AG4 Enhancement List Options

[sgdavis]

Norm and I have been discussing what features would be important to incorporate into the next release (next full version) of Activity Generator.  The bad news is I may not be able to get this done until this summer when things slow down somewhat.

 

Here are our initial thoughts:

 

AG 4.0 New Features

·                       New SWLTDB file format

·                       Both numbers for each spur (solves problem with track numbers in SWLACT and SWLTDB files not matching)

·                       Field for CarTypeWanted (as always) PLUS new field CarTypeShipped (so these can be changed simply by changing the SWLACT file without a need to edit the activity .act file).

·                       Fields allow for multiple types, space delimited (so a spur could accept, say, covered hoppers and/or tank cars, or any combination of cars, and ship out the same or different cars.)

·                       New track selection window: Destination track(s)  -- This is so cars picked up at "Industry" tracks (online shippers/customers) will be scheduled to be set out somewhere rather than just picked up, at the user's option.  Also it will make generating Through Trains w/o switching easier: you could start with a train already assembled and have ONLY a destination track, the only goal would be to stop off as much of the original train as will fit on that track or tracks at the end of the run (basically, one setout, or more if the user desires) at the end of the run.

·                       Depending on capacity of those tracks, all industry pickups will go to that track or tracks

·                       If there aren't enough industry pickups to satisfy the "total pickups" then yard track pickups will be added to go to the destination track

·                       Design Challenge: Need to figure out how to determine car type to move when starting with a "Yard" track or in the player's train, and then setting out in another yard track.  Suggestions?

·                       Suggestion: in fill world routines, like kinds (types) grouped together in a cut as an option?  So you see strings of boxcars, then tank cars, etc., in yard cuts rather than a more random sequence?

·         New track type (i.e. not Y or I or U) just for world fill: X.  Pickups/setouts never scheduled for these tracks, just used for world fill.  This would be useful to place cars on the "other side of the tracks" for double track routes or for spurs that can only be used for facing point setouts which are passed by a train but may not be schedulable for work by the template designer.

·        Save selections for activity generation in a file (.dat?) and allow reload (so if you choose source tracks, industry tracks, number of pickups, etc., you can just reload that and generate a new activity using the same settings.)  This could be useful if you generate an activity but don't like the work you got, the length of the train, the amount of fill, etc., and would like to generate the same activity again.  Once the settings were loaded you could make changes before pressing the "Generate" button.  Or generate with exactly the same settings.

 

These enhancements are really targeted to our template designers and our more advanced users.  If you have thoughts on these enhancements, questions, or suggestions, or can help with any of the design challenges above, please respond to this topic here on this forum.

 

Thanks!

 

Steve

sgdavis2007-4-23 19:19:13