Dimensions. Well, just one will do!

[RogerH]

Hi all,

I've been working on the MIP and Glareshield of my sim-pit.

I've collected masses of measurements from the net and from being able to measure Gary O's lovely sim.

Of course, none of them match up...

So I decided "well, compromises have to be made and after all it's a _simulation_. If the MIP is 1/2 an inch too high, or the Captain's Chrono is half an inch further away from the PFD it won't matter...."

And then it struck me. The Chrono is a fixed distance from the PFD in PSX. If I get it wrong, no amount of scaling will fix it.

Then, inspiration dawned. Just get the panel to actual size on my monitor - then just trace everything with a bit of greaseproof paper Blu-tacked to the screen. Simples!

Sooooo... I'm back at the bit where all the measurements I have found differ slightly in some way or have a vital piece of data missing.

However, I only really need _one_ actual accurate measurement - everything else will follow from that (making the assumption that the panel in PSX are accurately sized).

So  does anyone have an actual measurement, preferably less than 20" (yes, _inches_, it'a an American plane after all...) from the real a/c or some other reliable source?

An ideal one would be, for instance, the exact width of the MCP. Alternatively the width of the panel which holds the brake pressure meter below the ND. That panel runs from the left-hand side of the PFD to the left-hand side of the FMC in PSX.

I only need one measurement and I can scale it all from there. It needs to be large enough to eliminate repetitive errors, but small enough to fit on my largest screen, which is 20" wide.

Finally, I realise Hardy may have moved things around slightly from the original (although I'm willing to bet he didn't!), but as long as I trace everything off the screen, everything will match up when I cut the apertures in the MIP.

Ideas and advice anyone?

Cheers,

Roger.

EDIT: While I'm at it - any suggestions for the correct colour paint? I spent ages working out the right combination to get the grey for the 738! Preferably something fairly close that I can get from B&Q... :-)

[Gary Oliver]

Roger,

If no one gets back to you before I get home tomorrow I will measure the stuff up.

Regarding paint... If you go into any B&Q in the country with a Velspar desk you will be able to order 'Simfest Boeing Brown' and 'Simfest Boeing Cream' which are taken from scans of real panels.

You may need to give them my name and post code if they struggle to find it, which I will text if needed.

Cheers
G

[Hessel Oosten]

Roger,

Is this DXF of help?
http://www.hoppie.nl/forum/var/747_MIP_1d_Hessel.DXF

I made it many years ago, with the PSX MIP dimensions (!) as base.
I uploaded it to Jeroen's (Hoppie) site (see above) , but it's "seen" there as an image.

May be Jeroen can help a little bit by making this downloadable ?

I've also a 3D (rotatable...) PDF of this file which is 2,6 MB and cannot be hosted there.
(see attached screenshots).
Can this also hosted by Jeroen ?

Hessel

[RogerH]

Both perfect. Gary I'd be grateful for the measurements, Peter/Hoppie, anything downloadable is great. As regards the paint, why am I not surprised!? Nice one.

[John H Watson]

An ideal one would be, for instance, the exact width of the MCP.

Taken from the real aircraft:

17"
The EFIS CP is 4&3/4" wide, the EICAS CP is 2&5/8". I don't know if you are planning to model the gaps between panels, but there are gaps of approx. 3/16" between the EFIS panels and their adjacent panels. There is a gap between the MCP and the EICAS panel of approx. 1/8". The panels are 2&7/8" high. The trays which support these glareshield panels are a total of 29&7/8" wide.

Alternatively the width of the panel which holds the brake pressure meter below the ND.

3&1/4" high.

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

Is this DXF of help?
http://www.hoppie.nl/forum/var/747_MIP_1d_Hessel.DXF
I uploaded it to Jeroen's (Hoppie) site (see above) , but it's "seen" there as an image.

Few people will have DXF viewers installed in their browser; it's difficult for my web server to guess its way around. If you simply right-click and SaveAs, it will work fine.

I will temporarily increase the maximum size of uploaded files. Try again, please.


Hoppie

[Hessel Oosten]

Hi Jeroen,

Sorry: Instructions not clear to me:

On your upload-page I can browse to the location of the DXF (and PDF) on my PC.
But ... I cannot choose there "save as".
So what did you mean by "save as" ?

Hessel

[RogerH]

Thanks everyone, the 17" from John confirmed my other stuff so I've gone with that. Traced out the MIP and MCP today. Installed monitors to MIP and have cut the MIP fascia to size. Next job is to transfer the tracing to the fascia and cut the holes. That'll be tomorrow now. Fingers crossed I'll get them nice and accurate. Cheers all, Roger.

[Hessel Oosten]

Aha, Roger, so further struggles with uploading DXF again and PDF  *not* necessary !?

H.

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

On your upload-page I can browse to the location of the DXF (and PDF) on my PC.
But ... I cannot choose there "save as".
So what did you mean by "save as" ?

It is not a different upload process, it's a different download process. Upload from your PC disk to my server disk is the same process no matter what kind of file it is.

The difference needs to be made just before the download from my server to a user's PC or device. Most browsers offer SaveAs when you right-click on the link, instead of normal-click.


Hoppie

[Hessel Oosten]

Hi Jeroen,

Fully clear now.

Indeed, when clicking the link above and saving it as ....a DXF file (removing the html extension), all is normal and functions, while reading the file in a CAD program.

But as stated above, it seems that Roger's problem is solved already.

Thanks for help and greetings from the Netherlands with a non Dutch February, with temperatures to 17 degrees Celcius !

Hessel

[RogerH]

Yep Bessel, thanks for asking.

I sized the PSX screen so that the MCP was exactly 17". Then I saved the layout as "1-1 scale" in case I accidentally resized it. Then it was just a case of setting up the view I wanted and literally tracing the outlines. I'm using a wide-screen monitor in front of the Captain's seat which will show the chrono, PFD and ND all on one screen at 1:1 scale. I simply set the screen to where I wanted the instruments and traced them. Thus, when I install the screen in the sim-pit, it'll match exactly. The bezel on this monitor, plus the bezel on the monitor showing the standby and upper EICAS, are too wide for the actual gap, so I'll have to split the view into 2 and move the instruments apart slightly. But all in all, I'm reasonably sure I'll get the sim-pit panels very close to the real a/c.

Once again thanks to all for the help. What a great community.

Gary O if you see this, the bloke at B&Q this morning couldn't spell the word 'brown'. After a frustrating 10 minutes spelling things out to him (try spelling Boeing to a dyslexic...) I gave up. He said there's a code which goes with the paint - 5 or 6 letters and numbers - if you had that it'd be easier?

Cheers all!

Roger.

Edit. BTW, there are 4 Gary Olivers in the UK who have ordered custom paints, unless you have 4 different entries!

[asboyd]

I used 2 widescreen and one square monitors for my MIP, however I removed the plastic surrounds and they then allowed the screen panels to fit closer. Due to the size I then had to use membrane switches in some areas to simulate the switches under the panels. I used 3mm MDF as the mask with 3mm clear acrylic panels to "raise" the LCD image. Works OK... not like real parts but good enough.

Cheers,