Newbie Thread
- Thread starter novastorm2000
- Start date
Marincky,
A few quick fundamentals if you haven't already discovered them:
There are two driving modes. DCC is relatively simple, like model trains. CAB is much more realistic but much more challenging, especially with steam locos.
In DCC mode, press > to go faster, < to go slower, and / to stop quickly. If you keep pressing < then you will reverse. (There is another set of control keys if you prefer but sorry I don't remember what they are.)
Have fun!
John
A few quick fundamentals if you haven't already discovered them:
There are two driving modes. DCC is relatively simple, like model trains. CAB is much more realistic but much more challenging, especially with steam locos.
In DCC mode, press > to go faster, < to go slower, and / to stop quickly. If you keep pressing < then you will reverse. (There is another set of control keys if you prefer but sorry I don't remember what they are.)
Have fun!
John
novastorm2000
Member
Printing the Manual for 2010
I think that it helps some to actually print the manual for the product and go through it all step by step. Some like me may find it for whatever reason, easier to read a printed manual than scroll through one on a screen.
I think that it helps some to actually print the manual for the product and go through it all step by step. Some like me may find it for whatever reason, easier to read a printed manual than scroll through one on a screen.
Normally I'm anti-printing but Trainz is an exception because by default it runs full-screen and switching between it and another program may cause it to crash. Maybe only print selected sections though?
John
Ah, Great idea but have you noticed that the manual on disk is not paginated? You can't print front to back, nor can you remove the annoying graphics in the background. I started to paginate the manual without graphics but gave up when it seemed that I was the only one interested. My income doesn't allow me to waste $80 worth of ink on a manual.
In the Foxit PDF reader you can select a section of text, CTRL/C to copy it, switch to Word, Notepad or whatever program you desire, paste it, reformat it if you wish, then print it. I think the same thing is possible with Adobe Reader but as I don't have it installed I can't check.
John
John
John, when I started doing the project over a year ago I had never heard of Foxit. I did however download it earlier this year and dumped Adobe Reader. Your comment jolted me to give it a try before answering here. Yes, Foxit, just like Adobe does grab text which you can then copy to Word or Wordpad, but it doesn't take the photos with it and the text becomes unformatted. That's where I was a year ago.
My copy of Foxit also came with a very powerful editor, but from what I can read on the Foxit site, they now want money for this. I could be wrong.
Anyway, the editor allows you to delete all the silly background graphics at the press of a button. That makes the book instantly ready for printing but the pagination is still wrong. You can only print it single sided. After a few seconds, I was able to add a blank page and repaginate four or five pages just like that!
In the next few days I'll totally repaginate the book for myself and also make it available on my site, ready for colour or B/W double sided printing.
Whoops. I'm talking about the TRS 2006/2009 manual here. The 2010 manual may be different.
John
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novastorm2000
Member
Printing Tips for high-volume work.
Some tips on printing manuals:
You can select balck & white to prevent using color ink.
Some printer drivers will allow you to print 2 up or 4 up on pages
You can also select draft mode and or low quality graphics in some drivers
Some drivers will even allow you to suppress graphics.
Sometimes you can convert a manual to html, then have the browser suppress the graphics and print.
Some printers are much more efficient about ink use than others also, look and research specs on pages per cartridge. The vendor info on this can be very deceiving and always be careful about asking sales people about these as some just go by the vendor specs.
For those that print a lot, having a laser for black and white work can in itself more than justify its cost for the high volume stuff and you can use a color for the pretty stuff when you really need it.
Be careful not to use generic drivers also as they can sometimes mismanage your ink. Also, there were law suits about ink low warnings not being accurate, so do not be so quick to throw away those cartridges. Last tip, see if refilling your cartridges is a more cost effective route, many places will take and give credit for your old cartridges.
I hope you find these tips useful, look at advanced properties when the print dialog box comes up.
E
Some tips on printing manuals:
You can select balck & white to prevent using color ink.
Some printer drivers will allow you to print 2 up or 4 up on pages
You can also select draft mode and or low quality graphics in some drivers
Some drivers will even allow you to suppress graphics.
Sometimes you can convert a manual to html, then have the browser suppress the graphics and print.
Some printers are much more efficient about ink use than others also, look and research specs on pages per cartridge. The vendor info on this can be very deceiving and always be careful about asking sales people about these as some just go by the vendor specs.
For those that print a lot, having a laser for black and white work can in itself more than justify its cost for the high volume stuff and you can use a color for the pretty stuff when you really need it.
Be careful not to use generic drivers also as they can sometimes mismanage your ink. Also, there were law suits about ink low warnings not being accurate, so do not be so quick to throw away those cartridges. Last tip, see if refilling your cartridges is a more cost effective route, many places will take and give credit for your old cartridges.
I hope you find these tips useful, look at advanced properties when the print dialog box comes up.
E
novastorm2000
Member
Install approach for 2010 EE with addons
I wanted to share what seems to be working for me as far as an install approach for 2010 EE with addons.
This sequence worked for the following items:
Trainz 2009 WBE
Trainz 2010 EE
Classic Cabon City
Murchison 2
Settle & Carlisle
Treez
Cumberland Route
Erie Northern Route
Sequence Installed:
2009 WBE
Patch
Treez
Cumberland Route
Erie Northern Route
Settle & Carlisle
2010 EE
Classic Cabon City
Murchison 2
After each install, Trainz was started and Content was accessed and the database was allowed to update. Trainz was run, the addon verified (Treez I did not validate) and then closed and the next install was performed.
I hope this is of some value to all!
E
I wanted to share what seems to be working for me as far as an install approach for 2010 EE with addons.
This sequence worked for the following items:
Trainz 2009 WBE
Trainz 2010 EE
Classic Cabon City
Murchison 2
Settle & Carlisle
Treez
Cumberland Route
Erie Northern Route
Sequence Installed:
2009 WBE
Patch
Treez
Cumberland Route
Erie Northern Route
Settle & Carlisle
2010 EE
Classic Cabon City
Murchison 2
After each install, Trainz was started and Content was accessed and the database was allowed to update. Trainz was run, the addon verified (Treez I did not validate) and then closed and the next install was performed.
I hope this is of some value to all!
E
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John's advice is spot on and will probably solve your problem, but I think a bit of explanation might be a good thing. As I see it, the only reason you need the expensive codec is to play the intro video, which is absolutely unnecessary. The entry "-intro=disable" in the trainzoptions.txt file, (which you will find in the main directory of your UTC installation) will bypass the intro video, and you should be able to play the game with no problem. Just use Notepad to edit it, maybe save a copy of the original to be safe.
I hope this works for you. Enjoy!
Mick Berg.
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If anyone desperately need it, the Indeo Codecs can be downloaded free from here, it's only the newer versions that Ligos want people to buy that costs. http://www.moviecodec.com/downloads/31d.html. The legacy package which is actually the last Intel ones should be sufficient for Trainz.
John259: Foxit editor allowed me to separate the pages and re paginate them in a couple of hours, but when I went to save the work I really struck problems (1) The file size went from 17 meg to a whopping 100 meg. (2) No other program (i.e. Acrobat) can read them. I isolated one page and it seems Foxit is saving them as BMP or uncompressed jpg's in the PDF. There's no option to change this.
Marincky: All the hotkeys for everything you will ever want are on pages 302 to 311 of the Manual which is located in your Trainz folder under Extras/Documentation. (Versions TRS 2006 - 2009)
Marincky: All the hotkeys for everything you will ever want are on pages 302 to 311 of the Manual which is located in your Trainz folder under Extras/Documentation. (Versions TRS 2006 - 2009)
In Foxit, if you change the selection option to text then you can copy text alone into Word etc. I haven't checked but you can probably lift individual images across too. Adobe Reader is probably the same.
Another thought: instead of printing, it might be less expensive and more convenient to buy a mini netbook computer and display the documentation on that alongside your main computer. You would need to check it can display PDF's, and has a means of transferring or accessing the files (eg wi-fi).
John
Another thought: instead of printing, it might be less expensive and more convenient to buy a mini netbook computer and display the documentation on that alongside your main computer. You would need to check it can display PDF's, and has a means of transferring or accessing the files (eg wi-fi).
John
Hi John. I understand what you're saying, but I'm not really concerned about any of that. I'm trying to do this for the Community, not for myself. I have three computers so showing the manual on one screen and doing something else on another is easy for me, but maybe not for others. I want to be able to present the manual in different formats ready for printing. The current on-disk manual does not allow for this. It's paginated incorrectly.
To convert the manual, pictures and all from PDF to whatever via Foxit is a massive task and one most newbies wouldn't ever consider. I'll find an answer and then I'll make the manual available for printing. I won't be breaching copyright because the content, including typo's will be unchanged.
BTW, I've tried copying a page from Foxit to many word processors including Corel Draw, but the photos do not transfer with the text, which is also unformatted.
I have 25 years printing experience behind me so I more or less know what I'm up against here and I'll keep fighting until I win.
Thanks for your input because those with dual computers (screens) can and should do what you suggest.
John
To convert the manual, pictures and all from PDF to whatever via Foxit is a massive task and one most newbies wouldn't ever consider. I'll find an answer and then I'll make the manual available for printing. I won't be breaching copyright because the content, including typo's will be unchanged.
BTW, I've tried copying a page from Foxit to many word processors including Corel Draw, but the photos do not transfer with the text, which is also unformatted.
I have 25 years printing experience behind me so I more or less know what I'm up against here and I'll keep fighting until I win.
Thanks for your input because those with dual computers (screens) can and should do what you suggest.
John
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