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Placing Needles

D

Daniel Lord

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unitedkingdom
good morning

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas/holiday.

I was going through sdgau36, and I am trying to get my needles placements right. But they are all over the place or not rotating correctly.

Is their an easier way to get the placement right?

so far I have tried to use the figures Gimp gives me when i move the mouse to the location I want.

I have also tried using the algorithms used in sdgau36.

and the hit and miss guess by changing numbers re compiling and then reloading the aircraft. (i have had success from this).

It seems to me that it is using the temporary texture from $sd360.bmp. But I am not 100% sure.

Thank you and have a happy new year
Daniel
 
Here is some xml code for a brake pressure gauge with two needles. The left one rotates clockwise and the right one anti-clockwise. The needle rotation is controlled by the <Nonlinearity> sections.

As for placing the needles you need to look here
<Position X="35" Y="155"/>
<Image Name="hydr_press_left_needle.bmp" PointsTo="East" UseTransparency="Yes" Luminous="1">
<Axis X="-64" Y="6"/>
</Image>

The position is the xy point on the face of the gauge that you want to place the needle. PointsTo="East" refers to the bmp image of the needle. In this case the bmp needle image points to the right. <Axis X="-64" Y="6"/> <Axis X="120" Y="6"/> refers to the point on the needle bmp that is the rotation axis. As I am using the same needle bmp to point in different directions I have to use a negative number for one of them as you can see.

Code: 
<Gauge Name="brake_pressure" Version="1.0">
  <Image Name="hydraulic_pressure_background.bmp"  Luminous="1"/>
 
  <!-- ========================= Brake Pressure Gauge ========== -->
  <Element>
    <Position X="35" Y="155"/>
    <Image Name="hydr_press_left_needle.bmp" PointsTo="East" UseTransparency="Yes"  Luminous="1">
      <Axis X="-64" Y="6"/>
    </Image>
    <Rotate>
      <Value Minimum="0" Maximum="100">(A:Brake Left Position, percent)</Value>
      <Nonlinearity>
         <Item Value="100" X="121" Y="69"/>
         <Item Value="50" X="156" Y="156"/>
         <Item Value="0" X="121" Y="243"/>
      </Nonlinearity>
<Delay DegreesPerSecond="60"/>
    </Rotate>
  </Element>
 
    <Element>
      <Position X="275" Y="155"/>
      <Image Name="hydr_press_right_needle.bmp" PointsTo="West" UseTransparency="Yes"  Luminous="1">
        <Axis X="120" Y="6"/>
      </Image>
      <Rotate>
        <Value Minimum="0" Maximum="100">(A:Brake Right Position, percent)</Value>
        <Nonlinearity>
           <Item Value="0" X="188" Y="243"/>
           <Item Value="50" X="156" Y="156"/>
           <Item Value="100" X="188" Y="69"/>
        </Nonlinearity>
<Delay DegreesPerSecond="60"/>
      </Rotate>
    </Element>
 
  <Mouse>
    <Tooltip>Brake hydraulic pressure</Tooltip>
  </Mouse>
</Gauge>
 
Daniel Lord said:
good morning
I hope everyone had a nice Christmas/holiday.
I was going through sdgau36, and I am trying to get my needles placements right. But they are all over the place or not rotating correctly.
Is their an easier way to get the placement right?
so far I have tried to use the figures Gimp gives me when i move the mouse to the location I want.
I have also tried using the algorithms used in sdgau36.
and the hit and miss guess by changing numbers re compiling and then reloading the aircraft. (i have had success from this).
It seems to me that it is using the temporary texture from $sd360.bmp. But I am not 100% sure.
Thank you and have a happy new year
Daniel
Click to expand...

C/C++ gauges are generally compiled using a needle bitmap that is oriented horizontally, the "Points to: East" that Vololiberista refers to.
If you take this example:
Code: 
MAKE_NEEDLE(Needle1,Rec1,NULL,NULL,IMAGE_USE_ERASE | IMAGE_USE_TRANSPARENCY | BIT7,0,
151,151,
4,11,
TURB_ENGINE_1_N1,
needle_callback1,Nonlin2,5)
The 151,151 numbers refer to the point on the background bitmap around which the needle will rotate, the first is the X coordinate, counted in pixels, from the left hand edge. The second is the Y coordinate, again in pixels, counted from the top.
The second set of numbers, in this case 4,11 refer to the points on the needle bitmap around which it will rotate, again, the first is the X coordinate, counted from the left, and the second is the Y coordinate, counted from the top.
Also keep in mind that non-linearity tables, read from top to bottom, always describe clockwise rotation around the gauge face, so if you have a gauge whose "normal" rotation is from higher numbers to lower numbers, then that is how your non-linearity table should be constructed (highest value first, lowest value last.)

Doug
 
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