PanelMaker1.jpghttp://www.btinternet.com/~matt.horridge/PanelMaker2.jpghttp://www.btinternet.com/~matt.horridge/PanelMaker3.jpghttp://www.btinternet.com/~matt.horridge/PanelMaker4.jpgCheers,Matthew.

Matthew,that looks realy professional.A much needed program for all usstruggeling with the panels.Can hardly wait.Should bring life to manywould be panel makers :) Maybe you'r starting something big here Matthew.Keep it up.You must have used countless hours already on this program :-eek Jan

Hi MatthewThat looks amazing. Thank you so much for such a powerfull tool for those of us whor "Computer challenged" like me.Kind Regards and God BlessAlfred

Looks wonderful!I hope this awakens some good projects!If I had to say there were two things lacking in this sim, it would be Panel makers, and Dynamics modellers (both due to the skill required). Fly! has always been considered 'the most accurate' when it comes to systems modelling. Unfortunately, I consider this to be a flaw as much as it is a gift. It ends up requiring a rocket scientist to create a "quality" aircraft.Perhaps this will solve one of those problems.Very glad to see this project unfolding!

Matt:Let me know if you need Beta testers... ;-)Take care,Alejandro AmigorenaCheshire, CTFly! II Beta Team MemberAthlon XP 1800ABIT KR7A-RAID768Mb RAMMSI GeForce 3 Ti 500 64MBSB Audigy GamerCH Flight Yoke USBCH Pro Pedals USB

Thanks for all the nice comments guys!To answer one of the questions, I will be needing beta testers, but I'll post a notice up on this forum. It's possible that I might release an early beta (that doesn't inititally have support for all the TRI defined gauges) so people can have a play around with it and get used to it, and then I can get some feedback about the interface etc. :-)Cheers,Matthew.

Dear Matthew, only possible comment is....... fantastic and a lot of thanksGiorgio Gnesda

Through your help and others on this forum, I learned how to create/modify panels awhile back. What has been keeping me from producing more panels for Fly!2? The tedious time it takes to edit all these files without visual feedback. I have to make a modification and then load Fly!2 to view the results. This tool would save a ton of time. You already know its valuable...let us know if you need help with something.

Dan:In regards to:"I have to make a modification and then load Fly!2 to view the results."You don't have to exit and start Fly! every single time you make a change as long as you're using the files in the Data, World, etc. folders. You can simply start Fly!, load your model, then ALT-TAB, make any changes, to the files, ALT-TAB back to Fly!, change to another aircraft, then select the model you're working on again and the changes should be there, especially for the panel.Hope this helps!Alejandro AmigorenaCheshire, CTFly! II Beta Team MemberAthlon XP 1800ABIT KR7A-RAID768Mb RAMMSI GeForce 3 Ti 500 64MBSB Audigy GamerCH Flight Yoke USBCH Pro Pedals USB

Matthew,Firstly I would just like to say that you are a legend. I bow to you (and other programmers) expertise in this field. This will be one of the greatest additions to this photo realistic sim allowing every man (or woman) and their dog to make their favourite aircraft panel.One question, will it also allow us to transport previous Fly1 & Fly2K plane panels into Fly2? This could assist those who had favourite aircraft to Fly-On. :-) Happy and successful programming :-) Ken Brand.Perth, Western AustraliaFlying out of YPJT.

Great point, Alejandro. I did discover after some trial and error that I could view the results by switching between aircraft. I think the real benefit to this tool will not only be to view a panel outside of Fly!II, but to visually build a panel, populating all of the data values for positioning a gauge and entering property values. I'm assuming this will also really help those who haven't learned the object syntax in Fly!2 data files by generating panel files for you. In my case, I've already created 90% of the graphic elements for my panel in 3D Studio and Photoshop. Having a tool like this would carry me a lot further in my development, a lot faster.

Dan:I totally agree. This panelmaker could be as revolutionary as Padraic's FS_Imp...Take care,Alejandro AmigorenaCheshire, CTFly! II Beta Team MemberAthlon XP 1800ABIT KR7A-RAID768Mb RAMMSI GeForce 3 Ti 500 64MBSB Audigy GamerCH Flight Yoke USBCH Pro Pedals USB

Hi guys!Thanks for the positive response, it's really encouraging! :-)When I initially thought of the idea for panel maker, I was aiming at people like you, who can produce the graphics and artwork with no problem at all, but don't know all the parameters for gauges etc. Hopefully as you say, this should speed up panel creation in these cases. Another area that panel maker should also help in, is looking at the TRI gauges in existing aircraft, and figuring out how they've got their artwork arranged etc. (i.e. number and order of frames in needles etc.).At the moment, I've got tools to create pbm and pbg files from bitmaps (is this format ok when using 3D studio to output annimation frames etc.?).Cheers,Matthew.

Hi Ken,Thanks for the very nice comments! :-)Panel maker won't allow you to import complete aircraft from Fly!1 and Fly!2K into Fly!II. This is because of the separate systems, engine, wheel files etc. that go into making a plane for Fly!II. However, I can't quite remember what the format of a Fly!2K panel is, but are they contained in separate pnl files? If so, the chances are, the panel could be ported over to Fly!II, and would then need 'connecting' up to the Fly!II subsystems.If you've got a Fly!II panel file to hand, then if you want to e-mail it to me, I could take a look at it. :-)Cheers,Matthew.

Whow!!!these screenshots are just incredible. Fantastic work Matthew.Cheers,Norm