Interlocking Towers

I'm using enhanced interlocking towers, after I set up the paths, assign them to different trains using set paths and run the session I loose all my paths.

coop2

Are you setting the paths and assigning the trains in Driver? You would need to do this in Surveyor for the settings to stick.

--Lamont

Hi Coop2.

Can you tell us more about how you are doing things. I suppose you have a route and also a session. are you editing your session or your route under surveyor ? does your interlocking tower and paths are located in a route layer or in a session layer. When you started driver mode, did you did it from the main menu or using the quick drive button from surveyor ? And when you say you looses your paths definition : was it editing your session or your route under surveyor ? On return to surveyor via the main menu or after a quick drive ride ...?

We need to have more precision on what you did to try to identify what was not the correct way to do it and can explain you looses your paths.

regards.
Pierre.

Hi Pierre

OK I'll keep working on it to see how I'm doing the interlocking towers.

coop2

Hi Coop2.

I can also give my own personal recommandations I use with my routes and sessions.

First I always have a base session for any of my routes and when editing I always edit the base session and never the route by itself. Most objects are located in the route layer and I place only Interlocking Towers and scripted trackside objects and consists in the session layer.

Why working for interlocking towers and scripted trackside objects in the session layers : because they are all scripted objects and script data is always saved in the session layer. So better to have all these objects in the session layers than have them split with their system definition and name in the route layer and the associated user script data in the session layer ... And if you have placed earlier a scripted object in a session layer, if by mistake you edit only your route you will immediately see your error as the object (interlocking tower or trackside scripted object) is no longer there, avoiding retrieving only the object with some missing session script data (which will cause apparent path definition lost for interlocking tower ... ).

Always check when you save your work under surveyor that it proposes you the correct locations to be saved : if you have edited only objects located in your session layer, it should propose only to save the session. if you have updated some objects in the route layer, it should propose to save both the route and the current session.

And don’t forget to do some backups when you want to be able to roll back to the backup when you are preparing to do some important changes in your route and session. to do a backup, the easy way is just to edit your current session and to to do a « save to » giving a new name to the saved route. this will save a copy of the route and session to a new route with a new name you give. Personally I use the the same name concanated with - Backup xx/xx/xxxx where xx/xx/xxxx is the current date. So if later I am not satisfied with my current route and session, to roll back I just need to delete the current route and to reload the backup route that I immediately save again with A new current name. I never edit anything in a backup, it is only there to be able to copy it as a new route with a new name in case I want to roll back.

Only my personal way of doing things. There are surely other methods to manage objects avoiding loosing session data.
Hope this may help.

Regards.
Pierre.

I did a redesign. I have a double track crossing using a "C+ No Note(track) Gold Nameable" and 8 signals one at the beginning and one at the end of the double crossing. I use invisible signals after the crossing and regular signals at the beginning. Doing all changes in the session layer as pguy and others suggested. Using the enhanced tower manager I added two of the "C+'s" on some of the paths and the program removed one. It also removed the exterior signals that I had placed in two of the paths so I guess the program is correcting my errors. I ran the session for 20 minutes and everything ran very smoothly. Now I will try to understand how the double crossing, "C+" and all the signals work together. See drawing.

Hi coop2.

Updates under surveyor (there is no problems under driver mode) to interlocking towers or interlocking tower paths done using the enhanced interlocking tower manager are currently unreliable due to a bug in both TANE and TRS2019 that seems to have not been fixed in last TANE or TRS2019 updates.

So currently while this bug is not fixed, you should use the standard N3V interlocking tower and path editor to make any change to any properties of these objects to be sure they are correctly saved during the next save operation.

Updates done only using the interlocking tower manager (without later using the standard N3V editor during the same session to edit the same tower or any path inside the same tower) will be lost. if you have done any tower or paths update in a tower using the interlocking tower manager under surveyor, you need to edit also the tower under the N3V editor to confirm your modifications (no need to reenter your modifications as they are already there, you only need to confirm them by clicking on the save button in the N3V UI interface) so that they are saved in the next save operation. If you do not edit the tower under the N3V editor, your modifications will be lost.

The bug has been reported to N3V and we hope a fix in one of the next TANE and N3V updates. But while it is not fixed, it is better to use only the N3V editor to modify tower and paths properties.
I am also working on a temporary bypass for this bug, but there is currently no easy solution ...

And there is no magic auto fix routine included in the IT manager. Modifications brought to towers and paths properties should be saved and retrieved as they have been entered in next save/reload operation. If it is not the case, there is a bug somewhere ... currently in N3V save routines ...

Regards.
Pierre.