The heart of Cockpitdecks is the Deck. A deck is a desktop device with buttons that allow interaction with the computer.
Cockpitdecks configuration is the process of telling the computer, or in our case, the simulation software, what to do when buttons are pressed or otherwise manipulated.
In return, Cockpitdecks will also display information coming from the simulation software on deck devices that allow it. Some deck devices have simple LED light that can be turned on or off, some more complex devices have small LCD/LED/TFT color screens on keys to display small images.
Cockpitdecks allows all this to happen in a highly customizable way through its configuration files.
All configuration files are Yaml-formatted files. Yaml is a simple, highly readable structured text file. It allows for comments inside the file, which is very convenient.
As an alternative to desktop (physical) decks, Cockpitdecks also offer (virtual) web decks. A Web Deck is a deck run in a browser window. No device necessary. Please head here to discover about Web Decks.
Configuration File Organisation
All configuration files are grouped into a single folder always named deckconfig. The content of the folder must conform to some conventions.
The overall structure of configuration files and folders into the deckconfig folder is as follow:
XPlaneAircraftFolder
(...)
⊢ deckconfig
config.yaml
secret.yaml
⊢ resources
⊢ fonts
⊢ icons
⊢ sounds
⊢ ...
⊢ layout1
⊢ index.yaml
⊢ page2.yaml
...
⊢ layout2
...
config.yaml
The file named config.yaml directly inside the deckconfig folder is the main configuration file. It lists all decks Cockpitdecks will manage, and global parameters.
The main configuration file may be accompanied by a secret.yaml file. This additional file contains the serial number of the deck devices, and is only necessary if there are several decks of the same type, to allow for distinction between them.
resources Folder
The resources folder contains resources used by deck devices. It contains icon images, fonts, sounds, or other parameters.
Please refer to the reference documentation for a formal presentation of the resources folder content.
Layout Folders
Layout folders are used to group all things related to one precise deck. In the main configuration file that lists all deck devices that will be used, each deck device must have a layout folder assigned to it. That is where the deck will find its own particular configuration files and be able to determine what it has to do and display when used.
Page
The layout folder contains files, called Pages. The name of the file that contains the first Page is index.yaml.
It is inside this file that the deck will discover what is has to do and display.
Here is the begining of such a index Page:
buttons:
- index: 0
type: push
command: sim/view/map_toggle
icon: map
- ...
This define that the key (button) at index 0 (top, left) has to issue the command sim/view/map_toggle when pressed, and display the icon image named map on the key.
This is a very simple, basic example, but it shows what need to be done to tell each button of each deck what to do and what to display when used with Cockpitdecks.
Adding Decks
The first step is to add decks Cockpitdecks will manage in Cockpitdecks main configuration file:
decks:
- name: XPLive
type: LoupedeckLive
layout: cockpit
brightness: 100
Cockpitdecks will manage a LoupedeckLive deck. We will name that deck XPLive when we refer to it. The deck will find its configuration in the layout folder named cockpit.
The backlight of the deck will be set to its 100(%) maximum. It could be dimmed to a lower value for night flights.
Adding Deck Pages
Inside deckconfigfolder, we create a layout folder named cockpit.
Inside that cockpit folder, we create a file named index.yaml.
The content of the file defines what the LoupedeckLive deck will do when keys are pressed, or dials turned, and what the deck will need to display in return.