Help with Panel add-on

Had to take a very sick pc into the local computer doctor and took the precaution of saving, so I thought, all the aircraft I had added onto a plug-in hard drive.

I duly reinstalled FS9 and then tried to open a panel on one of my stored (plug-in) aircraft to find that "Panel" had turned into a .cfg file which is no use to access the lines of the file so I couldn't find the add-ons I wanted to resurrect. I have forgotten the name of the download and even the function name but what it does is give the facility to have auto-flap furling on landing, backing with an invisible tug etc. I can picture the screen and the icon that is added to the view of the instrument panel which is a large down arrow. The function operating part usually appears on the top left-hand corner of the screen and contains such functions as taxi speed, brakes etc. I do feel a fool - can anybody please tell me where to find the sortware?

That has to be the name, that I dredged out of my turgid brain and I think it was written by a person with a Dutch name. I would be glad of any guidance where to find it.

I found this software and duly installed it but can't use it as all my aircraft "Panel" folders have lost the file on information lines - "Window1", "Window2", Window3" etc.

This seems very odd and I can't understand what I am seeing.

Hi Aldeeb,

I am guessing here... it sounds like a Gauge to me

..as for the Dutch name, try Rob Barendregt - wish you luck!

Tailhook - thanks for your reply. My brain eventually functioned and I found RCGB-40 and downloaded it but with no file to add the details I could go no further. There seem to be .cfg files for single and multi engined props and jets which are probably accessed by the .cfg files in each aircraft panel folder.

I contacted PCPilot who sent me these two paragrahs. I tried what was suggested but to date have not got anyehwere at all:

In the case of aircraft cockpits (or any other aircraft component), a very specific protocol of filenames and locations is required to make them visible and operable so in your case, they are likely "shadowed" somewhere other than where you are looking. To begin the search, I would first remove the panel folder completely from the aircraft that are mysteriously showing them, copying them to a safe place for later retrieval if necessary. If the panel fails to show, then your "hidden" files are still not visible for some reason. If nothing has changed, you now know that your files are located somewhere else on your system. Repeat this with the "Model", "Texture" and "Sound" folders to verify the results. To test this, open Windows Explorer or My Computer and click on "Tools" from the menu bar. Open the "View" tab and scroll down through the "Advanced settings". In addition to checking "Show hidden files and folders", make sure that "Display contents of system folders" is checked and "Hide protected operating system files" is unchecked. While you are there, it is a good idea to be sure that "Hide extensions for known file types" is also unchecked.



If after doing this, the files still don't appear, it is time to call out the hounds and begin searching your system for the wayward files. The best place to begin is the Windows search function. Open the Windows Start menu and click on "Search" and then from the left pane of the next window, click on "All files and folders". In the "All or part of the file name" box, enter "panel.cfg" and click on the "Search" button at the bottom. Depending on how much storage capacity your system has, it may take a while for all the hits to appear so this might be a good time to sit back with a refreshment for a bit. After the search has stopped, all the instances of a file with that name will appear in the right pane. Right click on each instances of the returned results and choose "Go to containing folder". If you click on "Folders" on the button bar (just beneath the menu bar), you can trace it back to its exact location using the tree view in the left pane.

Aldeeb it seems the folks at PC Pilot weren't looking at Rob Barendregt's gauges or have never worked with them.

We need to clarify first the exact file-name we're dealing with. You mention RCGB-40.... Rob Barendregt's files usually begin with the letters rcb. I searched in my archives and found the following:


rcbgp-33 - the gp standing for Ground Proximity

and:

rcbgh-40 - the gh standing for Ground Handling


My guess is that you are dealing with the latter, so the exact file-name in the libraries would be: rcgbh-40.zip

This .zip file is about 429 KB in size and contains everything you need.


As with all of Barendregt's gauges, the contained ReadMe is of utmost importance.

Should this indeed be the file (gauge) in question, try downloading it again from the usual file libraries... once you've extracted the contents and opened the folder, you'll see a Gauges and a Sound folder and the all important README rcbgh-40.txt

If this is the file and you get stuck, let me know, I'll give it a try

No, it's not PCPilot it's me quoting the wrong file name. The problem I'm experiencing is not only confined to FS2004 as I note that all the aircraft in my FSX are similarly affected.

In the "Panel" folders there should be a file called "folder" if I remember correctly and it contains details of the role of each "window"in the cockpit and then provides alphanumeric lines that have for example the locations of every gauge. When getting the details of "Groundhandling" it is, as you are aware a simple matter of copying and pasting. My problem is that none of the file "folder" are in the Panel folders of any of my aircraft. Where they have gone I don't know as a search has revealed nothing.

Another interesting thing is that some of the downloads come with gauges that have to be placed in the FS2004 "Gauges" folder but to date no download I have put onto my reinstalled system has a gap missing a gauge. This is also odd. I think I must do a new download and see what happens!