Simple Panel Design

[greekydeke]

If you're curious about how to go about moving instruments around on a panel, swapping gauges from one aircraft to another, painting/repainting/cleaning up instrument panels, how to edit and write panel, aircraft,  and other configuration files, or want to know how to use XML gauges in other aircraft, you might want to take a look/download the "Simple Panel Design" tutorial I posted on the panel design tutorials download site.  It covers FS98 through FS2004, with reference to CFS1,2,3.

I titled the tutorial 'simple' because the only software tools needed are Windows Notepad and Windows Paint.  It's a ten-lesson tutorial, with an accompanying workbook with hands on, step-by-step exercises to walk you through panel/gauge design stuff.  Has much more (and correct) detail than the M/S panel SDKs.

Also has an in-depth explanation of XML gauges, how to write and edit them.  It includes a workbook exercise on a simple conversion of an XML pressure altimeter to an XML radio/radar altimeter that can be used in any FS2002/2004 aircraft.

Requires Internet Explorer v5.0 or higher, or an equivalent XML-enabled browser.  Readme web page has a contact email address for questions/problems.

Try it  ;) ...

[Dan]

If you post the URL then I will take a look.
Dan

[WebbPA]

http://63.217.28.218/files/1misc/PDToot.zip for the file or
http://www.simviation.com/fsdesign_panels1.htm (bottom of page) for a description.

[gw]

greekydeke,

I'm glad you started this post.  It gives me a chance to thank you for the tutorial.  I downloaded it the other day and I've been going through it.  I am, indeed, impressed.

First, it's put together very well.  In each lesson you tell the student what the lesson is about, then you present the lesson, then you summaryize the lesson.  Makes it easy to follow.

Second, the fact that you have exercises and tie them in with the lessons is well done.

Third, the overall format of the tutorial is nice, neat, clean and simple.  There's not a lot of decorations on the pages that might be more distraction than help.

I've gotten up to lesson seven and I've added an existing radio altimeter to one of my favorite planes.  I'm not done yet but I'm far enough along to know it's going to work.

There are a couple of things though that need a bit of work, though.  Your discussion of paths was a little murky.  I didn't really see what you were talking about until I looked at your example.  But you did have an example so that went a long way to offset my complaint here.

And I noticed that in trying to assume as little knowledge on the part of the student as possible you get into areas that could lead to a whole book being written.  This is difficult to do in any area so I think it's admirable that you did as much as you did.

And, finally, you might want to add something about resizing an instrument.  I guessed that the width and height are the numbers that followed the x and y on the gauge statement and it seems to work.

I am going to go back through your tutorial again.  You show that Paint has more features than I gave it credit for.

Finally, just a darned fine job!

gw

[undertheguny2k]

Great tutorial.  I downloaded it and went through it before I read this forum.

I ran into one problem that took me a while to sort out.  When you told me to look in the .gau file for the gauge name, I really could have used a hint.  I didn't have a clue what I was looking for.  I wasn't sure I was supposed to be using the editor to look in the .gau or not.  I think that later on in the next lesson, I found the hint I was looking for after I had struggled to find it.

This was my first time looking at .gau files and was basically clueless.

Great job, I learned a lot.

Thanks.

[CaptKeltic]

I agree, your tutorial is well done.  Unfortunately, but your tutorial and MS panels SDK stop a bit short of detailing some of the more advanced capacities.  I would love to see a more detailed explination of thinks like the sytex for the if if/else statement, or the Text statament.

 I noticed the the used in the 747 ECIAS gauge make heave use of what I assume are controll characters ">", "&".  Right now Im just guessing at there meaning and use.  If anyone has a better handle on this area of writing guage XML files, I would love to see something on it

[greekydeke]

Very briefly:  IF you want to know how XML gauges work THEN you must first know how to write XML code AND know the basic computer programming commands and math functions, ELSE you must go to your local public library or a bookstore and read books on XML coding and computer programming.

On the EICAS display file:  Open the file "EICAS Display.XML" in the Boeing 747's gauge cabinet file.  The <, and > characters that you see at the beginning and end of each of the command lines are called "tags".  You'll also see the combination "/>" tag, which is called an ending tag, and has a specific meaning.   These are not control characters.

The first line in the file is the gauge name identification line.  In the next paragraph following that line you'll see the characters you call "control characters".  They are not control characters.  They are computer programming conventions used in mathematical and logic statements.  The characters "<" and ">" are math symbols meaning "less than" and "greater than".  The double ampersands "&&" is a logic symbol meaning "AND".  In the paragraph these symbols are an integral part of the "IF-THEN-ELSE" command that determines the EICAS display's operation.

You won't find any detailed explanation of XML code or computer programming Microsoft's SDK's ("Software Development Kits"), nor in my tutorial.  Microsoft assumes that if you are using one of their software development kits that you know how to write computer software, and understand the common principles and conventions of computer programming.

Again, a good library or bookstore should be your first starting point as a solution to your problem.

Good luck and success!

Greekydeke.

[randombeaner]

I love your tutorial but I have a question about Exercise 5 Understanding .gua files.

you say

Locate and note the one multi-gauge file for the Extra 300.  Open the file by double-clicking on it. Scroll through the file.  Can you tell how many gauges are in the file, and what they are?  When you're finished looking through the file close it, but make sure you don't save it.

but I don't think you can open .gua files by just double clicking and opening it in Notepad or a hex editor shows jibberish, the only ones you can open by double clicking are the .Cab files

What program do you use to open the .gua files?

[greekydeke]

Randombeaner:

You're quite right.  .GAU files are hexadecimal files that can be opened in Notepad but can't be read.  I think what I was attempting to demonstrate in Exercise 5 was the difference in trying to find out what gauges are in a .GAU file, and what gauges are in a .CAB file.

re: Hex editors.  My old standby is a WordPerfect DOS hex editor that I've used sporadically over the years.  Usually haven't needed a hex editor when working in software development platforms for Visual Basic and C++.  However, there are lots of freebie hex editors available on the Internet.  One that I used before I started writing the tutorial was called "XVI32".  Don't recall where I found on the Internet, but a Google or other search engine might be able to find it for you if you search for "XFI32".  You can use it to read your .GAU files to find out what gauges are in it.

If you really want to read and/or use .GAU files I think you may find Chuck Dome's "GAUBMP2" utility to be an excellent design tool for panel and gauge work.  You can download the file on this website at "Utilities/Design/Panel Design".  The Visual Basic runtime files required for Chuck's utility are located someplace on this website; contact "webmaster@simviation.com" to get their location if you can't find them.  You can use Chuck's utility to extract gauge .BMP files to create your own XML gauges.   Will give you more details via pdtoot email.

For information and other queries about the tutorial you can contact me via the tutorial's email address:  pdtoot@comcast.net

FYI, I've also started an FAQ and maintenance website for tutorial users at http://home.comcast.net/~pdtoot to handle questions such as yours.  However, although there have been over 2,800 downloads of the tutorial to date, I've only received a couple of questions so far!  Maybe when I get a few more questions via the tutorial's email address I'll complete the website!!

Thanks for your nice compliment on the tutorial.  Good luck, and happy landings ...!!

Greekydeke

[randombeaner]

thanks for the info. I have a hex editor called "HHD Hex Editor" and it didn't read it so I assumed it wasn't it hex but I'll try the "IVI32" one and would also try the GAUBMP2.