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I am working on my first route, and have gotten to the point of adding some buildings. In one place I need a small engine shed. I found something suitable in the FL, downloaded it, followed the instructions, added the shapes and textures to the route, and hacked in the .ref info. My problem is that I cannot find the shed listed anywhere in the menu of objects in route editor. This is only the forth object I have added, but the first three went in fine and are on the object menu. Since I'm an RE newbie, I'd thought I'd ask if I'm missing something stupid before I go and do something stupid.Thanks in advance . . . Brad Meyer
Hi Brad,I'm just wildly guessing, but could it be you mixed up brackets when adding the item to the ref file, so that it "closes" before the last entry, and MSTS does not read it all the way to the end? Or did you miss a "" when using a file name or description with spaces inbetween words?Check the ref file with the fine comb where you have made changes. Check if other shapes next to the car barn you added are displayed or not, in order to narrow down the area in which the error hides. The building should be displayed in the list of available items under the category you entered in the class line. Two examples for sound ways to enter an item:Static ( Class ( "Buildings Railroad Related" ) Filename ( CarbarnX.s ) Align ( None ) Description ( "Trolley Carbarn" ) )orStatic ( Class ( Buildings_Railroad_Related ) Filename ( CarbarnX.s ) Align ( None ) Description ( Trolley_Carbarn ) )Hope to be pointing you the right way Lukas a.k.a Swissie Edited for typo
Brad - something else to check are the parentheses. If you leave one off, the RE won't read anything else from the .ref file. This is particularly noticeable if you lose a parenthesis near the top of the .ref file. You "lose" items that were previously available in the object select window. But if you add a new item to the end and it's missing a parenthesis, you'll only "lose" that last item.Andy
>Hi Brad, > >I'm just wildly guessing, but could it be you mixed up >brackets . . .No, I had enough experience with .wag files to know to check that as soon as I entered the info.>The building should be displayed in the list of available >items under the category you entered in the class line. Bingo!! I checked the .ref file for the class info, went back into RE and there they were, right where they were supposed to be. I did not understand the relationship between the "class" and the menu of objects one sees in RE. Thanks a whole heap mon.Question: Is the "class" of a scenery object more or less arbitrary? I'm thinking it might be handy to list the new structures I bring in as a class "imported buildings" as an easy way to keep track of what I might have to ask permission about if I ever wanted to share the route.Again, thanks for the steer.Brad Meyer
Hi Brad,it is quite arbitrary, definitely for all "static" scenery items - I never thought about altering the class for interactive objects like "mainline stations" for the interactive platform & siding, or "hazards" for the dear on track and Heidi the hiker. For any static items, you can definitely alter the class line without negative consequences, also for objects already in the .ref file/installed in the route. It is a bit like name lines in .wag and .eng files: Every author puts in his preferred terminology, and what you as the end-user end up with is a mix of styles, terms, abbrevations etc. So I do actually alter the class line in the .ref file for any item I add, to have a total of maybe 30 classes / categories to work with in the RE. Where necessary, I do also alter the description line to give me a better idea what the item actually is. This discipline pays off in terms of quickly finding what I need.Some of the standard classes I use, just for curiosity:"Animals & people" "Billboards" "Bridges Rail" "Bridges Highway" "Buildings City" "Buildings Farmland" "Buildings Industry" "Buildings Residential" "Churches & Landmarks" "Clutter" "Crossing Signals" "Distant Backdrops" "Docks & Piers" "Dummy Roads" "Dummy Track" "Fences" "Objects Public Servies" "Objects Industry" "Road Fillers" "Road Signs" "Rocks" "Static Consists" "Track Objects" "Trackside Signs" "Transfers" "Vegetation Trees" "Vegetation Weeds" "Vehicles"When you do stick to your classification whenever you add an object, then the additional work of re-classifying all the objects is worth the little bit of extra time it takes. At least I don't like to have a gazillion of clategories to go looking for a specific item of which I know that it must be installed And classes like "TSM_objects" or "misc." or "xyz's_scenery" are totally useless to me...Lukas a.k.a Swissie