Welcome to TSP!

One question: What do you mean by “bland cockpits”?

I remember I found some good tutorial somewhere. I’ll try to search for it and bring it up to you.

Edit: I found something in my files - Costum Cockpit Templates. If I understood it’s purpose right, the MS3D file shows you where you should put the cockpit if the view cam is placed in the center (0,0,0), and the CMP one shows you from where the view starts.
I hope it helped you!