Changing consists, What if I change the consist Options

[prr4ever]

After generating an activity the AG sometimes does not put the rolling stock I prefer on the sidings. I can go in with Con Builder or any other consist builder and change the rolling stock. However I have found then that the cars get renumbered and so mess up the work order. Is there a way to do this and keep the car numbers ? (The MSTS assigned numbers). I also have Activity Master but have not gotten into using it much. Perhaps it can do what I want?

Dave

[jrmeindl]

After generating an activity the AG sometimes does not put the rolling stock I prefer on the sidings. I can go in with Con Builder or any other consist builder and change the rolling stock. However I have found then that the cars get renumbered and so mess up the work order. Is there a way to do this and keep the car numbers ? (The MSTS assigned numbers). I also have Activity Master but have not gotten into using it much. Perhaps it can do what I want?

Dave

I use Activity Master to change out the stock. It will change out stock without messing with the ID's that were originally assigned. However, it will only change out a car type for the same car type, boxcars for boxcars, tankcars for tankcars, or however you have your actual stock set up. It the car on the siding is the wrong type, you could theoretically do it, but it would take some creativity on your part. You would have to fool around with the car types in your setup for those cars to make it work. In other words, if the car is a boxcar such as (US2FREIGHT8 US2FREIGHT8) and you really want a tankcar (USCHEMICAR USCHEMICAR), the car type would need to be changed for the one on the siding. Unfortunately, AM will also want to change out other occurances of that car as well. Or, you could manually edit the *.act file to insert the proper car type if you know how to work with the *.act file in an editor and then run AM.

Jim

[prr4ever]

I use Activity Master to change out the stock. It will change out stock without messing with the ID's that were originally assigned. However, it will only change out a car type for the same car type, boxcars for boxcars, tankcars for tankcars, or however you have your actual stock set up. It the car on the siding is the wrong type, you could theoretically do it, but it would take some creativity on your part. You would have to fool around with the car types in your setup for those cars to make it work. In other words, if the car is a boxcar such as (US2FREIGHT8 US2FREIGHT8) and you really want a tankcar (USCHEMICAR USCHEMICAR), the car type would need to be changed for the one on the siding. Unfortunately, AM will also want to change out other occurances of that car as well. Or, you could manually edit the *.act file to insert the proper car type if you know how to work with the *.act file in an editor and then run AM.

Jim

Thanks Jim,

I know well how to edit most files but looking at the .act files for the consist the uid's don't really describe the actual file name of the equipment in the consist. At least not in a manner I can make sense of.

What I really would like to do is be able to have AG load up sidings with loaded and MT coal such as the Pokey or ERD routes. Ditto on other routes that carry a lot of say TOFC or Tanks etc.

I can edit the consists okay with Con Builder but it does seem to change the car ID's and thus not agree with the work orders. Still as much fun but you will not get an activity completion. It is also a real time consumer editing loose consists which are quite random and often lengthy.

[jrmeindl]

Thanks Jim,

I know well how to edit most files but looking at the .act files for the consist the uid's don't really describe the actual file name of the equipment in the consist. At least not in a manner I can make sense of.

What I really would like to do is be able to have AG load up sidings with loaded and MT coal such as the Pokey or ERD routes. Ditto on other routes that carry a lot of say TOFC or Tanks etc.

I can edit the consists okay with Con Builder but it does seem to change the car ID's and thus not agree with the work orders. Still as much fun but you will not get an activity completion. It is also a real time consumer editing loose consists which are quite random and often lengthy.

True, an activity that has been generated by AG does not make sense trying to follow the UiD. The UiD only relates to the siding, where the original pickup event was created, not to the actual cars on the siding. There is a way to limit the type of cars that AG uses for sidings labeled 'Any'. When the template was created, a 'Car Type' file also needed to be created to have this work. There needs to be a file with the extension *.ctp in the 'Activities' folder. Not everyone, who designs a template, uses them. It's not a requirement for the template to work. The Pokey did not have one with the file that I have. It's easy to create though. Once you start AG, click on the 'Create and Modify Activity Templates' in the lower right. Then select 'Set Car Types OK to use as 'Any' in Template'. Navigate to the proper folder and load the 'SWLACT' file. Select the check box next to the cars you want AG to use and save.

Jim

[prr4ever]

Thanks Jim,
I'll sure give that a try tomorrow!

Dave

[prr4ever]

True, an activity that has been generated by AG does not make sense trying to follow the UiD. The UiD only relates to the siding, where the original pickup event was created, not to the actual cars on the siding. There is a way to limit the type of cars that AG uses for sidings labeled 'Any'. When the template was created, a 'Car Type' file also needed to be created to have this work. There needs to be a file with the extension *.ctp in the 'Activities' folder. Not everyone, who designs a template, uses them. It's not a requirement for the template to work. The Pokey did not have one with the file that I have. It's easy to create though. Once you start AG, click on the 'Create and Modify Activity Templates' in the lower right. Then select 'Set Car Types OK to use as 'Any' in Template'. Navigate to the proper folder and load the 'SWLACT' file. Select the check box next to the cars you want AG to use and save.

Jim

Jim,
I followed this procedure as you outlined. Taking the "Pokey" EB and WB templates (SWLACT) for some strange reason with the EB template loaded the only car selection available is "BX" I actually want mostly MT and loaded coal hoppers but only BX appears to allow selection. Going to the WB template I get a whole string of car abbreviations, none of which I can ID as loaded or MTcoal hoppers or gons. Is there a "listing" somewhere of the "default" abbreviations?

I have tried to use Activity Master to add the cars I want to the templates but with my WIN 7 set up AG will not function reliably. Aftter loading the rolling stock and I try to set up the type of cars I want, I get the error "Runtime error 6 overflow" AG is installed outside of the Program Files folder butMSTS is not. It is however set to read/write. I have all running as admin.

This last paragraph belongs in the AG forum, I simply added it here for your info.

[xpdingo]

Jim,
I followed this procedure as you outlined. Taking the "Pokey" EB and WB templates (SWLACT) for some strange reason with the EB template loaded the only car selection available is "BX" I actually want mostly MT and loaded coal hoppers but only BX appears to allow selection. Going to the WB template I get a whole string of car abbreviations, none of which I can ID as loaded or MTcoal hoppers or gons. Is there a "listing" somewhere of the "default" abbreviations?

I have tried to use Activity Master to add the cars I want to the templates but with my WIN 7 set up AG will not function reliably. Aftter loading the rolling stock and I try to set up the type of cars I want, I get the error "Runtime error 6 overflow" AG is installed outside of the Program Files folder butMSTS is not. It is however set to read/write. I have all running as admin.

This last paragraph belongs in the AG forum, I simply added it here for your info.

Dave:

The Pokey template has many coal cars listed both loaded and unloaded. Try scrolling down on the list.

Pete

[prr4ever]

Dave:

The Pokey template has many coal cars listed both loaded and unloaded. Try scrolling down on the list.

Pete

Thanks Pete,

I have gone through the Pokey Templates loose consists and replaced quite a few. But, the way I make activities with AG, there are hudreds of cars in an activity, many of which are not coal cars. Of course I can spend hours replacing them but, once created, when I replace cars with Consist Builder they lose their work order ID numbers that were assigned originally by MSTS. Thus the WO can never be completed. Not that that is any problem as the enjoyment is doing the work, not the end of it. I am just someone who likes things to work as advertised so I guess I concentrate too much on the little details. When the cars are not numbered as per the WO I just drop off the correct number of odd named ones. Works for me.

Dave

[jrmeindl]

Thanks Pete,

I have gone through the Pokey Templates loose consists and replaced quite a few. But, the way I make activities with AG, there are hudreds of cars in an activity, many of which are not coal cars. Of course I can spend hours replacing them but, once created, when I replace cars with Consist Builder they lose their work order ID numbers that were assigned originally by MSTS. Thus the WO can never be completed. Not that that is any problem as the enjoyment is doing the work, not the end of it. I am just someone who likes things to work as advertised so I guess I concentrate too much on the little details. When the cars are not numbered as per the WO I just drop off the correct number of odd named ones. Works for me.

Dave

What type of changes have you made to the loose consists? I might install the Pokey route and take a look. I haven't run this route in quite some time.

Jim

[prr4ever]

What type of changes have you made to the loose consists? I might install the Pokey route and take a look. I haven't run this route in quite some time.

Jim

Hi Jim.
I used ConBuilder and replaced a lot of the default cars with more prototypical cars for the Pokey. Some were simply cars I like the looks of. The MSTS defaults are kind of dull. I also Put a lot of MT and loaded coal hoppers in the mine and mine yard areas. I had ask AG to do a pretty complete fill of cars which it did but pretty ramdomly as to selection.

As I have been unable to get Activity Master to work well in Windows 7 I have been unable to build up groups of cars to ask it to use as fill.

AG has a way of doing this as well but for the Pokey EB template the only choice it gives is box cars. WB it gives a long list but with short abreviations I do not have a clue to the car type on 90% of them.

Other than that, no changes made.

[xpdingo]

Hi Jim.
I used ConBuilder and replaced a lot of the default cars with more prototypical cars for the Pokey. Some were simply cars I like the looks of. The MSTS defaults are kind of dull. I also Put a lot of MT and loaded coal hoppers in the mine and mine yard areas. I had ask AG to do a pretty complete fill of cars which it did but pretty ramdomly as to selection.

As I have been unable to get Activity Master to work well in Windows 7 I have been unable to build up groups of cars to ask it to use as fill.

AG has a way of doing this as well but for the Pokey EB template the only choice it gives is box cars. WB it gives a long list but with short abreviations I do not have a clue to the car type on 90% of them.

Other than that, no changes made.

Dave:

Check your PM

Pete

[sgdavis]

Thanks Jim,

I know well how to edit most files but looking at the .act files for the consist the uid's don't really describe the actual file name of the equipment in the consist. At least not in a manner I can make sense of.

What I really would like to do is be able to have AG load up sidings with loaded and MT coal such as the Pokey or ERD routes. Ditto on other routes that carry a lot of say TOFC or Tanks etc.

I can edit the consists okay with Con Builder but it does seem to change the car ID's and thus not agree with the work orders. Still as much fun but you will not get an activity completion. It is also a real time consumer editing loose consists which are quite random and often lengthy.

You shouldn't ADD cars to the generated activity, just change what's there. Then any software that subs one car for another will work, with the caveat that if AG put a hopper car on a siding, it will still think it's a hopper car, not a tank car even if you put a tank car there.

If this is just about having more cars on the sidings, you can increase the number of cars AG places in the "world" using a setting in AG. Note however that there is a limit, and the more cars in an activity the slower MSTS runs. If it wasn't for this MSTS limit, AG could fill every single siding completely. But we had to compromise with filling as many as we could w/o crashing MSTS. On really long routes/templates things can look sparse since AG tries to spread the cars over the whole area covered by the template.

You can play with the "World Fill Settings" in AG and that may give you the results you want. For instance if you only have it fill the areas you actually have work in, it will be able to put more cars in those areas (since it isn't filling other areas). Again, it is a compromise to deal w/ MSTS capacity. Perhaps the new OpenRails will render that a non-issue?

Thanks,

Steve Davis

[prr4ever]

You shouldn't ADD cars to the generated activity, just change what's there. Then any software that subs one car for another will work, with the caveat that if AG put a hopper car on a siding, it will still think it's a hopper car, not a tank car even if you put a tank car there.

If this is just about having more cars on the sidings, you can increase the number of cars AG places in the "world" using a setting in AG. Note however that there is a limit, and the more cars in an activity the slower MSTS runs. If it wasn't for this MSTS limit, AG could fill every single siding completely. But we had to compromise with filling as many as we could w/o crashing MSTS. On really long routes/templates things can look sparse since AG tries to spread the cars over the whole area covered by the template.

You can play with the "World Fill Settings" in AG and that may give you the results you want. For instance if you only have it fill the areas you actually have work in, it will be able to put more cars in those areas (since it isn't filling other areas). Again, it is a compromise to deal w/ MSTS capacity. Perhaps the new OpenRails will render that a non-issue?

Thanks,

Steve Davis

I understand Steve. I misused the word "added" should have said "replaced" I also know I can not replace a string of 40' cars with a string of 70' cars on short sidings.

The problem I found is I don't care if it calls a hopper a tank or vs/vs but it changes the car ID number also which does not allow work order completion. But as the fun is in the switching it is not that important anyway.
BTW , my system is pretty top line so the big fills hardly effect the frame rate, thus I like lots of rolling stock for eye candy. But that is just me. WIN 7 is the frustration!! If only I could get AM to work instead of those input past .....errors. It is a WIN 7 thing I guess.

[jrmeindl]

I understand Steve. I misused the word "added" should have said "replaced" I also know I can not replace a string of 40' cars with a string of 70' cars on short sidings.

The problem I found is I don't care if it calls a hopper a tank or vs/vs but it changes the car ID number also which does not allow work order completion. But as the fun is in the switching it is not that important anyway.
BTW , my system is pretty top line so the big fills hardly effect the frame rate, thus I like lots of rolling stock for eye candy. But that is just me. WIN 7 is the frustration!! If only I could get AM to work instead of those input past .....errors. It is a WIN 7 thing I guess.

"If only I could get AM to work instead of those input past .....errors. It is a WIN 7 thing I guess."

This is directly related to having AM, AG, Train Simulator and other utilities installed in 'Program Files (x86)' folder and not having all the correct administrator properties set. Not to sound like a broken record, but I would recommend anyone installing any Train Simulator program to a folder outside the 'Program Files' folder if they are using Windows 7.

Jim

[prr4ever]

"If only I could get AM to work instead of those input past .....errors. It is a WIN 7 thing I guess."

This is directly related to having AM, AG, Train Simulator and other utilities installed in 'Program Files (x86)' folder and not having all the correct administrator properties set. Not to sound like a broken record, but I would recommend anyone installing any Train Simulator program to a folder outside the 'Program Files' folder if they are using Windows 7.

Jim

ALL "correct" admin/ read/write etc are set in all programs. Everything, all MSTS utilities MSTS etc function fine. The exception is AM as previously stated. Also as previously stated I do not wish to move MSTS outside of the (x86) folder. My MSTS is over 70 GB. To move it and the utilities is simply not worth trying to get one program to work. AG and AM are installed outside of the Program Files folders. If ever I get a new hard drive etc I will install MSTS outside of the x86 folder. However this $2000 system is brand new so not much change in the near future.

[jrmeindl]

ALL "correct" admin/ read/write etc are set in all programs. Everything, all MSTS utilities MSTS etc function fine. The exception is AM as previously stated. Also as previously stated I do not wish to move MSTS outside of the (x86) folder. My MSTS is over 70 GB. To move it and the utilities is simply not worth trying to get one program to work. AG and AM are installed outside of the Program Files folders. If ever I get a new hard drive etc I will install MSTS outside of the x86 folder. However this $2000 system is brand new so not much change in the near future.

Acutually, moving your TS files is not really all that hard. If you copy it to some location on your hard drive, then un-install TS and do a re-install to the new location, all you have to do is copy your files back into the new location. TS should work just as it did before. I've moved my install (it's approximately 200GB) to three computers with this metheod and have had no problems at all running it. That includes using MSTSBin. I've only installed that once. It might take a few hours to copy the files, but I always did that at night. It might be an issue if you don't have a home network though.

Jim

[prr4ever]

Acutually, moving your TS files is not really all that hard. If you copy it to some location on your hard drive, then un-install TS and do a re-install to the new location, all you have to do is copy your files back into the new location. TS should work just as it did before. I've moved my install (it's approximately 200GB) to three computers with this metheod and have had no problems at all running it. That includes using MSTSBin. I've only installed that once. It might take a few hours to copy the files, but I always did that at night. It might be an issue if you don't have a home network though.

Jim

I also have moved MSTS at least 4 times in the past ten years so knowing how to do it is not the issue for me. ( I use an external hard drive to copy it over). I suppose I will get it done here one of these days. It is not just moving MSTS however. I have to delete the original to reset the registry on not only MSTS but I have to move over Train Store, Con Builder, Route Riter, and a total of about 11 utilities which may or may not then work. Plus most FL downloads from TS com and other web sites default to Program Files\MS games\MSTS and this is additional time. Some utilities I can simply change the path but also need a new registry entry, those such as Train Store also need a new place to "store" items. It is a matter of finding the time while also being able to use MSTS. As I said, do I move and set up all this for the reason to use one additional piece of software or do I simply do without the software? It is a personal issue, not an issue of how to do it.