I've got German trees in my road and pigs in my buildings

N

ninailer

New member
Well, not literally. But I do have them showing up in the listings in Surveyor. And it's brought me to the issue on my mind. I'm doing a prototype route for Northwest Arkansas, so I want to use US and rural objects. I bought the Railwayz DVD last fall and installed 2006 which has a boatload of content, some of which I have been using.

But while in Surveyor I find it mildly frustrating to pick through the content. I have tried using the filters for region and object type but that seems to be very hit or miss. For example the German tree object shows up when the Road filter is selected, or a Pig shows up when the Building filter is selected. I suspect some asset tag errors in config files.

So my question is what are others doing to organize or sort through the clutter in Surveyor? I've thought of two approaches. First, I could go to CMP and edit every item and properly set the type and region. But that would be very tedious. Second, I could again go to CMP and disable items I know I won't use. Not as tedious, but still....

Anyone have tips or tricks? Thanks for replies
 
As AJ says, it would be a pity if you disable them, you will be missing superb content.

As you state, the problems arises from the original config sorting tags.

The 'kind' and "category-class" container tag are not just ornaments in config's. But changing and dealing with config's in built-in assets could be dangerous for the TRS2006 steadiness.

If you are not going to release your route, the best way would be 'cloning' the built-in assets and change their config's. Yezzzzzzzz, a tedious tiring task but...

Anyway and given the long task ahead, :hehe: I'd better keep being a pig in a building... :hehe:

Take care,

Alberte :wave:
 
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Hi,

I have seen many post about this and I have always had a problem with this question.

My answer has been to go back to TRS2004 and TrainzObjectz. I have tried many different ways to find an answer and this IS something lacking in CMP.

I have added a few comments in your post below.

ninailer said:
Well, not literally. But I do have them showing up in the listings in Surveyor. And it's brought me to the issue on my mind. I'm doing a prototype route for Northwest Arkansas, so I want to use US and rural objects. I bought the Railwayz DVD last fall and installed 2006 which has a boatload of content, some of which I have been using.

But while in Surveyor I find it mildly frustrating to pick through the content. I have tried using the filters for region and object type but that seems to be very hit or miss. For example the German tree object shows up when the Road filter is selected, or a Pig shows up when the Building filter is selected. I suspect some asset tag errors in config files.

In TRS2004 and in particular TrainzObjectz you are able to change the setting to something you understand, it is a long process depending on the amount of custom content you have (you can not change built-in content as easy though)

So my question is what are others doing to organize or sort through the clutter in Surveyor? I've thought of two approaches. First, I could go to CMP and edit every item and properly set the type and region. But that would be very tedious. Second, I could again go to CMP and disable items I know I won't use. Not as tedious, but still....

In my limited use of 2006 I have also looked at this and to some degree you may have some success. The only thing is if your disable content and then download a layout that needs the content it will still use it.

Anyone have tips or tricks? Thanks for replies
Click to expand...

Not use how much help this may be, its only my opinion.

Craig
:):):)
 
I agree that the German content is nice; I've got a couple of their cows stuff in a field. But I know I won't want a snowy alpine chalet perched on a creekbank in Arkansas. I'm just curious how some of the pros here keep things sorted.

I do have TC installed from the DVD but haven't really used it yet. I saw some mention that it doesn't have much built-in content. Would it be worth exporting only what I want from 2006 to TC?
 
I agree with Alberte here. It is definitely worth the effort to migrate the wanted content from TRS06 to TC and, if you are up to it, also change the names of the items to something easily recognizable for you.
 
8) AJ, is relevent to the old days...

The content offered, may not be to your liking, moved by the Move Tool, however, if not for other groups content, TRS may not be what it is today....
 
I run routes in TRS06 because imho it runs and looks better and smoother than TRS04, but I simply cannot come to terms with the content categorization (is that a word?) in TRS06 so I build my routes in TRS04 despite the fact that I am missing out on a lot of cool content.

But even in 04 finding exactly what I am looking for is a hassle, so I have gotten into the habit of doing this....

Whenever I start a new route I find a quiet corner of the baseboard somewhere out of the way and I spend a fair bit of time simply scrolling through Surveyor content looking for items that might be useful on the route. When I find something I plonk it down on the bare board. After a couple of hours I have a nice stockpiled selection of trees, buildings, splines, ground textures etc that might get used on the route.

Once I start creating the route whenever I need something for a scene I don't go to the 'objects' tab, instead I go to the 'Stockpile' of objects and use the 'Get' tool on the real thing.

I find this quicker in the long run and it has the added side effect that it helps keep tabs on the amount of content used - if the stockpile starts spreading to a second board, it is time to start exercising some restraint!

Andy :)
 
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ninailer said:
...But while in Surveyor I find it mildly frustrating to pick through the content. I have tried using the filters for region and object type but that seems to be very hit or miss. For example the German tree object shows up when the Road filter is selected, or a Pig shows up when the Building filter is selected. I suspect some asset tag errors in config files...
Click to expand...

That's the whole reason I still prefer TRS2004/Trainzobjectz, even after buying TRS2006. I also think it's a myth that TRS2006 runs any better than TRS2004.
 
I agree with Dermmy...

8) ...I use the same method of locating possible content to be used in a convenient location. I did this adding roads to a town I'm working on. Several road types, and three intersections, were placed close to the area worked, and added as necessary.

The cataloging of content is terrible, I think it has to do with being global, and probably will forever remain as such, but I'm awfully thankful to have the catalogue to use from!

It brings the world closer to where I am, because of the similarities, as well as how other cultures do things.
 
Whenever I start a new route I find a quiet corner of the baseboard somewhere out of the way and I spend a fair bit of time simply scrolling through Surveyor content looking for items that might be useful on the route. When I find something I plonk it down on the bare board. After a couple of hours I have a nice stockpiled selection of trees, buildings, splines, ground textures etc that might get used on the route.
Click to expand...

I do the same thing, except I have a one-baseboard "route" saved that I use for nothing other than placing things I've found that I might use someday. When I feel inspired, I go thru the new stuff on the DLS, and anything that catches my fancy, I plunk on this baseboard. When I'm creating a route, I'll go to my reserve route, look around, and say, "Oh, Yeah, THATS what I need..."

One thing that CMP needs, IMHO, is a filter to list all assets that are not currently used in any route. I think you can do that in TO, if I remember correctly. If you could generate that list, then you could disable/delete a lot of stuff that you're never going to use. I currently have over 9gigs of stuff and a lot of it I doubt I've ever actually seen. I disable all the routes that I'm not currently playing with, and all the rolling stock that I never use, but the Objects tab in Surveyor is still terribly cluttered.
 
...not fun at all...

8) Gleaning, using anything, is a long arduous process...not worth the time.

I read last night, where someone was going to delete a route, and all the downloaded details.

I would just delete the route's saved sessions, then the route.

You may never know what you may need tomorrow, and it's always nice to have the content already, when someone makes a new route.

Basically, I'm saying, unless you have a way to look at the actual content, you don't recognize what's needed and where.

Most scenery items, are just a few megabytes anyway.
 
At the risk of sounding obvious - all or any of the required operations regarding categories etc can be achieved using CMP - I create lists using the Asset Viewer and entering a code (ie XBR for bridges or XUK for UK content) using X as a prefix it brings all items so named into a group - it is very quick and effective.
Hope this helps - perhaps it is so simple this method gets overlooked for something more complicated.:cool:
 
Thanks for all the replies. I exported my route and associated content to TC. Then I spent time learning how to use the Tranzutil to move some of the other assets. I don't have a lot set up in the route, and I haven't had much time to compare how it looks and runs in TC vs. 2006.

Even if I do decide to keep it in 2006, it has been a learning experience.
 
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