Assigning drivers to trains and scheduling commands
2. What are the precise differences between the terms: Driver setup, Driver schedule, Drive schedule, Driver schedule library, Driver schedule rule, and how do they relate to each other? I understand it's necessary to specify each of these before running a session, but can't get them clear in my mind.
Hi kihara - I will try to explain the various terms above.
Driver Setup is a rule used for adding and assigning drivers to locomotives in a session. You can change the name of the driver and add more drivers or remove them, and change the locomotives which they drive. (The locos must be placed on a track to be available to drive)
The Driver Schedule is the bar at the bottom of the screen that holds the various driver commands which you assign such as Navigate to Trackmark, Load and Unload the wagons, Couple and Decouple wagons etc. You can drag these commands to move them around on the schedule or drag them off the schedule bar to remove unwanted ones.
Drive Schedule is a
command that you issue to a driver the perform a list of commands (a schedule). Schedule Rule is used to tell the driver what schedule to follow, and has arrival and departure times at each waypoint in the schedule. I don't use this myself but it is one way to supply a list of instructions. I believe the rule was created at an early stage of Trainz before the built-in scheduling methods were available.
Driver Schedule Rule (yet another schedule rule) was created to overcome shortcomings in the ability of early Trainz versions to schedule commands and is (IMO) redundant, although it might be worth while trying it out.
Schedule Library Rule is a better way to store short lists of commands so that they can be inserted into the Driver Schedule by using the 'Copy Commands From' driver command. These lists can be assigned to different drivers to use whenever appropriate.
There is also a 'Schedule at Trackmark' rule on the DLS (author pguy, and may be built in to your version) which can insert commands into the driver's schedule when it crosses the trackmark specified in one or other direction (or both).
When starting to create a schedule is is natural to add commands to the schedule bar and then Quick Drive the session to see the result. If things don't happen as planned then make changes and additions until it behaves as you want it to. After a while the schedule starts to get rather long so at that time, switch to using the Schedule Library rule and copy segments into your Driver's Schedule instead of having to scroll to and fro.
If I have any of this wrong, would some more enlightened Trainz user please correct me.
Hope this helps - Trevor
