The FU3 Cockpit Designer


Tutorial 5 - Instruments

IMPORTANT - You can not use projects created with older versions
You must create a new project using version 0.5

This version (0.5) supports only some of the instruments, more instruments may be added in future versions

Select either the VFR or IFR cockpit view by clicking the Select View icon or by selecting Cockpit->SelectView from the menu.
In this tutorial we will use the Mooney Bravo IFR view.

NOTE: The IFR and VFR views are not connected - if you edit instruments in one of these views, the other will not be affected


Bravo IFR View

 

It is recommended you leave only the Inside Image and the Instruments visible:


Instruments are marked by a yellow rectangle.
Place the mouse cursor on an instrument, a label will pop-up indicating the instrument's name:


To move an instrument, click on it & hold the left mouse button and while holding the CTRL key - move the mouse:

 

Instruments Properties

Every instrument type has different properties, unfortunately, there is almost no documentation about them.
So the best way to find out how a property affects an instrument is to change its value and observe what happens inside FU3
It is recommended that you explore the exisiting panels of the FU3 aircraft, look at the values of the instruments and experiment with them.

To edit the instrument's properties - double-click on it, you will see the Edit Instrument dialog
Here's an example of the Altimeter properties dialog:

A common property of all the instruments, is the System property, it specifies to which aircraft system (engine, fuel etc.) this instrument is related
There is no documentation about suitable values for this property, but here are some examples:

* For instruments that monitor the engine (RPM, Oil Temp. etc.) the System property specifies the engine number (0 for single engine planes, 0 or 1 for twins)
* For fuel quantity instruments the System property specifies the fuel tank number (0 for single tank, 0 or 1 if there are two tanks etc.)
* For COM/NAV instruments the System property specifies the Com/Nav number (0 for Com/Nav 1, 1 for Com/Nav 2)

After you change the properties as you see fit, click the OK button, you will be able to see some of the changes in the Cockpit Designer view window, but
other changes can only be seen from inside FU3.

 

Instruments Images

Next to the Properties tab you will find the Images tab:


The top part of the dialog shows the images used by this instrument:

Click on the image name (in the list) to view the actual image and filename.


The lower part of the dialog is the Images Library, it displays a list of available images (all the instruments' images that were found in the .res file)
(In this version it is not possible to add new images to the library or to edit the existing images - read further for a work-around to this limitation)



To change the image used by the instrument, first select the desired image name from the Instrument Images list :


Now select an image from the Images Library, and double-click on its name (you can also double-click on the image itself)


The image used by the instrument will change to the image you selected:


Click OK to apply the changes, the instrument image on the panel will change according to the new image you have selected:

Before

After

 

Instruments with Modifiers

Some instruments have a modifier associated with them, a modifier changes the instrument's behaviour or appearance.
Instruments which have a modifier are marked by an orange rectangle (instead of yellow) :

To change the modifier's values, double-click on the instrument and click the Modifier tab in the Edit Instrument dialog.
There are 5 types of modifiers:

Safe Fast (applied to instruments with needles, somehow changes the needle behaviour, modifier paramteres are ignored)
Clipped Needle
Pushknob Center
(applied to push-knobs, like the throttle levers of the Renegade)
No Smart Text
Attitude Bank Pointer

There is no further documentation about modifiers so the only thing we can do is explore the existing instruments and learn from them.

 

Instruments with states (switches, lights, indicators)

Instruments like switches, lights and indicators have several states, each state has a separate image, for example:

The Mooney Bravo Power Master switch. If you look in the ResViewer you will notice that these two images appear one after the other:

Off state File 173 Item 1

On state File 173 Item 2

State images must be one after the other in order for FU3 to correctly switch between them!
Remember this if you want to "borrow" a switch/light/indicator from another panel.

 

 

Adding Instruments

To add an instrument that is not in the panel, select Instruments -> Add from the menu, you will be presented with a list of all supported instruments:

Select the instrument you would like to add and click OK (or double-click on the instrument's name)
You will be displayed with the Edit Instrument dialog, change the default values if you like, make sure you click on the Images tab and select
The images you would like the instrument to use.
(An example showing how to add instruments is located at the end of this tutorial)


Adding New Images

Adding images is done from the Images tab in the Edit Instrument dialog:


To the right of the Images Library there are two new buttons: Add and Remove
To add an image, click on the Add button, the Add Image dialog will open.
In this dialog you can select the .bmp file of the image you want to add



Notice that there is a check-box in the bottom, titled Generate Image Sets
If this check-box is checked - night images will automatically be generated from the image you select.
If it is not checked then all image sets (day/night) will look like the day image (the image you selected)
This check-box is checked by deafult.

To add an image select the .bmp file you want to add and click on the Open button (or double-click on the file)
A message will tell you the name of the new image in the library (e.g. 2819_136.art )

You can also add .art files instead of .bmp files.
An .art files is bitmap in FU3 format, you can get an art file by exporting an image
using the ResViewer but exporting it in its original format, without conversion
( from the ResViewer menu:
Export -> Original Format )

Anchors

A new visual feature in this version is display of Anchors.
When you view an image in the file library you will notice that crossing purple lines are super-imposed
on each image and below the image there is an Anchor X Y display.

Each .art file (bitmap in original FU3 format) has an anchor which is an X,Y cooridante
That is used when FU3 renders the image to the screen.
For example: the anchor in a needle bitmap marks the pivot point of the needle.

When you export an image to .bmp format (with ResViewer) the anchor is NOT preserved!
So if you want to "borrow" an image from another aircraft, it is best to export it in its original format
And save it with an .art extension, then add the .art file to the Images Library. this way you preserve the anchor.

When you're viewing an image in the Image Library, you can change its anchor coordinates.
To do so, place the mouse cursor on the image in the spot you want to place the anchor and Right-Click on it.
You will see the lines move to this spot and the Anchor coordinates will change.



Removing Images

An image can only be removed from the library if it is the last image in its group.
The name of the image tells you the group number and the image number.
for example:
2819_10.art is Image 10 in Group 2819

So if group 2819 has 135 images you can only remove image 2819_135.art and then remove
2819_134.art then 2819_133.art and so on.

To remove an image, select it in the Images Library and click on the "Remove" button

WARNING!
No check is made to see if an image is in use by an instrument, so be careful
When you remove images, make sure they are not used by any instrument.

 

Deleting Instruments

To delete an instrument, click on it with the mouse (the yellow recatngle should turn into light blue) and press the Delete key on your keyboard.

 

Organizing Instruments

From the menu, select Instruments -> Organize , you will be presented with the Organize Instruments dialog:

In this dialog you see a list of all the instruments in the panel (including the unsupported instruments)
The number in parenthesis is the System property of this instrument.

In this screen you can change the order of the instruments by selecting an instrument and clicking on the Up /\ and Down \/ arrows
You can delete instruments that are still not supported and can't be selected in the panel view.
You can also select multiple instruments (using Ctrl and Shift keys) and delete all of them at once.

To delete instruments - select the instruments you want to delete and click on the Delete button
Click OK to apply the changes.

 

Updating the .res file

After making changes to the instruments (moving, changing properties or images) you must update the .res file for your changes to take effect.
You do this by building the project - Click the Build icon or select
Project -> Build from the menu.


Example - Adding Auto Pilot Switches to the Trainer

Create a new project based on the default trainer.res file, after the project is created - select the IFR view.

Trainer IFR View

From the menu select Instruments -> Add
In the Add Instrument dialog, select the Auto-Pilot Toggle instrument and click OK


Click on the Images tab and in the Images Library select the image: 2819_41.art and double-click on it :

Why did we select this image (2819_41.art) ?
Because this is an image of a switch in the Off state and the following image (2819_42.art) is of a switch in the On state
You only need to select the image of the first state (Off in this case)
If the images of the following states appear right after the image of the first state - then FU3 knows how to swap between them.

Click on the OK button.

You will notice that the switch you just added now appears on the panel (in position 400, 300 if you haven't changed the default values) :

You can now move it to a more appropriate place in the panel (click on it and while hodling the left mouse button and the CTRL key - move the mouse)

You added an Auto-Pilot Toggle switch, this switch turns the Auto Pilot on and off.
Now you need to add the individual Auto Pilot switches like ALT, HDG etc. :
To do this just repeat the above process, but each time select the appropriate instrument such as Auto-Pilot ALT and Auto-Pilot HDG

The final result should look like this:

From left to right: Auto-Pilot Toggle, Auto-Pilot ALT and Auto-Pilot HDG
(you can re-arrange them and position them anywhere, this is just an example)

Now build the project - Click the Build icon or select Project -> Build from the menu.

That's it! - now you can close the Cockpit Designer, run FU3 and see the new AP switches in action :

 

 

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Cockpit Designer - Copyright (C) 2000 - 2003 Gideon Pertzov