Kneeboard Builder (windows app)

Hello there i want to upload my custom kneeboard.But i do not see clearly my pictures.WHat dimensions my picture must have before i put them on kneeboard builder?

The minimum is 825 x 1275 pixels, but you can put bigger images and DCS will scale them down.

Hi everyone, I just installed this, loaded up a couple pages I wanted, and clicked build custom kneeboard. However, from there I am unable to select modify profiles under options, it is grayed out. Any help would be appreciated!

The minimum is 825 x 1275 pixels, but you can put bigger images and DCS will scale them down.

What's the source of this information? Most sources seem to say 768 x 1024 pixels (3:4 ratio), which with a quick sample check is also the size of kneeboards distributed with DCS. 825 x 1275 is also a different ratio. Has it changed, or is the information incorrect?

What's the source of this information? Most sources seem to say 768 x 1024 pixels (3:4 ratio), which with a quick sample check is also the size of kneeboards distributed with DCS. 825 x 1275 is also a different ratio. Has it changed, or is the information incorrect?

Hi, You are completely right, the default size used by DCS is 768 x 1024 ... my mistake, sorry.

PS: However, the actual kneeboard windows as drawn on my 1920 x 1080 monitor is actually 535 x 800 pixels, for an aspect ratio of 1.5 ... if I place on the kneeboard an image of 768 x 1024 it ends up looking distorted on its width.

How do you guys make the kneeboard images more clear to see and be able to read in VR? I tried to increase font size before importing but did not help.

It depends on what kind of "images" you are talking about.

- Put as much info in plain text (black on white) as possible.

- Use a program such as OpenOffice Write to create your base document.

- - Format pages to fit exactly to your kneeboard pages.

- - Use a font which is easily read, even when blurry. NOT Arial, nor any sans serif!

- - - This is an example of a serif font: Times New Roman. Note that at the ends of each line of each letter there is a very small, perpendicular stroke added. That is seriffing. - You can skip the rest of this point, unless you are interested in some media history. Seriffing, beyond simply decoration, was used in print media to make letters more uniform in width. In the early days of printing, they discovered that small printed letters which got too close together, because they were very narrow, lead to ink bleeding from one letter to the next, so to widen the letters seriffing was added to printed media. In the process it was noticed that the printing was also easier to read; thus serif fonts became popular. Only when printing technology became more sophisticated and electronic media completely removed the danger of bleed-over, did san serif fonts become popular again, because they are narrower and more letters can be fit in the same width.

- - - - Arial: IIIIIIII <= quickly, how many 'I's are there?

- - - - Courier New: IIIIIIII <= quickly, how many 'I's are there?

- - So pick a font you can easily read in VR on the kneeboard. There is no shortcut to trying different fonts. Also, don't shy away from searching the internet for a new font. Examples of serif fonts I find easy to read are Bitter, Lora, and Bookerly. Bookerly is what Amazon uses in their Kindle devices, and was chosen scientifically to be very easily readable with as little eye strain as possible on their 'real paper' electronic devices.

- - Use a font size small enough to be able to fit as much info on one page as possible, but large enough to be easily ready without having to press your virtual nose against the virtual screen.

- - If you indent, use filler characters to make lines easy to follow.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - This is

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - easier to

- - - - - - - - - - - - follow with

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - filler characters

There's no shortcut to trying different things out to find what works for you.

Hey thanks for the great tips.

What is the size of the kneeboard pages?

WxH: 768x1024 (3x4)

... or at least that's what the original files are.

When creating kneeboard pages in MS Word I find a custom page size of 6 inches (width) by 8.5 inches (height) works well. I "save as PDF" before importing into Kneeboard Builder.

Hey thanks for the great tips.

What is the size of the kneeboard pages?

I simply use MS Word, Calibri 11-14 font, narrow margins A4, type text, edit till satisfied, paste images, save as PDF, do full screen PDF, grab screen by snipping tool, creates .png (small letter extension) about 830x1040, done.

Keep the originals, if any changes, edit original, repeat, replace.

Thank you guys

All credits to AlaskanGrizzly for this.

This seems a great program to create custom kneeboards and after seeing dburne's entry about working with it in VR, i thought of having a go.

However, nothing in the world i do makes this thing work.

I'm stuck at creating a profile and i have no clue how to make one (the manual is a bit old because some things seem to have been changed in the software but the didn't make it to the manual yet. One of these things is creating a profile.

I managed to set some options (LOL), import a PDF (A-10C manual), created a Custom Kneeboard, select the A-10C aircraft, added a group, moved that over to the Custom Kneeboard and then build a custom Kneeboard for the A-10C. All without a single error, i can see quite some .jpg files in the A-10C which are created out of the A-10C manual pdf but...

... i'm not able to create any profile. If i go there i don't have the same options as in the manual, i have Kneeboard Profiles instead of Kneeboard Settings (what's in a name?) but once in that menu, i can't do anything. I don't have the option the even create a profile, all i have is Modify (greyed out because i obviously don't have one created) and Restore Defaults so i need a bit of guidance because i don't have a single clue on what i'm missing except the fact that i can't follow the manual because i don't see/have what i supposed to see/have.

Cant find anymore the Kneeboard Settings option!!

I stopped running the Kneeboard software after it crashed my DCS, I do use the install for the generated custom mission data pages in the kneeboard, the Kneeboard Software is only needed for moving and resizing the kneeboards.

What I do use is add my custom kneeboard pages.

For custom kneeboard pages, you only need to know the exact path in the <saved games> folder to the kneeboards and then copy your .png (small caps) in this folder with prox. size of 830x1040.

How to bring a tablet to another monitor?

Excellent, thanks for the work.

Hi guys, only just discovered this great app! Thank you to the creator for making it.

Is there a maximum amount of pages that can be loaded into the kneeboard, if so, what is it? Does it also matter what DPI was used for the PDF files to uploaded?

Hi guys, only just discovered this great app! Thank you to the creator for making it.

Yes, it is a truly useful utility .. I employ it a lot, as I like to write my own version of each aircraft’s procedures. It also allows the creation of mission-specific kneeboards that I use for the briefings.

Is there a maximum amount of pages that can be loaded into the kneeboard, if so, what is it?

Does it also matter what DPI was used for the PDF files to uploaded?

No limit, tough it can be impractical to put too many pages, as DCS kneeboard has no chapter shortcuts, only single page browsing.

A higher dpi setting creates kneeboard pages that use more space on your drive, I use 150 dpi and get good results:

:thumbup:

Hmmm, strange, I managed to create shortcuts yesterday and flick through the shortcuts back an forth by assigning keys to them. Check out CONTROLS and search for KNEEBOARD, you'll see it.

The one thing that confuses me is the groups section of the program. I saw in the tutorial that you can create several groups but how do you implement this and can you only use 1 group per flight or can you combine the groups to get 1 big kneeboard?

However, nothing in the world i do makes this thing work. I'm stuck at creating a profile and i have no clue how to make one (the manual is a bit old because some things seem to have been changed in the software but the didn't make it to the manual yet. One of these things is creating a profile.

I managed to set some options (LOL), import a PDF (A-10C manual), created a Custom Kneeboard, select the A-10C aircraft, added a group, moved that over to the Custom Kneeboard and then build a custom Kneeboard for the A-10C. All without a single error, i can see quite some .jpg files in the A-10C which are created out of the A-10C manual pdf but...

 

... i'm not able to create any profile. If i go there i don't have the same options as in the manual.

Still stuck at this point...:huh:

The one thing that confuses me is the groups section of the program. I saw in the tutorial that you can create several groups but how do you implement this and can you only use 1 group per flight or can you combine the groups to get 1 big kneeboard?

I use Groups as a way to keep the contents of the kneeboard relevant for the Mission that I will be flying next, for example I can combine only the Groups that I want to use at the moment:

But it is undoubtedly simpler to just have one Group :)

Best regards,

Eduardo

So in your example above, if you were to select from the GROUPS SELECTED FOR CUSTOM KNEEBOARD:

- NORMAL PROCEDURES

- ADF NAV PROC

- RADAR PROCEDURES

- M01 BRIEFING

and then clicked on BUILD CUSTOM KNEEBOARD....would that not give you those 4 groups in the kneeboard?

So in your example above, if you were to select from the GROUPS SELECTED FOR CUSTOM KNEEBOARD:

 

- NORMAL PROCEDURES

- ADF NAV PROC

- RADAR PROCEDURES

- M01 BRIEFING

 

and then clicked on BUILD CUSTOM KNEEBOARD....would that not give you those 4 groups in the kneeboard?

Yes, it would .. and in that sequence .. but it would be just a single sequence of pages ... no shortcuts to each group

. I could also use the .MIZ button in order to save this kneeboard inside a specific mission, rather than on the generic folder of each airplane.

Hmmm, strange, I managed to create shortcuts yesterday and flick through the shortcuts back an forth by assigning keys to them. Check out CONTROLS and search for KNEEBOARD, you'll see it.

Yes, but, were you able to save the shortcuts?