How to place custom kneeboard in Mission Editor

[tuffysdad]

How do I use my custom kneeboards in missions?  Thanks.

[CBStu]

Go to thisPC; OS(C); Users; yourname; Saved Games; DCS; Kneeboard. You can drop them there. I think I remember that there are restrictions on file types as I see mine are all PNG. This will put them in your kneeboard no matter which mission you are flying. I don't know if there is a way to put mission specific info so it only shows when flying that mission.

[Rudel_chw]

10 hours ago, tuffysdad said:

How do I use my custom kneeboards in missions?  

 

Do you mean a mission-specific kneeboard?  I use the KneeboardBuilder utility to place the graphics files inside the MIZ file, using the button marked in orange:

 

 

 

 

[tuffysdad]

I tried Kneeboard Builder but it was too cumbersome for me.  Instead I created jpg files and put them into my user/dcs/kneeboard folder.  I am referring not to mission-specific files but some general files for my HOTAS maps.  I need them for every mission just to remember all the settings!  I was told I could use file compression software to unzip the .miz files and insert a new kneeboard folder.  This was successful, but I can't seem to convert the decompressed file back into a .miz file with the kneeboard visible in DCS.  Does this make sense?

[Rudel_chw]

1 hour ago, tuffysdad said:

Does this make sense?

 

Actually, it does

The DCS Kneeboard takes its graphics files from several places:

- The aircraft's native kneeboard (if it has one), is located at a path like this one:  C:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World OpenBeta\Mods\aircraft\A-10C_2\Cockpit\Scripts\KNEEBOARD\pages

- The Map you are using may also have pages to add, usually stored in a path like this: C:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World OpenBeta\Mods\terrains\MarianaIslands\kneeboard

- You can also have a custom kneeboard for each aircraft, located on Saved Games. at a path like this: G:\Users\Eduardo\Saved Games\DCS.OpenBeta\Kneeboard\A-10C_2

- Finally, the mission file itself may contain several kneeboard pages, one general and one for each aircraft,  for example, this mission has a general kneeboard that will be added to the kneeboard of every Client aircraft it has:

 

 

Greetings!

 

Edited December 25, 2022 by Rudel_chw

[tuffysdad]

Great info.  You posted the exact page I saw when unzipping a .miz mission file in Winrar.  I created the KNEEBOARD/IMAGES folder and dragged the kneeboard images into that folder (I noticed your files are .png format and mine were .jpg format so that may be an issue I will fix).  But, let me ask you how you re-converted this to a .miz file again?  Thanks very much and Merry Christmas.

 

[Rudel_chw]

1 hour ago, tuffysdad said:

But, let me ask you how you re-converted this to a .miz file again? 

 

I don't ... Kneeboard Builder does all that work automatically .. I write my missions briefing in MS Word, then I save it as PDF, then KB takes the PDF and generates one PNG for every page, then I click on that highlighted button that I showed above, select a MIZ file and presto, my briefing gets saved inside the MIZ

 

[tuffysdad]

Wow, I will try have to try Mission Builder again -- seems like the way.  Thanks again.

[Rudel_chw]

1 hour ago, tuffysdad said:

Wow, I will try have to try Mission Builder again -- seems like the way.  Thanks again.

 

It has several video tutorials that help learn its use, like this one:

 

 

[tacts.zeagle]

On 12/25/2022 at 1:35 PM, tuffysdad said:

Great info.  You posted the exact page I saw when unzipping a .miz mission file in Winrar.  I created the KNEEBOARD/IMAGES folder and dragged the kneeboard images into that folder (I noticed your files are .png format and mine were .jpg format so that may be an issue I will fix).  But, let me ask you how you re-converted this to a .miz file again?  Thanks very much and Merry Christmas.

 

.miz files are simply zip files. I use 7 zip to open and save them.

Edited December 30, 2022 by tacts.zeagle

[tuffysdad]

Don't know why this isn't working for me.  I've tried to add the custom pages to a new folder KNEEBOARD/IMAGES in both 7zip and Winrar and the pages don't appear in the missions.  Thanks for the help though. 

[Rudel_chw]

3 hours ago, tuffysdad said:

Don't know why this isn't working for me. 

 

Give Kneeboard Builder a try, here you can see how I put a Custom mission briefing on the Mission's Kneeboard:

 

 

The video is 3 minutes because I wanted to show you how it looked once the mission starts, but actually creating the KB is less than a minute

Best regards,

 

Eduardo

[tuffysdad]

Thanks for making the video to address my problem -- so considerate of you.  This is the exact method I used to add custom pages in the F-18C.  But when I opened the .miz file in DCS my cockpit was mostly invisible, like a cockpit skeleton!  The F-18 looked like that for every mission until I repaired it in DCS Updater Utility.  Just curious, have you used Kneeboard Builder in the F-18 in openbeta?  Again, thanks very much for helping me.

Edited December 29, 2022 by tuffysdad

[Rudel_chw]

1 hour ago, tuffysdad said:

Just curious, have you used Kneeboard Builder in the F-18 in openbeta? 

 

Actually, I haven't flown the Hornet in over a year, as I have been learning other aircrafts ... but just made a quick test and I could add a briefing kneeboard to one of my missions, like shown here:

 

 

 

Note that I open the MIZ file at the start using WinRar, to verify that it does not contain a Kneeboard. Then use Kneeboard Builder to add a brief kneeboard to  that mission, then open it again in WinRar so you can see that it now does include the KB. Then start DCS, load the mission and verify that it displays properly. Don't really know what may be causing issues on your DCS, but on mine this technique works correctly.

 

[tuffysdad]

Wow, thanks for testing it.  I'll keep looking.