Simviation Forums

I would like to creat a panel with hot spots on some of the gauges so as to display them larger for easier reading. Can anyone please tell me how to do it?
Thanks Allen

I would like to creat a panel with hot spots on some of the gauges so as to display them larger for easier reading. Can anyone please tell me how to do it?
Thanks Allen

Well, with XML gauges it's pretty simple to do. You just define
the X,Y locations of the left, right, top and bottom of the area
you wish to define as a "hot spot"....

Here is a sample of XML code from a fuel tank selector switch
gauge that I created for a panel:

 
     
     Left Aux
     
     5 (>L:Fuel Selector 1,enum) 12 (>K:FUEL_SELECTOR_SET)
     

     
     Left Main
     
     3 (>L:Fuel Selector 1,enum) 4 (>K:FUEL_SELECTOR_SET)
     

     
     ALL
     
     2 (>L:Fuel Selector 1,enum) 1 (>K:FUEL_SELECTOR_SET)
     

     
     Right Main
     
     4 (>L:Fuel Selector 1,enum) 5 (>K:FUEL_SELECTOR_SET)
     

     
     Right Aux
     
     6 (>L:Fuel Selector 1,enum) 11 (>K:FUEL_SELECTOR_SET)
     

     
     Fuel OFF
     
     1 (>L:Fuel Selector 1,enum) 0 (>K:FUEL_SELECTOR_SET)
     

     
     Engine 1 Fuel Tank Select
     
     

     
     Engine 1 Fuel Tank Select
     
     

 

 Note that these specifications use the "" specification
to display text when the cursor is over the defined Area, and also
uses the specification to enable some action(s) to be taken
when the mouse button is activated in that Area.

All four area specs...left,right,top,bottom need not be present
is, for instance, you only have two "hot spots" on a gauge
seperated vertically. Then you just specify the left and right
parameters and the spots will extend from the top to bottom
of the gauge.

Id you only need one "hot spot" on a gauge, covering the entire
gauge, then something like this will work:

 
     
     
     
 

To make the gauge larger, you could create a window with the
gauge specified to be larger than the main panel gauge.
The hot spots would then cause the panel(s) to open or close
when clicked upon.

here's a sample of XML code for opening an "IFR" window:


 
 
     
     175 (>K:PANEL_ID_TOGGLE)
        Display/Hide IFR Panel
       
 


In this case I used an Icon as the "hot spot" to toggle panel ID 175.
This could just as easily been embedded in a gauge on the main panel
and panel ID175 a window containing only the "expanded" gauge.

A similar "hot spot" would also be embeded in the expanded gauge
to close the window.

Each expanded gauge window would use a different ID, specified
in the panel.cfg [Windowxx] section:

ident=175

Hope this answers your question.

   Paul

Thanks Paul
It looks complicated but i will give it a go. thanks for the tip.
Allen

Thanks Paul
It looks complicated but i will give it a go. thanks for the tip.
Allen

You're welcome. It may LOOK complicated but it's not, really.

Once you get the hang of the various XML code options it's
pretty easy to make panels/guages come and go

I suggest having a look at alot of different .cab folders
and see how others do things. A utility like Powerarchiver 2000
or other UNZIP type program will extract the .cab contents
into a folder and you can then examine the XML gauge code
using Notepad.

   Paul