A little help please

Hi. I'm new to the Trainz forum and fairly new to Trainz, but I love it. I have a question I hope someone can help me with. I'm trying to figure out how to operate the car barge and car float that I have recently downloaded from the DLS. Has anyone operated these and if so could you please school me in this. Any help will be most appreciated. Thanks

Welcome to Trainz.

You will need to register your Trainz product so it shows you are registered in your timeline, and then we will know what version of Trainz you are using. There are many. Then you need to post the 'kuid' of the asset you downloaded so we can all see the problem you are having. The 'kuid' is the database ID of the asset you downloaded. There are hundreds of thousands of assets in Trainz, so we need to know the asset ID to be able to help, or the exact asset name so we can try to figure out the 'kuid'.

Feel free to ask questions. Most people here are more than willing to help.

Thanks for responding. I am registered but not sure what you mean by timeline. I am using Trainz 2012. The items I'm trying to work with are: 1. Car Float Barge with Tugboat (animated) Version 2.9 Kuid:520526:1707>. Says in description to see Readme.txt for notes and setup instructions. 2. Float Bridge SA Version 2.9 Kuid:520526:1689>. Says in description to view SeeMe.jpg to see how bridge, barge, switch and shoreline fit together. You see, I'm an old school, pre-computer person and I just don't know where to look for this info. The road I want to model served a car barge at one time so I thought it would be fun to have this in my setup. Again, any help is most appreciated.

DrM527 said:

Says in description to see Readme.txt for notes and setup instructions.

Click to expand...

That comment usually means that you need to right-click the asset in Content Manager, select Open \ Show in Explorer, and look in the folder for a readme file. Be sure to right click and revert before trying to use the asset. The other will be similar, but an image instead of text.

DrM527 said:

Thanks for responding. I am registered but not sure what you mean by timeline. I am using Trainz 2012. The items I'm trying to work with are: 1. Car Float Barge with Tugboat (animated) Version 2.9 Kuid:520526:1707>. Says in description to see Readme.txt for notes and setup instructions. 2. Float Bridge SA Version 2.9 Kuid:520526:1689>. Says in description to view SeeMe.jpg to see how bridge, barge, switch and shoreline fit together. You see, I'm an old school, pre-computer person and I just don't know where to look for this info. The road I want to model served a car barge at one time so I thought it would be fun to have this in my setup. Again, any help is most appreciated.

Click to expand...

Hi, If you are registered correctly the version of Trainz will appear next to your ID.

Go to the top task-bar of this page and you will see "Register" to the left of "Helpdesk".

Once you have that in place, you may get more response from the other members.

Cheers,
Roy

Roy - that Register link is actually for creating new MyTrainz accounts (I do wish N3V would make that clearer) - it's not your fault though.

DrM257 - check that your serial number is showing at https://www.auran.com/planetauran/SN_Enter_Serialnumber.php. If it is, you will need to visit the Helpdesk site and submit a support ticket requesting that N3V sort your timeline out.

Shane

First of all I want to thank each of you for your response and help.
SailorDan, did what you said and found the files. Thanks a lot. Now if I can make it work.
Shane, I checked and my serial number is showing so I'll follow through with the Helpdesk. Thank you.
Thank you all again. My name is Dan, I'm using TS12 and I'm sure I'll be back here again. Since I'm on a roll let me ask a couple more questions. Years ago I worked for a terminal/switching railroad in Norfolk, VA. I'm trying to recreate as much as I can. We served a Ford truck plant back then and I've been trying to download open autoracks and the PE racks but all show missing dependencies. Any help with this? Also, how would I go about getting an engine re-skinned (I guess this is correct) to match my RR? Again, any help is appreciated.

DrM527 said:

First of all I want to thank each of you for your response and help.
SailorDan, did what you said and found the files. Thanks a lot. Now if I can make it work.
Shane, I checked and my serial number is showing so I'll follow through with the Helpdesk. Thank you.
Thank you all again. My name is Dan, I'm using TS12 and I'm sure I'll be back here again. Since I'm on a roll let me ask a couple more questions. Years ago I worked for a terminal/switching railroad in Norfolk, VA. I'm trying to recreate as much as I can. We served a Ford truck plant back then and I've been trying to download open autoracks and the PE racks but all show missing dependencies. Any help with this? Also, how would I go about getting an engine re-skinned (I guess this is correct) to match my RR? Again, any help is appreciated.

Click to expand...

Welcome to Trainz Dan. You ask some good questions here, which all have substantive answers, but I'll supply some brief information to get you started.

It's odd that your registration isn't showing, but not unusual if you purchased TS12 from Steam. There's something up with synchronizing between Steam's servers and N3V's systems. I recommend contacting the helpdesk regarding this matter.

[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Tahoma,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]http://support.trainzportal.com/

Missing dependencies.

These are the bane of Trainzing. People create something of their own and upload it without all the extra parts, or reference components not found either on the Download Station, forever called the "DLS" here, built-in or payware DLC. This all causes holes and then what we call the KUID search.

There's a third-party website, which is subscription based, called the Trainz Kuid-Index www.trainzkuidindex.com that is really helpful in searching for parts. You can also copy and paste the list of missing assets in a forum post, and we can help you. That's really helpful 99% of the time.

To find out what's missing from your assets, right-click on the asset and choose View Dependencies.

This will show you what's there and what's not. What's not will be a list of KUID numbers. Highlight that list. Press CTRL+C and then paste the list here in a forum post.

Reskinning is a whole subject unto its self so I'll give only a brief overview. First of all it's doable for most content. You can easily open up most assets for editing, even clone them (recommended) for that matter, and make changes to them. Cloning gives you your own copy so you don't ruin the original of course.

So Clone your loco of choice. As long as it's not built-in or DLC, you can edit easily.

Open up the Open for Edit tab.

You'll see something called New Asset.

Right-click and choose Open in Explorer.

The image files are TGA files and those can be edited in image-editing software such as Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop, and Paint.net, for example. When editing images, SAVE AS with NO compression options.

You can edit the files, but keep the names the same, otherwise, "things" can get messy. (I found out the hard way many years ago).

And finally there's a file in there called a config.txt file. This can be opened up in your favorite text editor, Notepad by default, for editing. Keep the formatting, but you can change the Username tag to read what your new loco you want to be.

Once everything is edited. Close the folders, files, etc.

Back in CM (Content Manager) right-click and choose Commit.

Done. Everything should work if there are no errors.

That's the gist of the process. There is of course a lot more to it than this, which is best outlined in another thread.
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Thanks so much for the info John. I have contacted the helpdesk, waiting to hear from them.

I'll work on the dependencies as you recommended. Regarding reskinning, not sure I'm using the correct term. For a short time in the 70's I was a brakeman for a terminal/switching road, The Norfolk and Portsmouth Beltline RR. I'm trying to recreate as much of this road, including industries served as I can. We ran EMD SW1200's and I would like to have one painted the way they were including logo. Don't know if I'm able to do this or not.

I do appreciate your help and I'll keep at it. One thing retirement does is give you time.

DrM527 said:

Thanks so much for the info John. I have contacted the helpdesk, waiting to hear from them.

I'll work on the dependencies as you recommended. Regarding reskinning, not sure I'm using the correct term. For a short time in the 70's I was a brakeman for a terminal/switching road, The Norfolk and Portsmouth Beltline RR. I'm trying to recreate as much of this road, including industries served as I can. We ran EMD SW1200's and I would like to have one painted the way they were including logo. Don't know if I'm able to do this or not.

I do appreciate your help and I'll keep at it. One thing retirement does is give you time.

Click to expand...

You should be able to do this given good photos of the paint scheme and the logo.

I recommend looking for a good SW1200 to work with. There are some undecorated models available for download. Using the photos, you scale up the images to fit the blanks for the model. The model, if created properly will have what appears to be a decal sheet. On those various image areas, you paste in your logo, textures, and other details. But it's hard to give exact details without seeing the models to speak of so bare with the generic and vague information here.

That's pretty much the process. The alternative is to find another SW1200 and edit the textures, meaning replace the textures with your own. That might be easier.

You've got both right the terminology and being retired. Yeah me too now! I agree there's plenty of time to fiddle around. The good news is nothing is spent on an expensive brass model which ends up with a destroyed paint scheme. Nothing ventured, nothing gained in the 3d world.

Take your time with your route and I highly recommend referring to Google Earth and Bing maps for reference. If you want to spring for an extra investment, check out TransDEM. It's a whole new world that will allow you to import DEM terrain and topographic maps, including, historical ones, and create a Trainz route ready for editing. Once bitten, you'll never go back.

[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Tahoma,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]http://www.rolandziegler.de/StreckeUndLandschaft/startseiteTransDEMEngl.htm[/FONT]

Thanks again John. I will work on that. I do use Google maps but the trouble is, many of the industries served when I worked there in the 70's are gone now and even terrain has changed. Plus I no longer live in that area. Although I worked on the RR in the 70's I'm thinking about doing the late 50's. In this area of Virginia back then we had the N&W, SAL, VGN, ACL, C&O and a few other smaller roads plus my road handling traffic interchange between the roads plus local switching. Quite an era to model.

There's a tool called TransDEM that allows you to create terrain with a high degree of accuracy, though I'm only used it to model relatively recent terrain features. Odds are, any data from the 50's won't be terribly accurate, but if you get the program, it might be worth a try.

Although TransDEM is not required for this, you can overlay maps in it and use it to trace out rail lines, roads, waterways, etc. Even the topographic maps from the 50s should be accurate enough for accurate placement of trackage and landmarks. TransDEM has a bit of a learning curve but produces good results.

RRSignal said:

There's a tool called TransDEM that allows you to create terrain with a high degree of accuracy, though I'm only used it to model relatively recent terrain features. Odds are, any data from the 50's won't be terribly accurate, but if you get the program, it might be worth a try.

Although TransDEM is not required for this, you can overlay maps in it and use it to trace out rail lines, roads, waterways, etc. Even the topographic maps from the 50s should be accurate enough for accurate placement of trackage and landmarks. TransDEM has a bit of a learning curve but produces good results.

Click to expand...

It's actually quite interesting doing just that. On the Hoosac Tunnel project Mike K (Steamboateng) is working on, He took 1943-44 topographic maps and overlayed them on current DEM data. Nearly everything was still pretty much in place such as hills, streets, and other features. The only differences we ran into were in the greater North Adams yard area where a new bridge was built over the river the Housatonic River and yard, and where the Army Corps of Engineers built flood-control channels and walled the river in.

When the river was walled in, the railroad lost two sidings near the small tunnel, and a bunch of track closest to the river farther downstream. The bridge project sadly took down a lot of buildings and the small yard in back of the freight house, closest to the coal company, lost its tracks and some ground when the embankment was rebuilt sometime in the 1970s.

In my own area, I took a 1944-46 topographic map and overlayed that on contemporary data. The railroad alignment hasn't changed much, however farther north I-495 was put through in the 1950s and 1960s and that scarred a big cut through a neighborhood, and took out a big hunk of land. It's interesting and sad to see where the, no missing, houses once were where the two highway lanes are today.

Thanks guys. Trying to rely on memory and an old photo or two can make it difficult, particularly if you need accuracy like I do. Only problem I have is I'm old school, didn't grow up with computers or work that much with them through the years so my knowledge is very limited. Don't always understand the terms being used or how to do a certain task. I've always been more of a get your hands dirty kind of guy so I just limp along and try to figure it out.

John, I am going to paste a list of missing dependencies to see if I can get any help with that.

Just tried to cut and paste list but wouldn't let me do it.

DrM527 said:

Thanks guys. Trying to rely on memory and an old photo or two can make it difficult, particularly if you need accuracy like I do. Only problem I have is I'm old school, didn't grow up with computers or work that much with them through the years so my knowledge is very limited. Don't always understand the terms being used or how to do a certain task. I've always been more of a get your hands dirty kind of guy so I just limp along and try to figure it out.

John, I am going to paste a list of missing dependencies to see if I can get any help with that.

Just tried to cut and paste list but wouldn't let me do it.

Click to expand...

Dan

Check out www.historicaerials.com

Use the Viewer. Put in location. On the left are dates and the maps and photos. It's very helpful and very addicting, and very disheartening too at times.

Don't worry about the technicalities. We'll help you get through them.

Copying and pasting:

View dependencies:

Highlight the missing ones.

Right-click and choose Copy.

Paste in a forum topic.

If that doesn't work, try pasting first to a text file. Sometimes Edge, if you are using that, doesn't like stuff copied and pasted from applications, but copying to a text file and then copying that and pasting again works.

How about this?

Not faulty: 2f6p5infrontfreight
Not faulty: 2f6p5inrearfreight
Not faulty: 70 Ton Roller Bearing Truck
Not faulty: Animated brake hose (front)
Not faulty: Animated brake hose (rear)
Not faulty: Automobile Chrysler
Not faulty: Automobile Mercedes Benz
Not faulty: Cars Chev Impala 1959
Not faulty: default wagon
Faulty: EH Holden Cars (Prod)
Not faulty: Kia Rio Cars
Not faulty: NumberIt random running number library
Not faulty: Products-Car-01
Not faulty: Products-Car-C-4x4-01
Not faulty: Products-Car-Hillux-01
Not faulty: Products-Car-Jetta-01
Not faulty: Products-Car-Van-01

Well this is progress!

This item here is of particular interest:

Faulty: EH Holden Cars (Prod)

Errors and warnings lists nothing. Blank. I took this from dependencies.

OK, dumb question. When looking at the list of dependencies if an item shows it's on the DLS can I guess downloading that item would solve the problem for that asset?

John, can you delete the faulty dependency? Maybe clone the asset then delete that dependency?

Does it still remain faulty after doing that?

Shane

DrM527 said:

Faulty: EH Holden Cars (Prod)

Errors and warnings lists nothing. Blank. I took this from dependencies.

OK, dumb question. When looking at the list of dependencies if an item shows it's on the DLS can I guess downloading that item would solve the problem for that asset?

Click to expand...

Not such a dumb question, but yeah that may actually solve your missing dependency problem.

The error message disappearing is a good thing. That happens sometimes so don't worry about it. If it remained we'd need to look at the asset further.