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Panel Designer features overview

The Panel Designer lets you lay out an instrument panel on your aircraft's panel template, instrument by instrument, then export it, price it or send it to our shop. This is what is there and where to find it.

The menu bar (top of the designer)

  • Designs goes back to My designs.
  • Save saves your work. The designer also saves by itself every 15 minutes.
  • Export Image makes a picture of your panel with a link you can copy or a file you can save.
  • Equipment List opens your parts list in a new tab, where you can add or remove items, download it as a PDF, or request a quote.
  • CAD, Cut, Paint & Label sends your finished design to our shop to be cut, painted and labeled.
  • Report a problem, the bug icon at the right end of the tool row, sends us a picture of your canvas and a few words. See Report a problem.
  • The X / Y readout shows the cursor's position on the panel in inches. Click an instrument and the same readout shows Instrument center, the position of that instrument's center. Premium feature
  • Last saved and, on the right, the design's name and a running MSRP estimate of the instruments on the panel.

The tool row (one row under the menu bar, in the order the work happens)

  • Delete the selected instruments or lines. The Delete or Backspace key on your keyboard does the same.
  • Undo and Redo step back and forward through every move, add, delete, lock, nudge and construction line, at any zoom. Premium feature
  • Group and Ungroup instruments so they move together. Premium feature
  • Lock and Unlock an instrument so it cannot be moved by accident. Premium feature
  • Arrange: Send To Back, Send Backward, Bring Forward, Bring To Front. Premium feature
  • Align: Align Left, Right, Top, Bottom, Center Vertically, Center Horizontally, Align Centers. Premium feature
  • Move: Center On Panel, and Move / Space Items by a direction and a distance. The arrow keys nudge the selection a hundredth of an inch (Shift: a tenth). Premium feature
  • Construction Lines: Add Horizontal, Add Vertical, and the eye that shows or hides them. Premium feature
  • Snap-To, which snaps an instrument you are dragging to the instruments near it. A red strike across the magnet means it is off. Premium feature
  • Zoom: the minus and plus magnifiers zoom the panel in 10% steps; the percentage between them fits the panel to the window. See Zoom and scroll.

The instrument search (the bar along the bottom) finds instruments by manufacturer, model, part number or keyword as you type. The results appear to the right of the box. Drag one onto the panel, or double-click it to add several at once in rows. Premium feature

The right-hand column shows the current aircraft's template and the instrument you last clicked, with its manufacturer, model, part number, dimensions and cost.

My designs lists your saved designs. From there you create, open, rename, copy and delete designs, and download or copy the link of a design's latest export.

Library (under Panel Designer in the main menu) lists every instrument and panel template in the designer, searchable by manufacturer, model or keyword.

Hold Shift while dragging to move an instrument only horizontally or only vertically. Premium feature

Video – Premium features

What changed recently is listed on the What's new page, linked from the menu and the foot of every page.