Step 1: Plan a flight
First of all, you have to add a flight. You can do that either by clicking on the "Flight" icon in the OBJECT tab, or by a key shortcut "F". A new "Create a flight..." window will appear. Choose a side (Blue/Red), country, task, aircraft, one of the preselected payloads and the size of the flight (1 to 4 aircraft). Click on the "Go pick waypoints" button.
Now, start placing waypoints on the map. You can take advantage of the "Snap to" functionality, which can be turn on and off in the OPTIONS tab. By default it is on. It allows you to snap waypoints to airfields, beacons, nav points, reference points, orbit anchors or another waypoints. Also, if the "Autoname waypoints" feature is enabled (OPTIONS tab, turned on by default), the waypoints are automatically named after the object they are snapped to.
When you have placed your waypoints, you can adjust the parameters of each of them. That's done by selecting a waypoint (by clicking on it or by choosing it in the tree-view in the "Flights" tab in the little sub-window in the right part of the screen). In the data panel on the left, you can adjust their type, altitude, speed, ETA, activity duration.
You can lock the waypoint in place by clicking on the lock icon. This will prevent them from being accidentally moved by mouse. On a side-note, the doghouses and waypoint labels can turned on/off for each waypoint by clicking the doghouse and/or waypoint label icon in the data panel on the left. Plus, you can adjust their size by clicking on the up/down arrows next to the mentioned icons.
Plan as many flights as you like. You can then choose which you want to export as a data cartridge. Don't forget to save your mission if you're planning on using what you've planned later on!
Alternatively, you can import an existing .miz file and create a data cartridge out of any of the flights in it.
Note: The flight you want to create a data cartridge out of, does not have to be a Viggen flight! It can be any flight route of any aircraft type.
Step 2: Create the data cartridge
Click on the "AJS-37" button in the MISSION tab. A window will pop up. In the drop-down menu select which flight route you want to export to your cartridge. The route's waypoints are now listed in the table. You can unselect those waypoints which you do not want to be exported by unchecking the box next to them. Keep in mind the data cartridge can hold up to 9 B-points plus the LS, L1 and L2 points.
Additionaly, you can choose whether a waypoint will be exported as a target point (M), and/or whether it will have ETA or speed locked. By default, all Target-type waypoints have the "Target" check-box checked. Similarly, all waypoints with their ETA locked will have the "Lock ETA" check-box checked by default. Click the "Export" button and choose the location of the output CustomCartridge.ini file. You should save it to your Saved Games\DCS_AJS37 folder.
Note: Currently, there seems to be a bug in the Viggen, as it loads all B-points as M-points despite they are designated as B-points in the custom cartridge file.
Step 3: Load your cartridge in-game
Run DCS, open any Viggen mission and go fly. Let's assume you're now in the cockpit of the Viggen, on the ground. First, you must select the Custom Cartridge (it's named "7 Saved games-folder"). To see which cartridge you have selected, you have to bring on the kneeboard and cycle to the page with cartridges. You cycle between cartridges by Ctrl+Shift+C and Ctrl+Alt+C.
Next, you have to set the navigation data selector into REF/LOLA position, flip the IN/UT switch to IN, punch in 9099 on the scratch pad and press LS/SKU. Your custom cartridge will now load (accompanied by the first "9" digit flashing). When the process completes, the digital pad will show zeros (000000). Now, flip the IN/UT switch back to UT, and select AKT POS (or whatever navigation mode you want) on the navigation data selector.
Now you're good to go! You can cycle through the cartridge's waypoints via the B-buttons or L-button on the right console. The ETA-locked and speed-locked waypoints should now have the preset ETA or the speed entered in the Viggen's navigation computer as well.
courtesy of mudspike.com
Hope you have enjoyed the tutorial and find it helpful. There are more to come!
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