FSDeveloper Community

Tape style VSI & altimeter for glass cockpits

N125DL — Fri, 24 May 2013 04:01:02 GMT

Hello there!

I am a real newbie to XML programming, yet I'm trying to create a tape-style VSI/altimeter gauge for glass cockpits (it's supossed to look like the one on the 777/767-400). The reason why I try to create that gauge, is that I'm working on a merge that makes the LDS 767 panel look more 764-ish - most of the time just simple re-positioning in the panel.cfg which works perfectly fine.

However, I need to insert a replacement VSI and altimeter since the 767-400 doesn't use the analogue ones anymore (except for backup purposes). My plan is to put it over the existing EADI on the righthand side, the red-marked area:

So just to make sure everyone gets me right, I'm not trying to modify the LDS code (and I don't have interest in doing so neither), the replacement VSI will be a seperate gauge, completely independant from the Level D-gauges. It's just supposed to do its job - display the vertical speed and altitude since I took out the old round-style ones.

Can anyone help me with that task? I would really appreciate some help, if someone who's into XML programming could give me some support to write that thing... In the end, I would love to get it looking like that:

I'm looking forward for replies!

Best regards from EDDH,

Felician

Saving Projects

uniform — Fri, 24 May 2013 02:45:01 GMT

After I compile the airport and close, It ask me if I want to save which I set a folder up in my documents . I don't always save the work but I noticed somehow a few a of my projects got saved in the FSX scenery/world scenery folder as bak or alt something. I removed them, I don't think they would cause trouble but why did they get placed there? Something I not paying attention to?

[FSX] Helicopter Physics questions

lionheart — Fri, 24 May 2013 02:25:52 GMT

Just thinking.. If a concept quadracopter (four fans) weighed 2000 pounds, it would need about 2,500 pounds of thrust to be reasonably good at taking off. Would this be correct? If it only had 2000 lbs of thrust, it would just sit there. Do regular helicopters have about that much 'more' over their standard weight, such as a Bell 206B? For instance, what is their 'possible thrust or max thrust' over their max weight? 20%?

Second question. In the case of a quadracopter, if this required 2,500 lbs of thrust total, each rotor would then require at least 500 lbs of thrust. So, my question is, with fixed pitch blades, how much torque would that require? (horsepower).

Lastly. How you you calculate 'area' for a lifting rotor disc for thrust? Example, a craft weighing about 2,000 lbs, would that need a lifting disc of about 18 feet? How might one figure this out? And I guess I would divide that by 4 for a quad copter.

Bill

[FSX] Gauges In VC - Display Problem

CAFedm — Fri, 24 May 2013 01:56:25 GMT

Please forgive me for posting this if a tutorial exists elsewhere, I just haven't found anything on it yet. I have gauges prepared in .cab format for use with an aircraft panel in both FS9 & FSX, with the .cab files being added to the appropriate aircraft panel folder in FSX. When compiling for FS9 everything displays correctly (pic 1). When compiling for FSX using XtoMDL, everything goes sideways (pic 2); it appears the gauges are being drawn upside down and even out of alignment. Am compiling with FSDS; the gauges used are in .xml format for FS9 and with standard 8-bit bitmaps, with panel & aircraft textures being saved in .dds format. Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Attached Thumbnails

[FSX] Auto Hover Gauge Code

lionheart — Fri, 24 May 2013 00:12:59 GMT

Hey all,

Anyone know of XML auto hover for helicopters?

On my next plane I will be doing, its a quick little helo project, a futuristic design concept thing. I want to have auto-hover in it.

There is one done by Herr Doktor Flusi I see, but no others. I will want this to be ran from switches in the VC, perhaps even by a custom switch code and

or conditions. Flusi's Gauge is in GAU gauge format and requires its panel to be operated by. Mine requires gauge code in XML and will run through VC switches and hidden gauges.

So............ I need to know if there exists an open-ware gauge code for a helicopter to maintain Altitude and its location, (spot its hovering over).

It would also be cool to have an auto-pilot for this wild little thing, but first things first.

Another new feature at The Owl's Nest

gsnde — Thu, 23 May 2013 21:30:33 GMT

Hello again.

The Military AI Reference at The Owl's Nest has been restructured. Each entry now lists the model it refers to. That has become important due to the fact that many aircraft models have been created by more than one designer (e.g. EE Lightning, MiG-21, An-124, F-4 Phantom etc.). Now you don't have to guess which model a given repaint or flight plan is made for. Furthermore the number of records has recently exceeded 2000 and is already closing on 2100.

Follow this link to have a look at the Military AI reference.

A new addition to The Owl's Nest is the FSX Screenshot Gallery. You will find all winning pictures of the monthly MAIW Hot Shot competition here plus a selection of AI shots I did myself.

Follow this link to visit the AI Screenshot Gallery.

[FSX] Can you start an approach with a HF or HA?

lordofwings — Thu, 23 May 2013 20:29:28 GMT

I am designing an approach for a local airport. The charts show that the approach to rwy 26 starts with an (optional) holding pattern around the terminal VOR at an altitude of at least 3000 feet on course 104/284. Would this be a HA or HF leg?

The next leg is from the VOR turning left to intercept the runway radial R-262.

The next question is... So far I have seen approaches starting with an IF leg but in this case can the approach begin with a HF/HA? or must it be IF? where do I insert the holding pattern then?

Or should then I define a Transition starting at the VOR where I place the Holding Pattern as the only item and then let it sequence the rest?

Macro Parameters

pc48 — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:08:03 GMT

I'm very new here, though I have found a lot of very useful content on this forum. Here's a situation I haven't found any information about, though.

I'm trying to develop a sound gauge using the dsd_fsx_xml_sound gauge that selects sounds using a macro within the XML file.

The macro looks like this:

Name="CallSpeed">(>L:Call@1Kt,enum)

I have a sound gauge ini file set up with the sound files as necessary, along with the LVar assignments to match.

LVar00=Call80Kt
LVar01=Call81Kt
. . .

When I send a literal value to the macro, like

. . . . @CallSpeed(80)

everything works fine, but if I try:

. . . . @CallSpeed((A:Airspeed Indicated,knots) flr)

I get no sound.

I have tried various forms of the Airspeed variable to get this to work, all for naught, so I have had to write an intermediate macro to translate the variable to a literal, resulting in a long macro that seems wasteful and hard to maintain:

(A:Airspeed Indicated,knots) flr 80 == if{ @CallSpeed(80) }
(A:Airspeed Indicated,knots) flr 81 == if{ @CallSpeed(81) }
. . . etc.

And then:

. . .
@SelectAirspeed

This works fine, but the list of airspeeds, from 80 to 125 knots is large, and I intend to use the same concept for altitude callouts. . .

My question: How, if it is possible, can I use airspeed variable directly?

Thank You
Paul

[FSXA] ADE Custom 3D Model Library Question

Andrew — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:20:27 GMT

I use Instant Scenery to add models to my library file. I add this library as a bgl in ADE. But every time I add or remove a model with IS, ADE does not see the changes, and I need to re-add it in ADE, and restart ADE. Then I see all the models, but also several versions of the same library bgl.

What do I do wrong? Am I supposed to add the models as mdl, and let ADE build the library? Must my bgl libary file reside within the ADE folder structure as well as in my scenery? I am a bit confused about this.

Cheers,
:stirthepo

Max 2012 and P3D SDK tools 64bit

Skip67 — Thu, 23 May 2013 12:04:57 GMT

Hey all,

I just installed the latest 64bit P3D tools for Max2012 64bit.
The SDK 'Using Modelling Tools' says that when exporting a model from 3DSMax (to an X file), I should select.. 'Prepar3D Direct X File (*.x)'.
I'm not seeing that in the list.. I do have the Aces Tools and Aces Docs present in the menu at top of screen so I'm sure the SDK is installed correctly etc.

Can someone please offer advice on what I might check etc....

Thanks,

Skip

testing ADE-GP poly and helper shapes

robystar — Thu, 23 May 2013 11:49:13 GMT

Hi,

I have been testing the use of the newly introduced helper shapes and how they can be converted into gp poly. Here are some of my preliminary findings.
I found the helper shapes work very nicely and are a real asset, except for the arc feature where it is rather complicated to obtain the shape you actually want. A b�zier type curve would of course be the solution but I understand that that is something that is hard to implement.
What I did not figure out how to do it is how to mirror a curve ( I can make a ( shape but not a ) shape. Rotating is not always a possibility).

As for the gp editor, it would be nice to have a 'select all' option especially when you would have to for example rotate a curved line or a polygon with many vertices.
What is also a bit tricky is the fact that most textures are slightly transparent so that when two overlap you have a brighter part where they overlap.

It would be nice if vertices could be made to snap to nodes or to adjacent poly lines but I guess this also would be complicated if not impossible?
Well, if you do not ask, you do not get it:)!

Below an example of what you can do with the gp-poly and the helper shapes.
Don't laugh, it was just to try out some features and get acqainted with the functioning of the helper shapes and the gp editor without really changing the airport layout.

Roby

Visual C++ 2010 Express (Again)

mgh — Thu, 23 May 2013 11:37:32 GMT

I've been using Visual C++ 2010 Express to experiment with the sample applications in the DirectX SDK.

These samples compile and run in their original folders within the SDK.

When I copy a folder containing a sample to another location the sample fails to compile - giving error messages about being unable to find files. (It's common-sense to make a copy before making any changes.)

I discovered the reason is Microsoft chose to use relative paths to the include, etc. files so they aren't found when the folder's moved. The only solution I've found is to go through the source and supporting files and change the paths manually.

Does anyone know of a better way?

Simple Switch

Robert Gillespie — Thu, 23 May 2013 10:46:00 GMT

Hi guys. Looking for your help again. I want to build a simple on/off switch to operate the smoke system from a virtual cockpit. Can you please point me in the right direction as to how to do this. I am familiar with FSDS, animating and inserting gauges, but can't work out how to actually make it operate in the vc. Does a switch need to be programmed as an xml file or am I missing something else? Thank you

Robert

Flippin ADE-GP

Golf-HotelDelta — Thu, 23 May 2013 10:37:15 GMT

The GP editor "Flip" command seems (to me) to be inconsistent.

This is an "Un Dimensioned" line as drawn:

This is after "Flip about the horizontal axis" (which seems logical):

This is the above, flipped about the vertical axis (seems as though is has removed the previous flip)

ADE-GP User manual

Golf-HotelDelta — Thu, 23 May 2013 10:03:11 GMT

There is no mention in the manual that the lines/polys will be drawn at the elevation of the Airport Reference Point (ARP).

I think this should be in a prominent place, page 1 perhaps?