fs9 Toolbox v2


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Multi-Monitor

This is a great feature that should help many people.
It is mainly designed for FS users who have multiple monitors, but it can also be useful on single-monitor configurations.

What problem does it solve?

If you use several monitors with FS2004, what a nightmare... This is especially true for cockpit builders who must place and size each panel window very accurately to fit their cockpit configuration.
This is a nightmare for several reasons. First, the undocked window configuration can only be saved in flight files. It means that if you want to restore a multi-monitor panel configuration, you have to relaod an existing flight. And what if the loaded flight is not located where you want to fly, or does not use the aircraft that you want, or the weather that you want?
The second reason is that FS2004 prevents you from using the full-screen mode if you want to use undocked panel windows on several monitors.

This is why fs9 Toolbox v2 can help. You will be able use fs9 in full screen mode (in fact, it is a "pseudo-full screen" mode) while using undocked windows and you will be able to easily save and restore any panel window configuration, which is very useful if you have to place and size the windows accurately.

Setting a Complex Panel Configuration

This example briefly shows how you can define a complex panel configuration composed of several undocked windows moved on several monitors. In this example, only 2 monitors could be used because it is the configuration I have... But it works the same if you have more monitors.

When you start FS2004 and select an aircraft, the standard panel appears on the main monitor and nothing appears on the second monitor.

MAIN Monitor SECOND Monitor

You can undock panel windows, move them on the second monitor if needed and size them as expected. In this example, all the undocked windows are moved on the second monitor :

MAIN Monitor SECOND Monitor

You can hide the window decorations of the undocked windows if you wish (may be useful for cockpit builders) and, more important, you can hide the window border and the menu bar of the main FS window, whcih makes it appear like in full-screen mode :

MAIN Monitor SECOND Monitor

That's it... The panel configuration is set with all the undocked windows settings, in full-screen mode if you wish.

Saving and Restoring the Panel Configuration

When the panel configuration is properly set, you can obviously save it to restore it later.
Saving the configuration is achieved through a menu command. All the necessary panel information is stored in the panel.cfg file used by the aircraft.

If later you reload the same aircraft in FS2004, the standard panel appears again, with nothing on the additional monitor(s), something like this :

MAIN Monitor SECOND Monitor

Restoring the panel configuration is very easy. Just activate the restore command in the menu and all the settings are immediately restored: all the panel windows popup, undock, move at the correct position with the correct size and the window decoration settings are restored as well. In this example, you immediately see this :

MAIN Monitor SECOND Monitor

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