A321 Nav. Display colours

[kbcadnz]

G'day from New Zealand

I am having a little difficulty with the A321 Nav. Display. Some text (ie waypoints) is coloured dark blue, which makes it difficult for my 72 year old eyes to read against a similar coloured background. Is it possible for me to modify the colour, and if so, which file do I look at?
All help much appreciated. KB.

[tgibson_new]

Assuming this is the default A321, if the nav display is coded in an XML gauge then you have a chance. The panel files will be in the Airbus_A321.cab file, either in the main Gauges folder or inside the panel folder of the A321. Unpack the files in this CAB file into a folder (located in the same place) called Airbus_A321. Then look for the XML file in that folder that references the Nav display. It may or may not have Nav in the name. You can double click them to open them (choose Wordpad for your editor if you don't already have an XML editor) to see if the nav display is coded in there. Once you find it, the color of the text is written in a Text line. Change that.

BTW, if this instead uses the default GPS (or similar) type of display, I think you might be able to change some of those, but I don't know how to do that.

[kbcadnz]

G'day, Tom - thanks for reply. I found the default A321 cab file and unpacked it as you advised. I found the xml file for the Nav. display (MFD) but could not identify any reference to waypoint colours. KB.

[StringBean]

The A321 MFD draws that data from the default GPS.

I don't have FSX on my laptop, but seem to remember the GPS is a .cab file also, so you might find it in the main FSX Gauges folder.

Another option would be to see if you can change the MFD background colors which might make the text easier to read.

If you are not familiar with image editing I think you could edit the .bmp files with MSPaint


FYI, if you have both A321.cab and the unpacked A321 folder in the A321 panel folder FSX will use the unpacked folder before it uses the .cab. (I know FS9 works that way and am pretty sure FSX does too).

That being said, you can hack away at the unpacked folder without fear. If things go sideways, just delete the folder and as long as you still have the .cab you are good to go.

peace,
the Bean

[kbcadnz]

G'day, StringBean - am getting out of my depth here, so will put up with the existing situation. Thanks for your help. KB.

[n4gix]

The map display for the A321 MFD is defined in the mfd.xml file in two places (near the top of the file, thankfully!)

<Element id="Centered Map"> and <Element id="Expanded Map">

Within both <Element...> sections there are a list of parameters which have been set. To change intersection waypoint colors, you would need to add a new description for this parameter to both <Element...> <CustomDraw...> sections as follows:

          <CustomDrawParam id="ColorLayerIntersectionsEnroute" Name="ColorLayerIntersectionsEnroute">
            <Value>0x87CEFA</Value>
          </CustomDrawParam>

The color <Value> is a hex equivalent for the RGB color desired. The number in this example is 'Light Sky Blue'...

You can find "Hex Color Charts" all over the web, but here's a link to one I particularly like:
http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_colors.asp