OK What Happened Here? - missing baseboard

[Railroader1970]

I have been working on a route since October last year where so far about 80 miles of track. Well today I checked one of my railyards and get this: 1 baseboard was missing - right smack dab in the middle of the yard. Pieces of track were missing, the turn table was gone - basically anything I had on that baseboard vanished. Has this happened to anybody else and does anybody know what may have caused it?

 

[Vern]

Lack of memory when saving, though this normally causes loss of terrain texturing data rather than complete section missing.

Granny, eggs and all that but you weren't accidentally playing around in the terrain editor and hit the delete board function?

Looks like your only recourse will be to restore a working backup copy.

 

[Railroader1970]

I was deleting boards but was nowhere near the yard when the baseboards were being deleted. I'll check the memory on my computer. It does take 2 minutes for the route to load when I click to edit it in Surveyor.

 

[Vern]

If you were deleting baseboards and had disabled the "deadmans" prompt, it is possible the cursor might have slipped where it shouldn't.

Worth checking in Options what your number of user backups is set to. As I've mentioned previously if as per the default 7 this can chew up HD space very quickly potentially causing shortage of space for the swap file and/or virtual memory which Trainz presumably uses to buffer data while editing then saving.

If the route takes two minutes to load, then it's probably knocking on the door of being too big and the file size will only continue to increase as you detail and texture each area.

 

[pware]

If you were deleting baseboards and had disabled the "deadmans" prompt, it is possible the cursor might have slipped where it shouldn't.

Been there ... done that. It is all too easy when you get into a "rhythm" of deleting to accidentally click somewhere off in the distance and end up deleting a lot more than you thought. That's one way to learn the art of making and restoring backups. I now have backups of my backups. When working on a major project I keep daily backups offline that go back for several months. You never know when you might need them.

 

[clam1952]

Also been there.
As well as keeping backups or clones of the route before deleting boards, it pays to actually check everything that is supposed to have remained is actually still there before saving, if it isn't then dont save, exit, reload and start again.

 

[Railroader1970]

Been there ... done that. It is all too easy when you get into a "rhythm" of deleting to accidentally click somewhere off in the distance and end up deleting a lot more than you thought. That's one way to learn the art of making and restoring backups. I now have backups of my backups. When working on a major project I keep daily backups offline that go back for several months. You never know when you might need them.

How do I go about doing that? I'm still trying to figure things out.

 

[Railroader1970]

If you were deleting baseboards and had disabled the "deadmans" prompt, it is possible the cursor might have slipped where it shouldn't.

Worth checking in Options what your number of user backups is set to. As I've mentioned previously if as per the default 7 this can chew up HD space very quickly potentially causing shortage of space for the swap file and/or virtual memory which Trainz presumably uses to buffer data while editing then saving.

If the route takes two minutes to load, then it's probably knocking on the door of being too big and the file size will only continue to increase as you detail and texture each area.

Ok, what's a dead man's prompt and what are some safety tips? I know when I deleted baseboards, I clicked very quickly. So maybe I may have clicked too far over or something thus deleting a baseboard or two on an already established spot that was important. If I make a brand new route of a different location, will it be slowed due to this bigger route I'm working on now? If I do a 150 mile route what are Computer safety suggestions and warnings as well tips etc of what to watch for and what not to do? All kinds of advice welcome.

 

[Railroader1970]

Also been there.
As well as keeping backups or clones of the route before deleting boards, it pays to actually check everything that is supposed to have remained is actually still there before saving, if it isn't then dont save, exit, reload and start again.

Sounds good. Makes sense. Thanks.

 

[Vern]

The "Deadmans Prompt" is the little box that comes up when you tick on a board to delete and asks "Are You Sure?" In the corner is a little tick field Don't Show Message again which means the board will be deleted and gone without the additional check.

If you do accidentally delete a section you want to keep, undo doesn't work and the only way to save your work is to exit without saving, losing any other work since the last save.

 

[JCitron]

Been there too. I just did that yesterday as I was cleaning up an imported DEM. I was clicking over to a new area to trim and clicked the wrong button and a hunk of a mountain vanished. That's why I always create a copy of a route, except for first import which this one was, before doing any baseboard cleanup. Also save early and save often, and check before saving so that you don't save the route with a hole in it. The save often allows you to go back to the save in case you mess up while deleting baseboards so you don't have to do the deleting process all over from scratch.

Backing up data is very important regardless of your operating system. If you're not sure what to backup, copy all your Trainz data. A PC like a MAC has specific locations where data is located for the product and knowing where this location is, is very important not only for backups but also for access to open asset folders, cloning, etc.

 

[Railroader1970]

The "Deadmans Prompt" is the little box that comes up when you tick on a board to delete and asks "Are You Sure?" In the corner is a little tick field Don't Show Message again which means the board will be deleted and gone without the additional check.

If you do accidentally delete a section you want to keep, undo doesn't work and the only way to save your work is to exit without saving, losing any other work since the last save.

Gotcha. Ok thanks. I remember that now and I did click the message that said "Don't show message again".

 

[pware]

After exiting Surveyor and before quitting Trainz, I always create a .cdp file of any assets (route and/or sessions) that I have been working on. Those files I store in a backup folder on my main Trainz drive. I have another set of backup folders on an external drive, each folder is named according to the date it was created. After creating the .cdp files, I add a new folder using that days date to the backup drive and copy the latest .cdps to that folder. I then copy the new folder to a backup folder of another external drive.

During the development life of a project this gives me hundreds of backup copies and backups of backups, all named and stored in a way that makes it easy to go back to any date that I may need for an emergency recovery - and I have, on the odd occasion, had to restore a copy from days or even a week (or more) ago. Paranoia Pays!

Of course, once the project is finished and stable, then those backups can be deleted.

If you are using Windows 10 as your OS, then you can also take advantage of its File History feature to recover data that was saved months ago (depending on your storage capacity).

 

[Railroader1970]

After exiting Surveyor and before quitting Trainz, I always create a .cdp file of any assets (route and/or sessions) that I have been working on. Those files I store in a backup folder on my main Trainz drive. I have another set of backup folders on an external drive, each folder is named according to the date it was created. After creating the .cdp files, I add a new folder using that days date to the backup drive and copy the latest .cdps to that folder. I then copy the new folder to a backup folder of another external drive.

During the development life of a project this gives me hundreds of backup copies and backups of backups, all named and stored in a way that makes it easy to go back to any date that I may need for an emergency recovery - and I have, on the odd occasion, had to restore a copy from days or even a week (or more) ago. Paranoia Pays!

Of course, once the project is finished and stable, then those backups can be deleted.

If you are using Windows 10 as your OS, then you can also take advantage of its File History feature to recover data that was saved months ago (depending on your storage capacity).

Excellent answer! Thanx bro. I have a Mac but still I see your points and will make back ups. I'll have to cut a bunch of baseboards on my current route because it is taking a minute to about two minutes to load in Surveyor. It's tough (for me) to resist having a track go here and another one way over there and on and on. This game is sure addictive. When I sit on the computer and work in Surveyor, 6hrs fly by like nothing. And I know I'm not the only one who thinks that btw. I'm more than sure that many scores of Trainz users experience the same swift passing of time in the wink of an eye. All good.

 

[pware]

It's tough (for me) to resist having a track go here and another one way over there and on and on. This game is sure addictive.

Knowing when and where to stop building is a skill in itself.

 

[Railroader1970]

Knowing when and where to stop building is a skill in itself.

Tell me about it. I'm figuring that out for myself, through trial & error as I'm sure numbers of route creators have experienced or are still experiencing as well.

 

[JCitron]

Knowing when and where to stop building is a skill in itself.

Yup. We should form a support group called TUA - Trainz Users Anonymous.

The most difficult thing is knowing when to quit while working on a route.

--- Glances at the clock. Oh, it's 10:30 pm. I'll work for a little bit longer as I add some track and fiddle with some grass textures.

--- Getting tired and glance at the clock again. It's now 3:00 am!

The biggest problem of working like this, besides being dreadfully brain dead the next day due to exhaustion, is the dumb mistakes that will creep into the work because we become numb from working well past our brain dead level.

 

[Railroader1970]

If you were deleting baseboards and had disabled the "deadmans" prompt, it is possible the cursor might have slipped where it shouldn't.

Worth checking in Options what your number of user backups is set to. As I've mentioned previously if as per the default 7 this can chew up HD space very quickly potentially causing shortage of space for the swap file and/or virtual memory which Trainz presumably uses to buffer data while editing then saving.

If the route takes two minutes to load, then it's probably knocking on the door of being too big and the file size will only continue to increase as you detail and texture each area.

Actually I have to give a correction. When I load the route, it "seemed" like it would take 2 minutes. I guess I was thinking of how long it took for the route before I deleted thousands of baseboards. Now it takes 30 to 45 seconds to load, give or take. Working on a new route where I make a Railyard as a template where I have tracks going for a few miles out (N,S,E & W etc) and saved it as a new route. If I want to have different destinations and directions, I will do so from the template with the Save As option as Vegreville (Template Yard) to Wainwright, Vegreville to Vermillion, Vegreville to Lamont etc etc. This I find will be easier to do than my first route I'm working which is about 100 miles of track in various directions.