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"What A pain in the ARSE!"

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woody (52 posts)
Aug-24-01, 00:50 AM (EST) "What A pain in the ARSE!" Well,I finally decided that I ain't gonna do diddly with this thingy called a route editor. What this here piece of software is, is garbage! First imoprt coordinates to create a marker file! Yeah ok! My marker file remains blank after entering the coordinates intofields that aren't specified as N or W!Next merge and import your DEM files into the editor and then use some other utility I can't find to imoprt them into MSTS route editor!After that, struggle your ass off just to lay track. And when you finally get the hang of it the program crashes and trashes your route. Way to go Microfuck! I planned on doing the entire New Orleans rail system from Baton Rouge to Biloxi. Ain't gonna happen. I'll wait for Trainz to come out and see what their Surveyor module has to offer.Seriously, I admire those of you who've thus far been able to tolerate such an archaic piece of junk software. Me, I got better things to do with my time, like run all of the routes you guys are creating and paint more locos! Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
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Subject Author Message Date ID RE: What A pain in the ARSE! railtester Aug-24-01 1 RE: What A pain in the ARSE! ceo492 Aug-24-01 2 RE: What A pain in the ARSE! railtester Aug-24-01 3 RE: What A pain in the ARSE! ceo492 Aug-24-01 4 RE: What A pain in the ARSE! woody Aug-24-01 5 RE: What A pain in the ARSE! sniper297 Aug-24-01 6 RE: What A pain in the ARSE! DKlemm Aug-24-01 7 RE: What A pain in the ARSE! railtester Aug-24-01 8 RE: What A pain in the ARSE! eveningstar Aug-24-01 9 RE: What A pain in the ARSE! wildh0rse Aug-24-01 10

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railtester (281 posts)
Aug-24-01, 01:39 AM (EST) 1. "RE: What A pain in the ARSE!" Hi Ken, I know the feeling. It took me several weeks to get the hang of the route editor. But... what I figured out was that I needed to just play with it on a 'practice' route until I felt confident enough to trust my 'where with all' on a real route. I have still not figured out MANY of its secrets (signaling for one) but I am comfortable enough to invest a lot of time in building two routes. This is 2 routes more than I thought I would ever build if you had asked me 2 months ago. I was pissed, just like you but one must not let Bill win! I just watched the Surveyor videos the other day and I look forward to TRANZ also. It looks MUCH easier to use and totally user-friendly. In fact it looked as though one could approach it with high anticipation rather than vague dread which is the case, for me sometimes, with route editor As for the utilities I have had no trouble with them and thank John S. and Wes D. every time I work on my routes. Without their utilities I would have probably quit by now because I wouldn't have gotten anything but mediocre results at best and certainly nothing approaching the share-quality routes I am working on. So two choices Ken: slog on with MSTS or wait for TRANZ. I understand either choice!Best regards, David Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
ceo492 (109 posts)
Aug-24-01, 02:03 AM (EST) 2. "RE: What A pain in the ARSE!" And of course, all of us MSTS route designers (like myself), are more than happy to have you enjoy our routes when they're done! The more the merrier!Sorry you had problems. I can relate - lost 4 weeks of work earlier on before I got the hang of things. Now, with 640megs of RAM and a 64meg Video Card, things are smoother, and I don't forget to back up anymore =)
Kern Pegg - Route Designer
Western Coast Xpress Virtual

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railtester (281 posts)
Aug-24-01, 02:18 AM (EST) 3. "RE: What A pain in the ARSE!" Kern, what are you doing up so late! Get some ZZZZZZZZ's! Take a break!LOL, David Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
ceo492 (109 posts)
Aug-24-01, 08:18 AM (EST) 4. "RE: What A pain in the ARSE!" Break? Sleep? There is no such thing when you have 10 guys waiting for the beta of your route. ) Besides, it's not late now, its early!Kern Pegg - Route Developer

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woody (52 posts)
Aug-24-01, 09:45 AM (EST) 5. "RE: What A pain in the ARSE!" Tell 'em ceo492. Thar ain't such a thang called Sleep in this here neck of the woods.One question to get started. In the marker utility, what coordinates is it looking for. First corner = what? (North then West?)example: -30.145 -91.122. Am I doing this right? All I get in the output file is a blank document in Wordpad!
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sniper297 (257 posts)
Aug-24-01, 10:00 AM (EST) 6. "RE: What A pain in the ARSE!" You ought to try starting simpler, woody. I started to try to build the CNW galena line, eventually gave up because of lack of objects that looked like anything on the route, and started making fictional routes until someone comes up with concrete embankments and better buildings and bridges. One of these days I may tackle it again, but again I'm going to "fake it." Make it so it looks real enough to ME, remembering all the time that I'm creating an illusion, so the exact lat/long coordinates don't mean diddly, screw the markers plant skyscrapers every klick or so then delete them afterwards, and I got enough on my plate with this buggy tempermental editor without trying to learn the quirks of new things like the dem extractors. KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid. Makes life a whole lot easier. Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
DKlemm (296 posts)
Aug-24-01, 10:23 AM (EST) 7. "RE: What A pain in the ARSE!" It took me many attempts and help from others to get marker file to work. You didn't say, but I assume you are saving it as a unicode document? Also, make sure it isn't adding a txt extension to it, mine was. So I got IllinoisCentral.mkr.txt. The txt will make it not work. From memory you have the coordinates in the correct way. Have you looked at the tech doc on this? If you haven't, it also says what else needs to be there.Hope this helps.David Klemm
Illinois Central
19 miles done, 41 to go!
Dunkin to Clinton IL
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railtester (281 posts)
Aug-24-01, 10:36 AM (EST) 8. "RE: What A pain in the ARSE!" LAST EDITED ON Aug-24-01 AT 10:37 AM (EST)>One question to get started. In
>the marker utility, what coordinates
>is it looking for. First
>corner = what? (North then
>West?)example: -30.145
>-91.122. Am I doing this
>right? All I get in
>the output file is a
>blank document in Wordpad! Above you say North then West but you write North as -30.145 when it should be just 30.145. In the convert utility the format is E/W in the first requester, N/S in the second ( that's why the default numbers are negative in the first requester, that's the clue to where E/W goes). N/S is never a negative number.Try it now.Regards, David Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
eveningstar (29 posts)
Aug-24-01, 11:59 AM (EST) 9. "RE: What A pain in the ARSE!" What is it JFK said about going to the moon? We choose to go there not becuase it is easy but because it is difficult? (Sorry my American history is a bit rusty) - Well I know what he means when it comes to the route editor (and I'm probably working to the same time scale as the Apollo missions!) It just wouldn't be the same without all the wailing and gnashing of teeth. I wonder if anyone from MS or Kuju is having a good chuckle reading these forums - yeh like I really think they constructed the entire Settle - Carlisle route using the route editor and starting with a flat terrain! The marker file is about the only thing that worked first time for me. I just copied the one from the Settle-Carlisle route, deleted the entries and added by own. Since my first fumblings I now use GPS Utilty to create a track (a series of co-ords not the metal thing) and waypoints txt file. Unfortunately (and well done to MS for this one) all the programs I have used for creating co-ords (including GPS Utility) do it in the order of n/s and then e/w whereas the marker file needs it in the order of e/w and then n/s, so I need to amend the txt file created by GPS Utilty to this order (using search and replace in Excel and Word helps a lot). This short messages doesn't explain much but it can be done. BTW, has anyone yet created a Bill Gates object that can be tied to the track?Paul Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
wildh0rse (172 posts)
Aug-24-01, 07:49 PM (EST) 10. "RE: What A pain in the ARSE!" My arse (ass in USA) is still hurtin'.I've done it all, and done it correctly. Endless hours, setting terrain tile heights and trying to figure out how to model a river that's only 2 feet deep. Getting to the triumphant moment of laying track, and then discovering my route feels like surfing on land when track heights are adjusted, because otherwise I'd have a ten foot tall roadbed. Can you get seasick in a GP38? I almost did. As far as the gps track thing, well done... I can;t imagine what it would be like if we simply followed the markers. Oh sure, I was able to get them closer, but as I followed the route, I found the error to be greatre and greater. I chose a very mountainous section of track to do , true, but it shouldn't be as hard as it is.. It was noted here that a utility will soon be available for auto tracking based on markers; I'd stick with oyur plan and use the gps feature. And, being an old fart, I remember the moon landings well. I also remember what all the adults would frequently say when confronted with some seemingly insurmountable problem: "They can send a man to the moon, but they can't ...."
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