Railworks America

After playing for a few weeks with TS2020 (64 bit), I am sure now that DTG did something to improve (recover) the Custom Consist Editor (that one you access from Quick Drive).

The Custom Consist Editor is much stable now that it was in the past. I have even been using it without the need of cleaning cache (a required step if you wanted to use that tool without crashing ....see past posts on the subject).
It is true I have been using it in past days with SS JR cars and locos, but I believe it will be as stable using old stuff.

I remember you that any consist made with the CE will appear in the Scenario Editor, provided the assets are enabled (with the little cube).

And the usage of an SSD to play Railwork,s will make the assets load much faster.

If you buried it some time ago, just try it again.

I still find it more advantageous to just use serz and manually edit the QD xml. So much more flexibility with that, even allows for AI spawning

OpenRailer90 wrote:I still find it more advantageous to just use serz and manually edit the QD xml. So much more flexibility with that, even allows for AI spawning

This would be indeed for a more accurate work. I myself have never used serz but I have used the Build editor for scenarios and some bin (xml) edition work with RWTools.
I find that the Custom consist editor is (for me) much easier and faster for making generic or precise consists I can use for AI in scenarios designed in the Build editor.
Everyone has his own way of working in this great hobby.

OpenRailer90 wrote:I still find it more advantageous to just use serz and manually edit the QD xml. So much more flexibility with that, even allows for AI spawning

Simpler even, I double-click on a bin file and it opens for editing in RW-Tools.
BTW, the RW-Tools editor has a very useful button for highlighting XML syntax.

Chacal wrote:

OpenRailer90 wrote:I still find it more advantageous to just use serz and manually edit the QD xml. So much more flexibility with that, even allows for AI spawning

Simpler even, I double-click on a bin file and it opens for editing in RW-Tools.
BTW, the RW-Tools editor has a very useful button for highlighting XML syntax.

I have also the .bin (and textures) aliased to RWTools, but in my case it is still more simple. I only click once.

Seriously, RWTools is really easy to use for editing any xml coding.

Would one of you be willing to create a tutorial on how to use RW Tools to edit the bin files? Sounds interesting.

Harry

harryadkins wrote:Would one of you be willing to create a tutorial on how to use RW Tools to edit the bin files? Sounds interesting.

Harry

I am not sure what you are looking for but you open RWTools click on files, choose Open TS2018 file, go find the file (I am assuming you have the path to TS2020 identified otherwise you need to do that first. It's over in options) and open it. Now you can change whatever you want in the file and then go back to Files and the second one down is Save TS2018 file. Click that and the file is not only changed but a backup file was created with the same name only called .bak at the end so if you messed up you can go to the folder and delete the one you messed up and restore the original. It will be located in the same place as the file you just edited. Every time you open and save it makes a new backup so there can be many .bak files if you keep making changes and they are all numbered so you can keep track of them.
What else do you want to know?

Thanks Buzz. I've never tried editing consist files but I use RW Tools to edit .bin files for reskins. I'll take a look and see what happens.

Harry

What Buzz said, and in addition:
- I always work from Windows Explorer, in the folder holding the asset I want to mod.
- I double-click on the .bin file I want to edit. This opens the file* in XML format in the RW-Tools editor.
- It is all in black type and line-wrapped, not easy to work with. I click on the button for highlighting XML syntax. Now it is in glorious colors, easy to navigate.
- I edit the file, using keybord shortcuts a lot: Ctrl-F, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V. I cut and paste from other XML files when needed.
- When finished, I hit Ctrl-S, this saves the new .bin file and keeps a backup of the old. I close RW-Tools.


* The very first time, Windows Explorer asks you to select the default program for opening .bin files. Select RW-Tools. Eventually do the same for .proxybin, .tgpcdx and .geopcdx files, depending on your needs.

I find it easier to work with the .xml files in a proper highlighting editor - Context or Notepad++ for me - while still using RW Tools to extract it from the .bin.

Once the .xml is in the RW Tools editor, I just select the complete file with Ctrl-A, copy it with Ctrl-C and then paste into my editor of choice with Ctrl-V. When I've finished the editing, and checked if the syntax is correct, I just select it all again, copy and paste into RW Tools and save.

I know this introduces more steps to the workflow, but having the highlighting and search and replace tools of a proper editor make it worthwhile.

I've been using the built-in QD consist editor less and less. Rather than fiddle around with other tools to make it work, I've taken to selecting a consist that's close to what I want to run, load the game, then immediately go into the scenario editor to change the sky and swap out whatever stock needs changing. I figure it's the least cumbersome option to do it that way.

mjlevy1118 wrote:I've been using the built-in QD consist editor less and less. Rather than fiddle around with other tools to make it work, I've taken to selecting a consist that's close to what I want to run, load the game, then immediately go into the scenario editor to change the sky and swap out whatever stock needs changing. I figure it's the least cumbersome option to do it that way.

I do that often, but sometimes there is the one route with the locked scenario editor, so you can't change it while you are playing.