I didn't even know I was editing in the "wrong" mode so when I saved and said not to save the session, none of my edits were saved eventhough the program went through the motions.
I think I had a big advantage coming into trainz only a few weeks ago and straight into 2010 edition. Before this, I didn't even know the sim existed. The only sims I have ever played are 'football manager' or soccer for you guys that don't know the difference between your hands and your feet :hehe: and sim city back in the late 90's.
Anyway, because of this...it didn't take me long to work the layer business out as it was part of the learning curve the same as how to lay track was. I think for those that have earlier editions, it's obvious that such a drastic change in format would cause problems. I have only just found out in the past couple of weeks that layers are a new thing yet for me...I can't see how you guys ever managed without them.
Of course during the first week I couldn't understand what was going on. When I saved my route, next to it I would have a numer 6 for example. When I click on the route, I would then see 6 sessions all with the same name. I used to just delete the first 5 knowing that they must be old versions...but why was trainz doing this ?
Then I spent a few hours experimenting and worked it all out.
Now I just have one route and one session.
If I edit my route, then only the route is loaded into surveyor and no trains because my trains are on the session layer. So if I add a train and then quick drive, the route is saved but because I have also edited the session by adding a train and therefore equiped 'adair' to drive it by default, I am prompted to save this session. If I say no...then when I return to surveyor after quick drive, only the route is loaded again and my train is gone.
This is why I have learned
never to edit from the route menu.
I always go to the session menu and edit the session knowing that in order to edit a session, the route has to be loaded into surveyor too but this isn't true the other way round.
So now, any adjustments I make to either route or session, will be saved. I know that everything will be loading into surveyor and not just half of it. I know that when I quickdrive, my trains and AL's will all start performing their schedules and my industries will be fed. I can then quit back to surveyor, change a junction number if I like and on clicking quickdrive...I will only be prompted to overwrite the route knowing that my session is safe and cannot be over written and even if it is...it will be over written with exactly the same session that is loaded into surveyor from that very file. I can never lose any recent work and I still only have one route and one session saved to my trainz folder.
I can't believe when people can't see the potential on offer from the layers. Why do people slot their trains onto the route layer...they are not part of the route(world)...they are entities(session) much like parked cars or people or animals or even sounds. All of these should be on the session layer so that they can be manipulated between sessions.
If you visit a train yard one week...you can bet that the following week the place would look totally different where entities are concerned. The shunter would have moved...those coaches are now coupled to some diesel locomotive and are currently 25 miles further down the track. That high speed train that was awesome last week is now up on bricks in the workshop. These are just some of the things to consider when creating your routes. Plan ahead and consider what you would like to leave on the session layer so that tomorrow, you can write a completely new session entitled 'the day the trains broke' :hehe:
Currently in my route, I have a branch from my mainline running up to and ending at the side of a large hill....in the side of the hill I have a tunnel borer embedded all of this is on the session layer. Once I have finsihed my route I intend to create another session and in this session, I intend to remove the tunnel borer, add a tunnel, run a track through it which leads to a relief route for a lumbermill I'm intending to build...again all of this will be built on the session layer. The idea is...in the first session which concentrates on my passenger service, the new tunnel is being built...in my second session which concetrates on my lumber business....the tunnel is finished.
There are so many possibilities and none of them require a new route. A year from now I could be sitting down creating a completely new session for my route...I probably won't...I probably would have improved on my route building by then and be building better stuff but the point is. Why don't these people that submit 50mb routes to the DLS, consider supplying a few sessions with them and allowing people to download something that is only a few 100k in size to go driving trains rather than having to download a completely new route just to drive a different machine.
Anyway...I've really banged on here...I do this alot once I get carried away. I'm new here and I hope that you guys don't think I'm being cocky in this post and trying to tell you pro's how to cook your eggs cause that really isn't the intention...I'm just enthusiastic about this great sim and I feel that the layers are the most under rated aspect of 2010.
Mart.
