New version of Route-Riter v4.1.03

I have uploaded a new version of RR here, should appear in a couple of days once Neils gives it the OK.It includes a few bug fixes (now correctly checks all activities when there are over approx 1200 paths) and some minor changes.The main change is a completely new set of zip tools. RR will now zip up a route in multiple parts which are all the same size (apart from the last one which is the index). All you need to do is select a route after it has been prepared for distribution, click on Prepare Multiple Part and enter a figure for approx zip size, say 15 megs. The route is then split up into the appropriate number of parts with files named:-Blue-Mountains.z01
Blue-Mountains.z02
etc
Blue-Mountains.zipThis naming convention works OK with WinZip 8 and later, and should work with PKZip as well. Unzipping the Blue-Mountains.zip file actually unzips the whole archive. The program supports relative paths, therefore the files are held in the archive as Blue-Mountains\Shapes etc. and everything is just unzipped into your Train Simulator\Routes folder for correct placement.In the General Utils section there is a program MyZipp which will unzip the above if you do not have Winzip 8.Mike

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RE: New version of Route-Riter v4.1.03, computeraki, Jun-30-03, 07:45 AM, (1) RE: New version of Route-Riter v4.1.03, CSXALine, Jun-30-03, 12:22 PM, (2) RE: New version of Route-Riter v4.1.03, OwainGlyndwr, Jun-30-03, 05:02 PM, (3) RE: New version of Route-Riter v4.1.03, MikeSimpson, Jun-30-03, 06:22 PM, (4) RE: New version of Route-Riter v4.1.03, sniper297, Jun-30-03, 06:25 PM, (5) RE: New version of Route-Riter v4.1.03, Bing, Jun-30-03, 09:36 PM, (6) RE: New version of Route-Riter v4.1.03, sniper297, Jun-30-03, 10:45 PM, (7) RE: New version of Route-Riter v4.1.03, MikeSimpson, Jul-01-03, 06:19 PM, (8) RE: New version of Route-Riter v4.1.03, sniper297, Jul-02-03, 00:46 AM, (9) RE: New version of Route-Riter v4.1.03, MikeSimpson, Jul-02-03, 06:53 AM, (10) RE: New version of Route-Riter v4.1.03, Bing, Jul-02-03, 11:23 AM, (11) RE: New version of Route-Riter v4.1.03, jdtrainman, Jul-07-03, 05:40 PM, (16) RE: New version of Route-Riter v4.1.03, jdtrainman, Jul-07-03, 06:02 PM, (17) RE: New version of Route-Riter v4.1.03, jdtrainman, Jul-07-03, 06:10 PM, (18) RE: New version of Route-Riter v4.1.03, MikeSimpson, Jul-07-03, 08:42 PM, (19) RE: New version of Route-Riter v4.1.03, jdtrainman, Jul-07-03, 09:03 PM, (20) RE: New version of Route-Riter v4.1.03, MikeSimpson, Jul-07-03, 10:34 PM, (21) RE: New version of Route-Riter v4.1.03, OTTODAD, Jul-03-03, 06:37 PM, (12) RE: New version of Route-Riter v4.1.03, MikeSimpson, Jul-04-03, 07:07 PM, (13) RE: New version of Route-Riter v4.1.03, Tree Frog, Jul-04-03, 10:59 PM, (14) RE: New version of Route-Riter v4.1.03, MikeSimpson, Jul-05-03, 08:28 AM, (15)

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Nice feature change there with the zip-files. I'll definately download it. ThanksHermanBuilding Greater Toronto Area incl. TTC-metrolines. Had to restart everything. Tracks 20% ready now.......

More info:
http://www.geocities.com/hrbetten/GTA_route.html

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It's Up
Jason Webb
Http://www.scl-aline.com

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Cheers Mike,i only just saw 0.2 at uktrainsim.
Is this version another leap ahead ? regards,
Mike.

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Hi IKB,There was a small thing I noticed which could be improved in the v4.1.2 on uktrainsim.com, so I fixed it before I uploaded 4.1.3 here. However it makes no difference to the operation of the program and not worth fixing on the UK site.Mike

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Does this one slice vegetables and walk the dog? Seems to me that was the only thing missing. When are you gonna quit fooling around with this and fix the front coupler?

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NO, but it is ... ahem ... the best thing since sliced bread. I have done three RouteRiter upgrades in three days, counting the one from UKTS. Am not in the least upset by doing so, each new RRiter forges ahead in features and capabilities. I will be looking for the daily upgrade tomorrow, will feel let down if it is not there when I come on the air in the morning. I use the activity analysis more than the other features, it is the only complete such utility I have seen to date, or really ever hope to see. Can life get better? Well, yes, Kathleen Turner could return my calls. Otherwise, RRiter does it all. Bing

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There ya go with that sliced bread again, like sliced bread was the best thing since roller skates."Kathleen Turner could return my calls", I was wondering why she kept leaving messages on MY answering machine, you musta gave her the wrong number. Call her back and give her the right number quick, Ashanti's getting jealous.Just curious, Mike, that "remove all of this shape from all .w files" can be really useful on routes that already have all the .w files uncompressed, any fix in the future for trying to do that with compressed.w files?http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/DCForumID6/9881.html#27I think that's probably what happened to the GM&O route, he used RR to uncompress some .w files and they got corrupted. I'm wondering now if adding deleting something in the RE would fix that afterwards, guess I gotta try intentionally screwing up a .w file again.

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Hi Jim,I just do not compress .w files on any routes I work on, there is no point from the author's point of view, once compressed I do not think it is ever safe to uncompress them and work on them.It makes no difference to the size of the uploaded file, as the zip process makes just as good a job of reducing the overall route size. The user can use Route-Riter to compress the files once he has downloaded it - If he does not have a copy of Route-Riter then where has he/she been for the past year?Maybe MSTS2 will have a copy of ffeditc_unicode.exe which does not have the bug when uncompressing the .w files? With regard to the GM&O - do you know if he uncompressed them using ffeditc_unicode.exe or did he use the very slow Uncompress .W option in Route-Riter which uses Martyn Griffin's DecompW.exe file which I think does it properly? Sorry I missed your original posting on this, it was under a strange thread heading? I got the upside buildings effort when I first tried using the program on Bodiddly, and this is why I removed the Uncompress .w option from the early versions of RR.
Mike

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"once compressed I do not think it is ever safe to uncompress them and work on them." Well, maybe. What I did for PO&N6 was to go around and place a single bush on each tile and save, so each .w got uncompressed by the route editor itself. Hasn't caused any problems so far, the only drawback is the PO&N is only 24 tiles, on a bigger route that would get seriously tedious. That's why I didn't want to do it on Marias for a curiousity test (and I did back up the entire route first, my Mama didn't raise no dummies!)Yeah, compressing .w files doesn't make any difference in the zip, supposedly it makes the .w files load and process into the sim faster and reduces stuttering. Jury's still out on whether that's true or not, I never noticed any difference yet."do you know if he uncompressed them using ffeditc_unicode.exe or did he use the very slow Uncompress .W option in Route-Riter which uses Martyn Griffin's DecompW.exe file which I think does it properly?" No, I don't even know for sure that they did uncompress a .w file, have to ask Jim or Paul. I'm just speculating based on the first time duplicating the anomaly on a different route. If you got the same thing on Bodiddly that would make two, if that is what happened to the GM&O route that would be 3, so now the trick is, can it be fixed by placing an object on that tile and saving it in the route editor?Reason it was in a strange thread is one billboard discussion led to another, one guy commented he'd like to get rid of the blank brown billboards on Marias, a Mad Scientist experiment then ensued. Honest, there was no alcohol involved (hic!).

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One thing I did notice was the anomalies in the .w files usually occurs if the file is over 500k uncompressed, i.e. a tile with a lot of shapes on it in the first place.If you take a .w file and manually compress it using ffeditc_unicode.exe, then uncompress it again using the same program and compare the results you will see the difference. The placing of brackets is completely different.Mike

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"Reason it was in a strange thread is one billboard discussion led to another, one guy commented he'd like to get rid of the blank brown billboards on Marias, a Mad Scientist experiment then ensued. Honest, there was no alcohol involved (hic!)."I think maybe that bozo was me. Like the wart on the end of my girlfiend's nose, I look the other way when I come to a brown, blank, blob billboard. If there were anything ON them it might be different. LIke, "Buy Blivets! Special on Economy Size!!". Since I am right now hustling the Essex Ballast Extra over the hump on MP31, it is raining like you-know-what from the you-know-what of a tall cow, there isn't a blank, brown, blob billboard in sight, and I wouldn't have time to notice if there were. Since I got the GP38 locos in question to actually stop when I apply the brakes, life is more enjoyable. No, I won't tell you how I did this. Do you think I want to be permanently branded as non-authentic? As to Kathleen Turner leaving mesages on your answering machine, send her my way, I don't have an answering machine, I just answer the phone. Surprisingly, it works when I do it that way. When you get right down to it, Turner was there just for "purposes of comparison", the way they tried to teach us in Journalism 101. My real fixation is Diana Rigg, as she was when she did Mrs. Peel - last I heard of her she was doing classic French drama in English translation at BAM in NYC. Beautiful AND a supremely talented actress all in the same package? Quick, get the paddles!!! (EST type.)Bing

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FYI: Paul Fowler has NOTHING to do with the GM&O Route any longer...But..... I did NOT compress anything when I did the first release...ALSO>>>>> 4.1.3 is hanging up in the multi-part zip on ATSF Marceline....Have tried to run it four times now, plus a complete re-install. Yes, I DID UNinstall before I upgraded....I'm ready to release beta 0.4 of ATSF Marceline but am hung up now because uninstalling the former version of RR has me stuck with going nowhere...Anyone else reported problems with the multi-part zip files functions???JBD

Jim Duncan
Team GM&O

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Follow-up to my previous posting....It appears that it processed all of the files in the route (after compression and compacting processes there were 2095 files left)....Now, on my desktop (where I send the finished zip files for easy finding) I have five files named ATSFMAR.000 through ATSFMAR.004. In the previous version of RR, I got actual ".zip" files so I'm uncertain as to the status of the route release preparations here....The HTML docs say filenames will be "-----_01.zip" etc.Have I done something stupid here? (yes, I DID read the directions!)JBD

Jim Duncan
Team GM&O

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OK, now it's getting REALLY confusing....When I closed out of the multi-zip process, the filenames changed to ATSFMAR.000 (9.53 MB)
ATSFMAR.001 (9.53 MB)
ATSFMAR.z02 (9.53 MB)
ATSFMAR.z03 (9.53 MB)
ATSFMAR.z04 (9.53 MB) AND (get this!) ATSFMAR.ZIP (165MB)It would seem logical to have the zip process close on its own or pop up a box for further user input... This is where it got to be a head-scratcher.I also tried to read each of the first five files above with PKUNZIP and got a big nothing....

Jim Duncan
Team GM&O

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Hi Jim,When you select 'Multi-Part zips', what size did you enter in the box next to this tick? Figure should be say 40 if you want 40meg sections.The file-names will be atsfmar.000 thru atsfmar.008 plus atsfmar.zip until you close the MyZipp window at which point they are renamed to atsfmar.z01 thru z09 plus atsfmar.zipThis is a proper multi-spanning zip file with the index in the last file atsfmar.zip - Opening it will show you the contents and from it any of the files included there may be extracted.I can not explain why you got the results you did with file sizes, the last one is usually the smallest.I take your point about advising you that the operation has finished and that you should close the zip window to finish the renaming process.Mike

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Hey, Mike...Well, this is different than what I've gotten in the past version I was using. The actual .zip files were created but the sizes varied considerably between sections. For today's work I was using 10 MB as the size limit.Seems to me that the big 165 MB .zip file kinda defeats the purpose of multi-part zips.... Also PKUNZIP would NOT read the contents of the .z01, etc. files.... Personally, I MUCH prefer the old way but the limit of 5 parts needed to be expanded...At any rate, I can't upload a 165MB file and five associated 10 MB files and get away without somebody fussing about the trouble downloading the route...I'd like to backdate to the older version I had (I think it was 3.5 or somewhere close)....Is it still available somewhere???JBD

Jim Duncan
Team GM&O

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LAST EDITED ON Jul-07-03 AT 10:36 PM (EDT)

Hi John,After seeing your postings, I did some tests with v4.1.3.I selected Bodiddly (the complete route, not compacted etc). This consisted of 367 megs/4826 files, i.e. twice as many as in your route.I then clicked on Zip Route and ticked the 'Multi-Part' and entered 40 for the size of each part.I then ended up with Bodiddly RR.z01 thru .z05 at 40 megs and Bodiddly RR.zip at 33 megs - I unzipped the last one using Winzip v8 and it correctly produced the whole route 367 megs/4826 files.I then did the same thing with 10 megs per section, this produced Bodiddly.z01 thru .z23 at 10megs each and Bodiddly.zip at 3.6 megs. This also unzipped correctly as expected.I would suggest you delete all those zip files you have produced so far, and try again. I have now carried out about 50 tests on the program and it has worked as expected every time.I feel you may be doing something which is not quite correct and which I have not expected. So try exactly as follows:-1. Run Route-Riter and select the folder you wish to zip up.
2. Click 'ZIP Route'
3. Select 'Multi-Part Zip'
4. Enter the size of parts you wish to produce, e.g. 25 (this is megs)
5. Click 'Process'
6. You will get a file requester where you may select the place to store your files and a suggested filename (route name), you may change this.
7. The files being processed are shown on the bottom line of the screen and the cursor turns to an hour-glass. Do nothing until the list box fills up with a listing of all the files in the route.
8. Click 'Quit'
9. Exit from Route-Riter.Your files should now be in a set of files named Atsfmar.z01 thru .z10 and Atsfmar.zip - If this is not so, I have no idea what the problem is. There is no way the final .zip section should have been bigger than about 6 megs, as this last file only contains an index of the files in the archive - i.e. If you have 2000 files, it should just be a list of the 2000 files (you can read it in a hex editor).As your atsfmar.zip was 165 megs or so, I would suggest that this was the complete archive and that the multi-part had not been selected, thus you obtained a single archive for all your route?Please let me know how you get on.
Mike

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Thanks Mike for another improvement of the Route-Riter !Got a Crystal Ball to tell you what the future holds for the RR with MSTS-2 ?I got a feeling we might be facing a totally new Ball Game ? O t t o

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Hi Otto,NO ideas on that one. Once we see what MSTS2 has then we will know what utilities might be needed. Who knows, maybe it will have all the functionality we will ever need, but then again????????Mike

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Hi Mike,Wonderful news. I am finishing up Sea View 4 and I'm sure it is too large for a one part download. Hopefully, I can get an installer to work with multiple zips.It is my understanding that Route-Riter also will produce a smaller Sea View 4 download for those who have Sea View 3 installed.Thanks for your great program !Bill Burnett
P.S. Aussie Island is going to have to wait until Sea View 5.

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Hi Bill,Yes, RR will split up SV4 into multiple-zips and also produce a patch from v3 to v4 - A few routes on uktrainsim.com have already used this option as well as my own patch for the Blue_Mountains route and it works fine.Mike

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