SHORTTUTORIAL: Add A Tab

A Tab (an ITab class) is a small button element that adorns the inspection window of the selected item (the MainTabWindow_Inspect class).

Below, the ITabs are "Social", "Gear", "Character", etc.

Create an ITab

If you want to create your own Tabs for your created Thing X, follow these three steps:

• Create the ITab_X C# class
• Create the XCardUtility C# class to draw the UI elements
• Add the ITab to your X's ThingDef in XML

Create the ITab_X

ITabs open when selected and display their Card's UI elements. So, you need an ITab_X class and on that you'll draw UI elements with a XCardUtility.

using RimWorld;
using System;
using UnityEngine;
using Verse;

namespace MyNamespace
{
    public class ITab_X: ITab
    {
        // useful if you have criteria to show/hide this per Thing
        public override bool IsVisible
        {
            get
            {
                if ( <your test> ) { return true; }
                else return false;
            }
        }

        public ITab_X()
        {
            Vector2 offsets= Vector2(17f,17f);
            this.size = XCardUtility.CardSize + offsets;
            this.labelKey = "MyNamespace_TabX";  // used to get the Tab's label
        }

        // Draw the Tab with the Card class
        protected override void FillTab()
        {
            // Get the Thing selected by the cursor
            ThingWithComps selected = Find.Selector.SingleSelectedThing as ThingWithComps;
            Rect rect = new Rect(17f, 17f, WornAtCardUtility.CardSize.x, WornAtCardUtility.CardSize.y);
            WornAtCardUtility.DrawCard(rect, selected);
        }
    }
}

Create the XCardUtility

The XCardUtility class is a class that draws the content of the ITab. It uses all the UI elements of the Widget class.

using RimWorld;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using UnityEngine;
using Verse;

namespace MyNamespace
{
    public class WornAtCardUtility
    {
        public static Vector2 CardSize = new Vector2(395f, 536f); // set the card's size
        
        public static void DrawCard(Rect rect, ThingWithComps wornAtThing )
        {
            GUI.BeginGroup();
            ... draw ...
            GUI.EndGroup();
        }
    }
}

Add the ITab to your ThingDef

Add this line to your XML definition of your Thing in XML. If you skip this step, your ITab will exist but will never be connected with your Thing X!

<inspectorTabs>
    <li>MyNamespace.ITab_X</li>
</inspectorTabs>