Header Section

The first section in the panel.cfg file is the header section. It tells Flight Simulator how many windows are defined in the Panel (the windows are opened and closed with a SHIFT + # combination in Flight Simulator):

To add Flight Line Avionics to the panel, you can simply add the two following lines and rename the default Flight Simulator radio stack and GPS windows. The following tells the Flight Simulator Panel Engine that there are 7 windows in the panel. The GPS can be opened with SHIFT+7.:

Window## section

Each individual panel window is defined in its own [window##] section. The section holds the parameters and the components definition to tell Flight Simulator how a particular instrument is displayed. The section itself is divided in two parts: global window parameters and individual gauges parameters:

file= tells Flight Simulator to fill the background of the window with a bitmap. If no path is specified, Flight Simulator fetch the file from the same folder where the panel.cfg file is located. file_1024 is also provided for resolutions from 1024x768 and up.

size_mm= specify the reference width of the window in mm. This parameter in the window00 section also sets the basic resolution reference for all the other windows.

position= the screen is divided in 9 zones (3 columns by 3 rows) numbered from 0 to 8. 0 equals to top-left, 2 equals to top right, 6 equals to lower-left and 8 equals to lower-right. In the above example, a value of 7 means lower-center.

visible= a value of 1 means the window is automatically displayed when the panel is first opened (after loading the aircraft for example). A value of 0 means that the window will be hidden. A SHIFT+ # key press will open it when needed.

ident= the value provided here is an internal code of Flight Simulator to identify particular windows within the panel. The possible values are:

There parameters are also used by the simicons to open and close the panel's windows with a mouse click:

GPS_PANEL

RADIO_STACK_PANEL

gauge##= each individual instrument on the panel is referenced with a gauge## parameter.

Modifications to the default Radio Stack and GPS Window## Section

To add the Flight Line Avionics to your panel, we recommend that you change some of the parameters of the default Flight Simulator window section. Locate the [Window##] section where the ident= is one of the GPS_PANEL or RADIO_STACK_PANEL and change them respectively to the ident= information below. This will prevent the default windows to open if you click on the simicons:

Add the Flight Line Avionics Window## Section

First, take note of the Window## in the header section as described and modified above. In this C172 example, the Flight Line Avionics will be added in two windows. The radio Stack in Window05 (SHIFT + 6) and the GPS in Window06 (Shift + 7). Then add the following window sections in the panel.cfg file, right before the first [VCockpit01] section and/or after the last [Window##] section:

Going further

Editing the panel.cfg file could be a tedious and complicated task when dealing with sophisticated panel layout. There are good third party software to edit the layout and placement of gauges in a panel with a drag-and-drop interface. For our most experienced users, we also strongly recommend to read the Flight Simulator SDK - Panels for a complete description of all of the the parameters available to design a panel.cfg file.