Hello,
I'm new in making 3D gauges too, but maybe I can help you. I am also using Blender.
As you can see in the pictures below, I am working on an old glider. It is my first plane, I've ever made, and I have to learn how to make the instruments for it.
At this time, I made four gauges, included an Altimeter with two needles.
For this Altimeter I needed 2 animations, one for each needle.
I don't know how informed you are about gauges and their parameters, so I will tell you each step:
1.) - The length of your animation in Blender you will define by yourself in the .xml-file of the aircraft (will show you later)
I used for both needles the animation-length of
900 keyframes, 100 for each 1000 metres hight. (it's a german plane with metres)
My max-hight will then be 9000 metres, enough for an glider. If you need more, take more keyframes.
2.) - Now let's take a look at the parameters of the animation in the .xml-file:
You will now see four lines for the altimeter_indicator, each line for one needle of the gauge. I got the same gauge copied for the backseat of the plane, so there are four needles for the altimeters working.
It is very important to know, that two animations cannot have the same name in blender ! So each animation needs it's own line in the .xml-file. But they all can be controlled from the same variables of msfs !
So my airbrakes got 8 animations for the left side, and 8 animations for the right side, but they all work together with the command "Airbrakes".
3.) - The
<animation name= you define here (
green marked), for examble "
altitude_indicator", will be the name of your animation in Blender as you can see in the picture above. (blue marked on the left side)
For more animations you can expand the names with "
.001 ; .002 ; .003 ...."
4.) - Each animation needs it's own "
GUID". You can download an GUID-Generator to create them. Two lines with the same GUID will cause an error and the aircraft is not working. So work conscientious here.
5.) - The number of the
length you define here (
900), should be the length of the animation in Blender.
The next, and last step are the PartInfo's in the .xml-file:
6.) - The
<Name> "
altitude_indicator" should be the same as the animation-line above, and the same as the animation-name in Blender.
7.) - The
<AnimLength> should here be the same too. (
900)
8.) - Now the Parameters:
The
<Code> is the name of the Simulation-Variable of MSFS, that sends the values of each gauge you will realize.
It begins with (A: .... then the name of the variable, here "INDICATED ALTITUDE", followed with ", Feet)".
You will find all of the variables here:
https://docs.flightsimulator.com/ht...Variables.htm&rhsearch=simvar table&ux=search
(Scroll down to "Aircraft Flight Instrumentation Data").
The Parameter
32.808399 is the combination of the factor 10 (comes from 100 keyframes for 1000 metres), and the factor 3.2808399 for the calculation feet / metres. (Maybe you can do this another way, but i don't know....)
9.) - Now you can save your .xml-file.
10.) - Go to MSFS, open your projekt and let build your package.
Thats it !
.... did I forgot something ? .... I think not.
I hope this will help you to realize your Projekt.
