Trainz Asset Sorting Utility?

[leader2302]

I need a quick way to sort out all my Trainz buildings and trackside objects in TRS04 to speed up my route building. My plan is to relabel all installed buildings and other objects into specific groups, such as "Factories-flat roof, brick" . With 25,000 installed objects, I need to quickly find the asset I need to add to my route without scrolling through thousands of strangely labeled objects in surveyor.

I currently use Trainz Objectz but many objects do not display a picture so I have to guess what they are, greatly slowing down the relabeling process.

Is there a high quality freeware or payware utility program that works with TRS04 that has the ability to display a picture of each installed object and allows relabeling that is more effective than Trainz Objectz?

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

........ I wish!

 

[Dearnen]

After years away, I recently returned to Trainz with TS12 and was surprised/saddened to discover that this is still a problem. If there is one thing that the game needs more than any other, it's a better content organization system/utility. No one wants to waste hours searching through esoterically named items. It saps all the fun out of building.

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

I suspect the best you can do is use Content Manager to open a bunch of assets for edit, then use AssetX to view them, create thumbnail pics for those that don't have them, and amend the 'thumbnails' container in config.txt so as to handle that pic properly. Sadly, the thumbnail creation part is still an asset-by-asset process. If only that could be automated...

Anyway, once you have a clear idea of what each asset is, and still in AssetX, you can add appropriate keywords to one of your "factories;flat-roofed;brick", then tag all other similar buildings and replicate those keywords to all of them in one hit. Commit them all back into CM's database, choose another batch of assets and repeat...

None of this needs to involve a change to the strange usernames if you don't want. At least you can quickly filter on all buildings that you keyworded as "factories;flat-roofed;brick" even if their stupid usernames are still there.

 

[leader2302]

Thanks Dinorious for your prompt reply. I need it to work in TRS04. I see that TRS04 has "Content Dispatcher" but not Content Manager. Is you idea only good for TRS06 and up?

 

[cascaderailroad]

You can easily re-name all your assets by changing the "username" line in the config files.

I have all of RGCX's 1500 railcars renamed with the preposition: RGCX ... so I can quickly find them by starting to type in the letters: "RGCX".

Or you can call on someone who has a photogenic memory (like me) in the middle of the night, by using free Skype, and ask me: "Hey, What is that turntable called" ?

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Thanks Dinorious for your prompt reply. I need it to work in TRS04. I see that TRS04 has "Content Dispatcher" but not Content Manager. Is you idea only good for TRS06 and up?

Sorry I misunderstood your situation. Your forum icon says that you have TS2010 which does have Content Manager (the same one I use) so I assumed you were talking about that.

To answer your question; yes, keywords were only introduced in TRS2006 and up, so they won't be recognized by TRS2004. The only way to sort them out in TRS2004, unfortunately, is to 'fix' the name of each asset as given in the 'username' tag of their config.txt files. That is usually a slow process unless you can figure out a way to edit batches of assets using a smart text editor.

For example, you could instruct it to find the text string; username " and replace it with username "Factory which adds the word Factory to the front of every username. However, this may not work if each asset doesn't have the exact same text string (including the empty spaces) in the username line to begin with. Be very cautious when using text editors!

Even AssetX doesn't have a smart way of batch editing the username field.

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Or you can call on someone who has a photogenic memory...

I think you mean photographic! :hehe:

 

[cascaderailroad]

No, I meant it to display: Photogenic' ... just as Reggie White say, he have a mighty fine finique', and do it for all the little chillrens'

I wish that Trainz did have a auto editing program ... then I could backdate every asset to trainz-build 2.6

 

[andi06]

Even AssetX doesn't have a smart way of batch editing the username field.

My build does

 

[xcrossi]

My build does

My version 2.2
Hi..Care to share how to batch edit username field?
Do you have other batching tips?
Batch delete tag assetfile name.
Enter tag keyword and batch keywords

 

[andi06]

You will have to wait for the next update. ETA not known.

You could do this to add text to the beginning or end of a tag:

-Update|temp|Prefix:
-Save|1|temp
-Save|2|username
-Combine|1|1 2
-Restore|1|username
-Delete|temp

Read the help file to understand how this works.