Open the design you want to work on.
Find the instrument. Type in the Search instruments by keyword box in the bar along the bottom of the designer: a manufacturer, model, part number or any word from the instrument's name. Matching instruments appear to the right of the box as you type; scroll the row sideways to see them all.
Put it on the panel. Instruments are added by clicking, not by dragging them in from the list. There are two ways:
- Click it, then Add. Clicking an instrument in the results opens a card with its manufacturer, model, part number, size and notes. Press Add, and the instrument follows your pointer at its true size. Click on the panel where you want it; it goes down centered on that point. Hold Shift while you click to put down more than one; press Esc to stop. This works at any zoom and on a touch screen.
- Double-click it to add one straight away. It goes a quarter inch to the right of the last instrument you added, level with it, so double-clicking a switch four times gives you a row of four. The first one you add goes in the middle of what you can see.
Toggle switches: one tile, then the color. A search for "toggle" shows one Toggle Switch and one mini toggle. On the card, choose its color (plain, white, red, blue, green, yellow or black) and, for the full-size switch, its position (lever down, up, left or right) before you add it. To change a switch already on the panel, double-click it: a small box opens beside it with the same choices, and the switch changes in place with its mounting hole where it was. Esc or a click elsewhere closes the box. See Toggle switches and circuit breakers.
Circuit breakers: one tile, then the rating. A search for "breaker" shows the Klixon 7277 and the Tyco W31 once each. On the card, choose its rating (1, 2, 3, 5, 7.5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 or 35 amperes) before you add it. To change one already on the panel, double-click it and choose another rating; with several breakers selected they change together. The breaker keeps its place and its size. See Toggle switches and circuit breakers.
Displays: one tile, then the screen. A display that can show more than one screen is one instrument, and it appears once in a search. On its card, choose the screen it shows before you add it (for a Garmin G3X Touch, for example: PFD with map inset, PFD with synthetic vision, PFD and approach chart, Map, or PFD and map). To change one already on the panel, double-click it, or select it and press Change screen under its details on the right, and choose another screen. The display keeps its place and its size, and the equipment list counts it as the same instrument whichever screen it shows. See Choose a display's size, model and screen.
Product lines: one tile, then size, orientation, model and screen. Many displays that used to be several tiles are now one. A search for "G3X Touch", "TXi", "SkyView HDX", "GTN 650" or "Evolution" shows the line once. On its card, choose what you need, a row at a time: Size (for example 7 in. or 10.6 in.), Orientation (landscape or portrait), Model (for example G500 TXi or G600/G700 TXi, or GTN 650 or GTN 650Xi) and Screen. Each row offers only what comes in the choices above it, and a row with nothing to choose is not shown. A search for one model, such as "GTN 635", opens the line already set to that model. To change one already on the panel, double-click it or press the button under its details. When its size changes it keeps its center, so check the instruments around it. The box, and the card an instrument is added from, can be dragged by their top edge when they are in the way. The equipment list shows the model you chose. See Choose a display's size, model and screen.
Prices. The designer shows "Coming soon" where it showed an instrument's price and the panel's MSRP while the library's prices are brought up to date.
A button for the same box. When a toggle switch, a circuit breaker or one of these displays is selected, a button under its details on the right (Change color or position, Change rating, Change screen, or for a product line a button naming its rows, such as Change size or screen) opens the same box as a double-click.
The order of the results. Instruments named for the words you typed come first, the library's before members' uploads, then by model and description.
To put down a block of the same instrument in rows, see Add several instruments at once.
Move it. Once it is on the panel, click the instrument to select it, then press and hold on it, drag it to its new place, and release. Only what is selected moves. For finer placement, zoom in first; see Zoom and scroll.
See its details. Click an instrument on the panel, or in the search results, and its details appear in the column on the right (and, in the results, on the card as well). Click an empty part of the panel template to see the template's details instead.