Dumb Question Department

[Phiz]

1]  Quite often, a downloaded aircraft will leave a zip file in the fs9 Aircraft folder. And I wonder: what purpose does an unopened zip serve? Which leads to -

2]  Given my talent for fouling up files and folders, it's sometimes safer to ask before acting. So: I've downloaded a glider, and this is the installation ReadMe: "Copy the folder ASW15b including the subfolders MODEL, PANEL, SOUND and TEXTURE under your FS2004\AIRCRAFT directory." OK. Click, click again, and ASW15bsits  in the aircraft list. No problem so far. Then: "copy the contents of the folder GAUGES to the 2004 sub-folder \GAUGES."  Done that often - but hang on, the folder contains both the usual gau files and a Winzip file, ASW15b.  Look inside, and that houses another 34 files.

So the question is: what does a dumbie do with that Winzip.  Does it need to be extracted, or just copied across with the gau files? If extracted,  where from and where to?

[TacitBlue]

Try out the plane, if some guages don't appear, then unzip the file. If all guages are there, then leave it as-is.

[Phiz]

OK,  glider appeared but some gauges didn't. So I unzipped the Winzip file from the aircraft gauges folder into fs9 gauges.  Now the plane didn't appear at all. Went back to look at fs9 gauges, and the unzipped files were in fact 34 bitmaps. Wrong place, presumably. So I deleted them. Let's try again: where do I extract bitmaps to?

[Sterk]

It seems like zip folder contains gauges bitmaps wich XML gauges use.In this case it's not wrong place-they must be located in fs9/gauges folder but inside their own separate folder.So try to unzip it but keep them in separate folder.

BTW-which kind of zipped file this folder is?ZIP,RAR, or may be CAB?

[TacitBlue]

Sterk is correct. If this is a cab file, don't extract them, just put the whole file into the guages folder.*unless that is what you did in the first place, then I don't know.

[Phiz]

Thankee kindly, gentlemen. As always, Simviation has the answers, and my glider glides most beautifully. I simply copied the intact Winzip across into fs9 gauges - where I would never have realised it belonged - and all was well. Peace be with you.