Swapping gauges in X-Plane VC's

I am so used to just opening FSPanel Studio in FSX and swapping out gauges that I seem to have hit a wall where X-Plane is concerned. To say it's nothing like FSX or P3D is an understatement. I have been told by some in the X-Plane Forums "Yes, you can". . .they just never explain "how", lol. I know I have to use PlaneMaker, but has anyone here ever actually done it? If so, how?

Hi.

Yes, it can be done. How? It's very complicated, unless you have a 2D panel available and use the 2D which most of the people do not and most of the new planes do not have 2D.

This has been getting worse recently and likely to get worse in the future given the recent behavior of LR and people surrounding them.

Most of the free developers and or users that want to make some easy changes to create or modify something have given up. The documentation is very old, does not apply, or very poorly written, missing steps....

Most of the models designed for 1130 and later will not work in previous versions, even from good developers, and vice versa.

There is enough frustration to make many users just stay away from XP and never buy that sim again.

The Commercial models are very expensive, mostly poorly done, mainly because they have to stay within certain given restrictions, and will likely not work with the next version.

If you do a search here, and other boards, you may find some posts, that I and others wrote, about how to use Sketchup to edit / create objects, which is what the XP acft are, and will give you the basics / minimums. Very steep learning slope for most.

See my response to Vic, New X-Plane 11 user Cessna 185 panel problem, about somewhat similar topic.

Thanks for your reply and it's kinda what I expected, although I was also hoping it would just be a small thing I missed while putzing around in PlaneMaker. I saw some info in the X-Plane Aircraft Developers Forum, but it was related to the 2D not the VC as you eluded to. I have used Sketchup for years now doing custom models for my scenery work. . .which I also hoped would be a simple task to bring over to X-Plane. . .wrong again, lol.

 

Thanks again for answering my question!

Hi Falcon.

If you know Sketchup or Blender and know how to create scenery for XP it may be worth taking some time and loading / importing .acft file and play with it? Most of the learning curve is due to using the actual apps.

That said, you like most humans, are curious to see if and how things can be done differently / better using something else. I've gone down that road many times with XP and I end up getting very frustrated not being able to get something as good as I can get in FSX, and that is still what I use when I really want to demo or practice. It still works fine in 4K, and I have modified flight models that do what I expect.

I understand P3D is better, never tried it, and if that is case just modify something to behave like you know and expect it and stay with it. XP in general, and 1130 and up in particular, can be very frustrating.