wassup with freeware gauges?

[beaky]

Been trying out a few of these fantastic add-on aircraft from this site, and about 1 out of 4 times, despite the presence of gauge files, I pull up the plane in FS09 and there's no gauges, or some are missing. Maybe it's the individual files, but I suspect there's something I'm doing wrong with some of these. Anybody?

[BiggBaddWolf]

Are you putting the gauges from the zip folder from the file that you downloaded into the "GAUGES" folder of FS9???

[commoner]

rottydaddy...if you said which planes you have had trouble with and just what you did with the gauge files...then maybe somebody could explain the "something" you are doing wrong..commoner

[beaky]

Sorry for the confusion. Yes, I'm putting downloaded gauge files in the FS Gauges folder. I'm wondering if some of these require the gauges to also be copied to the FS Aircraft folder, or...? BTW, the download instructions in the ReadMe files (when present) have not indicated anything that would explain this.  I should also mention that in the "no cockpit" view I can get the gauge overlay for most of   these aircraft by pressing "W", but in the normal panel or VC views there are just voids. Specifically, we're talking about the Aeronca , the XP38, the sikorsky s39 and the Luscombe 8 (don't have the specific file names handy, but I can provide them later if anyone thinks that'll help).  I apologize for crying for help without  proper documentation- I thought maybe this was probably some kind of obvious, 'you idiot" type of thing. Thanx for your time, all...

[commoner]

...I just tried a download of a Sikorski

[Hagar]

....One single gauge had to go into the FS9 gauges folder and the others were in a cab file to be left in the panel folder....all the gauges showed on that ok.

Just to point out that gauges will work either in the FS9\Gauges folder or the Panel folder of the appropriate aircraft. If you paste that CAB file into FS9\Gauges it should work fine.

[commoner]

...sure Hagar but I was merely  saying that what was in the installation readme  had worked fine....

[rmac]

I have found since using flightsim manager avalaible here on this site. thar I can now install downloaded aircraft and gauges with ease. If they do not install  I DELETE the file.
This program is A must for novice users for downloading it saves A grief
Rmac

[beaky]

thanks to all- I've fixed a couple of these aircraft files. rmac: I'll definitely try the Manager; thanx for the tip.

[Hagar]

Personally I never trusted these installer gizmos & wouldn't recommend them. It's much better & easier to learn how it's done the correct way, manually. This is not difficult & has the benefit of teaching you a little more about your computer. I progressed from raw beginner like you to Combat Flight Simulator Editor of this site in a few months. Since then I've taught literally 1,000s of people how to install aircraft, scenery & almost anything else you can think of. If I didn't know how something was done I made it my business to find out. I've also created my own addons. I couldn't have done any of that by using an addon manager or any other utility to do it for me.

[MattNW]

Personally I never trusted these installer gizmos & wouldn't recommend them. It's much better & easier to learn how it's done the correct way, manually. This is not difficult & has the benefit of teaching you a little more about your computer. I progressed from raw beginner like you to Combat Flight Simulator Editor of this site in a few months. Since then I've taught literally 1,000s of people how to install aircraft, scenery & almost anything else you can think of. If I didn't know how something was done I made it my business to find out. I've also created my own addons. I couldn't have done any of that by using an addon manager or any other utility to do it for me.

I agree with learning to install aircraft yourself but I've tried FSM and it works fairly well. Few minor bugs here and there but nothing to do with installing aircraft.

I still install manually but I downloaded FSM for it's hangar management tools. You can create lists of aircraft and move them in and out of the sim as you need them. It also can be used for creating backup files of your aircraft just in case you lost the original .zip file.

[beaky]

I've decided for now to delete the aircraft that are still buggy, and try to do a little more flying and less programming. Of course, now I'm caught up in trying to improve frame rate...

[Hagar]

there's no gauges, or some are missing. Maybe it's the individual files, but I suspect there's something I'm doing wrong with some of these.

I think you're first assumption was correct & suspect you're not installing the gauges properly. Most people are too ambitious & go on a download spree when they first find this site. Take my advice & slow down a little. Spend a few minutes learning how to do things properly & you will get far more enjoyment from this hobby. I've had very few problems with missing gauges in the hundreds of

[forfun]

Yes, I'm putting downloaded gauge files in the FS Gauges folder

I had this problem too and i realised it was from WinRAR. And when you extract through folders it puts it in the folders when you extract. E.g, say the folder is name "Aircraft in winRAR and you click on it and it has another saying "E170DL" then inside that a folder named "gauges". When you extract the folder to your fs9/gauges folder then all the other folders come with it. So in fs9/gauges you'll have a folder named Aircraft. It's really annoying but all you have to do is go into gauges/aircraft/e170dl/gauges(my example) and cut the files to the original gauges folder.

[Hagar]

When you extract the folder to your fs9/gauges folder then all the other folders come with it.

Please take my tip & never extract zipfiles direct to the sim. In my experience this is probably the biggest cause of all installation problems.