simonjackson1964

Yes, @Herman told me, and I have, thanks.

Added a new vehicle and it crashed again!

This has happened again. The red E-type Jag, going into an underground car-park that I'm kind-of cheating on, and rather than directing the cars to actual spaces Ihave them trip a track contact that pops them into a virtual depot that is currently invisible for aesthetic reasons. (I know it won't be visible in run mode, but I wanted to see the effect while in design mode!) Everything works fine, unless you are in cockpit view, and then it crashes without fail. Uploading the layout to Drafts, paused so if you unpause it, you will get the failure. Any idea when this will be fixed, or is it a V9 thing? Cheers Simon ====================================== Das ist wieder passiert. Der rote E-Type Jag fährt in eine Tiefgarage, die ich irgendwie betrüge, und anstatt die Autos in tatsächliche Räume zu lenken, lasse ich sie einen Gleiskontakt auslösen, der sie in ein virtuelles Depot bringt, das derzeit unsichtbar ist aus ästhetischen Gründen. (Ich weiß, dass es im Ausführungsmodus nicht sichtbar ist, aber ich wollte den Effekt im Designmodus sehen!) Alles funktioniert einwandfrei, es sei denn, Sie befinden sich in der Cockpit-Ansicht, und dann stürzt es zwangsläufig ab. Das Hochladen des Layouts in „Entwürfe“ wurde angehalten. Wenn Sie also die Pause aufheben, wird der Fehler angezeigt. Irgendeine Idee, wann das behoben wird, oder handelt es sich um eine V9-Sache? Prost Simon =========== 0007A822-3C2D-4D8C-A33B-65B42C9540A5 Aaaand it didn't crash... It did every time before I uploaded it, and the uploaded version didn't!

Hi, me again! I have a little problem, that I may have solved, but I'm wondering if there might be a better solution? A three-way point, with overhead electrification catenary. The standard boom will do single (default), long, short, and two varieties of double with long and short in opposite orders. But there is no "triple". At first I thought, use a double for the two outer tracks and have the wire for the central track go straight through to a seperate boom and mast. but that mast then gets in the way of the tensioner mast when I want to end the catenary on that side. Plus it looks messy. I also tried the transverse hangers, but the one on the same side as the middle one overlaps it. What I eventually came up with is this: A single boom sat right in the middle of a double boom. It works, and it looks neat. I just wonder if there is a better way, or if I stumbled onto the correct way, because the single boom fits exactly between the two arms of the double boom, which makes me wonder if t was designed like that? Incidentally, I also found that track flicker can be reduced to almost nothing my lowering the angled track on a junction by 0.001 (or 1mm at 1:1 scale, which is well within the tolerance of a prototype wheel!) This can also be done on everything else that flickers, except for pre-made models that have a built-in flicker!

Lua is something I am learning slowly and piecemeal. As with any programming language, the trick lies in knowing what goes where, and what you can and can't do with a function, operation, and property, as well as knowing what of the aforementioned building blocks are available! When I was in my 20s I learned a version of COBOL for my work, and there was a massive book in the office with all the various non-standard functions that could be called to do different things. In my 30s I tried to learn Delphi, and in my 40s, Visual C++. I mastered the syntax and the basic principles of both languages easily. What I didn't have was that book with all the available function calls and what they did! I might see if I can find a book on Lua, because it would be handy to know it. But yes, I can see that function, could easily be modified from a standard Event "When Switch Position Changes"... Thanks. If I ever find myself needing it, I will have totally forgotten this post!

There's probably a way to do it using the iteration "for all vehicles in a train", but I suspect that would require 10 calls to a user-defined event and some very careful timing to get the delay right for each wagon! The contacts are easier!

Fair enough. Thanks as always! I've got it working with a single track contact and a single wagon with four chutes, now to copy everything 9 times and see if it works. Going to back up the layout first!, just in case!

A train of hopper waggons comes up a slope, moving slowly. As it reaches the top it passes across a bridge with a receiving bin underneath. The locomotive moves on, and the first waggon comes onto the bridge. As soon as it is fully on, a mechanism opens the dump chutes on the waggon and the content pours out into the hopper. By the time the waggon is about to exit the bridge it is empty. The mechanism closes the chutes and as the train continues to move the waggon is replaced by the one behind it. So I have a "waterfall" particle effect attached to each chute of the waggon. There are ten waggons in the train. I could do this with ten track contacts, each of which holds a list of particle effect objects to be activated, and set a delay to deactivate them, but it feels clumsy to have the locomotive trigger the same event ten times. What I would prefer would be for the waggon itself to trigger the event when it is fully over the receiving hopper, have the list of P.E.s on the waggon, and save ten extra objects on the layout (because the event could be triggered by the waggon leaving the track before). But I can't see a way to access the individual waggons within a train in that way. Is there a way to achieve this, or will I just have to use ten track contacts?

I know, but if the junction wasn't there, I'd just connect the two signals together, set the advance signal to "Do Nothing" on the route it's actually in, and leave it at that.

Sorry for the double post... Could this feature be expanded to allow the connection property on other objects to be accessed via EV? So for example, In the above situation the connection between the main and advance signal could be changed depending on the point setting?

I see, this does look interesting. So for example, I could have a start portal with a V-depot feeding road vehicles to it, a list of end portals, indexed via a random number generator, and have the road vehicles go to a randomly selected entry-point on the layout? I had (at version 7) a layout that had almost every variant of almost every road vehicle (except a few I didn't like) loaded in a V-depot, and they would pick a random route down a hidden road with lots of junctions, to arrive at the portal that linked to the entrance point. But this new thing would be a lot more efficient. Sadly a computer failure means I no longer have that layout. And yes I know I should have backed them up. Lesson learned.

It doesn't open on V8, presumably needs an update?

Important note to all who download this: Take note of the WARNING on the Rotation button! It really does have a nasty effect!

80729089-83DD-4E94-85CA-D98B9BC8A5E1 Run that for a few minutes. But check the locations of the containers against their wagons first, before you take it off Pause. They should be identical. After running it for a while, pause and check again. Of course if it's been fixed, that's a moot question.

Ah, so it's the opposite of what I thought! Fair enough.

In fact just grouping objects doesn't keep them together if one is selected from inside the group! So setting a locomotive moving if the driver isn't linked, still leaves him behind even if they are grouped. Found that out the empirical way! But I have definitely noticed that objects linked to (for example) a flat car, such as (for example) pallet storage locations, will not always follow the exact movement of the wagon they are linked to. I don't know why, but you can set everything to the exact same height and location relative to the wagons, run the wagon around a few times, and it comes back with things slightly skewed, not enough to really notice unless you're specifically looking, but if the effect is cumulative, enough to eventually make things look wrong! I hope this can be fixed, but I suspect it's a rounding error and it's just the way things are. As I said I was hoping that grouping them might prevent the "creep".

Hi. I've noticed that if a vehicle (motorized or not) that is grouped with other objects (such as a driver, or a container floor) is sent into a virtual depot, when it is released from the virtual depot, the group has been removed. I'm guessing this is something to do with the way the vehicle is stored in the depot, and I'm also guessing there is nothing that can be done about it? It's a shame because I was hoping that grouping the objects would prevent them from moving independently of each other despite being linked, which is a bug others have noticed... Unfortunately I've not been able to duplicate the problem. Is there a way of re-grouping the objects from the EV?

I went back and found it, because unloading a train full of pallets and moving them all back to their start points by any means other than magic seems like a nightmare scenario. It's odd, suddenly finding things that you assume other people already know, only to discover that they don't... This is the script I use to put all the pallets back in their assigned start locations so that they can be re-loaded on the next train: "pallets" is a list parameter passed to the user-defined event. Each pallet has an X, Y and Z in a table called "Start Position". For anyone new to MBS reading this: The angles in Lua are in radians, and there are 6.28318 radians in 360° (or 2 x π). π is therefore 180° so ½ x π is 90°. (Based on the mathematical truth that the circumference of a circle = 2 x π x the radius). The link function removes the link established between the pallet floor and the pallet by the crane, when it placed the pallet there. Transformation.position puts the pallet back at its start location. (Although I'm wondering if "resetPosition" might do that? I've got something that works, and "if it works, don't fix it".) Because the pallet has been moved and rotated and moved and rotated, by the fork lift, by the crane and by the train itself, I need to ensure that the pallet is facing the right way for the forklift to pick up again. As I hinted previously in a different thread, without reading the dire warning Herman gave, I tried using the "rotate(x,y,z,w)" function and this basically removes your ability to move the object at all. The only solution is to delete it and make a new one! But resetRotation() puts the object to (x=0, y=0, z=0). And then rotateZ(θ) where θ is the angle you want the object at in radians puts it exactly there. This saves trying to find the current angle of the object, subtracting that from the angle you want it at, to work out the angle to rotate it by. Incidentally the easiest way to get the For...End loop in Lua, is to define an empty iteration in the EV and then convert to script...

Nope, but I notice that there are other notifications about this, so hopefully someone who does will have noticed?

Just my 2p worth, but I have enjoyed figuring a lot of it out for myself, and the community is great for offering hints on things I can't get. I'm even starting to get the hang of some Lua code thanks to @Herman . Incidentally, Herman, why is your Transformation example layout not in the Tutorial Layouts section? It really should be! I also discovered (the hard way) that this note is serious. I discovered what it does. It disables your ability to move the object at all. I also figured a way to use RotateZ to put the object at an exact angle rather than a relative one - use "ResetRotation()". This puts the object back so it's z angle is 0°, and the relative angle to zero is the exact angle! So, yes, half the fun of this hobby is screaming and turning the air blue becaus the ********* thing ian't doing what you want and you have no idea why, closing it awearing you'll never open it again then half an hour later you're back in and suddenly spot that silly little mistake!

Thanks guys. So my first guess was closest, but doesn't explain the run-down state of the buildings. I'm still tempted to label them "Industrie Verurteiltes Gebäude". If it was an East German company, I suppose that would explain the uncared-for look. The English translation of the description on the building @streit_ross mentions is "The industrial administration building is built with lighting for switching on and off". Putting that into Google Translate gives "Das Industrieverwaltungsgebäude ist mit Beleuchtung zum Ein- und Ausschalten ausgestattet" Which explains that one. I'm still curious as to why the boiler house, factory and workshop are so beaten up...

Hi peoples. This is a somewhat random question, but what is "I.V.G."? The nearest I can find on the internet is "IVG Immobilien", formerly IndustrieVerwaltungsGesellschaft, or "Industry Management Company" in English. The reason I ask is that most of the buildings labelled "IVG" are pretty dilapidated. Broken windows, faded paint, discoloured brickwork... The three biggest need to have "Condemned Structure - Keep out" signs all over them! In fact sticking "Condemned Building" into Google Translate earned me a V.G. Very Good? Well yes but also "Verurteiltes Gebäude". That leaves an 'I' unaccounted for...?

Um... Okay maybe terminology is different here. When a signal is "on" it is at danger, and when "off" it's clear... So it would display Hp00 when "On".

Once again, thank you for the information. So the signals ringed in red are correct, and will display Hp2 when "off". The signal I have ringed in green should show Hp00 if there is a trailing point on that track before the next signal. Which, as it happens, there is. I'm pretty sure that I want to hold a through-train at the signal before entering the complex of junctions, in the event that a train is already leaving the yard in that direction. Of course ideally the through-train would have priority but if the freight is already moving I definitely don't want the through-train passing that signal, even if there were another signal closer to the junction.

Thanks, Goetz You are extremely helpful as always. (If there were a "Customer Satisfaction survey" thing for this website you would have 10/10!) So, to be specific, I am working on an industrial layout where type 69 signals control a two-track main line and several industrial sidings for delivering raw materials and taking away finished product. Entry into the sidings from the main line is controlled by Hp00/Sh1. (I considered using Hp2, but that didn't feel right, as technically, entry into a yard is a shunting move even if it's with a main-line locomotive?) My question concerns the exit from the sidings back onto the main line. Is Hp0 sufficient to halt a train that has passed a Sh1 signal within the same block or is Hp00 required? Also, when exit from the yard is permitted, I am planning to use Hp2 - proceed slowly, due to the bends, points, crossings etc... But should that instead be Sh1? Is the entry to the mainline and departure on it a shunting move or a main-line move? If it's a shunting movement then the previous question becomes moot and I will swap the signals for the Sh ones. There is a main block entry signal just off the picture, which would be set to Hp1 (assuming the next block is clear). Thanks Simon