Why Doesn't "Backup Asset Keywords" Work

[dricketts]

I had to delete and reinstall a few assets. before I did that I use the backup asset key words in CM. I reinstalled all the assets with no keywords to be found. Does this feature even work or is there a valid use for it?

I've spent hours adding keywords to a lot of my assets. I'm now thinking it was all wasted time. I'm assuming the intent of this feature was to have this data available if/when I need to reinstall Trainz or move to a new computer.

What am I missing here?

 

[Dermmy]

After reinstalling the content did you File > Restore Asset Keywords?

Andy

 

[dricketts]

After reinstalling the content did you File > Restore Asset Keywords?

Andy

Yeah I did but there just not there.

 

[teddytoot]

Check that you have the file KeywordsDump.dat in your main TS2010 folder. Also have you the latest patch. I can't remember now if it was in 2009 or 2010 but there was a problem early on that the keywords didn't save and this was corrected by a later patch.

 

[dricketts]

Check that you have the file KeywordsDump.dat in your main TS2010 folder. Also have you the latest patch. I can't remember now if it was in 2009 or 2010 but there was a problem early on that the keywords didn't save and this was corrected by a later patch.

I'm running build 44088. I have the KeywordsDump.dat file in my 2010 folder and it's 6.68 MB. Seems kind of big just for keywords.

Bottom line is I still can't get the keyword feature to work. Seems like some are there but the vast majority are not. This after spending hours assigning keywords and trying to organize my content.

Has anyone else had big problems with keywords? I've constantly back them up periodically and also use the restore feature but it simply doesn't work. CM did do a EDR a couple of weeks ago. Will that delete them? Even if it did the restore asset keywords feature in CM should work.

Asset keywords has been flaky for me ever since I started using CM. I guess I want to hear from someone else that they have had issues with it too. I haven't read anything on the forums about issues. Surely it's not only me. It's really not that hard of a concept and I'm pretty sure I'm using it correctly. I can't imagine all that work is just gone.

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Derrick

This doesn't help you immediately, but maybe in the long term. I never liked Auran's approach of having the assets and keywords in separate places - too much risk of disconbobulation given the flakiness of the programming sometimes. From the get-go, I've 'hard-wired' keywords into the assets by adding a category-keyword tag (and appropriate keywords) to the config files and periodically made backups of those assets to an external drive.

Sounds monstrous, but Asset-X makes it considerably easier even for a large collection of assets. Basically;

- use CM to select all assets of a chosen type (eg. narrowgauge tracks) and open them all for edit.

- use Asset-X to add a category-keyword tag plus actual keywords (eg. rails;narrow) to just one of them.

- Replicate that tag/keywords to all others in the open-for-edit set.

- Commit the assets and mark them in CM (eg. a 1-star rating) to indicate that they have now been keyworded.

- Repeat with other types of asset until everything has been keyworded.

Not pleasant, but not impossible.

 

[dricketts]

Thanks for the tips Deane.

I'm curious if anyone has had satisfactory results with the keywords feature.

 

[teddytoot]

Yes it seems to work OK for me. When I re-installed after my patching problems I imported my 7Mb file with no problems and all my NG keywords worked.

 

[dricketts]

Yes it seems to work OK for me. When I re-installed after my patching problems I imported my 7Mb file with no problems and all my NG keywords worked.

Thanks for the reply. I can't help thinking there is something wrong or I'm doing something wrong. Again it seems pretty simple but I can't understand why they are not showing up.