Undo Error-Need advice

[leader2302]

After two years of using TRS2004 to build my route, I finally got an error that destroyed my route. Luckily, I backup my route constantly, so I was able to restore it from a backup, causing me to actually lose only about 2 hours work instead of two years!

This is the sequence of how the error happened:

In surveyor I was using the "undo" button a lot while raising and lowering terrain under the track in a newly built yard in my route. When I attempted to "save" the route using the surveyor menu, I got a dialog box which said something like: "Can not save route because route is a read only file. Rename the route to save it."

Hmmm...in two years I never saw that error before. So I did as instructed and saved the route with a new name. Everything looked normal in surveyor. I then clicked on the drive button to run a test train on the route and My God what I saw....

When the route loaded in driver, giant sheer cliffs 100's of meters high were sticking up all around my yard and for several baseboards in each direction, wrecking DEM terrain, stretching out track, and making giant canyons. My route was destroyed.

I exited driver and loaded surveyor and what the, my route looked normal in surveyor! But when I completely exited the route and reloaded it again, the destroyed route now appeared in all its horror in surveyor also.

Does anybody know what could have caused this error? Is it the undo button bug I have read about in several posts? (After reinstalling my route from backups I have stopped using the undo button for the time being)

Any idea how to prevent this error in the future? (besides multiple backups).

 

[Ferngren]

I belive you found your fix - stay off the undo-button plus always backup the route. Two years without problems is still a fairly good record.

In 2006 pre SP1 the undo was only 10% reliable for me and crashed a route the way you describe. With SP1 I'd say I trust it to 98% but I still use it sparingly, 4-5 times in a row maximum. I have noticed when it takes longer and longer for the undo to happen, it's time to stop using it. Of what I've read it's a bit more stable in 2004.

These are my reflections and may not be true for all users but the undo is known to cause problems at times on some computers.

 

[Ron_Smith]

The undo button caused me endless problems some months ago and was discussed in the "old forum" at great length.
I found it was ok until the map started to increase in size - something I never quite worked out exactly - the roads and other splines would stretch across the map from end to end and even over "space" to span baseboards - this being just one of the results.
Conclusion was that not using the Undo Button (despite some members having no problems) safer and less frustrating.
I now backup (2006) using the CDP in CMP every day and just delete the earlier backups every few weeks - only had cause to use a backed up map once but it was a relief to have it on standby and I lost only about an hours work.
Happy Trainzing. Ron

 

[leader2302]

Thanks guys for your replies. So I take it that the undo crash happens if the undo button is used several times in a row?

Meaning it is safe to use it once but not several times in a row?

The reason I ask is because I am leaving the texturing for last to complete the route. It will be very difficult to texture an entire route without using the undo button. Unless I constantly use Erazor to correct texture errors.

 

[Ron_Smith]

I found that using the Undo Button after a map had reached fairly large proportions was a "no-no" regardless of whether it was used only once or several times.
I do not quite comphrehend the use of the Undo Button for correcting texture - I understand how it "should" work but why not correct any minor errors with overlaying the required texture. Perhaps I am not understanding the operation you describe.
Ron

 

[leader2302]

Well, to keep the FPS as high as possible, I do not want any extra textures on the route that have been "covered over" by other textures due to mistakes. For example, if I use a grass texture on the map and do not like the looks of it, I will want to remove it, not cover it over with another texture. My route is huge, about 500 baseboards when finished, and any covered over extra textures will cause a frame rate hit. Trainz still "sees" and loads the covered over texture using memory even though we do not see the texture.

I will follow your advice and stop using the "undo" button completely.

 

[Ferngren]

Interesting to hear from Ron that the size of the route was the cause, for me it was too many corrections at one time. Still I think only one big crash in two years one should call the undo-button rather stable and since you had a backup...

I understand why you want to use it when texturing. I did a test once on textures, coming up to six layers and putting on a seventh on top, the number jumped down to two or three. It would be nice if one could chose the number of texture-layers. Two would be fine for most occasions but six is a bit much. Heard of a texture-erasor but don't know if it really takes away the textures or if it's safe to use. Blasted a route once with TrainzMap so I hesitate on such things.

Backup is the mother of all computing...