Markers not visible

I have just read the Marker messages in this forum, but cannot find an appropriate answer. I have generated a few markers, following the instructions in Michael Vones treatise, but cannot get them to appear. I cannot get any response from the marker flag in View. The File name & entries in the filelook OK, and were saved in Unicode. Perhaps they should just have been saved as Text? An alternative might be to use powerline pylons.
Ken

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LAST EDITED ON Nov-11-04 AT 02:52 AM (EST)

Nope, they must be Unicode and the filename must be <your route>.mkr. Edit: Oh, and it must be in your Route folder. Edit 2: And your main MSTS folder must be named "Train Simulator"; you can't work with markers in an alternative MSTS folder, if you use that method of keeping things segregated. Things to try:1) Go to the very bottom of your .mkr file and place your cursor there. Is it at the end of a line of text or is it on a line all by itself? If on a line all by itself, then backspace until it is at the end of the last line of text (one that begins "Marker ( "). Resave as Unicode and try RE again.2) If you have a copy of TSTools, open your route in TSTools and look at your markers. Is the last one you added there? If yes, then close the route and try RE again. I've found that, sometimes, just opening and closing in TSTools seems to straighten things out. Go figure on that one.3) I assume that you have got the first line right...with zeros where there are supposed to be zeros and letter Os where there are supposed to be letter Os. Best way to do that is to copy the line from one of the default route .mkr files. 4) What editor did you use? WordPad, TextPad? If TextPad, was it the trial version or the registered version? I'm not sure, but I have sneaking suspicion that TextPad trial version doesn't save in Unicode, even if it says it is. Somebody may have a more authoritative answer on that. I have at least one bad .mkr file that TextPad opens correctly and says is in Unicode, but still has the null characters in it when I open it in WordPad. Finally...and I know it may be too late for you now...but be sure you back-up any marker file before you edit it. Once they get screwed up, I've found it's better to just go back to the beginning and try it again. When in doubt, trees work (and I suppose pylons or anything else with a clear vertical axis), but getting precise positions for scenery objects requires you to tilt your camera into the vertical position before placing the object. I've created some pretty good forests using trees to delineate elevation contours and it's not fun. Good luck...and let us know if any of this works for you.Charlie B

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Thanks Charlie B for your very helpful response. 1 is OK; 3 I copied the line fron an MSTS route; 4 I used Wordpad & saved in Unicode. I have just downloaded TS Tools, and if I can ever get my old brain around it I will give it a go.
Thanks to the other 2 guys who answered. There are no strange characters, and the file is saved correctly.
One thing that may be bugging it is that I recently loaded Demex on the route which already had some track laid. I am going to have relay it all,cos the elevation is incorrect. The other thing is that there is no tick against the marker line when I click on it in View.
Good thing that after 3 years,its still only a game!
Ken

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LAST EDITED ON Nov-11-04 AT 12:11 PM (EST)

Sometimes people use a character in their marker text that the Kujo code can't handle (e.g., !@#$%^&*()+=?><~/\]<`). I don't recall now what the full list is, but some of these are okay and some are not. IIRC the @ sign is okay. So the rule to follow is to keep marker text simple until such time you can't avoid it and then know what to do if the markers won't display afterwards.[P>Dave NelsonWP mainline, Oakland-Stockton: 100% complete;
SP mainline, Oakland-Stockton: 20% complete;
Aug 1950
<<new .sig under construction>>

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Hello,The marker file must get the SAME name as other files in your route-directory.For example:
If your files are named 'xxx.tdb' or 'xxx.tit', your marker-file must get the name 'xxx.mkr'.The part 'xxx' may differ from the name of the route-directory, because file-names can be redefined in the trk-file.You can see an example in the standard europe2-route.regards
carloshr

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