What is the Bound Layer ?
- Thread starter pware
- Start date
JamesMoody
Trainz Team
This functionality is a tool for session creators. You can bind something that was placed in one layer onto another layer. Then changing the properties of the layer you bound it to will affect the bound objects.
This was designed to solve a specific problem, although we are sure you will find more uses for it than we have thought of so far.
When building a session for a map that has already been released, it is fairly common for creators to need to add things to the map. This can be done in the session layers - and creators are used to adding trackmarks, triggers, traincars, and so on. Any item can be added in the session using layers.
However, occasionally a session creator really needs to remove something that the map creator put in a map layer, either temporarily during construction, or even for the users playing the session.
With the 'bound layer' feature, you can bind the object in the map to a session layer, then hide the session layer. All the objects bound to that layer will be hidden.
This was designed to solve a specific problem, although we are sure you will find more uses for it than we have thought of so far.
When building a session for a map that has already been released, it is fairly common for creators to need to add things to the map. This can be done in the session layers - and creators are used to adding trackmarks, triggers, traincars, and so on. Any item can be added in the session using layers.
However, occasionally a session creator really needs to remove something that the map creator put in a map layer, either temporarily during construction, or even for the users playing the session.
With the 'bound layer' feature, you can bind the object in the map to a session layer, then hide the session layer. All the objects bound to that layer will be hidden.
Thank you James - your answer beat me to it. After 3 decades of teaching I was quite used to answering my own questions and had done some experimentation.
In a nutshell - if you bound an object to a different layer than the one it is placed in (it cannot be bound to its own layer) then it takes on the properties of both layers, i.e.
- if the objects bound layer or source layer is locked then the object is also locked (cannot be deleted or moved).
- if the objects bound layer or source layer is hidden then the object is also hidden.
I also note that the Layers tool now has an extra button.
The padlock icon shown bottom right. This locks and unlocks all the layers in the top section (the route layers) of the layers tool. It cannot be over ridden by clicking the individual padlock icons in that layer.
In a nutshell - if you bound an object to a different layer than the one it is placed in (it cannot be bound to its own layer) then it takes on the properties of both layers, i.e.
- if the objects bound layer or source layer is locked then the object is also locked (cannot be deleted or moved).
- if the objects bound layer or source layer is hidden then the object is also hidden.
I also note that the Layers tool now has an extra button.
The padlock icon shown bottom right. This locks and unlocks all the layers in the top section (the route layers) of the layers tool. It cannot be over ridden by clicking the individual padlock icons in that layer.
As far as I know, objects hidden do still function; they are still there. Was I always wrong or did that change recently?
A further question on bound Layers. How can objects on one layer be inadvertently bound to another layer. I have a set roads on a route layer named scenery. Today I was trying to make a few changes to them and found them to all be bound to another route layer. Removing the binding is easy but how did it happen? i know I didn't go around to bind them one at a time. Is there some command or combination that might do that?
I have noticed the same thing. If you move an object from Layer-A to Layer-B when its bound layer was originally set to <none> then, when you later go back and check it, you discover that it is now bound to Layer-A (its original layer). You have to manually reset its bound later back to <none>. An annoying additional step.
I have found the solution to this problem - when you change an objects layer, set both its Layer and Bound Layer to the same layer name (unless of course you want them to be different) then when you later go back and check you will find that its Layer is set to the new layer and its Bound Layer will be set to <none>.
So it is impossible to replace an object with something else, particularly an industry. In Port Ogden & Northern 2 I would like to replace an MIN with a ProtoLars industry because the original industry (in VdH Steelworks) is at the very end of a track, and (un)loading a long train needs to be done in short parts. I could of course replace the original industry with a ProtoLars (which I probably have to make first), and I would be glad if Phil happens to read this post and give me advice.
Note: I am sitting at a Mac ...
Dralex‚
Note: I am sitting at a Mac ...
Dralex‚
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This does not compute... AFAIK the use of a bound layer does not prevent you from replacing any object, including an industry, with another object. Obviously you must replace like with like - you cannot replace a building with a spline for example but that has always been the case. The only extra condition that the use of the bound layer imposes is that both the original layer and the bound layer must be unlocked. I would be surprised if this was different on the Mac version.