How to Create a 3-D Cockpit for X-Plane 11 Part 1

[@Ju287V3]

Hi Skip, just wanted to say, I love this channel, all the helpful and well explained info, and especially these lessons on a basic 3d cockpit, much needed. Al

[@WEHVideos]

Hi Alpeggio, Thanks so much glad you like the channel and find the videos helpful. Let me know how your 3D cockpit turns out :-) Blessings, skip

[@seanmichael9805]

This is good, but I think the only thing I don't understand is how you got the 2D panel PNG file created. Assume I'm starting from my own custom aircraft that has a 2D panel I created in Plane Maker. How do I get from the 2D Panel in Plane Maker exported to a PNG format that Blender can use? Did you just use a screen shot of the 2D Panel in Plane Maker?

[@WEHVideos]

Hi Sean, You should use the PNG file from the airplane you want to create a 3D cockpit in. You can find this image in the -panels- folder for your airplane. Just go to your X-Plane folder "X-Plane 12>Aircraft> Cockpit> -panels- ". That's where you should find the panel you created and that's the image to use. If you are starting from scratch you will need to add instruments to the panel you created in plane maker but you only need to place the PNG into the cube in Blender for this to work. Let me know how it goes :-) Blessings, skip

[@jared9555]

Skip, I thought you might find it interesting/useful I have found a good way to be able to convert XP9/XP10 aircraft to XP11, and as they generally do not have 3D cockpits (at least v9 planes) it could be something to generate a lot of potential aircraft for the methods you describe in these videos. I may make a video soon !

[@WEHVideos]

Hi Jared, That would be nice to get some of the old airplanes back, keep me posted!! Blessings, skip

[@Krahazik]

How did a cube in blender magically become a 3d panel from a png image in gimp? I think steps were skipped....

[@WEHVideos]

Hi Krahazik, The cube doesn't magically become a panel you put the png on the cube in Blender, I explain and show how to do it all in the video series. It does work give it a try and let me know how it goes :-) Blessings, skip

[@SuperKamiRose]

But how does someone add and edit clickable regions in the cockpit for VR.

[@WEHVideos]

Hi SuperKamiRose, Don't exactly understand your question but you can add instruments and controls to the instrument panel in Plane Maker assuming the plane you want to modify uses the 2D panel. Most new airplane do not use the 2D panel so this will not work. Check out this video on changing 2D panels: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oqnYooR3a5qio8U Hope this helps and thanks for watching :-) Blessings, skip

[@johnhunter3011]

How do you drop the qube into the aircraft??

[@WEHVideos]

Hi johnhunter3011, I'm sorry to say it's not just a matter of "dropping" the cube into the airplane and it's too much to explain here in comments. I suggest you watch the whole series before starting I think that will answer all your questions, I hope anyway. The process goes something like this. You create the cube and put the panel image on it in Blender. You import the airplane into Blender and position the cube on/in the airplane. You save the blender file and export it into X Plane and test it out. It may take several tries to get the position of the cube correct in the airplane so you will probably have to reposition the cube in the airplane in Blender and export the file again a few times. There are steps that must be taken in the correct order for this to work so work slowly. Before you start make sure the airplane you want to add a cockpit to has a 2D Panel. Open the airplane in Plane Maker to be sure it has the 2D panel. Hope this helps let me know how you make out :-) Blessings, skip

[@WarrenPostma]

I have been trying to update old planes to 3d cockpits. It's very hard. Once this 3d conversion has been done, it seems there is a problem with adding anymot more. You can only add objects as miscellaneous objects and none of them can have manipulators.

[@WEHVideos]

Hi Warren, I'm brand new at this so am working hard to see what I can do. I was able to "flatten" the cockpit cube and as an experiment took another cube, like you say as another object, delete a face, to see if I could put that around the cockpit cube (use the cockpit cube as the missing face) on the new cube. That worked so I believe there are ways to make a cockpit for this. So hard to find any help here so it's trial and error. If i can find a very simple way to do this I'll make another video I know this can be done just need to understand Blender better. Blessings, skip

[@CaptainJadenAR]

Hello, sir. A question. Is there any other 3d modelling software to make cockpits other than Blender? When opening Blender for me, it crashes.

[@WEHVideos]

Hi Jaden, I'm sure there is but I don't know any others that are free other than Sketchup and don't know how it would work for this project. What operating system are you using? What version of Blender are you trying to use, 2.91? It has different minimum system requirements that could be the problem. Below is a link to older versions try downloading 2.81 and see if that works. Good luck let me know how it goes. download.blender.org/release/ Blessings, skip

[@CaptainJadenAR]

@@WEHVideos, Okay sir. Thank you :)

[@mikem.2078]

I wonder if you will make a video on how to make your own airports. I wonder if they are difficult to do (I would imagine planes are harder). As for now I'm more concerned with small airports as many large ones are for sale or occasionally free, but still a few aren't. If I got good at it, I could even maybe one day have my own for sale, hehe.

[@WEHVideos]

Hi Mike, Making airports isn't as difficult but it takes a lot of time to learn how. I don't have any experience in making airports so search for videos on World Editor (WED) there's tons of good videos that can get you started. You can also get free very nice airports at X-Plane forum just search for the airport you want and download there probably is more than one of the airport you want so check them all ou,t click the link below. Hope this helps, let me know :-) forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/topscenes/ Blessings, skip

[@AndrzGL]

I guess im going to forget it :(

[@WEHVideos]

Hi AndrzGL, Sorry to here that! What seems to be the problem maybe I can help!? Can you get Blender working? Trouble installing addon for X Plane? Let me know if you want to give it another try :-) Blessings, skip

[@AndrzGL]

@@WEHVideos thank you !! I am looking for the panels (overhead, pedestal) that work with the toliss' A319 and A320neo. I bought air manager expecting to find it there but no luck. I wanted to try and make it myself using the plane maker but no 2d panels on toliss :(

[@WEHVideos]

Hi AndrzGL, Oh my I don't believe you can do what you want in Plane Maker :-( None of the newer airplanes use the 2D panel anymore so it's almost impossible to do any modifications without some serious knowledge in design. I have made my own real panels with push buttons to do may functions so I don't need to scroll around with the mouse. This probably isn't what you were planning but it could be an alternative is your willing to do some work, not programming but building. Check out the link below to see what i did and maybe you might want to give it a go. kzbin.info/aero/PLjqSrWIZDAi-smZV4E89kosbE3XCjw6fy Let me know what you think :-) Blessings, skip