Button in the Panel to open custom window

Hi,

Have created my own autopilot using some existing gauges and my own .bmp. Then have added new window to the aircraft panel.cfg.

Works great, but every time I need to make my autopilot visible I need to open the menu and go to views/instrument panel and select my AP window to show.

Ideally, I would like to have a button in the panel to open/close this window. (Just like the GPS, or Comms buttons, common in most default aircraft).

Any clue on how to create this button would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Peter

Hi,

 

First create a little icon BMP. I took one of the existing icon textures (from an addon panel, but it could be from anywhere), erased the current icon symbol, and put AP on it instead. I named mine icon_AP.bmp

 

Next create the XML gauge code. Here is what I used, I named it Icon_AP.xml:

 

Display/Hide Autopilot

777 (>K:PANEL_ID_TOGGLE)

 

You can use Notepad to create it, but it should end in .xml instead of .txt. It gets placed into a folder (which can contain many XML gauges), along with its BMP file. You can also put it into a CAB file, but that's not required. My XML and BMP files went into a folder called DC6pnl, located in the main Gauges folder (the folder can also be placed into the plane's panel folder if not used for any other planes).

 

Next you add the icon gauge to the panel.cfg file. I added mine to the main panel (Window00 in my case) in this line:

 

gauge75=DC6pnl!Icon_AP, 361,1065,21,21

 

Your gauge number, XY location (first two numbers) and size (last two numbers) will be different.

 

 

Finally, when I was adding my subpanel into this panel.cfg file, I made sure that it contained this line:

 

ident=777

 

 

Now when I click the icon the AP panel pops up (or goes away).

 

Hope this helps,

Hi Tom,

as always, MANY THANKS!!

Best Regards

Peter

Thanks from me too Tom. You probably know that lots of other people glean heaps of information from talented individuals like yourself, on the Forum. I just wanted to let you know your help is appreciated in the wider sense.

Kind Regards,

Thanks. :)

I have what are called sim icons or something to that effect. I can't find them anywhere but those icons can be used with an ident to do things. I've used them myself with FS Panel Studio.

Those gauges are in SimIcons.cab, located in the main Gauges folder. I use it too for the "standard" icons.