How do you create a tab for charts and then how do you put charts into a vassal module. A gaming friend made a module for a game I like and did not put charts in it. Also, there is a counter that does not have a delete button. How do you add one in for the counter in question?
Ron
For Charts, usually the best way is to (from the Editor window) right click on the main module entry at the top and say “Add Chart Window”. And then once you add a chart window, you can add individual charts to it (as tabs), or you can just add another chart window if you want each chart to have its own button on the toolbar.
If you can find the offending counter in question, you can open its entry and see its list of traits. You can then scroll down the list of traits that you can add, and add a “Delete” trait.
Do I need to scan the charts. Is there a function that puts a scanned item into vassal?
Ron
Uploading (possibly scanned) imagery is the bread and butter of VASSAL. I think Cattlesquat already described the process for this case above so I am not to sure what your question is. I have an example in the Westphalia module if that would help.
EDIT: Thinking about your post a bit more. I think you might be asking if there is a way of avoiding having to scan. I am not sure if there is if you don’t have access to image files.
Basically you need some kind of image of the chart – so yeah either scan it in yourself, or find it online somewhere, or whatever it takes to get it into JPG or PNG or PDF form, something like that. And then when you add your “Chart Window”, the method you use will depend on what form of file you have – JPG’s and PNG’s you’d use a “Chart Window”, and PDF’s you’d use an “HTML Chart Window”.
The only thing I can find is the chart window menu. Is this the same as chart window?
Ron
I got to the chart window menu and pressed select and then opened the chart I scanned. Upon opening the new module, nothing is shown. No sure what I am doing wrong.
here is a pic of the chart menu:
Then here is the menu I am working from when right clicking of the main module.
One more post: here is the menu I get when right clicking the module and clicking edit"
Okay when you did the “Add Chart Window Menu” that made the first thing, you were on the right track. Now in the main hierarchy of your module (the thing in your last screenshot), at the Very Bottom, there should be an entry for Chart Window Menu. You now need to right click on THAT, and you will be able to add an actual chart (which will appear “inside of it” on the hierarchy). And then when you run your module the “Chart Window Menu” should appear on your Toolbar. Obviously you’ll eventually want to rename it and/or give it an icon.
Here is an example from one of my modules. Maybe that will help.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1luTgHMJBS8zbHme9P-q7jrWXlZIoR1l7/view?usp=sharing
(BTW I can’t work out how to upload an image here.)
I found the add chart at the bottom. However, I click select and load the scan which is in PDF. I press ok. Then I press ok on the add charts menu window. I save the module and it appears in the library of the vassal. I open the module up, load a file, and then I see the chart tab. When I click it, nothing appears. Here is the second add chart.
I got it. thanks. One question, how would you make the chart smaller inside the chart tab? It fills up the whole screen.
Thank you for all your help.
Next question is: I think I found the function for the counters I want to add a delete button too. It is units and markers. I clicked edit all counters and added delete, but when module appeared I did not see the delete button. Where do you find the individual counters?
Ron
Sheepishly I’d actually like to ask how you got it to work with a PDF – I was just trying to get it to work for you and I couldn’t remember how to get it to use a PDF in that context. If you let me know the steps I will make a wiki entry “for the next victim”.
Meanwhile… if you add a “Delete” trait to the counter (and left the text of the command in e.g. “Delete”, and something in the keystroke field e.g. Ctrl+D), and then saved the module, then when you run the module in the game, right clicking on the counter in question should now have the delete on the menu.
If you found “Units and Markers” that is probably a “Piece Palette” which is a little window you can drag new pieces onto the map from. If you added Delete to the pieces in there, then any pieces you drag onto the map from that window should have the Delete trait. But if there were OTHER pieces “already on the map” e.g. when you start a scenario then they wouldn’t have it. How to add to those would depend on the structure of how your module is set up – whether the pieces are mainly defined in “Prototypes” (in which case in the prototype section), or in “At Start Stacks” (in which case in the “Map” section), or if there are pre-defined scenarios … in which case eek, disaster, you might have to set up the scenario from scratch.
The PDF did not work and I changed it to a JPEG file. That is how I got the chart up.
Ron
AH! Well that was going to have been one of the workarounds I was soon going to suggest to you 
It IS possible to get a PDF to display from the Help menu (see vassalengine.org/wiki/How_to … _help_menu. ) which is probably what got me thinking PDF was possible.
I was experimenting around trying to make an HTML file that would load a PDF, but wasn’t having much luck – it’s possible the HTML that runs this particular thing is a more limited subset or whatever.
Obviously it would be best if it could read a PDF.
But glad you got it working!
Very limited, it’s the HTML renderer of Java Swing, was limited to begin with, and was not improved for the last 10 years or so. Think of it as being a stripped down version of the good old netscape browser.