220hotwheels

HI Simon Just thought I should let you know that having followed your solution to the carriage door opening/closing problem I now have all working perfectly on each of the trains where such facilities are available. The moral to this story is either you have the knowledge or you know who has or where to find it. Long live the forum and all who contribute. It makes life for we less knowledgeable folk much more enjoyable. As they say, "a problem shared is a problem halved", especially if you are able to understand the solution and better still put it into practice. Once again many thanks for sharing your knowledge. Pete

Hi Simon I did say right at the beginning that much of what I do relies very much on 'Heath Robinson'. As I pick up hints and tips I then go back to my drawing board and make suitable changes. Your solution certainly merits a modification to my layout although I am only stacking containers up to 2 high. Clearly you have an understanding of the use of Lua from what I have been reading about your solution to getting carriage doors to open and close. My knowledge is still at the stone age stage but I quite fancy having a go at following your solution for carriage door operation so will see how I get on. Good luck with the reverse procedure. Pete

Hi Simon Just been reading through some of suggestions regarding solving your initial container stacking problem. Although it would seem that you have now sorted this, I wondered whether the following would be of any interest. Much of my approach to problem solving with my layouts falls into the category of the “Heath Robinson”, a bit long winded as my expertise, whilst improving, still has a long way to go but this solution was given to me by another member who has helped me enormously with many problems that I have encountered. I have used this system for loading and unloading containers onto trains and trucks as well as more recently for discharging them from a ship to quayside and trucks alike. The basic principle is very straight forward. Every container is allocated a cargo pad. If one container is stacked on top of another then the one on the bottom has a cargo pad placed on it’s top, locked to said container but referenced to the one to be placed on it. As an example therefore if I have 20 containers loaded on my ships deck each one will be allocated it’s own cargo pad. Container ‘A’ will be located on cargo pad ‘MV vessel bottom A’ and so on. If I then double stack these I simple place another cargo pad on top of each container, lock it to that container but give it the reference name for the container to be placed on top, lets say ‘MV vessel top A’. It’s then simply a matter of telling which crane, if you are using more that one, which container it should lift and where it must be placed. On my current layout I am discharging from ship to truck and quay so have allocated cargo pads to both the trucks and quayside giving each an individual name, the trucks get, for example ‘truck 1 front pad or rear pad’ and the quayside gets ‘quayside ‘A’ etc. As long as you take care during the programming then all works fine. I then execute a script which after a given time will return all items to their original start point ready to start all over again. So far, all containers have relocated in exactly the right places. All cargo pads are set as invisible, so the look is right as well. Any way that’s my solution. I did warn you all at the beginning that my solution owes much to my trusty mentor “Heath Robinson” or should that be “sods law” !!! Happy cargo stacking. Pete

Hi Eric Not too sure if this will help but I too use both a desktop PC and a laptop. My simple solution is to create a back up on whichever computer I am using onto either a USB stick or even an SD card if it has a large enough capacity and then simply transfer from one computer to another. Therefore any work done on one and saved on to it and the USB or memory card can be inserted into your other computer and away you go. The layout that I am currently working on is already up to 3890KB so I know that this system works you just need to make sure you copy the whole directory and not just a small piece. Hope this helps. Pete

Life is full of challenges, this hobby is just one of them but I have to say that I find it a most enjoyable challenge. Just every now and again you need a push from those with greater knowledge. As Arnold Schwarzenegger would say, "I'll be back" Cheers Pete

Hi Goetz I've taken a look through each of the recommended demo's which in part do solve this problem as a general rule. Unfortunately the little bits that I have translated, thanks to Mr Google have left me further confused but it has highlighted the fact that my attempts so far need lots of work in order to gain both a smooth operation and a much more professional one. The drawing board awaits!! Cheers Pete

Thanks Goetz Since sending my last message I have been trying all sorts. Having copied and pasted the posts into google, the forum search box I seem to have got lots of different items to read. All fascinating stuff but still a bit confusing. I'll follow your advice and see what comes up. Many thanks once again. From reading many more of your posts I have concluded that you must have immense patience to cope with questions such as mine. I am so grateful that you have such patience. Cheers Pete

Many thanks for that Goetz. I do fully understand you will have many other priorities. I am just grateful for any assistance that you can offer over time. As they say, there is always tomorrow! I haven't so far seen the items that you have mentioned. I will take a look later today and see just how much I can learn from them. This might seem like an even dafter question but how do I access the items you have mentioned. I tried to copy and paste, double click and place in the search section above. Clearly I need a brain transplant. Once again many thanks. Cheers Pete

Hi to all. I'm back with yet another problem to solve, possibly one for you Goetz. My main layout has over 50 'T' junctions and some cross roads. In order to be able to have a smooth flow of traffic I decided that I needed to get to grips with the intricacies of traffic flow, easier said than done. My efforts to date have produced what could loosely described as a moderate success but that really isn't good enough. The basic principle that I applied to solving this problem was to follow the general rule for rail crossings with barriers. I arrived at this conclusion after trying many other potential solutions. In the demo layout attached I have simply concentrated on trying to iron out problems at the three south junctions and so those in the centre and north are pretty much a free for all. My thinking being that if I can solve the traffic flow through the three then it shouldn't be too difficult to apply it to all the others. Perhaps my approach is the wrong one. Perhaps it is too complicated. It is however conceived from my thus far gained knowledge of EV, which as you may well have already noticed is not altogether great. Any assistance that can be offered would be greatly appreciated. I have been playing around with this problem now, on and off, for about two months and after a while just put it to one side in the hope that I might have a eureka moment. Cheers Pete My T junction road Layout.mbp

Hi Andy & Goetz Apologies for taking time to respond. I had picked up your replies earlier but had to take a phone call from the Loss Adjusters appointed by our insurance company. I am in the process of concluding a settlement for Business Interruption caused by Covid-19 for our bookbinding company and typical of insurers they have a very large book of silly questions that require multiple answers before they make up their minds. I've lost count of the number of spreadsheets I have completed but I think I can now safely say that I have a result. Phew. Both of your solutions are great. I've already implemented yours Andy for the helicopters and will now utilise your suggestion Goetz with parts of the control panel. Having this forum with all you knowledgeable guys is a bit like having multiple yoda's. Cheers Pete

Hi Andy Not too sure how to best understand your comment in the last paragraph, I'll just have to think about it a bit longer, that's the problem when your brain gets to 75 yrs, it slows down and need constant prodding or another beer!!! I have applied your suggestion though to my main layout and hey presto all works fine. Just one further thought. I have created quite a complex control panel in order to keep tabs on all moving objects with lights highlighting just where everything is, mainly car, trucks, busses, boats, cranes etc and now helicopters. So far I have used the switch that I added to my helicopter demo which seems to do the job of turning each thing on and off when required. Would you recommend that I consider changing these switches to your taster? Cheers Pete

Hi Andy What can I say other than brilliant. As with so many things in this life the solution is often so simple. I've spent around 4 hours trying to solve what you have clearly sorted in a matter of minutes. I look forward to the time when my knowledge base of this hobby is even partly comparable to guys like you. Once again many thanks. Cheers Pete

Hi everyone I am trying to introduce another element to my layout by adding a helicopter. Setting out a suitable flightpath is straightforward, the helicopter to follow said flightpath is also no problem. Where I am struggling is in getting the rotors to start and stop automatically. No matter what I have tried so far I just cannot get it right. If I use the "stop animation" as the helicopter comes into land then yes the rotors will stop but then the helicopter won't start up again. I am sure there is a very simple solution to this but so far it is escaping me so if anyone has the answer I would be most grateful. I have attached a small demo which I hope will show my problem. Cheers Pete Helicopter demo.mbp

That's brilliant, many thanks Goetz. Clearly I hadn't delved deep enough in order to find the solution. I've been noting some of your answers to other questions asked on the forum. You are clearly someone with an immense knowledge of this hobby which is most fortunate for those like me. Cheers Pete

Hi everyone Now this might be a daft question but I hope someone out there has a simple solution. In V6 there is the really useful facility as shown in the title to this enquiry. What I would like to know is can this be turned on and off through EM. At the moment if I reverse a car into a garage it stops too soon, before the contact. The same happens if a vehicle reverses up to a wall. I would therefore like to be able to incorporate turning this aspect off when undertaking such operations and then turn it back on as the vehicle leaves the garage. I've looked through the various elements of EM but cannot see anything that points to being able to do this. There is the ability to enable or disable coupling but that is quite different. Cheers Pete

You're so very right Eric I took semi retirement back in 2006 and have never really stopped since. MBS is, however, a really good distraction from much of every day life. I find that I spend anything up to 5, 6 hours each day/evening simply creating a layout that would be impossible to do so in reality. Like you when I started I found everything so strange. I read through the manual and experimented to learn how to create scenery, alter track and roads, place objects and if necessary adjust their sizes before getting into Event Management (EM) in order to program the automatic movement of trains, cars, people, cranes, level crossings etc. Even after almost two years I still have so much to learn and receive much assistance from others, much more knowledgeable than me. So stick with it, help is always at hand. All the very best Pete

Hi Eric I too am of a similar age to you. I found 3D Train Studio in early 2019, it was version 4 then, and I've been hooked ever since. My layouts too are a bit on the large size but my computer seems to cope although there were times when, with version 5 the frames per second began to nudge into the low 30's but version 6 seems to have improved this no end. Like you too I had many questions, which looking back were pretty daft as many of the answers were so simple once they were pointed out to you. I've had and am still getting invaluable help from fellow members who constantly point me in the right direction and show me the error of my ways. My philosophy has always been one of jump in with both feet. If you make a mess then it's easier to put right on a computer than in reality so just go for it. When you really get stuck just ask other members and as Goetz has already said we are all here to help. We like answering all the daft questions as well as the more awkward ones. I'm still a newbie at this game so my limitation might just be with the daft questions, guys like Goetz and many others are much more knowledgeable so when I get really stuck I just ask and someone will have the answer for you. Happy 3D Train modelling. Once you master the basics it really is great fun and it's surprising just what you can create with a bit of imagination, time and patience. Pete

Hi Hubert You are absolutely right there. The delete button and copy and paste are far less harmful than a hammer, nails and glue. As with most things to do with computers though you need at least half a brain and sometimes I think mine's gone into hibernation!!! Kind regards Pete Hi Hubert Sie sind genau richtig. Die Löschtaste und Kopieren und Einfügen sind weit weniger schädlich als ein Hammer, Nägel und Kleber. Wie bei den meisten Dingen, die mit Computern zu tun haben, obwohl du mindestens ein halbes Gehirn brauchst und manchmal denke ich, dass ich in den Winterschlaf gegangen bin!!! Herzliche Grüße Pete

Hi Hubert Thanks for the nice comment. It is still very much a work in progress with considerable improvement needed in many areas, but then that's what this hobby is all about, you start simple, you have an idea and then you start to change it as you gain greater knowledge. I must admit that I have received a lot of help and guidance from Tom (Metallix) he has so far kept me on a reasonably straight path although I do tend to stray at times!!!!! In the past I have never really got involved with forums, tending to keep myself very much to myself but I must admit that with this particular hobby the forum just draws you in. My main dilemma, apart from lack of time, is lack of knowledge and therefore lack of confidence. I read some of the questions and comments and feel as though I should be back at primary school, everyone seems to be so switched on with some of the terminology just going completely over my head. In time, no doubt, like most things you gain experience and knowledge and therefore feel confident to contribute more. Cheers, stay safe in these trying times. Pete

Hi Neo I hope the following info will help. I have three main layouts on the go. Fairmont - 2599 kb as mbp ( my first, started in V4 then moved to V5. Nothing much done on it for 9 months as fps too slow) the second is Belfort- 1904 kb (this one I am currently working on the most) fps not too bad seems better with V6 than in V5, the third is Portland - 1370 kb (very much at the early stages). In V5 I have run all three layouts with the delay times after selecting an item of Fairmont 3 secs, Belfort 2 secs and Portland 1 sec. In V6 from the example screen shot that I sent you the delay is 10 secs. My only observation when comparing V5 and V6 is that V5 does not have the event "Train/Vehicle stops" which of course I am using in V6 I have run a similar test in V6 selecting something not covered by the "Train/vehicle stops" and the delay is usually about 3 secs. If there is anything else that I can do to help to resolve this then just let me know. Kind regards Pete

Hi Neo Yes I'll see what I can do. I have to go out for about 2 hours so will have a look when I get back and let you know. Kind regards Pete

Hi Neo I have attached a screenshot which I hope explains. When I select target in order to choose the correct item it now seems to take much longer to select it than it did before, either that or I have got much more inpatient. Either way now I seem to have time for a sip of coffee and a bit of biscuit whereas before I struggled to get the sip of coffee!! Kind regards Pete

Hi Neo Brilliant. That will be a lot quicker than my solution so many thanks for that and for the explanation. Is there a similar simple solution to the delay in selecting items from my database when working with EV. I have only just started to do additional work in this area setting up crane operations and noted that when selecting items it can take much longer for them to be selected than before. Is this down to the size of the data I have amassed? my layouts are not exactly small!! Kind regards Peter

Hi Goetz Thanks for that. I've just tried it but because the latest version is V6 it won't let me open it in V5 and the only V5 version I have of this particular layout is back in July. That one I can load in V5. Clearly my backup process needs to be improved. What I should have done is keep the most recent V5 backup before converting to V6. We live and learn!!! I've already started to touch up my V6 layout, whilst making some improvements to my EV. By the time V7 comes out I might have sorted and got to grips with V6. Cheers Pete

Sorry about that. The only backup copy I have that will run in V5 is one from the 01/07/20, one that you kindly repaired for me. All others have already been converted to V6. Having looked at the attached copy from July I can see areas where the baseboard has not had the same degree of finished texture as in other areas but overall the effect is not as obvious as now. It's as though the depth of texture has blurred. I am also finding when working in EV that it is taking much longer to select items from the data list with V6 Kind regards Pete Belfort V5 for Neo dated 01_07_2020.mbp