Error Mesage, "Input past end of file encountered while loading" Options

[Bear]

I keep getting this error on ANY activity file I try to open after the first successful creation of an activity.

"Input past end of file encountered while loading" When you click"OK" on the error message...you are then returned to AM with no file loaded. (You get the same result when trying to load a template act as well).

I'm using Window7x64 Home Premium edition.
I have taken ownership of all files in the MSTS file structure.
I have made all files read/write able.
I have full administrative rights.
I am running AM as the admin.

Re-installation of the program will allow you to successfully create an activity. (However, you will have to re-assign all unknown types and give meaningful type-names to all your car type files again).

One follow up question,
When I do create a successful activity...what/were do I put cars that I have to pick up but have no drop-off point?

This post has been edited by Bear: Dec 5 2009, 09:13 AM

[nbeveridge]

I keep getting this error on ANY activity file I try to open after the first successful creation of an activity.

"Input past end of file encountered while loading" When you click"OK" on the error message...you are then returned to AM with no file loaded. (You get the same result when trying to load a template act as well).

I'm using Window7x64 Home Premium edition.
I have taken ownership of all files in the MSTS file structure.
I have made all files read/write able.
I have full administrative rights.
I am running AM as the admin.

Re-installation of the program will allow you to successfully create an activity. (However, you will have to re-assign all unknown types and give meaningful type-names to all your car type files again).

One follow up question,
When I do create a successful activity...what/were do I put cars that I have to pick up but have no drop-off point?

Okay, are we talking Activity Master (AM) or Activity Generator (AG)? You refer to AM twice, and talk about giving type names to car, which are AM. But you talk about templates and creating activities, which are AG.

I will assume AG.

I have seen this error when someone has modified the SWLACT or SWLTDB files. These are .csv files, and if you unknowingly add a little something into the file, it simply will not work correctly and will give this error. Often this is done unknowningly, and usually a reload of the template corrects this. This seems to be the case from what you say above.

So let me say to everyone -- monkey with the SWLACT and SWLTDB files at your own risk. You can always download the template again, or course.

As to the last question, you can choose what ending you want. The activity can either end when you make the last pick up or set out, or it can end when you reach 20 MPH after finishing the work, or it can end when you assemble the final train. It sounds like you are using the last set out or pick up option, which is the default. If your final train is longer than the destination track(s), then you will end up with cars left in the train. You can either be careful to pick destination tracks with more than the final train length, or just accept that not all cars will be spotted when the activity ends.

[Bear]

Okay, are we talking Activity Master (AM) or Activity Generator (AG)? You refer to AM twice, and talk about giving type names to car, which are AM. But you talk about templates and creating activities, which are AG.

I will assume AG.

I have seen this error when someone has modified the SWLACT or SWLTDB files. These are .csv files, and if you unknowingly add a little something into the file, it simply will not work correctly and will give this error. Often this is done unknowningly, and usually a reload of the template corrects this. This seems to be the case from what you say above.

So let me say to everyone -- monkey with the SWLACT and SWLTDB files at your own risk. You can always download the template again, or course.

As to the last question, you can choose what ending you want. The activity can either end when you make the last pick up or set out, or it can end when you reach 20 MPH after finishing the work, or it can end when you assemble the final train. It sounds like you are using the last set out or pick up option, which is the default. If your final train is longer than the destination track(s), then you will end up with cars left in the train. You can either be careful to pick destination tracks with more than the final train length, or just accept that not all cars will be spotted when the activity ends.

OK, I'm talking strictly Activity Master. I only refer to activities as those are the activities that I wish to replace/rotate stock in.
I have done NO alterations of files outside of updating unknown file types with the correct naming, or list creation within AM.
I've done a clean install and like I mentioned; after the first successful creation of an SLG(?) activity, and updating all "unknowns" with their proper nomenclature...I have run a successful session in MSTS.
However when using the program again (Activity Master), I get the error.
Am I correct in thinking that AM is supposed to allow me to replace the default rolling stock of ANY act file with what is currently available in my MSTS setup?
To be as clear as possible; I can run AM once on any act, but subsequent attempts to Load ANY act file results in the error above. (this may sound like I can run it once on all acts, let me explain a bit more),
For example...clean install, I can load any particular act file...make all the changes and updates to the stock, generate(replace), and then run that act in MSTS...perfectly. ANY attempt thereafter to load ANY act file gives the error.
Hope this clears up some of the confusion.

Sorry, I just realized that last question may have confused you...that it obviously a Activity Generator question and probably should have been posted in the proper category in the forum.

Also, I think I may have found the source of my problem; there are a lot of extraneous template files and such left in my East Metro RR activity directory...that I may not have cleared out when I did my re-install of AM.

SLG-EMRRNB-ARCHIVE
WORKORDER-SLG-EMRRNB.txt
WORKORDER-EMRRNBII.txt
WORKORDER-EMRRNB.txt
EMRRSBTemplate.pro
EMRRNBTemplate.pro
WORKORDER-SLG-EMRRNB.csv
WORKORDER-EMRRNBII.csv
WORKORDER-EMRRNB.csv
SWLTDBEMRRSBTemplate.csv
SWLTDBEMRRNBTemplate.csv
SWLACTEMRRSBTemplate.csv
SWLACTEMRRNBTemplate.csv
SLG-EMRRNB-RSUsedAndFound.csv
SLG-EMRRNB-RollingStock.csv
EMRRSBTemplate-RSUsedAndFound.csv
EMRRSBTemplate-RollingStock.csv
EMRRNBTemplate-RSUsedAndFound.csv
EMRRNBTemplate-RollingStock.csv
SLG-EMRRNB.asv
SLG-EMRRNBII.act
SLG-EMRRNB.act


It's hard to determine what is original EMRR template info...and what is added/used by AM. (I believe the SLG extension is used by either AM or AG). Do these need to be removed when/if I do a re-install of AM?

This post has been edited by Bear: Dec 5 2009, 09:50 PM

[sgdavis]

OK, I'm talking strictly Activity Master. I only refer to activities as those are the activities that I wish to replace/rotate stock in.
I have done NO alterations of files outside of updating unknown file types with the correct naming, or list creation within AM.
I've done a clean install and like I mentioned; after the first successful creation of an SLG(?) activity, and updating all "unknowns" with their proper nomenclature...I have run a successful session in MSTS.
However when using the program again (Activity Master), I get the error.
Am I correct in thinking that AM is supposed to allow me to replace the default rolling stock of ANY act file with what is currently available in my MSTS setup?
To be as clear as possible; I can run AM once on any act, but subsequent attempts to Load ANY act file results in the error above. (this may sound like I can run it once on all acts, let me explain a bit more),
For example...clean install, I can load any particular act file...make all the changes and updates to the stock, generate(replace), and then run that act in MSTS...perfectly. ANY attempt thereafter to load ANY act file gives the error.
Hope this clears up some of the confusion.

Sorry, I just realized that last question may have confused you...that it obviously a Activity Generator question and probably should have been posted in the proper category in the forum.

Also, I think I may have found the source of my problem; there are a lot of extraneous template files and such left in my East Metro RR activity directory...that I may not have cleared out when I did my re-install of AM.

SLG-EMRRNB-ARCHIVE
WORKORDER-SLG-EMRRNB.txt
<snip>

It's hard to determine what is original EMRR template info...and what is added/used by AM. (I believe the SLG extension is used by either AM or AG). Do these need to be removed when/if I do a re-install of AM?

First, all of the files you list are related to Activity Generator except the Archive files. You can safely delete al the archive files but leaving the template files won't cause you any problems (MSTS doesn't read them, only AG does).

To be as clear as possible; I can run AM once on any act, but subsequent attempts to Load ANY act file results in the error above. (this may sound like I can run it once on all acts, let me explain a bit more),
For example...clean install, I can load any particular act file...make all the changes and updates to the stock, generate(replace), and then run that act in MSTS...perfectly. ANY attempt thereafter to load ANY act file gives the error.

That seems clear but it is so strange that I am not sure I am following you still. Are you saying you can download an activity, and change the rolling stock in it using Activity Master just fine, and then run the activity in MSTS just fine? But, if you load any other activity again in Activity Master, you get an error in Activity Master? Also please confirm that the error is in Activity Master not in MSTS, right?

This may be a Windows 7 compatibility problem. No other users have reported this issue with Activity Master. Activity Master creates some files that it uses to track how you have used it in the past: the types you've assigned to locos, etc. I apologize that I don't know much about W7. I will install it one day and then will be able to troubleshoot these things better. One guess is that AM needs to read, and write, files in your \Train Simulator\ folder and also in the \Program Files\AcivityMaster folder (that's where it keeps the internal configuration files). Can you be sure AM has full rights to those folders? You mentioned giving "ownership" of all the files in the MSTS file structure. Can you do the same with \Program Files\ActivityMaster? That may fix the problem (it sounds like AM may be creating a file that it later can't read or modify, or it may be TRYING to create a file that never gets written out.)

If not I will send you a refund for AM until I can test it and confirm it works (or fix it so it works) with Windows 7.

Any others: have you used Activity Master with Windows 7 and if so what results have you had?

Thanks,

Steve

[highdesertdave2]

First, all of the files you list are related to Activity Generator except the Archive files. You can safely delete al the archive files but leaving the template files won't cause you any problems (MSTS doesn't read them, only AG does).
That seems clear but it is so strange that I am not sure I am following you still. Are you saying you can download an activity, and change the rolling stock in it using Activity Master just fine, and then run the activity in MSTS just fine? But, if you load any other activity again in Activity Master, you get an error in Activity Master? Also please confirm that the error is in Activity Master not in MSTS, right?

This may be a Windows 7 compatibility problem. No other users have reported this issue with Activity Master. Activity Master creates some files that it uses to track how you have used it in the past: the types you've assigned to locos, etc. I apologize that I don't know much about W7. I will install it one day and then will be able to troubleshoot these things better. One guess is that AM needs to read, and write, files in your \Train Simulator\ folder and also in the \Program Files\AcivityMaster folder (that's where it keeps the internal configuration files). Can you be sure AM has full rights to those folders? You mentioned giving "ownership" of all the files in the MSTS file structure. Can you do the same with \Program Files\ActivityMaster? That may fix the problem (it sounds like AM may be creating a file that it later can't read or modify, or it may be TRYING to create a file that never gets written out.)

If not I will send you a refund for AM until I can test it and confirm it works (or fix it so it works) with Windows 7.

Any others: have you used Activity Master with Windows 7 and if so what results have you had?

Thanks,

Steve

First off I have this same problem. I don't have Windows 7 I have XP like one of the others who complained about this problem. I've had AM since 2007.

My experience is very similar to this person's I went an change out cars in an act by Henry Patey called Barstow act. for the CP3ML route AM said there was over 200 cars not on my drive. So I added some of the downloads to my trainsets. identified all the unkown car types, and then asked AM to change out all the cars I didn't have just with the same type cars.

AM seem to work just fine. but when I tried to run this act in Train Store it told me they were problems and after checking further I discovered AM hadn't changed anything in the act. Everthing was unstored in Train Store when I used AM.

So I called for AM and tried runing it and kept getting these same two messages as above. I tried using AM on other acts that I had change in the past on other route and got the same messages.

I'm not here for a refund. I liked AM when it works. I would like for you to fix this problem as It is absolutely useless to me now. This is in no way personal but on at least two other ocasions I mentioned problems with it (1) "overflow run 6" and (2) " can't find a certain car or diesel in the car array summary contact Skyline Computing" and never saw or found a fix for these problems.

When I bought AM I very very seldom had a problem with it, but since the last update It has been very hit and miss when I try to change out rolling stock. One thing I have notice is the larger the amount of stock you neen to change out the more these errors occur.

I have both AM and AG and appreciate Steve creating them very much, but again these problems with AM need to be addressed and fixed otherwise it's useless to me. I need a fix for XP not windows 7.

[sgdavis]

First off I have this same problem. I don't have Windows 7 I have XP like one of the others who complained about this problem. I've had AM since 2007.

My experience is very similar to this person's I went an change out cars in an act by Henry Patey called Barstow act. for the CP3ML route AM said there was over 200 cars not on my drive. So I added some of the downloads to my trainsets. identified all the unkown car types, and then asked AM to change out all the cars I didn't have just with the same type cars.

AM seem to work just fine. but when I tried to run this act in Train Store it told me they were problems and after checking further I discovered AM hadn't changed anything in the act. Everthing was unstored in Train Store when I used AM.

So I called for AM and tried runing it and kept getting these same two messages as above. I tried using AM on other acts that I had change in the past on other route and got the same messages.

I'm not here for a refund. I liked AM when it works. I would like for you to fix this problem as It is absolutely useless to me now. This is in no way personal but on at least two other ocasions I mentioned problems with it (1) "overflow run 6" and (2) " can't find a certain car or diesel in the car array summary contact Skyline Computing" and never saw or found a fix for these problems.

When I bought AM I very very seldom had a problem with it, but since the last update It has been very hit and miss when I try to change out rolling stock. One thing I have notice is the larger the amount of stock you neen to change out the more these errors occur.

I have both AM and AG and appreciate Steve creating them very much, but again these problems with AM need to be addressed and fixed otherwise it's useless to me. I need a fix for XP not windows 7.

There hasn't been an update for quite a while so I'm not sure what is meant by reference to "problems since a former update." It sounds like maybe something has happened to your installation of Activity Master, or perhaps the rsdb.csv file that stores the rolling stock. I will email you off list a link to a full install of the program in case that helps. Also I might suggest re-downloading the activities and deleting the \archive files so AM can start from scratch.

One thing - I think you know this because it's been covered in the forums but for best results we recommend that you run AM once, then don't run it again on another activity or the same activity. Rather exit it completely (to clear the memory and buffers) between runs.

The most common cause of problems such as you mention here is with rolling stock errors in the \TRAINSET folder. Norm and I recommend using Route Riter (a free utility) to go through and fix all rolling stock problems. That cures 90% of these types of problems. Activity Master doesn't fix problems with rolling stock, it just substitutes rolling stock.

I will download Patey's Barstow act and install the CP3ML route and see if I get these same problems. But I won't be able to do it until next weekend probably, since I'll be out of town for my job until later in the week and don't have MSTS on my laptop. I really do want to get this to work for you but it is very difficult for me to figure out what happens on each person's individual machine. If I can't duplicate the problem on my machine, then I'll need to send you a thumb drive and have you load your whole \TRAINSET folder (after using TrainStore to Unstore Everything of course) onto that, so I can run AM with YOUR rolling stock and see what happens or if I get errors.

I'm sorry you're having problems with the program. It is tough as a software author to write something that works on my machine and most others but then once in a while an individual has a problem. Usually once I figure out the cause of the problem I learn something and the software becomes better for it as I learn to deal with some anomaly in the files that I was unaware could exist.
I don't want to rip anyone off but realistically the best I can do if I can't get this working on your machine, is to refund your purchase price -- I know you said you don't want that but

I hope I can figure out what is going on with your machine and AM.

Thanks and sorry for the frustration,

Steve