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Activity Master User`s Manual Steve Davis Skyline Computing

1. if you want to choose the locomotive s you ll drive in the activity e If you are using a Rolling Stock Group that list already contains your chosen replacements You can simply click on Replace Rolling Stock to substitute some or all of the rolling stock in the activity with rolling stock in that group If you only want to change out specific cars or for example all locomotives but not necessarily all the rolling stock then set up a list by pressing the Specific List radio buttons on the Replace Rolling Stock in Activity screen e Click Replace Rolling Stock An unaltered backup of the original will be created e Run the modified activity in MSTS Changing Activity Start Time Season and Weather Much like in MSTS s Explore a Route you can change the Start Time Season and Weather easily using ActivityMaster You can change a daytime activity to nighttime to use your custom night cabviews or move a night activity to daytime etc Note While you can also change the season and weather fairly easily using the MSTS Activity Editor changing the start time isn t quite as easy You can change the time easily enough but the start times of the AI traffic aren t changed by a corresponding amount So if you were to run an activity after going into the MSTS Activity Editor and changing the activity start time you d either see none of the AI traffic the designer put into the activity or
2. Activity Master User s Manual Steve Davis Skyline Computing ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 2 Table of Contents Overview Of Basic Procedures occicsisssscscecsssccssccsenccesccsstessoncsscussvorvsoesetsssesenee 3 Eliminating Rolling Stock Downloads ccceeseesseeseccensceconeeceeseccensencontecentenersees 3 Choosing the Locomotives Yov ll Drive in an Activity oo eee ceeeeeeeeeseeeereeesaeeeeenees 6 Spicing Up Activities Using your Purchased Downloaded Cars Engines 0 7 Customizing Activities to use ONLY Rolling Stock or Locomotives from a Virtual Railroad or your favorite railroad eeeeeesscecssccecssccecseccecseececeaceessaeeeesseeeeseeeenaeeeenas 8 Changing Locomotive Types between Steam Diesel and Electric 0 0 ee eeeeeeeeeeee 9 Changing Activity Start Time Season and Weather 0 0 eee eeeessecsseceeeeeseeeneeeneeeee 10 Printing the Activity Briefing and Work Order ec ces ceeceeeeceeseeceseceeeeeeeeeeseecsaeenes 11 Figure A Sample Printable Work Order and Briefing eee eeeeeeeeeeeeeereeeneeees 12 Screen Walk Through and Detaills sscccssssssssscsssssssscscssssssccssssessees 13 Figure 1 Initial Welcome Screen pics pias ee cee teat coat iat enolate tect dese 13 Figure 1A Select an Activity File to Examine or Modify eeceeeceeeeseeeeeseeeeees 14 Figure 1B Select an Activity File to Restore oe ceeeeeceeese
3. lt x xx ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 18 Click ID Unknown to bring up a shorter list one containing only those cars or engines for which ActivityMaster couldn t determine a type We strongly recommend you do this if there are unknown cars see section B1 above so ActivityMaster can replace any missing cars or engines with cars or engines of a similar type for the greatest realism If there are no cars that couldn t be identified by the program no Unknown Types then pressing this button will simply bring up a message box telling you that This is the number of cars and or engines used in this activity that could not be found on your hard drive this MAY simply be because they ve been stored if you use TrainStore be sure and see the section on using ActivityMaster with TrainStore In order to be able to run this activity in MSTS ActivityMaster will at the minimum need to replace these cars engines Click Show Al in the Rolling Stock Available on your Hard Drive box to bring up a list similar to the list shown in Figure 2A View Edit Rolling Stock Screen showing ALL the rolling stock ActivityMaster was able to locate on your hard drive in your TRAINS TRAINSET folder Stored rolling stock will NOT be shown The list will likely be larger than the window that opens You can drag the bottom right corner of the window to make it larger and show
4. see Using Activity Master with TrainStore ActivityMaster can always identify whether an engine on your hard drive is a Diesel Steam or Electric because that information is present in the locomotive s eng file Likewise passenger cars can be identified because they have the type Carriage assigned in their associated wag files So the only cars ActivityMaster should have any trouble idendifying will be Freight cars The box Unknown Frt shows as you d expect how many Freight cars on your hard drive ActivityMaster was unable to assign a type to If you set up the types for these as shown in Figure 3 then ActivityMaster will be able to use these cars as substitutes when appropriate F Pressing Create Manage Rolling Stock Groups enables you to create groups of rolling stock For example you might have one group consisting of Western roads such as UP BNSF SP ATSF BN etc Or you might even divide these so you only see BNSF BN and ATSF locomotives but just about ANY freight cars of the modern era on your BNSF routes and only UP SP and CNW locomotives and again just about any freight cars of the modern era in another group There could be a group for B amp O C amp O a CSX and NS group Then select one of those groups and when replacing rolling stock ActivityMaster will only choose from cars in the selected group when making it s replacements This can save you a lot of work set the group up
5. targets for replacement by C US2Freight6 lt BX gt Activity Master J US2Freight lt RFR gt J US2Freight8 lt BX gt O US2Freightcar3 lt T gt O US2FreightcarS lt TOFC gt O US2FullloggerCar lt LG gt If you click on the name of a car or engine such as GP38 shown here AND there is a gif or jpg file with the same name as the wag or eng file then a picture of that car or engine Click the symbol next to will pop up the name of a given car or engine to expand the list to show possible replacements for that car or engine ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 32 Figure 8 Manually select potential Rolling Stock Replacements Shown when a car list has been expanded and several potential substitutes have been chosen Proceed with Replacement Cars used in this activity which are NOT on your hard drive are indicated by an asterisk ahead of the name You MUST select at least one replacement for each of these for MSTS to be able to load run this activity Check the box next to a piece of rolling stock to include it as a potential substitute Drag the bottom right corner of this form to increase list size Click on an engine or car name to see a picture of it if there s a gif or jpg of that car engine in the folder engines that are used in this C 48TANK_BASF_empty lt T gt O D
6. Player Service This right hand list box initially shows the player driveable DEAR locomotives set up in the original activity As you modify these your new locomotive consist will be shown here Choose Locomotives For Player Service for this Activity Select the locomotives you d like to drive for this activity If selecting Steam locomotives be sure and select a tender for each Only select Electric locomotives if the route is electrified Locomotives Chosen for Player Service for this Activity Driveable Locomotives Available on your Hard Drive Add gt lt Remove Press Add to add the locomotive highlighted in the i Flip Ditection left hand list box to bd_OhR amp WALCORS3 the end of the bd_OhR amp WF7A1H player driveable consist being built in the right hand list box lt Remove All Press Remove to remove the locomotive highlighted in the right hand list box from the consist the Press to flip the locomotive player will drive highlighted in the right hand list from forward to reverse facing or vice versa Press Remove All to remove all the locomotives from the player driveable list on the right so you can build your desired loco consist from scratch If there is a jpg or gif file in the engine folder with the same filename as the eng file then clicking this button will bring up a picture of the engine highlighted in the l
7. rolling stock in the activity that you don t have on your hard drive This is all you need to do if your desire is to run an activity without having to download any of the required rolling stock Setting the slider to 1 means that all the rolling stock not on your drive will be replaced plus 1 in 10 of the cars and engines in the activity which you DO have on your hard drive will ALSO be replaced for a little variety Sliding to 5 likewise replaces all the rolling stock not on your hard drive and HALF of the rolling stock that IS on your drive giving you more variety Finally sliding all the way to the right hand side 10 will cause the program to replace ALL of the rolling stock in this activity whether or not it s on your hard drive with rolling stock that meets the other criteria you ve set on this screen This might be used to select only rolling stock for a virtual railroad or your favorite road etc ALL the other settings are controlled by this slider For example if you chose to replace locomotives with steam if this slider is on 0 only those locomotives in the activity not on your hard drive would be replaced with steam If on 10 ALL locomotives in the activity will be replaced with steam Likewise if you set up rolling stock group or put together a specific list for the program to select from when replacing if you set the slider to 0 only rolling stock not on your hard drive will be replaced by rolling sto
8. 34 Using ActivityMaster with TraimStore 5 00 ccsaecaeeceenen ee eal 35 A What happens when rolling stock and or engines are Stored using Trans tore Mod E A E A N a A A A AES 35 B Using TrainStore as a Tool When Replacing Rolling Stock eee eeeeeeeeee 36 Viewing File Names and Extensions 0 0 0 ceeseesceeseeesceesseceeeeseeeeseecaecnseesseessaeessaeens 38 Copyrights Trademarks iss coicsscstssscecdoscdenedewscatdacpstedslavascccstssevescdesessesecicbies 38 Credits Acknowledgments esssssooccssosccecssooccessssocecesssoocessooecesssosesessseseeee 39 ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 3 Overview of Basic Procedures Important facts gt All of the procedures described here work for both SwitchList Generator Templates and for standard activities To modify the rolling stock used in any of your SwitchList Generator templates simply load the template s act file the one with the word Template in the file name to change out the rolling stock used in the template or to eliminate the need to download any of the rolling stock required for that template Then every time you generate a new activity from that template the activities you generate will contain your chosen rolling stock and engines gt ActivityMaster works hand in hand with TrainStore if desired However you should read the section in this manual Working With TrainStore gt
9. Caution It s possible that you might instruct the program to replace a number of small say 40 box cars or other cars with much larger cars 60 or 70 In that case depending on the siding lengths some of the consists may no longer fit If this happens you ll get an error message when you load the activity in MSTS possibly stating Objects begin in collision Should that occur simply press Restore an Original Activity to undo the replacements and when replacing again create a list or group that excludes really long rolling stock The length in meters is given on some of the ActivityMaster screens and often appears in the rolling stock wagon name as well Eliminating Rolling Stock Downloads One of the features of Activity Master is the ability to download virtually any activity install it and run it WITHOUT having to download any of the required rolling stock The required rolling stock will be replaced by cars and engines on your drive according to rules you set Basic Steps e Install the activity by unpacking or unzipping as per the downloaded instructions or readme file e Press Load an Activity File on the main screen shown in Figure 1 e ID the unknown rolling stock for best results by pressing both ID Unknowns buttons on the main screen e Click the Prepare to Replace Rolling Stock button Visit www skylinecomputing com for more information on Switc
10. Computing web site www skylinecomputing com You may also e mail ActivityMaster s author developer Steve Davis directly at sgdavis vigoris net For urgent issues e mail is recommended Except in extraordinary circumstances we will respond to your email inquiries within 24 hours of receipt If you are having a problem or getting an error message when running Activity Master please do the following e Restart ActivityMaster e Restore the original activity that generated the error using the Restore an Activity function if Activity Master didn t make any changes due to the error there may not be an activity to restore If you can t find the backup activity in a sub folder of the route s activity folder as described in Initial Welcome Screen Section B Restore an Original Activity then you can skip this step e Click the check box labeled Check Here to Generate Debug File before doing anything else e Press the Load an Activity act File button All Windows versions are registered trademarks of Microsoft Inc Skyline Computing distributor and creator of ActivityMaster is not affiliated with Microsoft It is believed that Activity Master runs without issues on Windows ME Millenium Edition however it has not been specifically tested on that platform Microsoft has not agreed to support ActivityMaster Please direct your ActivityMaster support issues to Skyline Computing
11. Empties and conversely all railcars designated as Empty would be replaced only with other railcars of the same type designated as Empties or unknown load status How can you accomplish this now since this check box doesn t do anything in this version It s really pretty easy For those cars you re really concerned with such as coal cars where it s obvious by looking at them whether they re loaded or empty simply define your own car type for loaded cars that s different from the unloaded cars using the screen shown in Figure 2A View Edit Rolling Stock Screen So instead of designating a coal car as CL as shown in Figure 2B ActivityMaster Default Car Type Codes and Definitions in the drop down box type in a new type definition for your loaded coal cars such as CL LD and another for the empties such as CL MT That way if you have a string of loaded coal cars sitting at a coal mine waiting to be picked up and replaced with empties ActivityMaster won t replace any of those with empties thus possibly calling for a most likely unprototypical work order in which you would be called on to pick up some loads and some empties at the coal mine creating a specific replacement list Loads vs Empties box is not implemented in this version please see text ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 30 Figure 6 Manually Choose Locomotives to Drive
12. Figure 5 Replace Rolling Stock Control Screen H Print Work Order Modify Activity Pressing this won t modify the activity it merely brings up the Print Work Order Modify Activity screen The types of ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 20 modifications you can perform from this screen include changing the activity s Season Weather and Start Time This ISN T the screen to use when you want to replace the rolling stock in the activity to do that use the previous button described in G above Replace Rolling Stock in Selected Activity For more information on the Modify Activity screen or printing a Work Order and the Activity Briefing see Figure 9 Print Work Order Modify Activity ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Figure 3 ID Unknown Type Cars Page 21 The rolling stock cars and engines in this list are used in this activity but the program either couldn t identify the car type or the car isn t on your hard drive View Edit Rolling Stock Save Changes Cancel in Activity On drive BNSF4700 tasd7Omacbn tasd7Omacbn9424 tasd Omacbn9449 s tasd Omacbn3466 N in this column means the car or engine is Not on your hard drive a Y means it is View Edit Rolling Stock Save Changes _ tin Activity On drive bn2_hop_fl bnsf1082 BNSF4700 tasd Omacbn tasd7Omacbn9424 tasd7Omacbn9449 tasd Omacbn9466 After ch
13. Games Train Simulator and you re wanting to open or modify an activity in the default Marias Pass route which is in a folder called USA2 USA1 being the default Northeast Corridor route then your screen will look something like Figure 1A below Figure 1A Select an Activity File to Examine or Modify These subfolders in the ACTIVITIES folder are created by ActivityMaster just before it modifies an activity All the files related to that activity BEFORE Select the Activity File to Examine 4 mainduty act dawnoil ARCHIVE heavy _coal_east_1 ARCHIVE a mornimod act local_one ARCHIVE 4 MP1_EastboundTemplate Jct MP 1_KAL CF WFTemplate lact MP 1_WestboundTemplate Bct evegrain act J nnmxdgds act 1 j j a autotrnsetout act a 4 dawnoil act a PRIN any modifications freighttutorial act 4 whitefishydsw act took place are 4 heavy_coal_east_1 act 4 whitpull act stored in these 4 hotbox act 2 yard_one act ARCHIVE sub 4 itr_e1_s1_w1_t1 act 3 yard_two act folders You lt local_cutbank act needn t usually 4 local_one act concern yourself local_two act with the contents of these folders ActivityMaster uses E File name X h h r a ie Files of type MSTS Activity Files act X press the Restore an Original Open as read only Activity button If all you re seeing when you click the Load an Activity File button is one of the Ar
14. List then the list will show Known type cars as the targets for which you Il need to specify replacements Finally if you clicked Specific List for BOTH Known AND ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 27 Unknown type cars in this activity then the replacement targets will show both known and unknown type cars for which you can select replacements ONLY the cars and or engines for which you select replacements will be replaced by ActivityMaster if you selected Specific List for that category Known or Unknown of car or engine type G Setup Steam Tenders Every steam engine requires an accompanying tender in order to run Pressing this button brings up a list of Steam Locomotives and allows you to associate the correct tender with each steam engine ActivityMaster does a pretty good job of determining on its own which tenders go with which locomotives It does this by looking in the folder where the engine is found for a tender If there s only one ActivityMaster automatically associates that tender with the steam engine in that folder However sometimes there is more than one steam locomotive and tender in a folder or in some cases there may be a coal burning and oil burning tender available for the same locomotive In these cases ActivityMaster can t on its own determine which tender to use Until you set up the tenders for these engines tho
15. a Tool When Replacing Rolling Stock If your desire is to replace all rolling stock in an activity with only rolling stock by this we mean engines and cars wagons used in a specific route or activity you can save yourself some work by using TrainStore to store all of your activities routes EXCEPT the activity route which holds the rolling stock you want to use in the activity you re modifying When you do this ActivityMaster will only pull potential substitute cars or engines from the cars and engines referenced in activities and their associated consists in the unstored activities or routes For example le s say you have Maple Leaf Tracks Sandpatch route plus their B amp O C amp O Heritage Pack If you unstore all the Sandpatch activities including the Heritage add on pack activities and store everything else then open an activity to modify ActivityMaster will ONLY replace the rolling stock you select to replace using the unstored rolling stock So you should get an activity with all Maple Leaf Tracks rolling stock plus any other rolling stock used in any other activities or routed you ve unstored ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 37 Of course this works the same way for Dekosoft 3DTrains NALW and 3DTrainStuff rolling stock and that of any other payware or freeware third party rolling stock developer Note that TrainStore stores all
16. edit groups of engines and cars Rolling Stock Groups to use as substitutes when replacing Replace Rolling Stock Select which rolling stock texeplace in this in Selected Activity activity and what it can be replated_with Print Work Order Change Start Time Season and Weather Modify Activity Print Work Order and or Briefing ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 14 A Load an Activity act File Pressing this button is usually your first step when using ActivityMaster However if you want to Restore an activity that you ve modified using ActivityMaster you should click Restore an Original Activity before doing anything else Then when you click the Load an Activity act file button you Il be loading the original unaltered activity This is usually the best course to follow when you ll be modifying again an activity you ve already modified When you click the Load an Activity act file button you ll see a File Open dialog box usually showing the Activities folder for the route you were working with last If this is the first time you ve used ActivityMaster you may need to browse to your Train Simulator folder and then to the route folder the activity is located in and finally to the ACTIVITIES folder in that route folder For example if your installation of Microsoft Train Simulator is located in the default location of C Program Files Microsoft
17. engines and rolling stock that isn t used in an unstored activity or in a consist referenced by an unstored activity Thus if you downloaded an engine or car but it isn t referenced in a consist or activity that s unstored then TrainStore will store that engine or car and it WON T be available to ActivityMaster when substituting rolling stock There are several ways to be sure that the rolling stock you want ActivityMaster to use as replacements is available for it to use including e For engines and or railcars associated with routes such as the equipment used in 3DTS Tehachapi or Cajon routes be sure and unstore all the activities in those routes since some rolling stock may not be used in all the activities in a route We recommend simply unstoring the entire route e For engines railcars you downloaded individually but which may not be a part of a consist you can do one of the following e Use the MSTS Activity Editor to create a new service then a consist for that service and include the engines or cars you want to have available in that consist Then make sure the consist is referenced as an explore mode consist in TrainStore and DON T store the Explore Mode Consists for more information on this and other functions of the TrainStore software please see the excellent and detailed user s manual that comes with TrainStore e Use ConBuilder to create a consist including t
18. likely that some AI consists may be unable to fit in passing sidings they d have to be really close to maximum length already for this to happen though Note on Locomotive power AI trains will have the same pulling power and should run ok regardless the engine s ActivityMaster uses to replace the original engine s as this was set up when the consist was originally put together and is reflected in a MaxVelocity setting in the con file The horsepower to weight ratio of the player train on the other hand is calculated during the activity so it can reflect pickups and setouts you make etc Because of this when you substitute locomotives in the player consist the one you ll drive it s possible that you may not have enough power to pull a train or make it up the grade Because of this we recommend you manually select the locomotives you ll drive for the player consist using the button described in H and just as a real railroader would have to do make sure you have enough power to do the necessary work E Replace Unknown Railcars rolling stock with Any railcar with matching coupler or Specific List If there are unknown type cars in this activity and you didn t select a Type for them in accordance with the procedure outlined in Figure 3 ID Unknown Type Cars then the two selections here control how ActivityMaster will deal with those Unknown Type cars in the activity If you check Any r
19. mainline train are on Whitefish Siding 6 You will be taking cars from these various sidings and using them to build cuts for tomorrow s trains The west outbound cars go to Siding 7 the east outbound cars to Siding 8 the outbound Kalispell local cars to Siding 3 and the outbound Columbia Falls local cars to Siding 4 When you have completed all of your switching end the Activity by spotting your locomotives on the Whitefish Water Track See your work order for a detailed list of cars to be switched and their locations To learn more about completing Activities see Help press F1 H RACK NAME WORK CONSIST CAR CAR DESCRIPTION TYPE SOURCE T TOUT 32768 32768 TOUT 32768 32768 TOUT 32768 TOUT 32768 TOUT 32769 32769 32769 32769 32769 32769 32769 32773 32773 32773 hitefis hitefis hitefis hitefis hitefis hitefis hitefis hitefis hitefis hitefis hitefis hitefis hitefis hitefis hitefis hitefis S2FCarRF2 L S2FCarRF2 L S2FCarRF2 L S2Freight6 BX S2Freight6 BX S2Freight6 BX S2ChemiCar T S2ChemiCar T S2FreightcarYell AUTO S2FreightcarYell AUTO S2FreightcarYell AUTO S2Freightcar5 TOFC S2Freightcar5 TOFC S2EmpLoggerCar LG S2EmpLoggerCar LG S2EmpLoggerCar LG hitefis hitefis hitefis hitefis hitefis hitefis hitefis hitefis hitefis hitefis hitefis hitefis hitefis hitefis hitefis hitefis ADA ANDUNEFO PRR Oo NRO Et A S N aa w COCO CO CO WO WO WO WO CO CO CO O 0 W W W
20. more of the list You can also print out the list Click ID Unknown in the Rolling Stock Available on your Hard Drive box to bring up a list of only the rolling stock on your hard drive for which ActivityMaster was unable to assign a type code You can then tell ActivityMaster what type each piece of unknown rolling stock is See the detailed example in Figure 3 ID Unknown Type Cars You aren t limited to the types ActivityMaster suggests You can design your own types by typing in any code The next time you run ActivityMaster after closing it out and then reloading it the new types types you created will also appear in the drop down combo box list for you to choose from The types initially supplied with ActivityMaster are shown below in Figure 2B Figure 2B ActivityMaster Default Car Type Codes and Definitions AUTO Auto rack BX Box car CL Coal CMT Cement F Flat G Gondola HP Hopper cars L Lumber beam car LG Logs RFR Refrigerator STL Coil Steel T Tank car TOFC TOFC baretable W Woodchip ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 19 Also shown in the Rolling Stock Available on Your Hard Drive box are the number of Diesel Steam Electric ID d Freight freight cars for which ActivityMaster could determine the type and Passenger cars ActivityMaster found on your hard drive but only those that aren t stored using TrainStore
21. once perhaps for your VRR and download any activity and replace some or all of the rolling stock in that activity or at least the rolling stock in that activity which you don t have on your hard drive with ONLY the rolling stock on that group A note for TrainStore users here It s probably easier to use TrainStore if you have it to set up groups of cars you want ActivityMaster to choose from by unstoring only the routes which have the rolling stock you want to use rather than setting up these groups See the section on Using Activity Master with TrainStore If you DO use the Rolling Stock Group feature AND you use TrainStore you could run into trouble IF you have rolling stock in a group which is has been stored since you created the group That could cause activity master to generate an error message when it tries to select a piece of rolling stock as a substitute which isn t actually available on your hard drive because it s stored For more details on using the Create Manage Rolling Stock Groups function see Figure 4 Create Manage Rolling Stock Groups G Replace Rolling Stock in Selected Activity While this is the meat of ActivityMaster you needn t worry about clicking on this button Clicking the button won t actually modify your activity or change any of the rolling stock in it It merely brings up the main Replace Rolling Stock control screen For more information see
22. same type so for instance tank cars are replaced with other tank cars box cars are replaced with box cars etc A Cautionary Note applies to replacing Unknown types as well depending on the rolling stock you have on your drive it s possible you could replace a lot of shorter cars in an activity with much longer cars on your drive i e replacing 40 box cars in the activity with 60 or even 80 cars This may not be a problem But if these cars are in short sidings or are placed close to the end of the sidings the cars may not fit This can result in MSTS failing to load the activity most likely with the error Activity begins with objects in collision which is prohibited If you have this problem restore the original activity and make an effort to match the car lengths being replaced with cars of equal or shorter length To help you do do this many of the type assignment screens such as the ID Unknowns screen shown in Figure 3 ID Unknown Type Cars also show the lengths of the rolling stock in meters You can also change the types of Known type cars see Figure 2A View Edit Rolling Stock Screen You might choose to substitute more length conscious type names for the types provided such as BX LNG and BX 40 for Long Box Car and 40 Box Car in place of the generic BX type that ActivityMaster defaults to see Figure 2B ActivityMaster Default Car Type Codes and Definiti
23. you d have standoffs or other bad meets ActivityMaster on the other hand does the math and moves each piece of AI traffic by the same amount as the activity start time is moved so all AI meets work as originally designed Basic Steps e Open ActivityMaster and press Load an Activity act File see Figure 1 e Click Print Work Order Modify Activity e On the screen shown in Figure 9 simply click on the Season or Weather you d like the activity designer s original season and weather are shown when the screen is first displayed e Enter the desired start hour in the hour box between 0 for midnight and 12 for noon using 12 hour format Then click AM or PM So enter 1 30 pm by typing 1 in the hour box 30 in the minute box and clicking the PM radio button ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 11 e Click Modify this Activity to create an automatic backup then rewrite the activity act file with the information you ve chosen e You ll be returned to the starting screen from which you can replace locomotives rolling stock etc as desired e It doesn t make any difference whether you modify the weather season start time etc FIRST or if you replace modify the rolling stock first Printing the Activity Briefing and Work Order Some activities come with a printed work order others don t ActivityMaster h
24. your hard drive If there is a significant number of Unknown Frt cars listed in the Rolling Stock Available on your Hard Drive box it s a good idea to assign types to these cars This generally only needs to be done once unless you ve downloaded or installed a number of new rolling stock that the program can t identify Investing some time here at the beginning will enable ActivityMaster to do a much better job of replacing the rolling stock in activities To do this click on the ID Unknown button in the Rolling Stock Available on your Hard Drive box This button brings up the screen shown in Figure 3 Select the car type from the drop down box a listing of possible car types initially supplied with the program appears in this manual as Figure 2B ActivityMaster Default Car Type Codes and Definitions Likewise if there is a non zero number in the Unknown Frt box in the Rolling Stock Used in this Activity box it is a good idea to click the ID Unknown button in the Rolling Stock Used in this Activity box to assign Types to the cars that ActivityMaster couldn t identify Doing this will help ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 5 10 11 12 13 14 ActivityMaster make more intelligent substitutions i e tank cars replaced by other tank cars etc Press the button now enabled labeled Prepare to Replace Rolling Stock in
25. Empties box is not implemented in this version please see text ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Figure 5 Replace Rolling Stock Control Scre n Ex Replace Rolling Stock in Activity Activity to process local_one Automatic lt No group using ALL rolling stock gt Use the slider below to control how much of the rolling in this a ill be replaced Coupler Type Current Rolling Stock Group Replace any rolling stock don t have plus some of the rolling stock DO have move slider to right to replace more Replace ALL the rolling stock with cars of my choosing Replace Locomotives with Diesel C Steam C Electric Replace Unknown Railcars rolling stock with ge Any Railcar with matching coupler C Specific list Replace Railcars of Known types with Any Railcar with Any Railcar of Matching coupler E Specific List rc rc Choose Player Locomotives t Replace Rolling Setup Steam Tenders Cancel H Rather than relying on the program s substitution process you can manually edit the player driveable consist to select the locomotive s to drive in the activity The file name of the activity currently being processed A Shows the coupler type used by the rolling stock in this activity Activity Master will only replace the rolling stock with rolling stock that
26. Master by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 16 Figure 2 Initial Screen after an activity has been loaded A Displays the name of the currently loaded activity file B Indicates how many of the Activity Master Version 1 0 1 SEE locomotives and cars wagons Current Activity File local one act used in this activity are available on your hard drive Rolling Stock used in this Activity Present on your Hard Drive C Shows a list of all rolling Locomotives 3 lt Ffolling stock cars 79 Show All J stock used in this activity and eo enables you to set the types Unknown types g Not on drive o ID Unknown for any that the program couldn t identify See the Rolling Stock available on your Hard Drive section on ID Unknown Bl Diesel Steam Electric Indicates Locomotives 39 5 is Show All D Indicates how many engines how many ID d Freight Passenger Unknown Frt y eng e Wagons cars T39 EJ rz ID Unkndyn and wagons in this activity or engines used in this couldn t be found on your Select an activity file take inventory of the drive F i Fil folling stock in it and on your drive activity a couldn t be Restore an Original Restores an act file and it s consists to their E This section gives assigned a Activity original state information on the number and type by Create Manage Edit Create and edit groups of engines and cars types of locomotives an
27. Railcar of Same Type the default which will cause Activity Master to replace box cars with other box cars tank cars with other tank cars etc or again Specific List to call up a list that enables you to select the potential replacements for each railcar not on your hard drive if you re willing to take the time to do this this yields the best results It s a good idea to click Choose Player Locomotives to manually choose the locomotive s you ll drive in an activity If you don t ActivityMaster will randomly select the locomotives you ll drive from a list of all driveable locomotives on your hard drive if a Rolling Stock Group was selected as detailed in Figure 4 Create Manage Rolling Stock Groups the program will only select locomotives from that group If Steam Locomotives engines will be used as potential replacements you should click Setup Steam Tenders at least once to associate tenders with the steam engines on your hard drive since each steam engine needs a tender and Activity Master can t always determine which tender goes with each engine it WILL determine this on it s own in 90 of the cases though See Figure 5A Setup Steam Tenders If you selected Specific List as the replacement method under either Replace Railcars of Unknown Types With or Replace Railcars of Known Types With then the bottom left button will read Setup Replacement List if not skip
28. ST to change the locomotives you drive in any activity or you can do this while also having Activity Master automatically change out some or all of the other rolling stock engines and locomotives in the activity Basic Steps e Open Activity Master and press Load an Activity act File see Figure 1 e Click Prepare to Replace Rolling Stock in Selected Activity e On the screen of Figure 5 click Choose Player Locomotives e The Locomotive Selection Screen of Figure 6 comes up e Use the provided buttons functions to get the locomotives you ll drive in the list box on the right hand side Press OK Use Selected Locomotives to exit and return to the screen of Figure 5 e You can also set the Master Control Slider and choose either Specific List or one of the automatic replacement options if you want ActivityMaster to also replace some or all of the non driveable locomotives and rolling stock in this activity see Spicing up activities using your purchased downloaded cars engines or Customizing Activities to use ONLY Rolling Stock or Locomotives from a Virtual Railroad or your favorite railroad in this manual e Click Replace Rolling Stock An unaltered backup of the original will be created e Run the modified activity in MSTS ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 7 Spicing Up Activities Using your Purchased Downloaded Cars Engi
29. Selected Activity Next you ll see the screen shown in Figure 5 Replace Rolling Stock in Activity Keep the Master Control Slider the only slider near the top of the screen all the way to the left on 0 if all you want to replace is just the rolling stock you don t have on your drive so you can run this activity You can click Diesel Steam or Electric to replace any engines you don t have with that type of engine It s best to stick with the type of engine used in the activity unless you ll be replacing ALL the engines Under Replace Unknown Rolling Stock With you can click Any Railcar with Matching Coupler which could put ANY railcar on your hard drive in the place of railcars in the activity which aren t on your hard drive and for which Activity Master couldn t determine the Type or you can click Specific List to see a list that will enable you to tell Activity Master which cars to choose from as substitutes for any unknown cars in this activity If you choose Specific List the button labeled Replace Rolling Stock changes to Setup Replacement List See Figure 5 Replace Rolling Stock Control Screen Under Replace Railcars of Known Types With you have one more choice since the type of car the program will be replacing is known You can choose Any Railcar with Matching Coupler as before not recommended though or Any
30. User s Manual Page 17 A This shows the activity filename that s currently loaded as a reminder You can t enter text here or change what s displayed To load a different file press the Load an Activity act File button The filename is not necessarily the same as the Name of the activity users see when they load the activity in MSTS B Shows a count of the locomotives and rolling stock freight or passenger cars or wagons used in this activity which ActivityMaster was able to locate on your hard drive Note ActivityMaster looks ONLY in your TRAINS TRAINSET folder If you re using TrainStore ActivityMaster will NOT locate cars if they re stored See the section on TrainStore towards the end of this manual B1 Shows a count of the locomotives and or rolling stock freight or passenger cars used in this activity which ActivityMaster was NOT able to locate on your hard drive This will have to be replaced in order to run the activity in MSTS Since these aren t on your drive ActivityMaster often can t determine whether these are cars wagons or engines However sometimes it can Thus it s possible that there will be rolling stock NOT on your hard drive but NO rolling stock on an unknown type in the activity C Click Show All in the Rolling Stock Used in this Activity section to bring up a list of all the rolling stock used in the activity whether it s on yo
31. W W W W W W W W W W W W W ANNNNNNNNNNNHNHNNN Ce Tb Ce eh DD ED e e prrererryeyeeyeyeyeyss CB Ch Crh GG Eh ee evel Gah a SBSSflalzaazazzz222222 2 DPPP TPPP TP D n Plug 32770 S2Freightcar3 T hitefis n West Rip 327721 EmpLoggerCar LG hitefis West Rip 32771 EmpLoggerCar hitefis ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 13 Screen Walk Through and Details Important In the following Figures throughout this Screen Walk Through and Details section look for letters in bold such as A B etc in the yellow explanation call out boxes The page following each screen picture figure provides more detailed descriptions of each button or function based on this key letter Figure 1 Initial Welcome Screen Activity Master Version 1 0 1 SEE first ptess the button inmediately below Load an Activity act File Once you ve loaded an Activity tile by browsing to it a ust of the rolling stock used by that Activity along with the contents of your TRAINSITRAINSET folder wil be read into the program and the other buttons will be enabled Pressing this button will HOT alter any of yout MSTS files of the Activity file Select an activity file take in BHO eting stock m it and on your drive Restore an Original Restores an act file and it s consists to their Activity original state Create Manage Edit Createand
32. ailcar with matching coupler then ActivityMaster will pick replacements randomly from any railcar on your hard drive that has the correct coupler type see A Coupler Type above EXCEPT IF you created and selected a Rolling Stock Group see item B above or see Figure 4 Create Manage Rolling Stock Groups then ActivityMaster will only select rolling stock FROM THAT GROUP that also has the correct coupler type If you check the Specific List button the Replace Rolling Stock button will instead change to read Set up Replacement List as shown described in item J Press that button to open up a list where you tell ActivityMaster what rolling stock from your hard drive is an acceptable replacement for each piece of unknown type rolling stock in the activity See Figure 7 Manually select potential Rolling Stock Replacements for more on how to do this ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 26 F Replace Railcars of Known Types with Any railcar with matching coupler Same Type Specific List This works the same as the Replace Railcars of Unknown Types option group described in item E above except there s an added option Same Type which is the default selection Since ActivityMaster knows what type of cars these are hence the known types classification it works best to permit ActivityMaster to replace cars in the activity with cars of the
33. as a function that will print out a standardized work order for any activity which shows all cars to be picked up all setouts and where the cars originally came from and even the car names and types The briefing written by the activity designer is also printed out This can be a big help since rather than having to read through sometimes confusing directions or work orders or having to constantly press F11 to view the Work Order and or Briefing all of your work orders can printed out and in the same consistent format Basic Steps e Open ActivityMaster and press Load an Activity act File see Figure 1 e Click Print Work Order Modify Activity e On the screen shown in Figure 9 click Print Work Order and Briefing It will be opened in Notepad You ll need to have Microsoft Notepad which comes with most versions of Microsoft Windows in your WINDOWS or WINDOWS SYSTEM folder If you can t open your work order in Notepad please contact Skyline Computing see Obtaining Technical Support we can help you with this issue e Either save or print your work order and briefing as you desire e It doesn t make any difference whether you modify the weather season start time etc FIRST or if you replace modify the rolling stock first Hint If you had Activity Master change out a lot of rolling stock the wagon names in the work order you see will be based on those in the original activi
34. ash9 lt DIESEL gt Wi GP38 lt DIESEL gt US2BNSFCar lt G gt O BNgon_box_load BNgon_coil_load J BNgon_empty CBQgon_coil_load FF O DRGWgon_empty O EJEgon J EJEgon2_empty O ELgon ELgon_loaded These lines point up towards the target car to be replaced Thus all of these cars are potential replacements for the target car US2BNSFCar which is type G for Gondola If you click in a box next to a Target car or engine one at the top of a list that will cause ALL possible replacements to be selected as replacements for that car or engine or it will clear all the selected replacements it s a toggle DAG Wagon_coil_load Click this to finalize the substitute selections you made Set up Rolling Stock Replacements KB This will return you to the Replace Rolling Stock screen Cancel where yov ll need to press Replace Rolling Stock to actually make the replacements Target cars and engines are to the left These are the cars and activity ActivityMaster can replace them for you if you select at least one potential replacement from the list below The text in brackets such as lt T gt or lt G gt is the car s type See Car Type Codes for a discussion of thee type codes When the list beneath a Target car or engine is expanded by clicking on the symbol you see all the
35. chive folders with no files in it 1 e something like Figure 1C except without the acr file or any file showing then first click this up one level button to get to a screen similar to the one shown here This will happen if the last thing you did in ActivityMaster was Restoring an Original Activity ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 15 B Restore an Original Activity Pressing this button brings up a screen similar to Figure 1B below You ll want to open one of the archive sub folders ActivityMaster created for you I e to restore the Dawn Oil activity to it s original state double click on the dawnoil ARCHIVE folder Figure 1B Select an Activity File to Restore Select an Activity File to Restore D dawnoil ARCHIVE id heavy_coal_east_1 ARCHIVE local_one ARCHIVE File name z My Computer Files of type Activity Archive Files acr v uu After opening one of these folders in this example the dawnoil ARCHIVE folder you ll then see the following partial screen shown Figure 1C Selecting an Archive File Select an Activity File to Restore Simply double click the acr file or click it and then click Open and the activity will be restored to it s original state Note it WON T be automatically loaded however To load it click on button A Load an Activity act File Activity
36. ck in that group or list If you set it to 5 ALL rolling stock in the activity whether on your hard drive or not will be replaced by rolling stock in the group or list D Replace Locomotives With Choose whether to replace locomotives in this activity with Diesel Steam or Electric by clicking the appropriate button This setting affects both the automatic selection substitution process and the contents of the replacement lists you ll have to choose from ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 25 There are some considerations with regard to this If the route is not electrified ActivityMaster at least at the current version will still go ahead and replace locomotives with electric locomotives if instructed to do so However without power these locomotives will be unable to run So we recommend you know whether or not a route is electrified before substituting Steam or Diesel locomotives in an activity with Electric locomotives Steam and Diesel locomotives on the other hand can run on any route Diesel locomotives can run on any route Steam should always work also however you need to consider the fact that a steam engine and tender combination is often longer than a single diesel engine Thus it is possible that when replacing other types with steam the player consist may be too long to turn on a wye or perform another move required to complete and activity and it s also possible though not too
37. d cars the Rolling Stock Groups to use as substitutes when replacing on your hard drive The buttons bring up lists and allow you to program Replace Rolling Stock Select whisk rolling stack to replace in this 9 in Selected Activity activity and whaNt can be replaced with tell the program what typ s any unknown cars are i e box Print Work Order Change Start Time Season anmdweather AN r tank car etc Modify Activity Print Work Order and or Briefing car hopper tank car etc F Brings up a screen used to set up groups of rolling stock for the program to choose from when substituting rolling stock in activities For example you could set up a group with Eastern roads another with Western roads another with your favorite VRR or B amp O C amp O CSX NS etc Then you can just choose one of the groups to use and when you substitute the rolling stock in an activity the program will pull the substitutes only from the rolling stock in that group Exit Check here to generate debug file G This button calls up the Rolling Stock Replacement Screen which you use to control how much of the rolling stock in the activity will be replaced and what it can be replaced with H Here you can change the activity start time season and weather and print the work order When the start time is changed the start time for all AI traffic is also changed by the same amount ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing
38. de all rolling stock on your hard drive for which the type is ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 29 unknown and for which you haven t set up a type as described in Figure 3 ID Unknown Type Cars mz We highly recommend that you DO set up type codes for the rolling stock on your hard drive so ActivityMaster can make more intelligent replacement choices However if you don t want to do this perhaps you re in a hurry to get started and have a lot of rolling stock ActivityMaster couldn t identify on your drive you can still have some control of how these get used by selecting Specific List and then including unknown types in that list by checking this box Hopefully you ll know what types these railcars actually are and can guide ActivityMaster to make reasonable substitutions using the replacement selection screen e Consider whether cars are loads or empties where known This function is not implemented in this version It will likely be implemented in a future version if there s enough interest from our users What this check box would do would be to cause ActivityMaster to replace loaded railcars those with an L in the Load column as shown in one of the railcar screens such as Figure 2A View Edit Rolling Stock Screen with only other loaded railcars of the same type or cars of the same type that are neither designated as Loads or
39. directly at www skylinecomputing com ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 35 e Perform the same steps preferable in the same order you followed before you observed the problem or got the error message e Find the file debug txt it may appear as only debug in your Windows Explorer depending on how your version of Windows is set up See the section on File Names and Extensions for more on this There are two ways to locate this file 1 Use My Computer or Windows Explorer to open your Program Files ActivityMaster folder and look for the file debug txt or just debug 2 Click Start then Search then All Files and Folders exact text may vary depending on your version of Windows and enter debug txt in the search box Then click Search to locate this file If there is more than one file found use the one in the ActivityMaster folder e Email a description of the problem you had along with the debug txt file attached and a good e mail address where you can be reached to sgdavis vigoris net Note be sure your spam blocker will accept e mail messages from sgdavis vigoris net or you will not be able to receive our e mailed responses There is also a known issues and FAQ section on the Skyline Computing web site which will be continually updated as issues are reported and identified Using ActivityMa
40. e steps outlined for Eliminating Rolling Stock Downloads except in Step 8 set the Master Control Slider to any setting to 10 ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 9 8 Next you ll see the screen shown in Figure 5 Replace Rolling Stock in Activity Move the Master Control Slider the only slider near the top of the screen all the way to the right This setting 10 will replace ALL rolling stock in the activity with rolling stock from your chosen list or group but you can limit what s replaced by using the Specific List function Changing Locomotive Types between Steam Diesel and Electric If you want to run steam engines but can t find enough good activities designed for them or you have a favorite activity that uses a steam engine but you d prefer to drive a diesel ActivityMaster can take care of this ActivityMaster can also replace steam or diesel locomotives with Electric locomotives or electric locos with steam or diesel There are a couple of caveats however 1 If you re going to replace steam or diesel with electric locomotives be sure the route is electrified Otherwise your locomotives won t run on the route So for NEC4 or the default NEC for example you can replace diesels with electrics But if you do this on the default Marias Pass route the electrics won t have the power to run 2 The combination of a steam engine and tender can be longe
41. ecseceseeeeseeeseeesneeesaeens 15 Figure 1C Selecting an Archive Pilet ccceenin detheninns CAR da eee 15 Figure 2 Initial Screen after an activity has been loaded 0 ee eee eeeeeeeeeeereeeeeeeees 16 Figure 2A View Edit Rolling Stock Screen eseesecceecesoneesoeeescetteecenneeeoneees 17 Figure 2B ActivityMaster Default Car Type Codes and Definitions 0 18 igure 3 PD Unknown ype Coats sede cu a a vase a a I RR 21 Figure 4 Create Manage Rolling Stock GroupS eseeesceseceeeesneeceaeceeeeeeeeeaeeeaeens 21 Figure 5 Replace Rolling Stock Control Screen eo cee eeieesceseeeereeceaeeeeeeeeeeeeaeeeaeens 22 Figure SA Setup Steam Tenders ici ninaa aana wacom ES Ei piae aina 27 Figure 6 Manually Choose Locomotives to Drive Player Service 30 Figure 7 Manually select potential Rolling Stock Replacements Initial unexpanded LA a D EEEE P E A A E E E A E TET A 30 Figure 8 Manually select potential Rolling Stock Replacements Shown when a car list has been expanded and several potential substitutes have been chosen 31 Figure 9 Print Work Order Modify Activity esessseessessssseessressesssessseressseessresseesse 32 Technical Issues and Support sssecccssssccccssoocceessooesessscoeesssseceessooesesssosee 34 Syste RegUre Ments n nea e E adh a E AER alas dae eee es 34 Obtaining Technical Support c jsicisscscceissseeass copesecvce decade segsantaaved cats cdases es chceanaaseatacteanedeates
42. eft hand list box ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 31 Figure 7 Manually select potential Rolling Stock Replacements Initial unexpanded screen As described here if a piece of Set up Rolling Stock Replacements SEE rolling stock has an in front of it s name for example el Proceed with Cane ASTANK_BASF that means Replacement Moe oes that car or engine isn t on your Cars used in this activity which are NOT on your hard drive are indicated hard drive so in order to run this by an asterisk ahead of the name You MUST select at least one is an replacement for each of these for MSTS to be able to load run this activity acitivy you ll need to choose at Check the box next to a piece of rolling stock to include it as a potential least one replacement for it substitute Drag the bottom right corner of this form to increase list size Click on an engine or car name to see a picture of it if there s a gif or jpg of that car engine in the folder Here you ll see the pieces of C 48TANK_BASF_empty lt T gt rolling stock cars and engines J Dash9 lt DIESEL gt used in this activity The type m GP38 lt DIESEL gt of each is shown in the brackets C US2BNSFCar lt G gt lt gt These are also referred C US2ChemiCar lt T gt to as Target cars and aa eLa engines since they are potential C US2FCarF2 lt L gt
43. f the Replace Railcars option boxes or it was but the selections were made and Proceed with Replacement was pressed this button will read Replace Rolling Stock This then becomes the program s trigger button Press this and an archive copy of the original activity will be saved in an ARCHIVE sub folder of the ACTIVITIES folder in which the activity being modified see Figure 1B Select an Activity File to Restore and the rolling stock in the current activity will be replaced in accordance with your settings You ll be returned to the screen shown in Figure 2 Initial Screen after an activity has been loaded K Check boxes Include Unknown Rolling Stock on your drive in the Replacement List and Consider whether cars are loads or empties where known e Include Unknown Rolling Stock on your drive in the Replacement List This check box will be enabled i e not grayed out IF you selected Specific List for Replace Unknown Railcars with or Replace Known Railcars with or both If you check this box then when the screen shown in Figure 8 Manually select potential Rolling Stock Replacements is expanded as shown the potential replacements you can choose from for each car or engine used in the activity will include not only cars or engines of the same type as the car or engine being replaced where the type of the replacement target is known but also will inclu
44. g team and quality control Thanks to you also
45. gard to the use of ActivityMaster in conjunction with the mentioned product or work whether such mentioned program is provided for free or for a charge or other consideration Credits Acknowledgments I owe a debt of gratitude to the following folks without whom this project would never have been completed Dan Mosko Chief Beta Tester Dan put this program through it s paces in every imaginable way and provided me with an incredible volume of feedback We exchanged emails often several times a day as we went through the development and testing process Dan without you I wouldn t have completed this Thank you Rich Garber Guidance and Artistic Direction Rich provided me with ideas as to features to add support and guidance throughout the development process and designed the Skyline Computing Logo For those who don t know Rich are there any in the MSTS community who don t he is the designer of two of the most popular freeware routes available East Metro and Ohio Rail as well as a great payware route I highly recommend Canton Canton is a photo realistic route with all manually operable switches Canton is an excellent companion to our other product SwitchList Generator since players can go anywhere they need want to there are no signals to contend with or switches that can t be operated Craig Koepe Beta testing team steam power division Thanks for your help and input Dennis Paul Gaucci Beta testin
46. hList Generator ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 4 On the screen of Figure 5 leave the Master Control Slider all the way to the left 0 Choose whether the replacements should come from a list yov ll create by clicking the Specific List option buttons or should be selected by ActivityMaster Click Choose Player Locomotives if you want to choose the locomotive s yov ll drive in the activity Click Replace Rolling Stock to replace any rolling stock in this activity that isn t on your hard drive with rolling stock that is An unaltered backup will be saved Run the activity in MSTS Detailed step by step 1 Install the activity as instructed in the readme or other instructions that came with it i e either unzip it or unpack it as usual Start ActivityMaster You ll see the screen portrayed in Figure 1 Press the Load an Activity File button and browse to the route then the ACTIVITIES folder within that route to read in the activity file as shown in Figure 1A Select an Activity File to Examine or Modify BE Nore Pressing Load an Activity File WON T change the original activity in any way It only reads and analyzes the file Once the file is selected and loaded you ll see the screen shown in Figure 2 This screen gives you an overview of the rolling stock used in this activity and which of it is and isn t on
47. has the same coupler type B The name of the current Rolling Stock Group if you ve selected one C Master control slider This slider controls the aggressiveness of the replacement process See text D Choose whether to replace locomotives used in this activity with diesel steam or electric E For cars in this activity whose type couldn t be determined should the program replace them with any car with the proper coupler or only cars ina list you ll create F For cars in this activity whose type IS known should they be replaced with cars of the same type default ANY car with the proper coupler or only cars in a specific list G If you ll be replacing existing locomotives with steam engines you should click this to associate a tender with each steam engine J The trigger button for this program Press this and the rolling stock in the selected activity will be replaced based on the settings you ve made Note if you checked one of the specific list buttons this button will CHANGE to say Set up Replacement List as shown below You won t be able to change out any of the rolling stock until you ve set up the replacement list Include Unknown rolling stock on your drive in the replacement list Set up Choose Player Setup Steam taal Replacement List Locomotives Tenders ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 24 A Coupler Type Acti
48. he cars and or engines you want to be available to ActivityMaster when substituting rolling stock and again be sure an include those consists in a TrainStore Explore Mode Consist and don t store the Explore Mode Consists e Follow the instructions given in section A preceeding entitled Ensuring all rolling stock on your hard drive is available to ActivityMaster when replacing rolling stock in an activity to make sure ALL possible rolling stock is available to the program to choose from Then possibly narrow down the choices ActivityMaster will be selecting from by using the Set Rolling Stock Groups function described elsewhere in this manual ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 38 Viewing File Names and Extensions Select the Activity File to Examine Look in ACTIVITIES e img E dawnoil ARCHIVE tJ mainduty act heavy_coal_east_1 ARCHIVE 3 mornimod act Jlocal_one ARCHIVE 8 MP 1_EastboundTemplate act autotrnsetout act MP1_KAL CF WFTemplate act MP 1_WestboundTemplate act nnmxdads act 4 TEREE 4 whitpull act l3 yard_one act 3 yard_two act l3 heavy_coal_east_1 act a t t3 freighttutorial act J whitefishydsw act l3 itr_e1_s1_w1_t1 act 19 local_cutbank act t3 local_one act t3 local_two act Your version of windows may not show the extensions It may instead show these file names witho
49. ific rolling stock you want to use Or you can substitute just the locomotives Or ALL the locomotives and most of the rolling stock Basic Steps Open ActivityMaster and press Load an Activity act File see Figure 1 Identify any Unknown rolling stock used in the activity and on your hard drive for best results Recommended but optional create or edit and use a Rolling Stock Group press Create Manage Rolling Stock Groups and include only the cars and engines you ll want in that group Click Prepare to Replace Rolling Stock in Selected Activity On the screen of Figure 5 slide the Master Control Slider all the way to the right Optional Click Choose Player Locomotives to choose the locomotive s you ll drive in this activity If you are using a Rolling Stock Group that list already contains your chosen replacements You can simply click on Replace Rolling Stock to substitute some or all of the rolling stock in the activity with rolling stock in that group If you only want to change out specific cars or for example all locomotives but not necessarily all the rolling stock then set up a list by pressing the Specific List radio buttons on the Replace Rolling Stock in Activity screen Click Replace Rolling Stock An unaltered backup of the original will be created Run the modified activity in MSTS Detailed step by step Follow the sam
50. nes ActivityMaster can replace some or all of the cars and engines in any activity with preferred cars and engines you d like to see and run So if you downloaded an activity that uses only default cars perhaps because the designer didn t want to require a lot of downloads you can enjoy all the rolling stock and engines you ve downloaded or purchased by telling ActivityMaster to substitute some or all of the rolling stock used in any activity with selected rolling stock from your collection on your hard drive Basic Steps e Open Activity Master and press Load an Activity act File see Figure 1 e Identify any Unknown rolling stock used in the activity and on your hard drive for best results e Optional create or edit and use a Rolling Stock Group press Create Manage Rolling Stock Groups e Click Prepare to Replace Rolling Stock in Selected Activity e On the screen of Figure 5 slide the Master Control Slider to the right further to replace more of the rolling stock in the activity e Click Choose Player Locomotives if you want to manually choose the locomotive s you ll drive in this activity e If you are using a Rolling Stock Group that list already contains your chosen replacements so if you don t want to refine things further you can simply click on Replace Rolling Stock to substitute some or all of the rolling stock in the activity with rolling st
51. ock you ve chosen Otherwise we recommend you set up a list by pressing the Specific List radio buttons on the Replace Rolling Stock in Activity screen e Click Replace Rolling Stock An unaltered backup of the original activity and all consists used by it will be created in an Archive folder e Run the modified activity in MSTS Detailed step by step Follow the same steps outlined for Eliminating Rolling Stock Downloads except in step 8 set the Master Control Slider to any setting between 1 and 9 8 Next you ll see the screen shown in Figure 5 Replace Rolling Stock in Activity Move the Master Control Slider the only slider near the top of the screen to the right As you move it you Il notice a number appears above ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 8 the slider control A setting of 1 one step from the far left means that 1 car or engine in every 10 will be replaced with rolling stock of your choosing the rest will remain as in the original activity A setting of 5 will replace half of all the rolling stock in the activity A setting of 10 will replace ALL rolling stock in the activity with rolling stock from your chosen list or group Customizing Activities to use ONLY Rolling Stock or Locomotives from a Virtual Railroad or your favorite railroad ActivityMaster can substitute all the rolling stock in an activity with only spec
52. ons for the default type names Don t be overly concerned with trying to do this though unless you actually have this problem We ve beta tested this on many routes and many activities and as yet haven t experienced this problem We alert you to it just in case YOU are the first to have to experience it so you ll know what to do Then there s still the Specific List option If you check the Specific List button the Replace Rolling Stock button will instead change to read Set up Replacement List as shown described in item J Press that button to open up a list where you tell ActivityMaster what rolling stock from your hard drive is an acceptable replacement for each piece of unknown type rolling stock in the activity See Figure 7 Manually select potential Rolling Stock Replacements for more on how to do this If you checked Specific List for EITHER Known or Unknown type cars or both the effect is similar the Replace Rolling Stock button changes to read Set up Replacement List and you will need to set up a list What s different is the CONTENTS of that list if ONLY Unknown types were to be handled by a user defined list then when you click Set up Replacement List will only show Unknown type cars in the activity for which you ll need to assign potential replacements Likewise if you chose to replace Known type cars with cars from a Specific
53. oosing a type by clicking on it be sure to click on some other cell to update the cell with that change The change won t actually be saved until you click Save Changes above This car with wagon name bn2_hop_fl is not on the hard drive note the N in the On drive column Based on the word hop in the name the program guessed that this could be a hopper car so HP is listed in the Car Type column The wagons with car type ENG are locomotives engines which are not on the hard drive so the type Diesel Steam or Electric couldn t be determined by the program You don t have to edit the type for these they ll be replaced by either Steam Diesel or Electric locomotives based on a setting on the Replacement screen discussed later The program made a pretty good guess as to what type of car the bn2_hop_fl was but it was wrong This is a coal train activity so these hoppers are actually coal hoppers We want to tell the program that these are coal hoppers so when substituting coal cars will be substituted for these cars which aren t your hard drive Clicking in the Car Type column calls up a drop down box from which you can select a car type Here we ve chosen CL for Coal Opens a rolling stock group file you created earlier to be used when substituting rolling stock or to be edited here Acti
54. potential replacements for that car or engine You can then tell ActivityMaster by checking the boxes next to any of the cars or engines below the parent that the given car is ok to use as a substitute for the parent car when replacing Note if you re wanting to replace locomotives with Steam engines and many of your steam engines seem to be missing from the list of potential replacements it s probably because you need to set up the tenders for them as described in the section on Setup Steam Tenders Check the box next to a given car or engine for that car or engine to be considered by Activity Master as a replacement for the Parent car or engine For instance in this example the BNgon_coil_load CBQgon_coil_load DRGWgon_coil_load and ELgon_loaded have all been selected to be used by Activity Master as replacements for the default gondola car US2BNSFCar ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 33 Figure 9 Print Work Order Modify Activity Gives the file name of the currently selected activity Modify Activity Print Work Order Briefing E B file to modify the file will Current Activity File llocalone act be archived before any modifications are made Season C Spri G Spring edp ummer Shows the season set for C Fall C Winter the original activity Click to change the season weather Clear C Rain C Snow Shows the weather set for
55. r than a diesel engine So for some activities that require turning on a wye or other maneuvers in small space there may not be room for the steam engine and tender while there was plenty of room for the smaller diesel or electric Also AI traffic meets may be affected since the player or AI traffic may cover the route at a different speed than the activity designer Also if you run low on water or coal and the route doesn t have any water tower or coaling facility well Our suggestion try it and if you don t like the results use the Restore an Original Activity feature to undo the changes Basic Steps e Open ActivityMaster and press Load an Activity act File see Figure 1 e Identify any Unknown rolling stock used in the activity and on your hard drive for best results e Optional create or edit and use a Rolling Stock Group press Create Manage Rolling Stock Groups and include only the cars and engines you ll want in that group e Click Prepare to Replace Rolling Stock in Selected Activity e On the screen of Figure 5 slide the Master Control Slider all the way to the right ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 10 e In the Replace Locomotives With box click Diesel Steam or Electric as desired Locomotives in the activity will be replaced with the chosen type e Optional Click Choose Player Locomotives
56. rrent Group next screen below F OF Current Group File Click the symbols to expand the list Check the top level to select all A cars in the lower level Check the boxes next torolling stock you want to Here s a view of the list allow Activity Master to use as substitutes for rolling stock in activities expanded note the to the You can increase the list size by dragging the bottom right of this form lefiot te BX cick that Click on an engine or car name to see a picture of it if there s a gif or jpg of that car engine in the folder collapse the list again 4 J AUTO Check the box next to each car 0 Bx name to include it in this group Oe to be used as a potential bd_ohrw40 F ae ri A substitute for this type of car C Cin4ortb_t For example checking the box O ACY 40ftb_772 next to the CNJ40ftb_ 23506 C ECK40ftb_1001 would mean that the Central of C BM40ftb_76112 New Jersey box car 23506 O C040rftb_ 19310 Fy cnudorte 23506 could be used as a substitute for box cars used in an activity If there is a jpg or gif file in the car or engine folder with the same filename as the eng or wag file then clicking on one of the car engine names shown here will bring up a picture of that car or engine K Check boxes Check to include unknowns in the list if you ll be creating a specific replacement list Loads vs
57. se engines WON T appear as options when choosing replacement rolling stock and won t be used as replacements when automatically replacing The Steam Locomotive Tender Pairs window will show ONLY those steam locomotives for which ActivityMaster was unable to determine what the correct matching tender was Thus you most likely WON T see all your steam locomotives in this window This isn t an error in the software it s a function designed to save you work by not requiring you to specify a tender as going with an engine if there s only one possible tender for that engine You may only need to do this once when you first wish to use ActivityMaster with Steam Engines as potential replacements You should run it again by pressing the Setup Steam Tenders button if you have downloaded added additional Steam locomotives or have used TrainStore to unstore one or more Steam locomotives see Using ActivityMaster with TrainStore Figure 5A Setup Steam Tenders View Edit Rolling Stock aa lara P os a Sort To orl Saale a fenders to choose from Engine Name Tender to Use oa Rena ay ae See 310Car1 310T ender Save Changes ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 28 H Choose Player Locomotives Press this button to bring up the screen shown in Figure 6 Manually Select Player Locomotives Taking this step will give you complete control of the locomoti
58. ster with TrainStore While there is no contractual or other relationship between Skyline Computing developers of ActivityMaster and the developer of the freeware product TrainStore ActivityMaster has been tested and determined to work well with TrainStore There are some things to consider when using ActivityMaster with TrainStore Using TrainStore can make it appear that less rolling stock is available to ActivityMaster to use when substituting rolling stock This can also make using ActivityMaster easier since ActivityMaster will only pull from UNSTORED rolling stock A What happens when rolling stock and or engines are Stored using TrainStore When a freight or passenger car also known in MSTS parlance as a wagon thanks to British developers Kuju or a locomotive engine is stored using TrainStore what actually happens is the wag file associated with the piece of rolling stock or the eng file associated with the locomotive is deleted from the MSTS TRAINS TRAINSET folder and instead is stored in a sub folder of the TrainStore storage folder set up within TrainStore ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 36 What this means to ActivityMaster is when creating rolling stock groups searching your hard drive for rolling stock you have selecting replacements from a list or performing any other ActivityMaster functions any rolling stock or engines
59. stored by TrainStore basically DON T EXIST insofar as ActivityMaster is concerned Usually this isn t a problem Where it CAN be a problem is if you do some substitutions and then store rolling stock it of course won t be available when you load the activity in MSTS and you ll get errors when loading possibly even the dreaded send don t send error Also if a lot of your rolling stock is stored but some of that rolling stock is used in the activity you downloaded then ActivityMaster will tell you that that rolling stock is not present on your hard drive even though you actually DO have that rolling stock car or engine Ensuring all rolling stock on your hard drive is available to ActivityMaster when replacing rolling stock in an activity To avoid problems one suggestion is to unstore all rolling stock when first analyzing an activity that you downloaded or installed for the first time Then perform substitutions if as needed After that when you use TrainStore since the activity has now been modified and saved to reference all needed rolling stock TrainStore shouldn t store any of the rolling stock you need use in that activity So you could once again store all unneeded rolling stock and as long as you didn t store the activity you just modified and presumably intend to run TrainStore will know that the rolling stock is in use and won t store it B Using TrainStore as
60. the original activity Click to change the weather Activity Start Time EE lo SM C PM 8 Shows the start time of the Print Work Order original activity Enter the and Briefing desired start time to change it All AI traffic will also Cancel Exit be moved by the same amount so meets will work as they did in the original activity Modify this Activity Press to view or print the activity briefing and work order Press this to save an archive of the original activity then rewrite the activity with the changes made on this screen Note this does NOT cause ActivityMaster to change out Click if all you wanted to do was view the any of the Rolling Stock in the information or perhaps print the work activity It only changes the order but you don t want to actually start time weather and or modify this activity season as specified on this screen ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 34 Technical Issues and Support System Requirements In order to install and run ActivityMaster successfully you must have e Pentium II 266 MHz or better e Microsoft Train Simulator Installed and operating correctly installation of all available patches and updates is recommended but not required e Microsoft Windows NT Windows 98 Windows XP Pro or Home Windows 98SE e Atleast 5 MB of free hard drive space Obtaining Technical Support Technical support is available at no cost on the Skyline
61. to the next step You ll need to click this next to set up the list to continue ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 6 The screen shown in Figure 7 Manually select potential Rolling Stock Replacements Initial unexpanded screen will come up Click the to the left of a railcar to expand the list and show the cars this car or engine could potentially replaced with If you check the box next to the parent railcar ALL potential replacement railcars will be checked Check the boxes next to the cars engines you d like ActivityMaster to consider as potential replacements for the parent car or engine Click Proceed with Replacement when you re done 15 The bottom left button on the Replace Rolling Stock in Activity screen Figure 5 will now read Replace Rolling Stock The original activity and all associated consists will be backed up in an Archive subfolder of the ACTIVITIES folder before any changes are made Then the activity will be processed and all missing rolling stock will be replaced with rolling stock present on your hard drive and if the Slider setting in step 8 was anything other than 0 some or all of the remaining rolling stock in the activity will also be replaced 16 If there were no errors reported exit ActivityMaster and run the activity in MSTS Choosing the Locomotives You ll Drive in an Activity You can use Activity Master JU
62. ty before you modified it Usually this doesn t make much difference However if you want more exact wagon and engine names you can perform your replacements then re load the activity then print the Work Order We may force an automatic reload when the Print Work Order and Briefing button is pressed if we get enough user comments about this issue ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 12 Here below is an example of the printable briefing and work order generated by Activity Master from one of the default activities Whitefish Yard Switcher in the USA2 default Marias Pass route only a partial work order is shown here Figure A Sample Printable Work Order and Briefing Activity Briefing Difficulty Hard Estimated time to complete lhour August 15th 17 00 You are responsible for switching the Whitefish Yard to sort the cars off the inbound Kalispell and Columbia Falls local trains into outbound cuts for westbound and eastbound mainline pickups The inbound cars from the Kalispell local are located on Whitefish Siding 1 The inbound cars from Columbia Falls are on Whitefish Siding 2 You will also switch the inbound cars dropped off by mainline trains so that they are placed on the right track for the outbound Kalispell local tomorrow morning and the Columbia Falls local the next evening The inbound cars from the westbound mainline train are on Whitefish Siding 5 The inbound cars from the eastbound
63. ur hard drive or not This list indicates how many instances of the piece of rolling stock wagon or engine are used in the activity whether that car or engine was located on your hard drive and what Type ActivityMaster assigned to each piece of rolling stock You can also change the types ActivityMaster assigned to a piece of rolling stock and print out a list for your records If you click in any column then click Sort on Current Column the list will re sort on that column So for example you can sort by Car Type or any other column as desired This affects the printed list also Click in any cell in the Car Type column to get a list of car types to choose from and change this car s type to You can also type in your own type code you re not restricted to the types in the list The change won t be written to the cell until you click in another cell Click the Save Changes button after you ve made all the changes you re going to make and these will be saved for use by ActivityMaster when selecting replacements Figure 2A View Edit Rolling Stock Screen View Edit Rolling Stock Save Changes Sort on Current Print List Cancel Column in Activity On drive Wagon Name 48TANK_OMYA_full 48TANK_DBK_empty 2 Y T 48TANK_GKAOLIN_empt 1Y B amp M40ftb_2623 bd_OhR Wtankerb C amp 040ftb_19310 D amp H40ftb_17659 Dash9 DLW 40ftb2
64. ut the extension name i e yard_two act would appear on your screen as yard_two This is not a problem and won t affect how ActivityMaster performs on your machine You can change this setting in Windows from Control Panel or Windows Explorer see your Windows Help ActivityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Page 39 Copyrights Trademarks ActivityMaster is a Trademark of Skyline Computing aka Steve Davis The program described herein may not be duplicated except for archival purposes by the purchaser of the product or distributed in any manner without the express written permission of the Author Steve Davis This manual on the other hand MAY be freely distributed using any and all means including electronic posting on web sites without any further permission from the author or Skyline Computing We ask our users to help us to keep the cost of this and other products low by adhering to US and International Copyright Laws Purchase of this product entitles the user to make archival backup copies of the program and to run the program on any or all computers upon which said user also has a legal version of Microsoft Train Simulator installed Steve Davis and Skyline Computing are not affiliated with Microsoft or any other software suppliers or distributors including but not limited to those mentioned within this manual Such mentions are made only for informational purposes and with re
65. ves you ll drive in this activity You will be able to choose from all driveable locomotives on your hard drive REGARDLESS of whether you set the Replace Locomotives With option button discussed in item D earlier in this section to Diesel Steam or Electric that option button only impacts the locomotives ActivityMaster uses when creating a replacement list for you to choose from or when automatically substituting rolling stock You can press the Choose Player Locomotives button either before or after you set up a replacement list You have to do this before you click Replace Rolling Stock though since pressing that button actually replaces the rolling stock and exits this Replace Rolling Stock Control Screen J Replace Rolling Stock OR Set up Replacement List button As explained in items D and E earlier in this section this button might display Replace Rolling Stock or Set up Replacement List Ml if Specific List was selected in either the option box Replace Unknown Railcars Rolling Stock With or Replace Known Railcars Rolling Stock With then this button will change to read Set up Replacement List Once you ve set up the replacement list as outlined in Figure 7 Manually select potential Rolling Stock Replacements and pressed Proceed with Replacement this button will change to read Replace Rolling Stock Ml if Specific List WASN T selected in either o
66. vityMaster by Skyline Computing User s Manual Used to create a whole new rolling stock group from scratch Create New Rolling Stock Group Enables you to save the edits Click the symbols to expand the list Check the top level to select all you ve made or the group you cars in the lower level Check the boxes next torolling stock you want to p es allow Activity Master to use as substitutes for rolling stock in activities Just created to a new or existing You can increase the list size by dragging the bottom right of this form group file ave Current File As Current Group File Use Current Group Click on an engine or car name to see a picture of it if there s a gif or jpg of that car engine in the folder Instructs the program to use the currently selected group as the O1ex universe of rolling stock to Oct choose from when replacing OCT rolling stock in an activity This list gives an overview of ge the various car types i e box OHP cars coal cement diesel OL engines electric engines flat OG cars gondolas hoppers etc OFFR Clicking on the small sign to the left of each type expands w Manage Rolling Stock Groups the type to show all the rolling stock that is of the same type 0 2 Rolling Stock Create New Rollin 3 Group File Stock Group A De Save Current File As Z and thus could be substituted for cars of that type See the Use Cu
67. vityMaster searches the activity to determine what type of coupler is used by the rolling stock in that activity There are currently 4 coupler types supported by MSTS Bar used on the Acela equipment Automatic most modern equipment and all US equipment EXCEPT Acela and Chain Scotsman These types are incompatible Because of that ActivityMaster will select only cars with the coupler type shown here when setting up potential replacement lists and performing the actual replacements The vast majority of MSTS equipment is Automatic coupler type B Current Rolling Stock Group If you created and selected a Rolling Stock Group as described in Figure 4 Create Manage Rolling Stock Groups then the name of the Rolling Stock Group you ve selected appears here If no group has been selected to use then this box will read lt No group using all rolling stock gt as shown here In that case the default situation ActivityMaster will pull cars from all available cars on your drive either according to the criteria set using the other controls on this screen or based on a list you ll create if you click either of the Specific List buttons C Master Control Slider As you slide this slide it by pointing the mouse at it and holding down the left button as you move the mouse a number will appear above the slider When the slider is all the way to the left 0 the program will ONLY replace

Activity Master User`s Manual Steve Davis Skyline Computing

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