Organizing and enabling assets

[ssbobz]

I didn't see a thread for short questions/short answers.

When you have collected assets from various sources but for a particular genre/railroad is it possible (or even practical) to put them all in one folder to activate or do you just have to keep track of them and enable them all separately? For example, could I put my NS and CSX assets in one place so it's not necessary to load unneeded models for certain routes, or if I make my own? Or grouping cars by time period?

[ChrisOnline]

There are very circuitous and time-comsuming ways that could go some way to this, but none would be perfect, and would make YOUR system incompatible with imported assets and especially scenarios.

Even creating multiple dedicated file structures would be ridiculously complex due to overlaps.

So realistically, and effectively, the short answer is a very loud "NO"

[ssbobz]

I thought that would be the case.

Is there a fairly easy method for keeping track of what rolling stock you have and where to find it or does it mainly come from spending time in the editor and getting familiar with it all?

[artimrj]

Yep, it takes time getting familiar with it. You should try making a route and keep track of 1,000s of assets. You know you saw that special something somewhere but can't find it until your looking for something else.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

RW_Tools can create listings of all your assets.

RW_Tools is an indispensable utility that is available for a small donation from http://www.rstools.info.

There is a snag however: nowadays assets come in .ap files instead of single folders and files.
The .ap file is nothing more than a .zip archive without compression applied.
RW_Tools allows you to expand all the .ap files into their constituent files and folders.

But a game verification through Steam might delete all these single files and folders and refresh your install with those .ap files again.

Unfortunately, there is no graphic cataloging program available yet. A program that lets you view the asset without starting Railworks, creating an empty scenario and selecting the asset you want to view.

[OldProf]

Two years ago, I started putting together pictorial tables of rolling stock included in DLC packages. The result is still available here at http://railworksamerica.com/index.php/d ... ccessories, but is, of course, now well out of date. I compiled this collection by taking a screenshot of each unit, cropping the images, and using Microsoft Word to place them in a table along with each one's name in TS2014; finally, I saved the result as a PDF document. For DLC that I did not own, I resorted to images captured from owners' manuals, which at the time were readily available on line than they are now. "Tedious" does not begin to describe this exercise.
I started doing the same for British and German rolling stock, but surrendered before completing either one.

Could I be encouraged to bring the U.S. document up to date and finish the British and German ones? If one Smiley is worth a few hundred words:

[buzz456]

How about?

[DapperDan]

The method I use to keep a listing of my assets (I wouldn't have the patience to even think of trying what Tom did) is basically what Edwin's post stated. I use RWtools and expand all the ap files (assuming you have HD space), then create a rolling stock list and save it. I then fire up Excel, open the saved "Index.csv" file and copy it to my blank (unnamed) excel file, do a custom sort and then create tabs (ex Diesel, Electric etc.). I'll then copy the assets by name from the master sheet and past into it's specific named tab sheet. Once that's all done I can sort each specific tabbed file the way I want. There's most likely a better way of doing this, but it works for me. I don't know if you have Excel, but I've attached an example that may (or may not) be of help to you.

[ssbobz]

@OldProf - I downloaded your work earlier this week, that's probably what stirred up my organizational ocd

@DapperDan - when you sort columns does it mess up the rows or does it keep those intact, I'm not versed in Excel.

[Alpenfreight]

@OldProf - I downloaded your work earlier this week, that's probably what stirred up my organizational ocd

@DapperDan - when you sort columns does it mess up the rows or does it keep those intact, I'm not versed in Excel.

Make sure you have the whole sheet selected and all columns will sort without messing up the sheet.

[DapperDan]

Don't know what version of Excel you have, but as Alpenfreight said, highlight the whole worksheet including the headings in the top row and sort (custom sort whatever way you want). If, for example you highlight everything in the Diesel section, then click on "sort & filter" over in the top right of excel (that's where mine is), you'll get a drop down window. Now click on custom sort and a window opens up showing how I sorted everything in the Diesel section.

Hope I'm not confusing things for ya.

[Chacal]

Yes, the Excel method is pretty much the only one possible, unless someone volunteers to make an online catalog.
I use this too for swapping rolling stock in scenarios.

[OldProf]

Yes, the Excel method is pretty much the only one possible, unless someone volunteers to make an online catalog.
I use this too for swapping rolling stock in scenarios.

As noted above, I started my "catalog" in Word, using a table structure. In Word, a table can be sorted based on any column without disturbing the contents of the rows.

[jalsina]

Reading these lines I wish to share what I have been doing along January to organize my Quick Drive assets (locomotives).
I only have 15 pages of locomotives but I was tired of seeing my locos mixed up, diesels with steam, passengers with freight locos, British with US, etc...
So I decided to start a hard and long work getting this kind of result:

2016-02-14_00001.jpg

2016-02-14_00002.jpg

For an unknown reason, QD locomotives are alphabetically organized but using the consist name instead of the display loco name. By renaming the beginning of the consist name I used codes to group the locos. This is more or less the organization order I have:
1- US Passenger modern (electric and diesel) followed by older (F7,GG1, etc)
2- US diesels, trying to group by type in some cases but going from modern to older.
3- US steam locos
4- BR steam locos
5- German diesel and electric locos
6- BR diesel and electric locos
7- Fast Europe trains
I have created QD consists with the Custom Editor for those locos that had no Preload, like Panam and Guilford from Portland Terminal and some repaints downloaded from here, by authors like Sibell or Buzz, always following my alphabet coding for the consist name.
Take a look to the Genset consist name. The "3r-" are the 3 symbols that precede the real consist name (once renamed) that will place that loco in the roster zone where I want it.
The listing can be fine tuned but I can tell you that today it is much easier to navigate the QD pages and find the loco I need.

[Alpenfreight]

I've wanted to do one of these before, what would people think about getting something like this together?

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing