U2 Plane Cockpit

[Debora Mccaffery]

Thatwill probably be somewhat harder than you expect and unlikely to be worth the effort. The 3D cockpit is a custom mesh object created by whoever made the plane - not just a picture like the 2D panel.

You could copy over the cockpit object, its texture files and the files used for the panel and instruments. The object files will be named 'planename_cockpit.obj' or 'planename_cockpit_inn.obj'. The latter is visible only in internal views. You can find the textures used by opening the .obj in a text editor. It's near the top.

Now, the cockpit object is loaded by default when present in the aircraft's root folder but you can't control where it is attached to the flight model as you would with other (misc) objects. It's location is determined by the positions of the vertices in the object relative to the flight model's "0 point". That '0 point' isn't likely to be in the same place on any two planes, even if they are models of the same aircraft.

note that the forward cockpit is commented out - but left in for information....The third column (foreaft) actually leans the panel backwards at the top... you can have it facing backwards if you want - see the link below.

note that you can use almost any cockpit texture - some give an appearance of 3d. keep it 1024x1024 - stretch and scale the panel by changing the numbers in the obj (first two columns). have fun - now you need a nice internal view...seat and pilot, etc

Hey everyone! I recently had some trouble making a 3D cockpit for my aircraft, and I finally figured out how to do it, so I want to share it with everyone else! First off, I am by no means a blender or plane maker expert, and everything I say here is coming only from experience and tutorials I've watched.

The first step is to get XPlane2Blender installed, which can be downloaded here: -Plane/XPlane2Blender. I'd recommend taking a look into the manual first, so you have at least a basic understanding of how to use it.

Here's how to install it: Once you've downloaded it, DO NOT UNZIP THE FILE. open up Blender, and then click on the edit option on your menu bar, then down to preferences. You will be greeted with a menu bar on the left hand side of the screen, and one of the options will say addons. Click this, and then, at the top right of the tab, you will see a button that says Install on it. Click this, and then select the ZIP file with XPlane2Blender. Once you've done this, save the preferences, and restart Blender. Go back into the plugins tab, and search for XPlane2Blender, to ensure the plugin is enabled. Once you've confirmed it's enabled, then you're set to begin with the instruments.

After this, now you have to ensure you have a panel.png in your Aircraft/cockpit_3d/-PANELS- folder. If you do, skip this step. You can select the panel you need to use for your aircraft by looking in the X-Plane/Resources/bitmaps and find the panels, and select the panel that fits the kind of aircraft you're working with. Once you've done this, put it into the above -PANELS- folder.

Open up your panel.png in plane maker, and then take a screenshot of it at 100% zoom. This will be used for referencing the position on the panel. After you've done this, you're almost ready to begin mapping.

Now, open up Blender again. We'll be using my A318 as an example. The first step is to make all the screens a separate object from the cockpit, then combine them. You'll be left with something that looks like this:

Once you've done that, we are ready to map the panel onto the screens. Now, we're going to open the UV Editing tab of Blender, and we're going to open up our panel.png, and. using the screenshot as a reference of where we are going to place our unwrap, position your unwraps so that they align with your panel. You should have something that looks like this:

Now, save the .blend file, and it's time to apply the texture. Go into your Shading tab in blender, and click on New Material. I'd name it Screens, but this is not required. Add the material to all of your screens. Then, you need to add the texture to it. Go into the Add tab on the menu bar, and then click on Texture, then Image Texture.

Connect this to your main tree by dragging the yellowish dot on your Image Texture node, and connect it to the dot next to Base Color on the Principled BSDF node. If you have done this correctly, you should see your screens turn the same shade of grey as the panel.

After this, you need to go into the Materials tab, which is the sphere that's on the menu bar on the right hand side of the screen, and scroll down, until you see X-Plane. Click on X-Plane, and scroll down until you reach the checkbox option that says Part of Cockpit Panel. Check this box, as the cockpit won't work without it checked.

Once you've done this, you're ready to export the screens. Go into the Scene Properties tab, located on the same bar as the Material tab, and then click the option that says X-Plane. In the Exportable Collections tab, check the box next to whatever collection that you have your screens in. I'd recommend making a separate collection called screens, and moving them into there. IF YOU DO NOT DO THIS, BE SURE TO HIDE ALL OTHER SHOWN OBJECTS IN THE COLLECTION, OR THEY WILL BE EXPORTED TOO. Then, name the object Screens.obj, and then set the texture to YourAircraftPanel.png.

Now, click Export OBJs, and you are ready to move on to the next step.

Now, ensure this newly exported OBJ is inside your Aircraft/objects folder, and then open up Plane Maker. On the menu bar, click Standard, then scroll down to Misc Objects. Click on it, and then click Add, to add a new object. click on the last checkmark, or the one on the left-most side, and then select Screens.obj. Below the name, you'll see two boxes, Int Cockpit and Ext Cockpit. Check both of these boxes, as this sets this object to the cockpit object.

After this, I recommend looking into the Plane Maker manual to see how place instruments, and then looking up some tutorials on how to change the texture of them, if you'd prefer to customize your instruments. Otherwise, save your .ACF file, and you should have a working 3D cockpit!

I hope this explained it enough in depth, so everyone understands, and you are able to follow it, and hopefully make some great things!

NOTE: This is intended for creating cockpits containing GENERIC INSTRUMENTS, and although they can have custom textures, I have not tested this with completely CUSTOM INSTRUMENTS.

I have been using Blender on my Mac, where I have always done X-Plane design. But in this tutorial, when I get to the point of hitting "Export OBJs" in the X-Plane "Scene" selections ... nothing happens. Blender does not export anything as far as I can tell. There is nothing in my Aircraft Objects folder. So I cannot proceed after that.

Now I have installed Blender on my PC. I bought this machine last year strictly for VR and 3D development for X-Plane. An $1,800 system, and it has not been used at all, because 3D-VR work is not moving along very well for me. Got a new monitor today, a brand new LG 27QN600 2560 x 1440 unit. This is the first PC I have ever owned, because I have always used Macs. Blender seems to be working fine ... maybe exporting will work.

I made the mistake of having my Mac turned On and connected when I installed Blender on my PC. The two installations (Mac and PC) are linked as if one program. It appears that all issues troubling me on my Mac were transferred to the PC install of Blender.

The UV Editor does not work. On Mac & PC, there is no indication that Blender can even do this. I have used Blender off and on for more than a year, and I have yet to see it wrap an image onto an object ... something I have done many, MANY thousands of times with dumb old Planemaker. This seems to be related to why it will not Export anything.

I recently started a project to update an X-Plane version 10 aircraft to version 11 and noticed that after updating it could opened in the current version of Plane Maker and the the instruments all appeared in the 2D Panel window and were editable, could be removed and replaced, etc. Those 2D images also appear on the surface of the instrument panel in the aircraft in X-Plane. I'd like to create a more accurate 3D panel object and have it appear in the 3D panel window of Plane Maker.

Any idea how Plane Maker and X-Plane knows what and where Plane Maker and X-Plane are looking for - object (.obj) and image (.png) files to put into the aircraft model, so they can be seen in the simulated aircraft?

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