trevor

Hi EASY, I'm writing a controller plug-in, and my issue is capturing the initial state of the layout on plug-in start-up. I can use 360 to figure out where everything is but directionality is also important I guess I will need to add, and check for a variable on points that go the wrong way.... sigh

Any idea how to turn switch points around? The seem to be directed from the root end....

I don't see it.. but the texture works great.... glad my layout isn't huge though....

The gizmo does not tell u much... the texture trick might be more useful though

So I see that the interface command 360 returns directionality of the rolling stock on a track, which is great... unfortunately, there is NO INDICATION in the track editor of the direction of the track.... So... for most us.. I am sure they are pointing in all kinds of directions. It would be useful if, when selected, an arrow or some other indicator was shown in the view to tell you which way the track is actually pointing. Maybe add a DOT or something to the track segments in the technical drawing.

Hmm.. there's an idea

Hot off the press... I got tired poking around trying to find variables and having to replicate changes in a hundred different spots so I wrote this plug-in.. Features... 1. Structured display of objects types / names and variables. 2. Complex search functionality including use of " * " wild cards 3. Copy and paste variables. 4. Direct edit of Object names, Variable names and Variable Values. 5. Checking for duplicate and bad names and values. 6. Object name changing automatically fixes any variable references to those names. 7. Bulk value or variable-name changes. 8. Select, delete, or change visibility of objects. 9. Show or hide objects that have no variables attached 10. Window can be selected to be always on top or not. Just run the exe or load it into MBS as a plug in... Have fun.. let me know here it you find any problems. --------------------------- NOTE 1: Edits made through the plug-in interface are not automatically registered as changes within MBS itself. Therefore, there is no undo functionality. Further, YOU WILL NOT be prompted to save changes to your MBS design when you close it unless you make other changes directly within MBS itself. Best practice is therefore... a.) Save your current design b.) Make changes using this tool, c.) Test your layout, d.) IF everything is working as expected, save your design. OR e.) IF NOT... re-open your design to recover your last saved state. NOTE 2: Unfortunately, at present, the plug-in interface only supports named objects. You will NOT be able to correctly edit objects with duplicate names. NOTE 3: Object name changes and or variable name changes will NOT be reflected in indirect or custom references in your event manager code. -------------------------------------------------- DISCLAIMER --------------------------------------------- Use at your own risk. Although tested, there is no guarantee or warranty associated with this plug-in. The author is not responsible for ANY damages or loss off data resulting from the use of this tool. MBS_Variable_Editor.zip

Ya, I meant through the plug-in interface... I forgot to mention that. That particular dialog is also REALLY handy for renaming objects. It's a pity it locks out the other dialogs though. It would be handy to pick an object and edit it's properties, especially visibility, without having to continually reopen this one...

It would be nice to have a List objects in a group command... or as an alternative..... Have an "UNGROUP and SELECT" command, and a "GROUP SELECTED OBJECTS" command.

Would be very helpful if you could add type 15 = Hidden Objects to command 100 in the plug-in interface. Current state of the art is to interrogate everything individually, which takes forever.

HMM... turns out I had an issue with the cross threading on the event receiver that was causing the events to pile up in the buffer.. Thanks to EASY ! When I implemented the pause, I noticed the debug window kept churning away for a while after I send the off command, even though the sim had stopped. A little tweaking and asyncing stuff and my trains are now flying round at 4X sim... well 2 of them are... will check out all 5 later. I have a feeling I may need to do some throttling with more stuff moving around.

sigh... so it does... confusing.... nvm

that's what I thought too... but according to NEW that just switches from Edit View to Simulation view.... the little train icon up top/

BTW: We really need pause / run simulation commands....

Here is my "plug-in" source and the latest associated layout. You need to load and run the plug-in first, either as a plug in or better, directly in vb.net. Then load the layout. If the VB is running it will recognize the project has been loaded and read the contents into structures then begin monitoring and trying to control the two trains. Un-pause the layout, the trains should travel around the figure 8 in different directions holding at appropriate points to let the other pass. Even at low speed simulation you will see the trains often stop past the underlying STOP tracks or the points will not be positioned in time. At higher speeds.... meh... it all goes nuts. It will quickly get messed up either way, so u need to reload the layout a lot. MBS-Controller.zip Test_35.mbp

Neo, it depends on your definition of processed. If I send a command to set a control switch that the EV uses to stop a train, the command itself IS responded to by the plug-in interface in the order of magnitude of time you mention... however, if I watch for the report through the interface of when the control switch actually gets toggled, that happens MUCH MUCH later. Now that could just be a reporting thing...but the events that get driven in the EV as a result of that switch being toggled all get reported through the channel as I would expect them to be. That is, in the order and speeds that I would expect. So.. from the resulting behaviour, it seems like either... 1. the command is being accepted by the plug-in interface and somehow queued up till after other events, procedures, etc. are completed. or 2. The switch is being set immediately, but that change is not recognized till much later. Presumably for the same reasons. Item 2 is hard to believe though, since the actions the EV does in response to the switch being set include further switch changes which all seem to be recognized and handled almost immediately. Furthermore.. I can tell from the above debug log that the EV handled two or more NAVIGATOR -START cycles between when I sent the command and when the switch change was registered and reported. Those navigator functions are timer driven so there is a long time in there, with some dead time too. Now that particular set of EV code is pretty lengthy so I removed it in the next revision of the layout.. but it made ZERO difference. Now I will grant you my EV is still doing quite a lot and numerous variables and switches are changing all the time... but since I can not guarantee whomever decides to use my pug-in wont do the same thing... I need to figure out if there is something else strange going on before I give up.

I am trying to write a plug-in train navigator and control program.... my end seems to be fast enough to run the layout, but the delays at the MBS end make it impractical. Even just sending a train STOP immediate takes far too long to be executed at the MBS end. I can do it with more control in the EV handler, but I have another string manipulation issue with that end..... sigh. I keep hitting walls.

Yes I know of that Easy, but I am only sending one command... and it gets responded to immediately but not acted upon till much later.

I'm having issues with the plug-in I am writing. I send a command to toggle a control switch but it seems to take a long time to set. Here is my trace. I send a command to set the controller at 42619.3779997062 seconds and it sends me a message it was actually set at 42619.557000068 seconds. That is a 0.179 second difference.... Might not seem much.. but in the mean time the engine has passed the brake zone and is entering the stop point... all too late. Train ends up crashing into the points at higher sim rates.. I realize my event handler is doing a bunch of stuff in between. Is there some sort of sequencing I should know about that delays the execution of the command I sent? When the controller is actually set, the EV seems to take care of it in the expected time scales... What's going on? Regards Trevor. << 42619.3489997881 46484 150;ER_20_Eurorunner_Siemens-1;Join2_Brake_Section_2;0;Track1_Section_2;0 Train Train_3 entered brake section Section_2 @ Join 2 > 42619.3779997062 453;Switch_Entered_Brake_Section_3;1 42619.3800000474 Switch_Requesting_3-1 42619.3800000474 Switch_Stop_4-1 42619.3829999305 Switch_Entered_Stop_Section_4-0 42619.3840001011 Navigator_Start-1 150;Diesel_locomotive_V60_blue_1;Join2_Section_3A;0;Join2_Stop_Section_3A;0 << 42619.3840001011 46492 150;Diesel_locomotive_V60_blue_1;Join2_Section_3A;0;Join2_Stop_Section_3A;0 42619.3850002717 Switch_Brake_4-0 42619.3850002717 Switch_Cruise_4-0 42619.3850002717 Navigator_Do_Checks-1 150;Adler-Lok-1;Join1_Stop_Section_1C;0;Join1_Section_1C;0 << 42619.3850002717 46507 150;Adler-Lok-1;Join1_Stop_Section_1C;0;Join1_Section_1C;0 150;SBB_RAe_TEE_At-1;Track1_Section_5;0;Track2_Section_5;0 42619.3859998137 Navigator_Do_Checks-0 42619.3859998137 Switch_Request_Refused_4-1 42619.3859998137 Navigator_Start-0 42619.3869999843 Section_1C-0 42619.3880001549 Switch_Requesting_4-0 42619.3880001549 Switch_Request_Refused_4-0 << 42619.3889996968 46545 151;BR_50_001_1;Join2_Section_6A;0;PS5-3;0 Train Train_2 left section Section_6A @ Join 2 > 42619.4119998487 453;Switch_Reserved_Section_6A;0 > 42619.4449998206 453;Section_6A;1 150;SBB_RAe_TEE_At-1;Join1_Brake_Section_5;0;Track1_Section_5;0 << 42619.4459999911 46546 150;SBB_RAe_TEE_At-1;Join1_Brake_Section_5;0;Track1_Section_5;0 Train Train_5 entered brake section Section_5 @ Join 1 > 42619.478999963 453;Switch_Entered_Brake_Section_5;1 << 42619.4800001336 46547 151;SBB_RAe_TEE_At-1;Join2_Section_5;0;Join2_Stop_Section_5;0 Train Train_5 cleared entry Section_5 @ Join 2 > 42619.5119999349 62;PS6-1.Locked;0 > 42619.5130001055 453;Switch_Locked_PS6_PP1;0 > 42619.5449999068 453;Switch_Cleared_Entry_5;1 42619.5460000774 Switch_Requesting_4-1 42619.547000248 Navigator_Start-1 42619.5479997899 Navigator_Start-0 42619.5479997899 Navigator_Start-0 42619.5479997899 Switch_Entered_Section_1-1 42619.5510003017 Switch_Navigating_1-1 42619.5510003017 Switch_Entered_Section_1-0 42619.5510003017 Navigator_Start-1 42619.5519998437 Switch_Request_Granted_1-0 42619.5519998437 Switch_Navigating_1-0 42619.5519998437 Switch_Navigating_1-0 42619.5519998437 Navigator_Start-0 42619.5519998437 Switch_Reserved_Section_6B-0 42619.5530000143 Section_6B-1 42619.5530000143 Switch_Speed_Limit_Changed_1-1 42619.5530000143 Switch_Speed_Limit_Changed_1-1 42619.5540001849 Switch_Locked_PS4_PP1-0 150;Adler-Lok-1;Join1_Brake_Section_1C;0;Join1_Stop_Section_1C;0 << 42619.5540001849 46589 150;Adler-Lok-1;Join1_Brake_Section_1C;0;Join1_Stop_Section_1C;0 150;BR_50_001_1;Track2_Section_7;0;Join1_Brake_Section_7;0 42619.5549997268 Navigator_Start-1 42619.5559998974 Switch_Cleared_Entry_3-1 42619.5559998974 Navigator_Start-0 42619.5559998974 Switch_Cleared_Entry_3-0 42619.557000068 Switch_Entered_Brake_Section_3-1

oic... HMMM Doesn't that make messing with variables and positions a tad scary if the simulation is still running?

>54 <1;0 I'm getting that... and 55 returns 1 but sim is still running. I'm running the latest beta

OK so I can list groups... and I can get a list of what is selected....but how do I list which items are included in the group ?

1. Changes made to variables etc. through plug-in DO NOT TRIP the save required on close layout flag. 2. Commands 54 only seems to work if simulation is normal speed. 3. Command 55 does not seem to work at all. note I'm assuming page http://en.3d-modellbahn.de/wiki/3415#Sec1_1_1 is still up to date.

It sure would be nice to be able to reference things contained in groups directly.... For example I have created a simple LED out of a couple of spheres and a cylinder and group them as a single object. However in order to set the visibility state of the two spheres I need to give each a unique name.... which is a bit of a pain when I have like 70 of them... If would be so much nicer if I could name the spheres "ON" and "OFF" and reference them by the group name.... e.g. [LED1].ON or some such.....

CURT you can think of it like a function.... Function Train_Enters_Track(_Trigger1 as Locomotive, _Trigger2 as Track_Section) If Other Conditions met Execute Actions End IF End Function The two entry conditions to the function are automatically pre-set by the application and only exist for the duration of the function. And yes, because they are really pointers to the actual objects, they have sub-properties, ... the built in ones, and any variables and pointers that YOU might have attached to those objects.