I found out how to do this on the Android emulator itself (Menu, "Settings" App - not the settings of the emulator outside). All you need to do is:
open settings app -> Language & Input -> Go to the "Keyboard & Input Methods -> click Default
This will bring up a Dialog in which case you can then disable the Hardware Keyboard by switching the hardware keyboard from on to off. This will disable the Hardware keyboard and enable the softkeyboard.
Settings > Language & input > Current keyboard > Hardware Switch ON.
It allows you to use your physical keyboard for input while at the same time showing the soft keyboard.
I just tested it on Android Lollipop and it works.
To be more precise, with Lollipop these are the steps I followed to show soft keyboard:
Settings > Language & Input;
under "Keyboard & input methods" label, select "Current Keyboard";
A Dialog named "Change Keyboard" appears, switch ON "Hardware", then select "Choose keyboards";
another Dialog appears, switch ON the "Sample Soft Keyboard". Here you get an alert about the possibility that keyboard will store everything you write, also passwords. Give OK;
Repeat above steps in order to show "Change Keyboard" Dialog again, here the new option "Sample Soft Keyboard" is available and you can select it.
NOTE: after that, you might experience problems in running you app (as I had). Simply restart the emulator.
Press the "show advance setting" button to show more option scroll
down to the bottom and check "Enable keyboard input" press "finish" button
at the bottom corner of your window
then start the emulator device that you just set up.
inside the emulator, go to the "Settings" -> "Language & Input"
and in the "Keyboard & Input Methods" -> "Default" then "choose
input method" is shown
and switch off "Hardware Physical Keyboard" toggle button
There is a bug in the new version of NOX app. Software keyboard doesn't work after switching to it in settings. To fix this, I installed Gboard using the Play Market.