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dermottuohey (25 posts)
Jan-06-02, 06:02 PM (EST) "Activity Editor crashed when I try to edit or create a consist" I have been reading and searching the forums tonight because I have a problem with the Activity Editor (AE). I have had no previous problems trying to create or edit consists using this approach. I go through the approach of selecting a new activity creating a consist in the Consist Editor (CE) pressing save and exit in the CE and then exiting the AE without saving the activity. The consist always shows up in the sim.However, tonight I have tried to edit a consist I created. Whatever I do causes the AE to crash without the CE ever loading up (with the familiar send to MS box we have all seen too many times). This happens when I try to edit, create or use as template. It also happens when I select properties on a static consist. Having downloaded Consist Builder tonight and checked everything the only errors were references to shapes files.Whether this is the problem or not I do not know. I have seen the posts on using regedit but my problem is not disappearing consists from the AE window (I also followed the steps of deleting all AE keys from the registry but to no avail).
Before anyone asks I have done a complete uninstall and reinstall (full) of MSTS tonight. I have also contacted MS using the online help feature in XP. Whether they can help or not is debabtable as whilst it is their product, they only distribute it and did not write it (Kuju did that).My only hope for using my consists may be Consist Builder rather than the CE in the AE.If anyone has any fixes for this they would be much appreciated.Thanks Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
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Subject Author Message Date ID RE: Activity Editor crashed when I ... ClayHubbard Jan-07-02 1 RE: Activity Editor crashed when I ... rgarber Jan-07-02 2 RE: Activity Editor crashed when I ... dermottuohey Jan-07-02 3 RE: Activity Editor crashed when I ... dermottuohey Jan-08-02 4 RE: Activity Editor crashed when I ... dermottuohey Jan-12-02 5 RE: Activity Editor crashed when I ... ClayHubbard Jan-12-02 6 RE: Activity Editor crashed when I ... dermottuohey Jan-12-02 7 RE: Activity Editor crashed when I ... dermottuohey Jan-14-02 8 RE: Activity Editor crashed when I ... lnghairedwizard Jan-14-02 9

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ClayHubbard (27 posts)
Jan-07-02, 09:49 AM (EST) 1. "RE: Activity Editor crashed when I try to edit or create a consist" It could be that there is a fault in an .eng file of a recently installed loco or maybe in a .wag file. This will wreak havoc with CE. Hope this helps.Clay
Lamoille Valley RR

Central Vermont Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
rgarber (1022 posts)
Jan-07-02, 11:43 AM (EST) 2. "RE: Activity Editor crashed when I try to edit or create a consist" I would suggest too that you try deleting the consist you just created and see if MSTS settles down. Depending on the result then you can inspect which of the cars or engine is causing you trouble.Rich Garber Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
dermottuohey (25 posts)
Jan-07-02, 01:08 PM (EST) 3. "RE: Activity Editor crashed when I try to edit or create a consist" Thanks for your replies. I suspect somewhere there is a dodgy consist so I will run Consist Builder tonight and have a look at any errors. MS say they do not support the editor as it is 3rd part software (despite the fact they distribute it in their product), so they did not help too much. However, they did suggest it might be due to something I have downloaded.I suspect I can still use Consist Bulder to build consists that I can then use in the AE and not try and use the CE in the game. Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
dermottuohey (25 posts)
Jan-08-02, 04:05 PM (EST) 4. "RE: Activity Editor crashed when I try to edit or create a consist" LAST EDITED ON Jan-08-02 AT 04:06 PM (EST)I have run Consist Builder and identified various problems summarised below:1 The SD file contains an invalid reference to the S file. This is either that the S file is incorrectly named or the .S extension is not added. Having read through the Kuju document 'How to create shape data files' in the TechDocs folder this is contrary to what is in there. I would anticipate the solution is to edit the relevant SD files to the correct format. This may cause problems in the CE by the fact that it cannot correctly display the shape properly. Tjis is the only error that occurs with the wagons (i.e., no WAG file errors).
2 The CVF is missing from the ENG file. I suspect this is where aliased cab views have been used.
3 The S file is missing from the ENG file. I would presume this an editing job to correctly name them or insert them.
4 SD file missing. Copy and paste?If anyone has any ideas other than the above I would appreciate them.Also, some S files open up and make sense in Wordpad. However, others open up and look like gobbledygook!. However, there seems to be no consistency and the default trains do not make sense. I have no idea if this is related.Checking all my consists there appear to be no errors.If there are any other errors in the WAG or ENG files I would have no idea where to go and look for them.
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dermottuohey (25 posts)
Jan-12-02, 05:35 AM (EST) 5. "RE: Activity Editor crashed when I try to edit or create a consist" I have sorted out all the problems above and get no errors. Having now tested the ENG files with the check cabview and sound boxes checked, I notice another batch of errors. Once I get through these and print these out I alter them.The CE in AE still crashes. As I am not sure which file is causing the problem, hopefully if I use Consist Builder to identify and solve the problems it throws up, I can then at least see if that sorts it. All the errors have come from downloaded stock so I supsect that the authors have made slight errors in writing these. Whilst one on its own may still keep everything working perhaps the number cause CE to crash.It is quite a long process! Consist Builder is great though as it does identify all the erros. I have even got confident enough to edit CON files in Wordpad to correct errors in there. Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
ClayHubbard (27 posts)
Jan-12-02, 09:40 AM (EST) 6. "RE: Activity Editor crashed when I try to edit or create a consist" May I suggest, as unpleasant as it seems, that you do a clean install and when installing or creating new consists and/or activities that you keep a log of events until you run into a problem. When and if you do have a problem trace backwards and you will very likely find the cause.
I did speak of a clean install. I would delete all folders and files relative to MSTS. Everything, as this will give you a fresh start. Unless you are quite well versed on the subject, I might too suggest you don't mess with the *.s files, unless you want a little excitement in your Saturday afternoon.
I do hope ypu win out.ClayLamoille Valley RR

Central Vermont Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
dermottuohey (25 posts)
Jan-12-02, 11:05 AM (EST) 7. "RE: Activity Editor crashed when I try to edit or create a consist" ThanksThat was the one think I was hoping not to have to do! The sim seems to play OK and what I suspected was a dodgy consist seems to appear OK in there. The choosing of consists seems to be Ok as well; it is just trying to use the MSTS CE. What I may do, as I have a lot of downloaded stuff is to back up the trains and consists folders on CD first as some involve swapping and copying cabview and sound files where they are not aliased. Then I can try them one at a time and see which one it is. You are right that only a methodical approach to this will solve it.Thanks for your advice. Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
dermottuohey (25 posts)
Jan-14-02, 03:08 PM (EST) 8. "RE: Activity Editor crashed when I try to edit or create a consist" Thanks for your advice. I did that and backed up the trains and consists on my hard drive adding them one at a time with AE open until I found the guilty party. This was where there were two ENG files in the folder both referencing the same shape files. Why this caused the CE to crash I do not know but this seems to be the one. Deleting the additional ENG file sorted it all out nicely.Now I have it all up and running again, I can display my trains by last modified so I can easily identify the later trains I put in. I now am doing a sense check of any new stock. By the way, Consist Builder did not identify any problems with this file.In the future rather than a reinstall, I will just delete the later trains/consists. Having tried the methodical method, I know that when the problem ENG file appeared it caused CE and AE to crash. Deleting the train folder stopped the problem and everything worked fine. Thanks everyone for your advice. I am a happy bunny again! Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
lnghairedwizard (497 posts)
Jan-14-02, 08:13 PM (EST) 9. "RE: Activity Editor crashed when I try to edit or create a consist" A couple of suggestions. First, whenever you creat a new activity, alway give the activity a prefix and use this for all the services, consist, path etc, related to that activity. this makes for easy trouble shooting and should you upload your activity for other to share, then If they have any problems or errors for any reason, you just tell'em to delete all files using this prefix. An example....for my East-Metro Conrail Hot-Metal Train activity I use this prefix for all related files:EMCR1_HMT <Traffic 1, etc> orEMCR1_HMT <Player service>ETC .....................Also should you run into any problem with the editor NOT caused by bad files.....then you can go into the resistry and delete all setting that start with AE (for Aectivity Editor)I had a problem once with the AE where it would not let me "edit" the Traffic service. After deleting all the AE variables in Reg edit, my AE was as good as a fresh reinstall.Longhairedwizard Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

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