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Skyline User's Forum _ Activity Master _ More TPII Problems

Posted by: spguy Jul 11 2008, 03:41 PM

Hi-

I don't know if I'm the only one who's having problems with AM/AG and TPII; but it seems that everytime I create an activity and then attempt to change out the 3dts rolling stock, or just change out the 3dts rolling stock in an exisitng activity, I get various error messages, "Run Time 6" mostly, followed by something about a "rigid car body" or "rigid body" when I try to start the sim...I've only been getting these messages on this route...any ideas? I seem to recall it being said that "run Time 6" had something to do with missing files? Any suggestions? Thanks.

spguy

Posted by: sgdavis Jul 13 2008, 12:08 PM

QUOTE(spguy @ Jul 11 2008, 04:41 PM) *
Hi-

I don't know if I'm the only one who's having problems with AM/AG and TPII; but it seems that everytime I create an activity and then attempt to change out the 3dts rolling stock, or just change out the 3dts rolling stock in an exisitng activity, I get various error messages, "Run Time 6" mostly, followed by something about a "rigid car body" or "rigid body" when I try to start the sim...I've only been getting these messages on this route...any ideas? I seem to recall it being said that "run Time 6" had something to do with missing files? Any suggestions? Thanks.

spguy


Rigid car body errors can mean that rolling stock was placed where there isn't room for it -- possibly because you replaced rolling stock of one length, with longer rolling stock. Also, if you get an error message in Activity Master, you should restore the original activity, you should not attempt to run an activity modified by Activity Master if AM generated an error while replacing the rolling stock, as the results will be unpredictable.

I'm more interested in exactly what error messages you get, and what causes them (what you do, when do they come up, what do they say, etc.?) Generally all of these are caused by rolling stock problems. I highly recommend going through all your rolling stock using ConBuilder and/or RouteRiter to sort out and fix any problems first. AM SHOULD run without any errors.

If you need further help please email me directly at SteveDavis@skylinecomputing.com, and if necessary I will set up a session to help you live on line.

Thanks and sorry about the problems,

Steve

Posted by: spguy Jul 13 2008, 06:15 PM

Hi:

Thanks for getting back...I will start saving the text of the exact messages as I get them (again, it only seems to this route for some reason); I'll send them to you as soon as I can get back into fiddling with AM. Thanks again for the reply, and don't worry, AM and AG are still the best things since sliced bread as far as MSTS is concerned!

spguy

Posted by: Blue Train Aug 1 2008, 07:58 AM

Hi
Unfortunately at this point in time I cannot agree with the above statement.
I stopped MSTS about 4 yrs ago due to the addon of activities. This was more about the fact that we did not have the ISP connection speed in Africa what other countries were experiencing in the rest of the world.
This resulted that I only tried activities with default stock.
I run a fairly OK PC and graphics card ( FSX = 28fps )
I have the full MSTS with all the routes installed. I have spent the last 3 evenings till about 01h00 in the morning trying to get 1 activity loaded and running and believe me I am now at the point where I have to re-install MSTS.
I can only think that the fact of having problems with adding anything to MSTS ( stock, activities ) must have had an influence in the selling of MSTS.
Using AM gave me so many diff error messages and I can only assume that one does need 2 or 3 more other programs in assiting you before you can make use of AM.
I unfortunately cannot allways connect to the net to watch the video that is available and would think that having been able to down load the video and watch it in your own time would be a nice to have.
I am not shooting Am "DOWN" in this point in time, as I feel I must still give it a fair chance in checking it out.
It is more the frustration and then the video that makes it look so easy and have any activity up and running in 10 minutes.
I am realy looking at only getting a very basic activity with add-on stock to work, with the rolling stock on my system.
I have about 250 units ( engines, coaches and freight-cars) loaded on my system, so yes what I am saying is that I do not just want to run with the default stock which was given to me with the purchase of MSTS.
I shall keep on trying before I look at AG.
Thank you for reading my frustration.
Regards from South Africa.

Posted by: nbeveridge Aug 2 2008, 10:17 AM

QUOTE(Blue Train @ Aug 1 2008, 07:58 AM) *
Hi
Unfortunately at this point in time I cannot agree with the above statement.
I stopped MSTS about 4 yrs ago due to the addon of activities. This was more about the fact that we did not have the ISP connection speed in Africa what other countries were experiencing in the rest of the world.
This resulted that I only tried activities with default stock.
I run a fairly OK PC and graphics card ( FSX = 28fps )
I have the full MSTS with all the routes installed. I have spent the last 3 evenings till about 01h00 in the morning trying to get 1 activity loaded and running and believe me I am now at the point where I have to re-install MSTS.
I can only think that the fact of having problems with adding anything to MSTS ( stock, activities ) must have had an influence in the selling of MSTS.
Using AM gave me so many diff error messages and I can only assume that one does need 2 or 3 more other programs in assiting you before you can make use of AM.
I unfortunately cannot allways connect to the net to watch the video that is available and would think that having been able to down load the video and watch it in your own time would be a nice to have.
I am not shooting Am "DOWN" in this point in time, as I feel I must still give it a fair chance in checking it out.
It is more the frustration and then the video that makes it look so easy and have any activity up and running in 10 minutes.
I am realy looking at only getting a very basic activity with add-on stock to work, with the rolling stock on my system.
I have about 250 units ( engines, coaches and freight-cars) loaded on my system, so yes what I am saying is that I do not just want to run with the default stock which was given to me with the purchase of MSTS.
I shall keep on trying before I look at AG.
Thank you for reading my frustration.
Regards from South Africa.



Have you cleaned up all your rolling stock errors? We have found that rolling stock errors can cause AM to not functin well. ConBuilder really helps with this. Also, Route-Riter has quite a few routines that can help with rolling stock errors. I am not saying that this is definitely a rolling stock problem, just trying to indicate to you the effect of rolling stock errors.

I am sure that Steve will help you with this.

Posted by: sgdavis Aug 2 2008, 11:52 AM

QUOTE(Blue Train @ Aug 1 2008, 08:58 AM) *
Hi
Unfortunately at this point in time I cannot agree with the above statement.
I stopped MSTS about 4 yrs ago due to the addon of activities. This was more about the fact that we did not have the ISP connection speed in Africa what other countries were experiencing in the rest of the world.
This resulted that I only tried activities with default stock.
I run a fairly OK PC and graphics card ( FSX = 28fps )
I have the full MSTS with all the routes installed. I have spent the last 3 evenings till about 01h00 in the morning trying to get 1 activity loaded and running and believe me I am now at the point where I have to re-install MSTS.
I can only think that the fact of having problems with adding anything to MSTS ( stock, activities ) must have had an influence in the selling of MSTS.
Using AM gave me so many diff error messages and I can only assume that one does need 2 or 3 more other programs in assiting you before you can make use of AM.
I unfortunately cannot allways connect to the net to watch the video that is available and would think that having been able to down load the video and watch it in your own time would be a nice to have.
I am not shooting Am "DOWN" in this point in time, as I feel I must still give it a fair chance in checking it out.
It is more the frustration and then the video that makes it look so easy and have any activity up and running in 10 minutes.
I am realy looking at only getting a very basic activity with add-on stock to work, with the rolling stock on my system.
I have about 250 units ( engines, coaches and freight-cars) loaded on my system, so yes what I am saying is that I do not just want to run with the default stock which was given to me with the purchase of MSTS.
I shall keep on trying before I look at AG.
Thank you for reading my frustration.
Regards from South Africa.


I think I emailed you with some suggestions, did any of them help? Or was that another individual also in South Africa? If not I can go "live" on line with you, even with you being in South Africa. We just need to agree on a time. I am on US Central time which is GMT - 6 hours.

Please email me directly at SteveDavis@skylinecomputing.com if I can be of more help. If we can't get this working to your satisfaction I'll of course refund your purchase price. However AM really should be just the thing for what you are frustrated with -- it will replace all rolling stock in activities you didn't download, with rolling stock you DO have on your HD.

Also what kind of error messages are you getting? If you check the "generate debug file" box and then email me the file "debug.txt" which will be created in your \Program Files\ActivityMaster folder, I should be able to figure out what is going wrong.

As per my email, before going with the more complex "specific list" option, try the default of just letting AM replace all the rolling stock without creating a specific list.

If the errors are all while reading your Trainset folder, then Norm is right. Downloading ConBuilder and/or RouteRiter and using them to identify and fix errors in your rolling stock file, will likely solve all of your problems and eliminate the errors you are seeing. There is a freeware and a payware version of ConBuilder and Joe Bandit frequents this forum, he can help you with ConBuilder questions.

I am sorry you are having trouble.

Posted by: dgionet Aug 2 2008, 04:00 PM

Hi Blue Train,

Greetings from Canada! In regards with the use of the Activity Master software, I do understand some of your frustration in having difficulties with AM. A few years ago, when I have purchased AM, had some of the troubles you had and finally gave it up for a while. A few months later, I have decided to take it a shot again and had received help from Steve and Norm and finally got the hang of it. I don't use it as much as the Activity Generator (AG) software but it works. I have made templates for AG, including South Africa's Western Province Metro route made this Spring and am very happy to see some of our users from other countries.

I am confident with some patience and some help from our colleagues, you will be able to push it through and enjoy AM at its fullest. Don't give up! We have a very dedicated team and colleagues ready to assist in the best of their capabilities. This is why I am still today here and glad to be part of this team.

Cheers

biggrin.gif

Posted by: sgdavis Aug 7 2008, 06:26 AM

QUOTE(dgionet @ Aug 2 2008, 05:00 PM) *
Hi Blue Train,

Greetings from Canada! In regards with the use of the Activity Master software, I do understand some of your frustration in having difficulties with AM. A few years ago, when I have purchased AM, had some of the troubles you had and finally gave it up for a while. A few months later, I have decided to take it a shot again and had received help from Steve and Norm and finally got the hang of it. I don't use it as much as the Activity Generator (AG) software but it works. I have made templates for AG, including South Africa's Western Province Metro route made this Spring and am very happy to see some of our users from other countries.

I am confident with some patience and some help from our colleagues, you will be able to push it through and enjoy AM at its fullest. Don't give up! We have a very dedicated team and colleagues ready to assist in the best of their capabilities. This is why I am still today here and glad to be part of this team.

Cheers

biggrin.gif


Thanks Denis for your kind words!

Also Joe Smith (Sr. Programmer for ConBuilder) has been very gracious and has helped me with some suggested additional error trapping routines for Activity Master. Once I have had a chance to run some rigorous tests on those and perhaps add more error checking, I will be posting an update to Activity Master that does a better job of handling errors in rolling stock files.

Remember Activity Master is no substitute for ConBuilder or RouteRiter: all have different purposes and all are valuable. ConBuilder will idenfity and fix problems with your rolling stock files. Activity Master will not -- it simply replaces rolling stock in activities, very quickly and efficiently, "en masse". Nor can you build new consists or add to consists using Activity Master: again that is the domain of ConBuilder.

We are fortunate to have so many great tools available to us in this very mature simulator, all authored by third parties. I am glad that Activity Master is one of those tools, and I certainly use it a lot, especially when testing the AG templates written by others and I don't want to download all the rolling stock required, or, when I want to run or generate an activity and simulate a particular railroad and/or era.

Blue Train, again please reach out to me via email at SteveDavis@skylinecomputing.com or here and either I'll help you with your problems that way, or we can go live on line together, using software I have that enables me to see your screen -- while you also see it -- and that way rather than my having to ask "20 questions" to figure out what is going on, I can just fix the problems for you, and you can learn by observing how they are fixed. AM is the sort of program that, once we get it working and all the kinks worked out of your rolling stock files, it will typically run from then on with little or no fuss or problem, and you will no longer need my help. Also, if you could click on the "generate debug file" box, try and use Activity Master on an activity, then send me the debug.txt file that the program will generate (you'll find it in your \Program Files\ActivityMaster folder) via email to SteveDavis@skylinecomputing.com, I may be able to identify the problem that way. This file is basically a "window" into the thought process that goes on within Activity Master while it is processing files. It basically lists every file encountered/processed, and any problems with it. And if the list abruptly stops at a certain file, most likely it is that file which needs attention from Route Riter or ConBuilder to be fixed -- or stored by train store or moved out of your rolling stock \TRAINSET folder if you prefer.

Thanks,

Steve

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