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Reading Topic #1208
I'm looking for a safe, effective way to eliminate old activities & consists. Actually, I'd like to clean house and start from scratch. Suggestions about proper steps to avoid residual files left over hidden in unsuspected spots in MSTS? Thanks for all the help.
Joe Cooney, Ocala, FL
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Yeap...
You must first choose the activities to skip.
Do not erase in the first place, just mouse-drag or cut-paste them out to another folder outside MSTS (so you can repair in case...), preferably on the same Volume to save time, as Windows then just modifies the FAT without physically copying.
Then you need to trace the associated Services, Paths and Traffic files. Be careful not to erase paths used by other services !
Can be quite tricky, RouteRiter will help you finding which uses what. Unused consists are also listed, be careful, too...
Finally you can externalize unused stock, as long as not used as an aliasing source.Then RouteControl is a nice and useful tool to list missing elements before starting again after having performed a housekeeping. The freeware demo includes the necessary Checkup tool (www.howintheworld.com)
And Conbuilder1.51 (thanks, Carlos!) will help you check erroneous references to .ace and .wav if an alias-giver was put to the side-track.Finally erase unused saved activities from SAVES, and SCRBx screenshots from the main MSTS folder, allow for a DEFRAG, and you should be back with a lean neat game !Love and Peace
OldieDaddy from Alsace
Gotthard fan!
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LAST EDITED ON Oct-26-02 AT 10:15 AM (EDT)
Here's the way I do it and so far I haven't messed anything up.Open the Activity file you want to remove in a unicode editor like Wordpad. Make a note of the Services files called by the activity.They are easy to find as they begin with Service Defination so you can use the Find command. Here is an example:Service_Definition ( "b8-1t MtEph - Mar" 32400
UiD ( 2 )The part in quotes is the name of the Services file which will have the extension .srvYou might find it useful to copy and paste these references into a notepad to print for tracking of your cleanup effort.Next I open each Services file in the unicode editor and copy and paste the names of the consists to a blank notepad. Here is an example:Name ( "b8-1t MtEph - Mar" )
Train_Config ( "b8 F7 mix x16 Hopper" )The Name is the Services file and the part after Train Config in quotes is the name of the consist. You will find that you have several repeated consists in different services.I created a sub-folder in my Consists folder and I move (not delete) the consists I found in the Services files.Finally, I run Route Control Lite to check and make sure that I haven't removed a consist by accident. If I have I only need to copy it back from my Consist back-up folder. If Route Control doesn't report any missing pieces and the route runs OK, I delete the consists from the backup folder. Then you can remove the activity file itself as well.Good luck.
Bob Dawes
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