DCS Scratchpad

Resizable and movable DCS World in-game Scratchpad for quick persistent notes - especially useful in VR.

Installation

Copy the Scripts folder into your DCS Saved games folder.

Usage

• Toggle the scratchpad with CTRL+Shift+X
• Use Esc to remove the text field focus, but keep the scratchpad open

Settings

Some settings can be changed in your DCS saved games folder under Config/ScratchpadConfig.lua (if the file does not exist, start DCS once after mod installation):

• hotkey hotkey to toggle the Scratchpad (CTRL+Shift+X by default) ¹
• hotkeyNextPage hotkey to switch to the next page (not set by default) ¹
• hotkeyPrevPage hotkey to switch to the next page (not set by default) ¹
• hotkeyInsertCoordinates hotkey to add coordinates from the F10 map (not set by default) ¹
• hotkeyReloadPages hotkey to reload all pages from disk (useful if they were modified by other tools; not set by default) ¹
• fontSize increase or decrease the font size of the Scratchpads textarea (14 by default)

¹ check DCS World\dxgui\bind\KeyNames.txt to find how to reference a key; only the keys can be used, that work without having to press Shift - so ( cannot be used, but Shift+9 can

Scratchpad Content

The Scratchpads content is persisted into Scratchpad\0000.txt (in your saved games folder; if the file does not exist, start DCS once after mod installation/upgrade). You can also change the file in your favorite text editor before starting DCS.

Multiple Pages

When DCS starts, the Scratchpad looks for all text files inside the Scratchpad\ directory (in your DCS saved games folder that do not exceed a file size of 1MB). If there is more than one, it will show buttons (←/→) that can be used to switch between all those text files. The file Scratchpad\0000.txt, where the content is persisted into by default, can be freely renamed, it is not necessary to use the 000x naming scheme.

Insert Coordinates from F10 map

This is only available in single player or for servers that have Allow Player Export enabled. If available, you'll have a checkbox at the bottom for the Scratchpad. The mode to insert coordinates is active while the checkbox is checked. While active, you'll have a white dot in the center of your screen and an additional + L/L button below the text area of the Scratchpad. Open the F10 map and align the white dot with your location of interest and hit the + L/L button. This will add the coordinates of the location below the white cursor to your Scratchpad.

Extensions

Scratchpad supports extensions. Most prominent use-case is to add a virtual keyboard. There are some example extensions in Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Scripts\Scratchpad\Extensions\Disabled\. To enable any of them, copy the file over to Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Scripts\Scratchpad\Extensions\.

The available APIs to the extensions are:

-- Log to `Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Logs\Scratchpad.log`
log(text)

-- Format coordinates with `format` being either `DMS` or `DDM`, `isLat` `true` if the provided `d`
-- is the latitude, and `false` if it is the longitude, and `opts` allow to fine-tune the format
-- (checkout `Scripts/Hooks/scratchpad-hook.lua` `function coordsType()` for examples).
formatCoord(format, isLat, d, opts)

-- Add a `listener` that is executed every time the user adds a coordinate (via the +L/L button).
-- See `Extensions/Disabled/ns430.lua` for an example.
addCoordinateListener(listener(text, lat, lon, alt))

-- Add a button positioned at `left`/`top` (relative to the plugin's container), with the size of
-- `width`/`height`, the given `title` and the `onClick` callback that is executed when the button
-- is pressed.
addButton(left, top, width, height, title, onClick(text))

-- The `text` given to the `addCoordinateListener` and `onClick` callbacks can be mutated with the
-- following methods:
  text:getText()
  text:setText(text)
  text:insertAtCursor(text)
  text:insertBelowCursor(text)
  text:insertTop(text)
  text:insertBottom(text)

Kudos

• to DCS-SimpleRadioStandalone which acted as a good reference of how to setup a simple window in DCS