Semi Trailers and Invisible space men

[simonjackson1964]

I'm so bad at doing scenery that I decided to do a layout with just scenery, to see if I could make it look good.

I have to say I think it's okay as far as it goes...

But then I decided to put cars on the roads. And I decided to put a timer on the junctions to make them change at "random" and direct the traffic down different roads. And I encountered two problems.

1) In order to prevent the road switching while a vehicle was on it I used the simple condition "If any vehicle is on track junction 1". Which works fine, except a semi trailer is not a vehicle, apparently. The truck was for ever loosing its trailer at the junctions. In the end I gave up and deleted the trailer. Does anyone have a way of preventing this?

2) The invisible men from Mars... Okay the spacers. They are vehicles. They are great for keeping the traffic spaced out, but they don't stay where I put them... The instructions say that the spacer should be placed between the vehicles and the clutches deactivated. But should the spacer be driving itself? Should the clutches on the actual vehicle also be deactivated? Should the vehicle be pushing the spacer? Or should the rear clutch on the vehicle be active so it pulls the spacer?

 

[Goetz]

The only advice I can offer is:
Wait for Version 6, which alters and improves the traffic behaviour significantly. (Among other changes, it makes the spacers obsolete.)

Edited August 25, 2020 by Goetz

[simonjackson1964]

Actually, I found that there is a type of spacer (the yellow arrow shaped ones) that behaves itself....

When is V6 due for release? Because unless it's today I'm not going to be able to stop tinkering with layouts...

I still think the best thing about 3D Train Studio is the fact that other than the initial outlay for the program, I can build as many layouts as I like and it doesn't cost anything except time. I just checked and the price of a 1m length of Peco streamline flexi-track is just under £5, that's just over €5.Call it even... A set-track point is £11.50. that's €12.50 near enough... And £16 for a streamline electrofrog point... To put together some of the layouts I've seen could cost well over a thousand pounds on track alone. As for rolling stock, forget it!

So frankly, I don't mind the fact that everything I do is going to be obsolete when V6 comes out, because it's not like I'm paying for point motors and electronic stuff that I'm going to have to throw away because it won't work anymore!

[Goetz]

good point, Simon