40-footers in scenarios???

[pallent]

I thought those new 40-foot cars would look great in a scenario for the Cottonwood route, but then I ran into a problem. I placed an engine and a string of three 40-foot flatcars with various loads. Then I tried an instruction to have the engine couple to the string of three cars. Only one of the cars--the one I clicked first--produced a number and showed up in the instruction. I'm not sure what the problem is, but is it isn't fixed these cars will not be of much use in scenarios.

I hope that their creator sees this post and tackles the problem, which may lie in the DCSV file that should contain potential numbers for the cars.

Tom Pallen

[bs rr co]

I run freeroam senarios exclusively but have noticed that it seems like all of the flatcars have the same id number. This has caused no problems on any freeroam trials that have been done. but i do not know how they act with preset senarios.

[kcjones]

Which 40 ft cars are you talking about? flats or box cars?
If you look in the readme file that came with the package you should be able to contact their creator directly.
Whoever it is may want his creation to be of more use in scenarios. ;-}

Dick C.

[pallent]

Which 40 ft cars are you talking about? flats or box cars?
Dick C.

So far I've only tried some of the flats. I'll give the boxes a go and then try to get a message to their maker.

Tom Pallen

[GreatNortherner]

(...)I'm not sure what the problem is, but is it isn't fixed these cars will not be of much use in scenarios.

I hope that their creator sees this post and tackles the problem, which may lie in the DCSV file that should contain potential numbers for the cars.

Tom Pallen

Hello Tom,

sorry for the late reply. I was always wondering what that car numbers file was supposed to be doing if there is no auto-numbering. I'm afraid it's my fault that the flats are not working in scenarios, as I think I messed with the DCSV file you mentioned. The thing is, so far I never even ran any single RS scenario other than "free roam", mostly I just build stuff. So, thanks for the report! I'll look into it and I'm sure there will be an easy fix.

Cheers!
Michael

Edit: My repaints of Dick's 40' boxcars might have the same issue, I'll check. Maybe I did the same mistake when adjusting Dick's BIN files, I'll have a look.

[pallent]

I was always wondering what that car numbers file was supposed to be doing if there is no auto-numbering. I'm afraid it's my fault that the flats are not working in scenarios, as I think I messed with the DCSV file you mentioned. The thing is, so far I never even ran any single RS scenario other than "free roam", mostly I just build stuff. So, thanks for the report! I'll look into it and I'm sure there will be an easy fix.

Cheers!
Michael

Edit: My repaints of Dick's 40' boxcars might have the same issue, I'll check. Maybe I did the same mistake when adjusting Dick's BIN files, I'll have a look.

In fact, I tried the 40' boxcars yesterday, still on the Cottonwood route. They produce very long numbers, like those I have seen in some repaints by jessiejames2. This is how these numbers appear in the F1 Description box:

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj240/oldprof_RS/RailSimEditor2009-01-1110-28-35-81.jpg

And this is how they appear after pressing the F7 key:

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj240/oldprof_RS/RailSimEditor2009-01-1110-29-08-03.jpg

Hope these images help...

Tom Pallen

[GreatNortherner]

Oh my, these are some loooong car numbers. Imagine having to go through them on the radio one by one, or just filling them into the lists and forms. :eek: :rolleyes:

Thanks for the pictures! No fix yet (I'm away from my RS computer at the moment), but soon, I hope.

Cheers!
Michael

[pallent]

Attention all repainters, reskinners, etc. RSAdam of the RS forums has provided me a solution for the car numbers problem. In case you haven't been paying attention, some repaints have shown up lately that do not generate car numbers when used with Consist Instructions in scenarios, or that generate extremely long numbers.

So here's how to avoid (or fix) this situation:


1) the car's Wagon subfolder must contain a DCSV file, which lists all the potential numbers for assignment to that car, and


2) the car's BIN file must contain a specific reference to its DCSV file.


Here's how to make this work. For the sake of an example, let's say that you are basing your reskin on the Def2 version of the Cement Hopper. Be sure that the new repaint's Wagon subfolder contains a copy of the correct DCSV file, in this case, that file is called cement_hopper_Def2_numbers.dscv . Now it's time to edit the BIN file. Open the file in RS_Tools and search for the following text string: "<CsvFile d:type="cDeltaString">" (the quotatin marks are not part of the string!). The reference to the DCSV file must appear right after this string. If it isn't there, insert it. In this example, that reference should read as follows: "Kuju\RailSimulatorUS\RailVehicles\Freight\CementHo pper\Def2\Wagon\cement_hopper_Def2_numbers". Immediately following this comes a string that reads "</CsvFile>". Once you have found or inserted this information, save the file. That's it!

Again, thanks to RSAdam for this solution. I've tested it on a number of cars and it works every time.

One last thing: make sure that you copy the DCSV file, not move it. When I started applying this technique to the 40-foot boxcars, I discovered that the DSCV file was missing from the Default version of the car and that is evidently a no-no. Once I put a copy into that car's Wagon folder, all the cars showed up with normal numbers.

Tom Pallen

[GreatNortherner]

Tom,

Thank you very much for forwarding this to all of us! This is very helpful news -- albeit maybe not that "new" news, seeing the fix for this issue has been staring me right in the face all the time, if only my eyesight was better. :D
So thanks Tom and Adam for clarifying this one for us!

I'll work on a fix for all my repaints as soon as possible.

Cheers!
Michael

[pallent]

I thought that, with RSAdam's help, I had gotten to the bottom of this numbers issue, but then....

Today I went back to working on the second of my Barstow switching scenarios. Having fixed (I thought) the numbering problem with a whole slew of downloaded rolling stock (most of it by jessejames2), I started setting up some Consist Instructions...and there were those **&$$!!! long numbers again. To check the situation, I tried placing some fresh, supposedly fixed, versions of cars that had created wierd numbers. Nothing had changed. I shut down RS, opened RS_Tools, checked some of the problematic cars' BIN files. From everything I could see, the cars should now be generating normal numbers...but they aren't.

Frankly, until this situation gets straightened out, I can't see any purpose to writing scenarios with these dicey cars. I've done all that I can; now it's up to the reskinners out there to recheck all their products and fix this issue.

By the way, you don't have to write a Consist Instruction to check a car's number. Just double-click it after placing it on a track while editing. The car's ID box (where you can check the "load" box), displays the car's number at the top. If this number has 8 digits, everything's fine. If it has more or fewer than 8, you've got some work to do.

Regards,

Tom Pallen

[GreatNortherner]

Hi,

I think/hope/assume I got it fixed. At least it's working on my RS now, from what can tell after some testing runs.

Please have a look into the attached ZIP file at the botton of this post. It contains two CSV files, one for my flatcars, the other for (all) my 40ft Boxcar repaints. To install them, simply extract the ZIP and copy the CSV files to each of the Flatcar's and 40ft Boxcar's WAGON subdirectory.

It should work. If I do not get any error report I'll upload it as a fix to the file library.

The only downside is that I used fictional numbers for the files. But seeing we most likely have to stick to a fixed length of the numbers anyway, I don't see that it matters.

Cheers!
Michael

PS: The 40ft boxcar CSV should work in ANY of the repaints of Dick Cowen's boxcar.

[pallent]

Since I first pointed out the situation, I'll happily to be the first one to say that "It works!!!"

Thanks for taking the time and effort to make the fix, Michael. Let's hope that other repainters follow suit (are you listening, jessejames2?).

Tom Pallen