Here is a piece of the panel.cfg file for the A-4F Skyhawk. You can see gauge16 has the same information we see highlighted above in CfgEdit. What we're essentially going to do now is move the cessna_182.omi down a little. If you understand the numbers, it's relatively trivial to change the "Y" coordinate to something slightly smaller than 59. Since we have our WYSIWYG editor, however, it's very trivial to simply move the gauge to a convenient spot. We need to take care, however, not to cover up parts of any other gauges.

Here, you can see I've moved the gauge down just a little, staying clear of the gauges below. It's also been shifted just a hair to the left, but not enough to make any difference. We'll leave it here and take a peek at what's happened to our panel as a result.

We can see our OMI gauge has been moved down exactly where we want it! Now we're ready to place our GPS toggle.

You can see above I've executed the "add gauge" menu and chosen the KINGAIR.GAU. This particular gauge (like all the default FS2000 gauges) has the characteristic of having all the gauges for this plane consolidated in one large file. We'll see shortly how identifying the specific gauges is accomplished. On the right side of our dialog box we can see there are 59 separate gauges in this one folder. We need only one specific gauge at the moment. Here is the selection:

The bitmap in the lower left is a real jumble, but that's only because it's been magnified. Once it's on the panel it will look just fine. By clicking OK to verify the selection, the gauge will be placed temporarily in the middle of the panel. Then you can move it wherever you want it on the panel. Obviously, we're going to put this one just above the OMI gauge. Particularly since we went to the trouble to move it in the first place!

Here I've placed the GPS toggle just above the OMI gauge and selected it so we can see the gauge properties. Here's what our panel.cfg file looks like:

You can see we now have a new, 20th gauge. It's our new GPS Display Toggle! The hard part's over. Now we have the toggle. Next (and our last step) we'll add the actual GPS itself. We won't need CfgEdit for that. Notepad is all we'll need.

Let's start by looking (and copying) what was done in one of the default FS2000 aircraft. Since it has the GPS gauge already, we'll just "borrow" a little from it!

This is a part of the panel.cfg file from the King Air 350. I've clipped the first couple of windows (the main panel and the radio stack) just so our excerpt doesn't take up too much room.

Window02 is for the GPS. When we click on the toggle on the panel, the contents of this window (i.e., the GPS instrument/gauge) will be displayed. If you already have a Window02 in your panel, you will need to renumber the window in both the [Window Titles] section and the window itself. Now, when you click on your new panel toggle, here's what you'll see:

Oops! There's gonna be a problem! When I started building this example, I put the toggle just where we have it now. When I realized there was a problem I left it there, on purpose. I'll show you how easy this problem is to rectify.

Our problem is we've displayed the GPS, but, in the process, we've accidentally hidden our "switch!" It's currently hiding behind the GPS data. We could close the GPS window by pressing SHIFT+3 (on the main keyboard NOT the numpad), but that tends to defeat our purpose. The solution - start CfgEdit again, highlight the GPS toggle and just move it somewhere where it will be convenient to use AND won't get covered up in the process!

In the example below, I've moved the GPS toggle to the opposite side. After a few minutes practice on your own, you will be able to do the same thing! Once you're convinced the panel is okay, and you have the gauge (the GPS toggle is technically a gauge) where you want it, you can safely remove the backup copy you made before you started. Here's our final result:

You can see the GPS toggle at the upper left side of the panel. The GPS display is showing on the far right. Clicking on the GPS toggle will close the display. Presto! Now you have the GPS on your old-style panel.

Only one potential problem remains. You should be able to fix that on your own, now that you've had some experience.

If you look at the default FS2000 panels, there's a small toggle switch on the panel, typically labeled as "NAV/GPS" or something similar. When the switch points towards the NAV side, the autopilot functions are in a mode with which you should already be familiar. You can view the GPS display, but the GPS will not currently "control" your flight. To have the GPS control (i.e., link to the autopilot) your flight you need to do the following:

1. Establish a flight plan using the default FS2000 Flight Planner
2. Initiate the flight plan and
3. Flip the toggle switch from NAV to GPS

The details of how to use the flight planner and GPS are available in the on-screen help of FS2000. Following the above examples you should be able to add the necessary switch to your panel using Notepad and/or CfgEdit.

Enjoy your own labor and don't forget to make that backup before your start!

Art Burke
Aburkenc@aol.com

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