3.2 How do I assign different panels to different aircraft?

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Q:

I HAVE DOWNLOADED A BUNCH OF GREAT AIRPLANES BUT AM TIRED OF A CESSNA PANEL IN A P38, P61, CORSAIR, WIDGEON, PBY, ETC. I HAVE DOWNLOADED PANELS, PRINTED THE INSTRUCTIONS AND FOLLOWED THEM TO THE LETTER - ONLY A FEW HAVE SUCCEEDED. A RECENT PANEL INCLUDED INSTRUCTIONS TO USE A "PANEL MANAGER" . WHAT IS IT AND WILL IT HELP ME SOLVE MY PROBLEMS? WHERE DO I GET ONE FOR FS98?

A:

Ok, here are some instructions...there are two ways to do this. I'll write both ways for you....

A) You can assign the panel to just one aircraft at a time...

1. Unzip the files into a temporary folder
2. Move ALL gauge files to the FS 98 gauges folder
3. Move the panel bitmap(s) and the panel.cfg file to the panel folder of the aircraft which you want to use the panel with.

That should do it for you, that's it...very easy.

B) You can create a panel directory for the individual panel and direct certain aircraft to use that folder for the panel to be used. i.e. you've got a panel and want to use it on more than one aircraft

1. Unzip the panel files into a temporary folder.
2. Move all gauge files into the FS 98 gauges folder
3. Go to the FSFSConv aircraft directory under the aircraft folder in FS 98.
4. Create a new folder in this directory, naming it the same as the panel
   (i.e. panel.cessna152)
5. Now move the panel bitmap and panel.cfg file into this folder.
6. Go to the aircraft panel directory of the aircraft you want to use this panel with (i.e. a Cessna 152)
7. Once you're in the panel folder for this aircraft, you should see a panel.cfg file that the MS FS Converter has created.
8. Open the panel.cfg file by right clicking on it, selecting "open with", and then select "Notepad" or Wordpad".
9. This is what you'll see if it's a single engine airplane in the panel.cfg file:
   [fltsim]
   alias=FSFSConv\panel.Recip.fg.1
10. Change that line to say: [fltsim]
    alias=FSFSConv\panel.cessna152
    (the cessna 152 name being the name of the panel folder under your FSFSConv directory)

Now you're set. You can do that with multiple airplanes. Say you had 7 Cessna 152s, you'd just change the panel.cfg file for each Cessna 152 in your aircraft directory to what I showed you above (alias=FSFSConv\etc...).

Aaron Pederson

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In order to use several panels with the same plane, I edit the panel.cfg in order to have different windows available using shift 1 2 3 etc. I have 4 different panels set up on the Cessna by doing it this way. But be careful. If you edit the aircraft.cfg to add planes and panels, and make a typo, then those planes won't show up.

Robin