SimHub dashboards
Last updated · SimHub 9.11.22
A SimHub dashboard is a screen built in Dash Studio, SimHub's WYSIWYG editor, and driven by live telemetry. The same dashboard can be shown on a second monitor, on a phone or tablet over your network, on a small USB display, or as a transparent overlay on top of the game. Dashboards are distributed as single .simhubdash files that unpack their own fonts and images when you double-click them with SimHub running. Building and running them is free — there is no watermark and no export limit.
Dash Studio is described officially as "powered by WPF, a fully graphics accelerated technology", which is why dashboards look smooth and also why they compete with your game for the GPU. That trade-off explains most performance problems on this branch of the cluster.
Where a dashboard can appear
One dashboard, four destinations. This is the thing people most often do not realise — the dashboard you built for a spare monitor will run on your phone without modification.
| Destination | How it works | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| A second monitor | A window, optionally on a specific monitor at a saved position | The most straightforward option if you have the screen |
| Phone or tablet | SimHub serves it over your network; the device opens it in a browser | Free, needs no extra hardware, and an old phone is ideal |
| A USB display | A small dedicated screen driven over USB, not a graphics output | A permanent dash unit without spending a display port |
| An overlay | A borderless transparent window on top of the game | Single-monitor setups, and anything you want in your field of view |
Each destination is set from the same menu on a dashboard: Quick run for a one-off — windowed, on a specific monitor, or on a phone or tablet — and below that, saved options that make it happen automatically every time.
The .simhubdash file
Dashboards are distributed as a single file with the .simhubdash extension. Double-click one while SimHub is running and it installs itself — including any custom fonts and images it uses, which unpack automatically.
That is why a dashboard you download is one file rather than a folder of assets, and it is why a dashboard someone sends you looks the same on your machine as it did on theirs.
There is no in-app marketplace. This surprises nearly everyone. SimHub has no built-in browser for dashboards — you find them on the forum's Dashboard Templates section, on OverTake, on Discord and on creator sites, then install the file yourself. Our roundup exists because no editorial index did.
Screens, playlists and idle dashboards
Three features that make a dashboard behave like a real instrument cluster rather than a static picture:
- Multiple screens
- One dashboard can contain several screens — a driving view, a lap-times view, a tyre and fuel view. SimHub exposes six bindable actions for moving between them: NextScreen, PreviousScreen and ActionA through ActionD. Bind them to buttons on your wheel and you can page through without touching a keyboard.
- Car playlists
- Different dashboards for different cars, selected automatically. A formula car and a GT car want different instruments, and this is how you stop compromising between them.
- Idle dashboards
- What shows when no game is running. Worth setting if your dash is a permanent fixture on the rig rather than something you look at only while driving.
Building your own
Dash Studio is a drag-and-drop editor with a widget toolbox down the left, a hierarchy and properties panel on the right, and a screen strip along the bottom. Everything you place can be bound to a telemetry property.
It is approachable, and the reason more people do not try is that the documentation gap here is severe — one official tutorial page, no widget catalogue, no property reference. The community learns by opening other people's dashboards and reverse-engineering them, which works but is a slow way in.
Our build a dashboard from an empty canvas guide covers the walkthrough and includes a catalogue of every widget in the toolbox, transcribed from the interface, because that catalogue did not exist.
Build it ugly first. Get the elements on screen and bound to the right telemetry before spending any time on colour. A beautiful dashboard showing the wrong number is worse than a plain one showing the right one.
The performance trade-off
Dash Studio renders through WPF, which is GPU-accelerated. That is what makes dashboards smooth, and it also means SimHub is competing with your game for the same hardware.
If the GPU is already at 90–95% load there is nothing left, and the symptom is usually blamed on the dashboard rather than on the budget. The first fix is almost always a frame-rate limiter in the game rather than anything in SimHub.
Adaptive sync is the other big one — G-Sync and FreeSync interfere with how WPF renders. The performance page covers the whole list, including the alternative HTML rendering engine that can be selected per dashboard.
Do dashboards need the licence?
No. Dash Studio is fully functional on the free version — no watermark, no export limit, no cap on how many dashboards you build or install.
The licence raises hardware update rates from 10FPS to 60FPS, which affects LEDs, shakers and Arduino output. A dashboard drawn on a screen or in a browser is rendered rather than driven, so it is the part of SimHub least affected by the free version's limits.
Everything in this section
- Make your own dashboard From an empty canvas, with every widget in the toolbox catalogued from the interface.
- The best dashboards An editorial roundup by sim and screen size, because no index existed.
- Installing a dashboard The .simhubdash file, screens, bindable actions, car playlists and idle dashboards.
- Your phone as a dashboard Free, nothing to install on the phone, and the full list of reasons it will not connect.
- USB displays VOCORE, USBD480, AX206 and Turing — with the refresh rates you should know before buying.
- Overlays Transparent windows on top of the game, the 480,000-pixel limit, and the truth about VR.
- Lag and FPS drops GPU load, adaptive sync, process throttlers and the alternative rendering engine.
- Remote rendering Server-side rendering for weak clients like a Raspberry Pi, and its three hard limits.
Common questions
What is a .simhubdash file?
The single-file format SimHub dashboards are distributed in. Double-click one while SimHub is running and it installs itself, unpacking any custom fonts and images automatically — which is why a downloaded dashboard is one file rather than a folder of assets.
Where can I download SimHub dashboards?
There is no in-app marketplace. The SimHub forum's Dashboard Templates section, OverTake, Discord and creator storefronts are where they actually live. Our roundup indexes the ones worth having.
Can the same dashboard run on my phone and a monitor?
Yes, without modification. A dashboard is a dashboard; where it appears is a separate choice made from its own menu. The same file can be windowed on a monitor, served to a phone, sent to a USB display or run as an overlay.
Do I need to pay for Dash Studio?
No. It is fully functional in the free version with no watermark and no export limit. The licence raises hardware update rates, which affects LEDs and shakers rather than a dashboard drawn on a screen.
Can one dashboard have several pages?
Yes. Screens are managed from the strip at the bottom of the editor, and SimHub exposes six bindable actions — NextScreen, PreviousScreen and ActionA through ActionD — so you can page between them from a button on your wheel.
Why does my dashboard make the game stutter?
Dash Studio renders through WPF on the GPU, so it competes with the game. If the GPU is at 90–95% load there is nothing left for it. Cap the game's frame rate first, then check whether G-Sync or FreeSync is interfering with rendering.
Sources
SimHub is developed independently by Wotever and is not affiliated with oesimracing. This page was checked against SimHub 9.11.22 on 4 August 2026; where the interface has moved on since, the version stamp tells you how far. More on what SimHub is and what it costs.