Locking Panels

[dnunes]

I am sure this is a trivial question, but I do not figure out how to do it.

I want to size and place a pop-up panel where I want. For that, with the FSUIPC un-selected, I size and place the panel where I want it to always appear. Then I select the locking feature in FSUIPC.

I would expect that, when later choosing the same aircraft, the popup would show up where I had chosen it to appear. In fact it is locked, but in its original position, with its original size.

What am I doing wrong? I hope someone can help.

Best Regards,

[Pete Dowson]

I would expect that, when later choosing the same aircraft, the popup would show up where I had chosen it to appear. In fact it is locked, but in its original position, with its original size.

FSUIPC does not remember panel window positions, that is a job done by FS itself. FSUIPC's panel locking simply stops you moving them about by accident (as when trying to operate switches or drag levers with the mouse).

Try saving a flight after moving things around, then loading that flight later. The details get saved in the FLT file, by FS.

Regards,

Pete

[dnunes]

Thank you Pete for your information. I thought it would be possible to lock the pop ups in a new position, for that aircraft, without the need to save the flight.

Best Regards and a Happy Christmas!

[Frank.O]

Hi,

I thought it would be possible to lock the pop ups in a new position, for that aircraft, without the need to save the flight.

yes that is possible. If you load an aircraft via the menu FS reads the panel window positions from the panel.cfg file. If you load a flight it reads the same information from the *.flt file. Download the panel SDK from here to find information about how to modify the panel.cfg.

Regards,

Frank

[dnunes]

Thanks a lot! I will try that.

Regards,

[Frank.O]

Hi Domingos,

you may also find this article helpful.

Regards,

Frank

[dnunes]

Thanks a lot Frank!

In fact I rembered that in FS2002 I had made adjustments in some aircraft I would fly frequently following the procedure I had read in an article. The problem was that when FS2004 appeared I could not remember which article I had read.

So now you just come out with it.

It is a pity that FSUIPC cannot provide a hand with this issue: it would be great if, after a pop-up window is scaled and put in a particular place, we could freeze it using FSUIPC. Maybe Pete will come out with a good solution in the near future...

Best Regards and have a nice Christmas!

[Pete Dowson]

It is a pity that FSUIPC cannot provide a hand with this issue: it would be great if, after a pop-up window is scaled and put in a particular place, we could freeze it using FSUIPC. Maybe Pete will come out with a good solution in the near future...

But it would have to do so by editing the Flight or Panel.CFG file! I honestly don't see the point. FS already provides the facilities to save this stuff already, in the Flights you create. And it always has.

I don't actually think changing panels is such a good idea as it makes them non-standard and less interchangeable. Flights are your records of how you want things to be. What is wrong with saving them? It is one keystroke (;) plus the entry of a name.

There's a program already around for fiddling about with Aircraft.CFG files, I think there's a very good one for editing panels too, though I don't know if it is FS2004 compatible. This sort of thing really isn't an area I would want to extend FSUIPC into, not at all. The "preventing movement" thing is a simple in-line interception at run time. Like all the other FSUIPC things it makes no permanent changes to anything in FS.

Regards,

Pete

[dnunes]

Thank you Pete for your remarks on the issue I have raised. I know that when I save a flight I keep all parameters that were current at the time the flight was saved.

This is useful when you repeat the same flight. However, when you want to fly a particular aircraft in several flights, it will not work. I usually re-size and move the ATC window from the centre of the screen to the upper left corner, in order to reduce the obstruction of the sight ahead. The same happens with some other panels, such as the pedestal in the default 737: I usually move it from the upper left corner, after performing a substancial re-sizing, to the area of the oil gauges, where it does not hide anything important.

And the same applies to other situations.

But I understand your point, so I will try a way around!

Merry Christmas!

[Pete Dowson]

However, when you want to fly a particular aircraft in several flights, it will not work.

I create my "base" flight, with everything set up exactly as I like it, including panel positions, everything switched off, etc, then save it. From then on, for that aircraft, I load up the same flight, use the World GoTo menu, and maybe the Weather and Time menus to change things, and save a new flight. This way all the flights for that aircraft are derived from the one which is properly set up.

This is a practice I've used over the years since FS???, probably FS4. Actually, I also remember, back in FS4 days, there was a third party Flight Editor which had a facility to clone selected aspects of the Flight to any number of other selected flights. Very useful. Perhaps one day someone will do such a utility for the current type of Flight file.

Meanwhile, Happy Seasonal Flying! :wink:

Pete

[dnunes]

Thank you for your suggestion Pete! I think that it is a wise way of getting what I want.

Best Wishes!