Hi there,
I recently started to work on an (open-source) web-based panel editor. The idea is that you select your aircraft and you move instruments around until you like the result enough to trigger the manufacturing of a mock up in wood or cheap plastic. Once you’ve tried it in your plane and you are convinced that it fits, that the shock mounts are right, etc, then you can trigger the manufacturing in aviation aluminum, the powder coating, etc.
The tool is here: https://accret.io . It’s really in alpha stage, with panels for PA-28s, RVs and Cessnas 421/425/441 and a few instruments. If it is of interest for someone I can add new panels and new instruments (or you can, code is on github) as well as new features ..
Cheers
William
Good idea!
I played around for a few minutes and came up with these suggestions:
- “Undo” would be nice
- “Align horizontally” and “align vertically” did the opposite of what I expected
- It should be possible to put labels on the instruments
- A “save” feature would be nice so one can continue some other time
- A zoom feature would be nice for the finer adjustments
- Aligning to panel features (like the yoke cutouts) should be possible
Regards
Max
hi Max!
Thanks. Actually it was saved; if you go back on https://accret.io it should let you “retrieve” your panel (or you can reuse the same url you had in the editor if you bookmarked it). It’s cookie based because I wasn’t expecting people to register ..
There is a zoom, you can zoom in/out with the trackpad/mouse. I need to add keyboard shortcuts and a slider, and I need to tackle your other suggestions as well. A couple of people asked me for additional layouts (Bonanza S35 and PA-32) and I need to figure out a way to come up with CAD files for these.
Retrieving worked, but zooming does not work in my browser (Firefox on a Macintosh).
It looks brilliant!
I am sure you will be adding features anyway, but my input would be -
Regarding logging in, nowadays it is considered “not quite proper” to present user-specific content without an explicit login. I know e.g. Amazon does it for general “interesting content” presentation (but still requires a login for displaying e.g. order history) but it messes up access from multiple computers.
It needs to work in Safari, Chrome and Firefox. Current EuroGA stats:
However the above are slanted by the great penetration of IOS in the pilot population, and few people will be doing panel design with an IOS device 
I have used (and still have) this XPanel. That software is way outdated, bit have lots of great features.
But first things first, the instruments must look like instruments, and it must be easy to place them and arrange them. There must be meta-data attached to them also
Thanks everyone for the feedback! Regarding rendering I drafted a “3d view” mode, in opengl, that let you move around your panel.
I also briefly chatted with a company that makes harnesses and hubs; they could provide a kit from the panel description.
But my immediate problem is to figure out how to collect/crowdsource the cad files for the various panels – I had requests for a S35 and a Saratoga. I may need a refresher in computer vision :)
William this is brilliant. I wish I had your software when I did mine. I may do a V2 and will chime in then.
One thing I didn’t like about xpanel was the inability to show actual panel dimensions.
