XML: Refreshing Panels in FS9 & FSX

Unlike FSX, FS9 does not offer the possibility to assign a key combination for refreshin an aircraft's panel in the UI. Therefor, one has to resort to one of three methods to avoid reloading the whole aircraft every time a gauge or its placement properties are changed.

Method 1: A clickable button on the panel

Similar to the default SimIcons, this small button forces a refresh of the panel (panel.cfg and all gauges used by it). It can be downloaded here and can be placed whereever so desired.

Method 2: Reload by keystroke

Add this under "[KEYBOARD_MAIN]" to the FS9.cfg:

 RELOAD_PANELS=121,11

This should make CTRL+SHIFT+F10 reload the panel.

'Beware:' There might be a chance that this key assignment will be deleted if you change something from FS9's UI and FS9 saves the changes to the .cfg file!

Method 3: Reload by gauge

While method #2 above offers universal way to assign a keystroke combination to force a gauge refresh, this can also be achieved on a per-aicraft basis by means of a custom gauge.

Create a new gauge in the aircraft's "panel folder" and name it, e.g. "Reload_Panel.xml". Then copy&paste in the following code into the xml:

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <Gauge Name="Reload Panel" Version="1.0">
 <Keys>
 <On Key="889">
   (>K:RELOAD_PANELS)
   </On>
  </Keys>
 </Gauge>

Finally, alias the gauge to the panel by putting the following line into [Window00] or [VCockpit01] sections.

 gaugeXX=Reload_Panel,1,1,1,1</nowiki>

Make sure to keep the gauge in sequence with the already existant ones!
This places a 1-by-1 pixel sized gauge at position 1,1 on the main panel or in the VC.