Ok, Now I see I am not the complete moron I thought I was. It is very confusing and I am not the only one having problems. If you two guys are having problems then you know most of the Trainz users are having the same issues.
There are either bugs in the system which I personally believe to be the case or a clear explanation of how Trainz expects us to utilize the Route/ Session/Layers needs to be explained.
I also believe they need to fix the save feature. We should not be able to save multiple sessions with the exact same name. If a new name is not given it should overwrite the old one. Just as you John, I need to delete 4 of the 5 Katy sessions and I need to make sure I keep the correct session, otherwise I will lose about 10 hours of work. Additionally, because most of this route was built in 2009, most of the route is now in the route layer group. However a portion of the new work I have done in 2010 is now in the session layer group and I would like to find a way to move it to the route layer group. Also like you John, I never had these problems in 2009, with 2010, I have had nothing but problems. I am constantly confused because as Peter as mentioned, Trainz does not tell you which layer is active while you are working which is another item that I believe needs to be addressed.
In AutoCAD while working you separate everything by layer. When you are drawing existing track it is on the existing track layer, proposed track on the proposed track layer, existing building on the existing building layer and so on. You are constantly changing the current layer and a 1000 times a day before you draw a line you look up at your current layer to ensure you are placing the new line work on the correct layer. The current or active layer is always displayed for the user. At any time you can select any item in AutoCAD and it will tell you all sorts of information about that object. You can change any object from one layer to any other layer if needed. If you are going to introduce layers to Trainz it has to be a complete introduction, not just half way as is the case now. In my humble opinion, Trainz 2010 would be much better off without layers until such time as a full interface that supports layers can be introduced. The Trainz layering is further confusing because layers can be created under two different groups, routes and sessions. While I am sure there is a good reason for this, I am not completely sure I understand the advantage of it.
I can see where Peters Ideal of locking all of the other layers except the layer he wishes to add new items too is very good practice. Because apparently Trainz finds a way to change the Active layer and or active layer group. In doing so Trainz has changed the layer/ layer group the user is placing his new items on without the user knowing about it. This is probably the reason Peter came up with his method in the first place.
If I want everything on the route layer, and I do not want anything on the session layer, at least until I am through building the route. How do I do that? I know I have only used the edit route feature and I never use the edit session feature, however at some point things move from being placed on the route to the session, and I just don’t understand what triggers that to happen.
Perhaps it might be good practice to take Peters idea of locking the layers one step further. Maybe I should lock and turn off the entire session until the route is finished?
There are either bugs in the system which I personally believe to be the case or a clear explanation of how Trainz expects us to utilize the Route/ Session/Layers needs to be explained.
I also believe they need to fix the save feature. We should not be able to save multiple sessions with the exact same name. If a new name is not given it should overwrite the old one. Just as you John, I need to delete 4 of the 5 Katy sessions and I need to make sure I keep the correct session, otherwise I will lose about 10 hours of work. Additionally, because most of this route was built in 2009, most of the route is now in the route layer group. However a portion of the new work I have done in 2010 is now in the session layer group and I would like to find a way to move it to the route layer group. Also like you John, I never had these problems in 2009, with 2010, I have had nothing but problems. I am constantly confused because as Peter as mentioned, Trainz does not tell you which layer is active while you are working which is another item that I believe needs to be addressed.
In AutoCAD while working you separate everything by layer. When you are drawing existing track it is on the existing track layer, proposed track on the proposed track layer, existing building on the existing building layer and so on. You are constantly changing the current layer and a 1000 times a day before you draw a line you look up at your current layer to ensure you are placing the new line work on the correct layer. The current or active layer is always displayed for the user. At any time you can select any item in AutoCAD and it will tell you all sorts of information about that object. You can change any object from one layer to any other layer if needed. If you are going to introduce layers to Trainz it has to be a complete introduction, not just half way as is the case now. In my humble opinion, Trainz 2010 would be much better off without layers until such time as a full interface that supports layers can be introduced. The Trainz layering is further confusing because layers can be created under two different groups, routes and sessions. While I am sure there is a good reason for this, I am not completely sure I understand the advantage of it.
I can see where Peters Ideal of locking all of the other layers except the layer he wishes to add new items too is very good practice. Because apparently Trainz finds a way to change the Active layer and or active layer group. In doing so Trainz has changed the layer/ layer group the user is placing his new items on without the user knowing about it. This is probably the reason Peter came up with his method in the first place.
If I want everything on the route layer, and I do not want anything on the session layer, at least until I am through building the route. How do I do that? I know I have only used the edit route feature and I never use the edit session feature, however at some point things move from being placed on the route to the session, and I just don’t understand what triggers that to happen.
Perhaps it might be good practice to take Peters idea of locking the layers one step further. Maybe I should lock and turn off the entire session until the route is finished?
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