I'm trying to modify the panel for the XB-52, which uses the panel for the B-47.  Waht I've done so far is added the b-52h cab into the panel.47, and commented out the original gauges in the pannel.cfg, except for the gauges that are listed in the cab file, which I simply replaced (and resized a bit).  That all works fine and dandy

*However*, the B-52H only has gauges for engines 1->4.  I'm trying to make the 2D look like the VC panel, which has engine RPM and EGT 1-> 4 to the left of the yoke possiting, and 5->8 on the right along the bottom of the panel.  I figured all I'd have to do was copy the cab to the desktop and then copy a gauge, like the RPM1 (Presumably for engine #1) to the desktop, rename it  "RPM5" and copy paste it back into the cab file.  The problem is it will not let me paste the renamed gauge into the cab.

I've checked "properties" and everything seems okay there, adn I have Vista, but I have full admin istrative privileges, so I would think I could past into the cab.  Apparently not.

What am I missing?

If I cannot modify the cab file, is there another option, like just a panel with the gauges dangling under the panel.cfg, or could I just dump the contents (or just the gauge files I'm using from it) into the FSX gauge folder, and make renamed copies and dump them in the main gauge folder too?  Will that work?

I was wondering why it said "extract".

Thanks Amigo!

Chasing download now...

I should already have that with the SDK, right? (looking there...)

Added:  Ah!  There it is.

Hagar wrote on Aug 5^th, 2008 at 8:20pm:


Ah, that's the thing about the X-b52:  The b-47 gauges are a bust, being FS98 or earlier, and the VC is just for looks, the gauges are non-functional to begin with (Says so in the "Read Me").  But that's not the "problem", it's a matter of mocking up the 2D to look similar to the VC. (Later I plan on takeing a screenie of the VC and using it as the base for a BMP for the 2D....)

So, I'm guessing I can just copy the gauges and BMP's from the cab I'm using as a source, along with making copies and renaming the gauges for 5->8, into a Text doc (Notepad) the convert that into a cab?

Boikat wrote on Aug 5^th, 2008 at 8:30pm:

I don't think renaming the gauges will do the trick. It's not quite as simple as that. There must be a way of defining the engine number in the XML code. Remember that FS only caters for a maximum of 4 engines. That's always been the problem with aircraft like the B-47 & B-52.

Hagar wrote on Aug 5^th, 2008 at 8:34pm:


Ouch!  Well, I guess that settles that!  Back to figuring out how to get my "Spherething.gmax" to morph into a "spherething.mdl"....

Hi Boikat.

I think we may be talking about apples and oranges here.

Apples: FS9 only models four engines maximum, so that any aircraft with more engines than this (e.g. the Antonov An225) has to work with four. One way around this is to gang the engines in pairs, so in your example, you could have two FS engines on the left replacing four actual engines, and the same on the right. This is also the reason that you'll never see gauges for any engine numbered higher than four. Each gauge is specifically referenced to an internal FS command for that gauge number, so even renaming a no. 1 gauge to 5 or higher (for example) will still read the engine 1 parameters. To get the right number of gauges in the panel, you can insert each individual 1-4 gauge twice, giving you your eight gauge total - but each pair will read identically, and you can ony start/stop them in pairs, as it's actually only one FS engine you're dealing with.

Oranges: You don't need gauges in CAB files for them to work. As Doug said, if you want to change something, unzip the cab using Winzip or similar into a folder with the same name as the CAB file and in the same location. Move the original CAB file to a safe place, make the change in the unzipped file and then use FS normally. FS will run the gauges from the folder rather than the CAB file. This works fine. You can of course re-compress with cabdir but there's no real point if it's just for your use. I did this exact thing with an Airbus panel that I wanted to add a fuel dump visual effect to, and have never bothered to re-compress it.

Hope this helps.