WORK IN PROGRESS

This an extended description of what all of the options in MegaMekLab do, as of version 0.50.07. If this article is out of date and does not cover an option in the current version of MegaMekLab, please open an issue or let us know in our Discord server.

These options can be accessed by going to File->Options->Configuration from the MML menu bar. It should be noted that while some of these options affect how sheets are printed from MegaMek (using the Print Unit List button), there is no way to set them from MM. If you wish to configure how MM prints sheets, you have to configure them from MML.

General

MML Startup

This option controls what happens when you start MegaMekLab. The default is to show the MML Main UI, the pretty splash screen with buttons to create a new unit.

You can instead tell MML to open right into a new blank unit of whatever type you wish, or attempt to open the most-recently opened unit, or restore your tabs from the last time you used MML.

The "restore tabs" option in particular is special, it attempts to recover units that you were in the middle of editing even if you didn't save them when you closed MML. This is not guaranteed, you should still save your work. MML closing unexpectedly due to a crash or your computer shutting off will lead to a loss of all data.

User Files Directory

See the documentation for the User Directory here. In short, this lets you have a place for some common files, such as custom units, to be easily shared between different versions and installations of MegaMek suite software.

MUL file open behaviour

This option is used when you open a .MUL file with MegaMekLab from your system's file browser, when you drag a .MUL file onto an MML window, or when you use the Print Unit List button from MegaMek. Print and Export will open the units in the Print Queue in Print or PDF Export mode, respectively. Force Builder will load the units in the Force Builder, allowing you to more easily customize the units in that force.

Confirm application exit

If this option is set, and you hit the Close button on the last open MML window, you will get a warning asking you if you really want to close MML. Until you close MML all the way, closed tabs (and tabs in closed windows) can be recovered by pressing Ctrl+Shift+T or File->Reopen last closed tab.

Export text in Technical Readout (TRO) format

Controls the format of units exported by the File->Export->To Text and File->Export->To Clipboard commands. You can see the difference under Summary and TRO in the Preview tab of the unit being exported.

Bypass unsaved changes warning

Historically, certain actions would lead to all your work on a unit being lost - closing the tab, or switching unit type. Now these can both be reverted by reopening a closed tab (ctrl+shift+T) or by undo (ctrl+z). You can leave this box checked to be warned before performing these actions anyway.

I am a member of The MegaMek Team

If this option is selected, any units you save will have a header attached stating that they are owned by The MegaMekTeam and are licensed under Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC-SA. You should only tick this box if you are contributing data to the MegaMek project, such as if you're correcting a unit which has an error.

GUI Scale

Makes elements of the GUI smaller or larger. This can be helpful if your screen has an unusual size or resolution and the UI is too small or taking up too much space. Try setting this slider to a position where the UI looks nice.

Equipment Coloring

These options control the appearance of equipment in the Critical Table, and a few other places throughout the UI:

Record Sheets and Export

Show progress bar during printer

When printing units, create a popup window indicating the progress of the print task.

Paper Size

The layout of sheets will change depending on if you select US Letter or ISO A4 paper size. US Letter is typically given more testing - if you encounter issues with ISO A4 issues, file issue, but also try switching to US Letter and scaling the produced sheets to fit A4 paper.

Official sheets are US Letter size.

Font Family

The font used for most elements of a sheet. Official sheets use Eurostile, but that font isn't free. If you don't have it, we recommend Roboto, it looks nice and comes with MegaMekLab.

Eurostile:

Roboto:

Weapons Order

Tried to sort the weapons in the Weapons & Equipment Inventory based on damage or range. "Default" is a somewhat arbitrary order based on the order the weapons were loading it in, while the other options define a consistent weapon ordering.

Range (High-Low):

Damage (Low-High):

Use color

This setting has three options. B&W uses no color, Logo Only colors the A in the BattleTech logo in yellow, and All also colors the heat scale and CGL logo.

B&W:

Logo Only:

All:

Heat Scale Marker

The heat scale has indicators at the heat levels where a heat effect occurs. You can control what this indicator looks like.

Asterisk:

Arrow:

Unit name in bold font

Makes the unit name in the unit data box bold, if you like it that way.

Improve table readability by shading rows

Puts a gray background behind every other row of many tables, making it easier to see which entries are on the same row. Particularly helpful for vehicle critical tables.

Print Reference Tables

Shrinks the entire sheet to fit various common tables in the margins. Note that this option is currently broken for Meks.