FS9 Panel Programs

[stevewilson]

Hi All;   Does anyone know of a design program to build or edit panels for FS9 that is freeware. I would like to try my hand at building some panels, however I would also prefere to learn with a freeware program before I move into a payware program. Cfgedit doesn't support FS9 fully. Any advice?

Steve

[Hagar]

CfgEdit does all I will ever need for all M$ sims including FS9. The only thing it won't do is read XML gauges. This is no problem if you know your way around Panel.cfg. If you're serious about panel designing it might be an idea to purchase FS Panel Studio. http://www.cfgedit.com/
This is basically the fully FS2002/4-compatible version of CfgEdit.

[Skittles]

   I just bought Custom Panel Designer from Abacus.  You can download it and try it before you buy, which is what I should have done, but oh well.  
   I'm not completely satisfied with it yet.  I played with it for about 2 hours and encountered three errors resulting in lost data. I've sent two bug reports to Abacus already.

Skittles

[stevewilson]

Ok, I guess I'll do the learning curve with cfgedit. Then if I can get good with it I'll might move onto FS Panel Studio. I took a look at FSedit, but it was to confussing to me at least for now anyway.

After talking to Saratoga and seeing his F14 panel has inspired me to see what I might be able to come up with. He did a great job on the F14 panel, puting the TCAS into it and all.

Thanks for the advice all. Any other hints and tips would be nice as well

Steve

[JBaymore]

Skittles,

You might want to go down the to payware forum and see the opinions on Abacus.  I bought one package from them ....and was not very happy with it either.

best,

..............john

[Hagar]

Steve. Forget FSEdit. It's a notoriously buggy piece of kit & worse than useless for panel designing.

You can learn your trade on CfgEdit. Use it as a trial version of FS Panel Studio. Most panel design applications are similar & CfgEdit is by far the best freeware example - probably better than most payware. The only drawback for FS2002/4 panels is that it can't cope with XML gauges. There are plenty of ways round that if you use a little lateral thinking. For example: If you want to use XML gauges, postion/size them on the panel using conventional gauges as dummies. Then manually edit Panel.cfg in Notepad changing the appropriate gauges. This gets easier with experience. I know some panel designers who create complete new panels using Notepad alone.

If you get interested in panel design & wish for something with all the bells & whistles, FS Panel Studio is basically an updated version of CfgEdit & the obvious choice. IMHO

[stevewilson]

Thanks Hagar, I've basicly decided to use cfgedit, then move onto FS Panel Studio after I get a good grasp of designing panels.

As always for me I tend to pick the hardest things first, ie coping a part of one panel to paste into another panel, oh well just part of the learning curve

Thanks again Hager. I'm sure I'll be asking for lots of advice here.