Message Areas - "I thought .ENG files stunk… then I modified a .REF file… "

Train-Sim.Com Message Areas

"I thought .ENG files stunk.......then I modified a .REF file....."

Email this topic to a friend
Printer-friendly version of this topic
Bookmark this topic (Registered users only)
Previous Topic | Next Topic Conferences MSTS Route Design (Protected) Original message
TrirailF40PHL (244 posts)
Jan-14-02, 07:26 PM (EST) "I thought .ENG files stunk.......then I modified a .REF file....." Well, while creating my CSX Southeast Florida route...I modified the .ref file when I had problems with a TSM station with excessive polys...boy was that a mistake. I fixed it, used the .ref and .ref backup files, AND shapes from the Chicago Elevated route, renamed the .ref files to csxcorrider (the original names) and while loading the route, when it's 90% loaded....."Microsoft Train Simulator has encountered a problem and needs to close." CAN'T IT TELL ME WHAT CAUSED THE ERROR? The error report is a buncha' NONSENCE.I thought .eng files were picky!!!! This is worse!!Oddly, I can still drive on the route.....bet I'll be getting Auran's MSTS route creator....Kurt Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
Table of Contents

Subject Author Message Date ID RE: I thought .ENG files stunk........ Motley24Crue2 Jan-14-02 1 RE: I thought .ENG files stunk........ sniper297 Jan-14-02 2 RE: I thought .ENG files stunk........ OkrasaGhia Jan-15-02 3

Lobby | Topics | Previous Topic | Next Topic
Messages in this topic
Motley24Crue2 (304 posts)
Jan-14-02, 07:42 PM (EST) 1. "RE: I thought .ENG files stunk.......then I modified a .REF file....." hehe Thanks to Sniper and his work i have no Need to Midify the *.Ref... Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
sniper297 (1343 posts)
Jan-14-02, 09:07 PM (EST) 2. "RE: I thought .ENG files stunk.......then I modified a .REF file....." Yeah, ref files are picky. The slightest mistype and they go tango uniform on you. My solution is copy & paste, I select the entire entry from one ref file, hit CTRL C, then switch to the other ref file and CTRL V it into there. Having a lot of RAM helps, when there's an error in the ref file you get "error in line 3687" or whatever instead of having the dumbassed thing just lock up or give send/don't send. Since wordpad don't have a line counter, I would then open up the ref file in the MSDOS editor, which does have one, select the text from that line number, CTRL C again, close MSDOS editor. (You can't edit and save it from the MSDOS editor cuz it don't do unicode.) Then I would open the ref in wordpad again, do the edit, find, and CTRL V the offending line into the find box so I could try to figure out what was wrong.
I've since found that objects are listed in alphanumeric order in the object menu independent of their location in the ref file, so it's probably easiest to paste custom object entries at the very end, since it don't affect their location in the menu anyway. That way you don't get missing or extra parenthesis stuff in there.
Just to clarify another point, try deleting the ref file altogether (assuming you have a backup copy). The editor will give you "error reading line 1" since there is no ref file, it will do the same if you misspell the name of the ref file. But the route will run fine in the sim, because the sim does not use the ref file. Once you place an object on the route, all the info for that object is in the \world file for the quad it's in, so even if you change to a different ref file that does not contain that object, it will still be on the route.
In the early days, before Chris Talpas made the first combined.ref, I used to paste marias ref, necorid.ref, settleca.ref, and all the others into a route, then I would rename marias.ref to my_route.ref, place a bunch of USA2 objects, save & exit, rename my_route.ref back to marias, rename orientx.ref to my_route.ref, and go back to place more objects. Tedious, but it worked fine as long as all the objects listed in the ref file you were currently using were in the route. It was after I got tired of looking at all the "object listed in the ref file is not in \shapes" errors that I made the first stuffit.bat. Then Chris uploaded combined.ref so I didn't have to keep switching ref files, Jim Steven made ALL_OBJECTS.REF after that, and I'm currently working on picking up where those two guys left off.
I'm still waiting for bug reports from the latest beta, here's the zip if any of you guys want to try it;http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/3c3d22853fb41330.zip
Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
OkrasaGhia (202 posts)
Jan-15-02, 07:20 AM (EST) 3. "RE: I thought .ENG files stunk.......then I modified a .REF file....." If you think ref-files hard then don't even think of the track dat-files. Will easily destroy all routes with one simple mistake.

//Okrasa
Chief Engineer
okrasaghia @ yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/okrasaghia



Steam: 0-4-0T #9, 0-6-0 #12, 2-6-0 #25, 2-6-6-2 #37, 2-8-2 #40
Diesels: SW8 #16, F3 #53, F7 #54, FP7 #57, Budd RDC #61, TrainMaster #88 Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Lock | Archive | Remove

Lobby | Topics | Previous Topic | Next Topic