How should I handle a merge ?

[WildWillyWacko]

I want to change a little bit of trackwork and add some portals. I have done a lot of work on a session for the route as it is now. Can I save the changes to the route and session while giving both a new name?

I did a merge a few weeks ago because I had put some changes in the session layer that I really wanted to be in the route layer but somehow I lost my progress in the session and I think I ended up with somethings in the route layer that I really don't want there like some consists. I thought I had used " save as " new route and new session but I think I ended up with a somewhat blank template of a session with the " Default " name attached. Then I went into the route layer and deleted some consists but had to start over from scratch to re-create my session.

I know it probably sounds like a minor thing to you route builders out there but to me going back through and adjusting commodities levels in all the industries re-programming all my AI traffic and populating the rules and configuring them is a long task that gets old every time I feel like I need to make a minor change in the route.

Should I just archive what I have and then " Edit Route " adding the track and portals and save under the existing name?

Wild Willy the Wacko

 

[JCitron]

If you edit the session, do a Save_As and you'll be prompted to save the route too. This will clone your route and give you the updated session with the new route. This is by far the easiest way to do this, I think.

As far as merging sessions, it doesn't work. If you merge sessions together, weird things happen, and you'll have freight cars pointing at the world origin, sitting on the bottom of rivers, at the bottom of the sea, and floating in space. How would I know that...? The reason is simple but not apparent. The content is tracked by X Y Z location in the session and route data files. If this location is moved, then whatever has replaced the original location become the place where the consists will be located. Sometimes you're lucky, but not always. Sometimes, the assets become really confused and end up point in a circle at the world origin.

I know that this isn't what you intended to do here but for route merging and combining sessions, you might want to try this:

My solution is to merge the routes together and then update the host route's session to include any other consists, and driver commands from the other session. There's going to be a lot of session editing to bring over special functions. I can't remember if the portals will retain their contents, but it's best to redo them because things will get confused.

One of the most nifty and useful new functions is being able to copy and paste the session setup from one session to another. Edit the session of the route you are merging from into the other and then use the Edit Session... menu item to edit the session information. There you can multi-select by CTRL-clicking on such things as Driver Setup, Driver Commends, and Schedule Library.

Once selected, choose copy.

Close this route and open the session for route you want to merge into and paste these commands into the Edit Session... on the menu.

You may want to rename these items first, so you know which one is which, before copying and pasting them.

 

[WildWillyWacko]

I'm not advanced enough to want to merge routes, but......

what I really am concerned with is when I am editing a session and I get carried away and add something that belongs in the route layer, then I try a merge to put that item in the route. Does the game know what to put in the route layer and what to leave in the session layer or does all go into the route layer and which method of saving is the best way to go to keep these things separate if possible?

I thought originally I had done this:

" If you edit the session, do a Save_As and you'll be prompted to save the route too. This will clone your route and give you the updated session with the new route. This is by far the easiest way to do this, I think. "

and when I went back in to do more editing in the Route Layer, things like track were missing as if they stayed in the Session Layer.



Wild Willy the Wacko

 

[WildWillyWacko]

I just saved three different ways.........

and my session was not preserved, all I got was kind of a revert back to a basic " Default " template of a session.

I guess I have to develop my own template to make this work for me or just keep re-constructing my session !

Hopefully my adjustments to the Industry commodities has been retained in the Route Layer.


Thanks anyway


Wild Willy the Wacko

 

[WildWillyWacko]

WOW, I used these instructions:

One of the most nifty and useful new functions is being able to copy and paste the session setup from one session to another. Edit the session of the route you are merging into the other and then use the Edit Session... menu item to edit the session information. There you can multi-select by CTRL-clicking on such things as Driver Setup, Driver Commends, and Schedule Library.

Once selected, choose copy.

Close this route and open the session for route you want to merge into and paste these commands into the Edit Session... on the menu.

You may want to rename these items first, so you know which one is which, before copying and pasting them.

and it works great ! When you said " nifty and useful new functions " I started thinking it would only work with the new Surveyor but it worked for me and I didn't know this was possible before !

Thanks, it saves me a lot of time !



Wild Willy the Wacko

 

[JCitron]

I'm glad that worked. This was something that was asked for ages ago and it was implemented in TANE, I think. I never used that until recently when I was doing a similar thing you did. In a sense, this is a nifty new thing in the scope of Trainz.

I noticed a typo in my instructions which I need to edit. I said merging into twice and it should be merging from one into the other instead which makes more sense.

 

[chili46]

what I really am concerned with is when I am editing a session and I get carried away and add something that belongs in the route layer, then I try a merge to put that item in the route. Does the game know what to put in the route layer and what to leave in the session layer or does all go into the route layer and which method of saving is the best way to go to keep these things separate if possible?

I thought originally I had done this:

" If you edit the session, do a Save_As and you'll be prompted to save the route too. This will clone your route and give you the updated session with the new route. This is by far the easiest way to do this, I think. "

and when I went back in to do more editing in the Route Layer, things like track were missing as if they stayed in the Session Layer.



Wild Willy the Wacko

Yep, had this happen way too often myself and I found that merging the session into the route really messes things up. You can end up with duplicate assets and a total, unusable mess.

When I edit a session, I always go to layers and select route if I'm just going to be adding things to the route, but want to see what the map looks like in session mode.

Also, you can select an asset while editing a session and with the ? change the layer from session to route (or any other layer you want). Tedious to say the least, but it definitely works. Also, you can hide the route layer to see if any assets that are in the session layer need to be moved to the route layer.