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1. This is a list of all Save todat Fi the regions you have set up in your template Above is what the Edit Path Region Order screen looks like when no path has been selected in the Select Path to Edit box This is what you ll see when this screen first comes up Many of the options are grayed out until a path has been selected Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 53 w Editing existing file C Program Files Microsoft Games Train Simulator ROUTES GN_Hi Line The Conrad Valier Turn path has been selected to edit Use the Select Path drop down to select a player path in your template The left hand list bos lists all of the regions available in your template Select a region by clicking in the left bos and use the Add button to add that region to the Region Order list on the right in the order in which a train would reach each region when moving along the path A region can be listed twice if it will be visited more than once as with a Turn job IF saree our paths visit many of the same regions in the same order you can use Copy Fromm to save time Select Fath ta EE Conrad Valier Tum 4 Y COPY HORE lt none start from scratch gt x BO f angih af PIAVE TIG at Path Start 2 0 33 cars Af OORS if UHS freacks sa regan and car FOORE feached vid T EDITIE Capacity of each PO reference us Oath i order Big Sandy A C
2. C Stepney Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 19 Changing your Locomotive Consist Click the Change Engines button The following screen appears This is the Choose Motive Power Locomotives For this Activit x Here is a list z les default player of all Locomotives and Tenders Available p eat iene consist for this locomotives on your Hard Drive DAIVEABLE ayer Lonsist for this Activity activity You can keep this or available locos marked with a Cod SLI ENSF 8 406 8621 TRAIL la nes lt SLI BNSF GP38 2 2345 Not store SLI BNSF 8 406 8621 az lt BNSF_train_radio remove some or Pe H ENSF 8 408 8630 eUS T f f all of the items choose LI BNSE 2 ADB SE2DAI lt Remove in it by from SLI BNSF C44 9 1033 TRAI highlighting an SLI BNSF C44 9w 1033 dus SLI BNSF C44 Shy 10334 lt Remove All item and using SLI BNSF C4d 3w 4823 TRAI SLI BNSF C44 Suy 49234 TESE View the SLI BNSF C4d4 Fw 4897 TRAI Flip Direction i SLI BNSF C44 9w 4897 unit you ve SLI BNSF C44 9w 48974 highlighted SLI BNSF C4d 3w 969 TRAIL the Remove button Last car in consist optional useful HL Etil in the box SLI BNSF C44 Suy 969A for adding a caboosel Last Car box d will go at the a a end of the train View Selectez Ok Use New EN autorack f AG builds View the ise Consist TEET optional unit you ve BN_boxcar _LD selected in the last car box Figure 8 Chan
3. You have just finished installing this program and would like to generate a new activity Here s the detailed step by step with some explanation Launch the program by clicking Start Programs then MSTS Activity Generator Youll see the screen below gt Activity Generator Main You can press this arrow to see other templates you ve opened before As soon as you click on one it will be opened and the Generate Activity button will be enabled Either click Choose Activity File to open a new Activity Creation template or choose one of the previously opened template files from the list below Generator Ferson 22 G ROUIGO MOQCHI Convert all the switches in Restore a route s switches a route to Manual to their orginal state Convert all the signals ina Restore a route s signals to route to Permissive their original state Create and Modify Actrity Templates CS Files Set Location of Shapeview Prograrm iy Sieve Davis E xit A Figure 1 The starting screen Notice that the top button is active but the second button Generate Activity is grayed out or inactive you can t click on it yet Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 10 Choose Activity File When you click this button a file open screen like the one below will come up Open your Train Simulator folder by clicking on it and then click
4. and Remove buttons described above Note that in this case the region named Conrad ts listed twice This is not an error Because this path is a turn meaning that the player train can run out to a certain point and then return to the point of origination I listed Conrad both as the region reached first and the region reached twice basically I added it twice Because of this if the player were to set some tracks in Conrad as Destination tracks any cars picked up at industries along the way could be scheduled to be set out upon return to Conrad Additionally the player could designate one or more source tracks in Valier and those cars could then be set out in Conrad or Valier Save All to File pro This will save ALL the changes you ve made to ALL paths thus far to a Path Region Order file with the same name as your template activity act file except with the extension pro Since with large routes and or complex templates it can take a while to set all of the regions reached by each path in order you can always save this as a work in progress and then reload it later to make further adjustments or additions Also you can ADD more paths in the MSTS Activity Editor even AFTER you have created this pro file When you reload the file later you will see those new paths in the Select Path to Edit drop down box of course those paths will not yet have any regions or player train start length
5. Any type and a pro path region order file that sets the order in which regions are reached along each path you can choose to run on Saving Activities you Generate to Run them Again 1 Rename the activity act file to something else such as NECSouthboundFreight act Also rename the WORKORDER files 2 Use the Activity Packager utility in Microsoft s Activity Editor or zip up the activity files using RouteRiter or a similar program This will preserve the consist service and other files which ActivityMaster generated as part of this activity 3 When you want to run the activity again unpackage it or unzip it This will overwrite any of the files you ve generated since then so you ll have your activity fully restored and ready to run Activity Templates Routes and Downloads Needed Check the Templates page on www skylinecomputing com to find and download Activity Creation Templates for routes that you have You can create your own Activity Generator friendly activities for routes not listed below by following the steps in the next section or check www skylinecomputing com www train sim com and www avsim com periodically for new AG activity creation templates Known Issue with Activity Generator version 4 or later and some earlier templates Some templates have been tested to work correctly with this latest version of Activity Generator but some haven t yet See the Templ
6. s because there are hyperlinks throughout this manual similar to a typical Help file that you can click on to jump to the sections mentioned instead of having to find the pages or look them up For example clicking on any topic in the Table of Contents above will take you directly to that topic in this document Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 5 PART ONE Using Activity Generator to Create Activities Overview What does this program DO Activity Generator creates freight activities for Microsoft Train Simulator 1 MSTS using Activity Templates available at www skylinecomputing com and other sites This improves the replayability of MSTS and greatly enhances what you can do with each route you have A few clicks of the mouse and you have a new through freight or switching activity complete with printable work orders And you don t even need to use the MSTS Activity Editor Use Activity Generator to generate an activity and work order run the activity then use the generator again to generate a new activity You ll have different pick ups and setouts and different weather season and locomotives too if you d like You can print and save the generated work orders switch lists also If you re a casual user of MSTS to get the most out of the Activity Generator program you ll need to download Activity Generator activity creation templates activity act files whi
7. If unchecked a random number of cars will be selected for pickup and setout on each track Note the activity template designer may already have set certain tracks to function in this way Checking this box causes this rule to be applied to EVERY track worked not just the tracks the designer set up as unit commodity tracks if any Allow pickups from source tracks in one region to be set out in a different region This box is only visible for AG3 or earlier templates Itis checked by default It will permit the program to schedule pickups from Source Tracks you select in one region to be set out in a different region Allow pickups from source tracks in one region to be set out in that same region This box is only visible with AG4 or later templates By default it is NOT checked Because some regions can be quite long it is possible that you might select a Source track that you ll reach AFTER the tracks on which you d have to set out your pickups on Unless you re running a turn out and back run this can pose a problem So it s safer with multi region paths to pickup up cars in one region but set them out in a later region Checking this box will override this default behavior and allow pickups in a given region to be scheduled for setout in that same region Choose your Source Tracks Use this to select the tracks from which your train will be built to be set out at industry tracks later All cars
8. MANS STE i 8 setae ict as tats ess T 17 DLRI Pi aa r E E N 17 6 DNCS UNE r E E teeter 18 Load SAV Ce Seene a A 18 6 CCE Re er EE E E E E N 18 Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 2 Ghansine Vour Locomotive ONSIS i56 5 c nc teeta een teil teeta awa nedateaie 19 Adding Locomo ves t the Player Consist cosesv wa slecitivieeice We cieives len dines ean nett 19 RemOVilne 1OCOMOL YES sccc wate necnceeereiaeiein tet euon ede cua ae anne eee 19 PUDDI O he 1 Beemer nsec rormpee Rr rerT en nea Tn ese se recta nn Ine Ma Ute we Sica ter a TRO NNT yt ree i ast arate vera 20 TA pH ee ONS I ao aaa cea E A AA E TAE A eased D E cote cae ee 20 IASC Ar IVC OnSiSlerauep n a O ae nd pave T danse ed teyeteent abana 20 SE IR ACT E i ies ctteraata satis clase ee A ealtee si atone caaedeataen dees aaa 20 e How Many Railcars Should be Added to the Activity ssesssssoeensssssssseeersssssssseeerees 21 e Place cars on Industry tracks that won t be worked ccccccceesssseeeeeeeceeeeeeesseeeeees 21 e Place cars on Yard tracks that won t be Worked cccccseseeeeceeecceeeeeeeeaeeeeeeeeeeeeees 2il e Place cars on Yard tracks that WILL be worked ccccecceeecceeeeeecceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 21 e Allow car placement in Regions that won t be worked ssssssenessssssssseerrssssssseeerees 22 e Maximum number of cars to add per track cccccccccccsssssssececccceeeeseeseeeeeceee
9. SLG MP1_Columbia Falls to Kalispell the name of the activity you created generated When you send out the apk file that the program generates it will include all the paths services traffic consists and the activity file you created the same as an activity you created the traditional way You can also use RouteRiter to package the activity just as you would any other activity If you are sending out a number of activities based on the same activity template it s best to let your end users know that they II see some file overwrite warnings They can say yes or no to these it really doesn t matter The reason for the warnings is there are a number of template files that will be shared amongst all the activities you generate from a given template This is actually a good thing because it minimizes the number of unique files installed on the user s hard drive helping control hard drive bloat Note on files and naming When you generate a new activity using the Activity Generator the program will ask you for a file name to use when saving it The default name which is the template name with SLG at the front of it is perfectly fine But if you re planning to distribute your activity to others you may want to use a more descriptive name When you change the name in the Save As dialog after pressing OK Generate the Activity this will cause the Activity Generator to crea
10. from and set out to various spurs in the mill But it would not be prototypical to see these types of cars scattered about in yard tracks etc Another similar example would be passenger cars Some routes have a coach yard or some passenger switching You can support that by creating various passenger car types maybe PBAG for baggage cars and PASS for example so players can do some work making up passenger trains But again you usually wouldn t want to see those cars scattered throughout yards or in player freight trains So you basically use this screen to LIMIT the car types that AG will use freely Because of this to keep you from having to check nearly every box since in most cases you Il want AG to place most of the car types to give the greatest variety there is a Check All button that will check all of the boxes for you Then just click on the checkbox for any cars you DON T want AG to place freely onto trains in yards etc this will turn off the check mark or clear the check box Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 57 In the list above we have a car type WHL which is a flat car with train wheelsets on it If we didn t want to see this car in basic freight trains we d uncheck that box When you re finished making changes just click Save and Exit Or click Exit to discard any changes you ve made Saving this creates a file with the same name as your template activ
11. 4 near the end of this manual Activity Template Designers note Activity Generator includes a button that will convert all the switches in any route from automatic dispatcher AI control to manual player control With this feature virtually any route can be used with Activity Generator A csv file is a file ending in csv which is a specially formatted text file in which pieces of information data fields are separated by commas Microsoft Excel is an excellent editor and viewer for these types of files although any program capable of reading a text file such as Notepad can open and edit these files also Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 6 Installation Installing this program is straightforward since it comes with a setup program Setup exe Here s the complete step by step 1 2 Since you re reading this you ve most likely already unzipped the zip file AG 1 6 zip If not unzip it to any folder just be sure you can remember where you put it Double click the setup program which may appear in your folder as setup or setup exe depending on your Windows file display settings Follow the on screen instructions You may need to restart your computer after installation completes Go back to www skylinecomputing com Templates page and then download and install the activity creation templates for the routes you have Just unzip t
12. 416 ROUTES GN_Hi Line PATHS W GNHLMainEBTemplateConkelley Havre 24C PAT File 5 29 2007 6 34 006 ROUTES GN_Hi Line PATHS Ei GNHLMainEBTemplateConrad Valier Turn 4W PAT File 5 29 2007 6 4 306 ROUTES GN_Hi Line PATHS Ei GNHLMainEBTemplateCutBank Havre 45E 6 PAT File 5 29 2007 6 19 534 ROUTES GN_Hi Line PATHS W GNHLMainEBTemplateGlacier Havre 24C 5E PAT File 5 29 2007 6 25 536 ROUTES GN_Hi Line PATHS W GNHLMainEBTemplateGreat Falls Havre B 3F PAT File 5 29 2007 6 19 780 ROUTES GN_Hi Line PATHS Ei GNHLMainEBTemplatePlayer con CON File 6 14 2007 9 658 trains consists W GNHLMainETemplatePlayer srv SRV File 5 29 2007 6 732 ROUTES GN_Hi Line SERVICES 86 GNHLMainEBTemplateRegionOrder xls Microsoft Excel 6 4 2007 6i 16 896 ROUTES GN_Hi Line ACTIVITIES Ei GNHLMainEBTemplateShelby Conrad Turn 4 PAT File 5 29 2007 6 10 484 ROUTES GN_Hi Line PATHS W GNHLMainEBTemplateShelby Havre 44EH J PAT File 5 29 2007 6 17 104 ROUTES GN_Hi Line PATHS Ei GNHLMainEBTemplateShelby Sweetgrass Tur PAT File 5 29 2007 6 15 742 ROUTES GN_Hi Line PATHS a GNHLMainEBTemplateShelby Local SH 5B pat PAT File 5 29 2007 6 2 780 ROUTES GN_Hi Line PATHS lt 7 Selected 0 files 0 bytes Total 47 files 1 673KB wW Ww Important note for this technique to work AND to be sure you always know which files are associated with your template I am very careful to ALWAYS inc
13. Route screen Of course AG adds a workorder if desired cars on the spurs and AI traffic if included by the template designer o Mint I didn t mind the long path name since when Activity Generator displays the path for the user to select the part of the path name that matches the activity name will be stripped from the text displayed So instead of seeing MP1_EastboundTemplate Whitefish to Shelby in the drop down box the player will only see Whitefish to Shelby in the Choose Path drop down box I created some more paths using the use as template feature in the Activity Editor Path edit function which gives you a new path based on the name of the current path saving typing or cutting amp pasting These were the same as the first path except that they started at different points Doing this made naming the additional paths easy I kept the same name for the most of the path except changed the originating region name So for example my next path was GNHLMainEBTemplateConkelly to Havre Remember the path name needs to begin with the activity template name in order for Activity Generator to show this path as a possible choice for the user o Mint Another advantage to using a long distance path as a template for a shorter one was so that I could make each path exactly the same except for the starting point This was necessary so that any AI traffic paths I created would be sure not to run into ANY of the
14. THAT POINT It is important to keep this in mind All Regions in this Template This displays all of the regions you set up when editing the Track CSV file for this template If you click on a region the center box Tracks in Region and Car Capacity will show you the various tracks that are in that region what type each is and how many cars that track will hold This is for information only Once you have selected a region by clicking on it you can add it to the END of the list of regions reached via this path as shown in the Regions Reached via this Path in Order box by clicking on the Add button As a shortcut instead of clicking on a region name and then clicking the Add button you can simply double click on a region name in this box and that will also add that region to the end of the list of Regions Reached via this Path Tracks in the Region and car capacity of each Right now this was included for no good reason purely for informational purposes In the future I may add the ability to edit the track information by double clicking on a specific track instead of having to edit the SWLTDB file In that case AG4 would also show the CarTypeShipped and CarType Wanted Add Adds the region currently selected in the All Regions in this Template box to the end of the list of Regions Reached via this Path Note that a region can be added to the list more than once This is mainly used in the case of a Tur
15. activity will end after setting out your train on those tracks select one or more Destination Tracks by clicking the to expand the region and checking the box next to the tracks you d like to work See Figure 6 choosing spurs to work for details on how to do this e If you d like to start out by building your train in a yard first select one or more source tracks in the region where the path you selected starts If you do select source tracks the cars that make up your train will come from those tracks as well as cars originally in your train If the template you re using is an AG4 template the regions will appear in order in the list boxes and all your pickups will always be set out at tracks you will reach later in the route However if the template is an AG3 or earlier template check a map of the route and make sure you choose Source Tracks at the beginning of where your path will start if you use this option e If you want to do some switching along the way then in the Check the Regions or Spurs you d Like to Work box check the tracks you might want to do pickups and or setouts on e If you d like the cars you pick up along the way to be set out at a track at the end of the run click one or more tracks in the Destination Tracks box If the template was created for AG3 or earlier be careful to check only Destination Tracks that will be Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Pa
16. another name I use the word template in the names of all activities that I will use as the basis to generate other activities using Activity Generator This way when the user sees a Template activity in the activities list for a given route the user will know not to run that activity the template is used only to GENERATE actual activities Whether you re copying an existing activity file or creating one from scratch here are the steps to follow in the activity editor 1 Place cars on the industry spurs and yard tracks In earlier versions of Activity Generator you had to place the types of cars in the spur which that industry might be expected to ship on each spur This is no longer required You can just place any type of car in any spur and later edit the activity TDB file to tell Activity Generator what types of cars the industry wants to receive and what types of cars the industry ships out Placing the cars on the spurs serves several purposes a It provides a marker which shows Activity Generator where cars to be picked up are to be placed Note that since Activity Generator actually places cars on spurs and adds cars to the world where you place the marker car or string of cars is important The head car should be placed near to the end of the spur and facing in a direction so that cars added behind that car and won t fill the spur past Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulat
17. good news is there isn t really that much editing you need to do Just look over the cars in the list and enter the correct Car Type Code for each car Or just edit those cars marked by the system as U for Unknown type and check the MatchErrors file for any consists without a Location or UiD as described in Blank UiDs in the Activity CSV File The pop up message in the preceding step gave you the file name in this case it was for the Canton route and the file name was SWLACTCanton Start Canton csv Now you need to find that file in the route s ACTIVITIES folder open it and edit it If you didn t remember or write down the file name don t worry There is probably only one csv file in the ACTIVITIES folder for the route you re working on Open the Activities folder for the route that you re creating a template for and find a csv file that starts with SWLACT which stands for Switchlist Activity file in case you care The file can be edited by Notepad or Wordpad but it s a little tough all the values are separated by commas The easiest way to edit this file is by using a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel Opening up this file using Excel here s what we ll see after adjusting the column widths a bit CarDescr Consist Car Location CarType UiD Ctn Hop f 32770 0 30 HP 2147614720 Ctn Hop f 32770 1 30 HP 2147614721 ns_coalcar_fl 32770 2 3
18. looked for any rolling stock that was missing matching location information see Dealing with Blank UiDs in an Activity csv file I checked the match errors file to be certain that no cars that Id intended for the user to be able to pick up were listed there If there were some important cars that I wanted the player to be able to pick up that had no UiD or Location that meant that I had forgotten to assign a Pick Up Cars action event to that car Usually the first time I tried to create the Activity CSV file I found a few instances where I forgot to do this for some of the consists Oops So I then opened the activity file and added action events for those consists that didn t have them then I again used Create an Activity CSV File to make a new CSV File See Adding Pick Up Action Events for consists e Once I had a CSV file that had all the cars I wanted in it I looked through that same file and updated the car type codes I first looked for any cars for which Activity Generator assigned the letter U as the type which means the car is an Unknown type I then went through those and filled in the CarT ype column in the CSV file with a code for the car such as HP for a car I knew was a hopper car See Editing Car Types in the CSV in Step 1 e next looked through the CSV file for cars that needed to be described as loaded or empty I used Microsoft Excel to sort by Car Description so all like ca
19. number of cars to add per track To keep the program from placing long strings of cars on long yard tracks thus negatively and usually needlessly impacting frame rates its best to set some limit here Enter any number between 1 and 99 The program will never add more cars than can fit on the track and will typically leave room for at least one more car Generating a new activity Once you re back to the Customize your Activity screen simply click OK Generate Activity A File Save dialog will pop up You can simply click the Save button to save the new activity using the default file name Or pick a name you d like to use Printing a Work Order If you d like a printed switch list or work order or would simply like to view the generated work order as soon as the program finishes creating it simply check the box Check here to open your work order with Notepad when switch list generation is complete After you press OK Generate Activity the work order will appear on screen loaded into Notepad If you don t like the work order simply close the window and press Ok again to generate a new work order Note if the template you used to generate the activity is an AG3 or earlier template then the printable workorder AND the work order you ll see on the screen when you press F11 has regions in alphabetical order But if the template used was an AG4 or later template the regions will a
20. only but don t call for setouts from them Then rename the csv file to something you ll remember such as GNHLMainEBTemplate csv Copy and rename the master act file also so you ll have a new one named the same as the csv except without the SWLTDB prefix i e GNHLMainEBTemplate act Next go back to the original master file csv file and this time delete all the spurs that a westbound player can t reach using the westbound path s you set up or again set the TrkType for those to track type X and save that file with yet another name such as GNHLMainWBTemplate csyv also copying the original act file again to be named the same as the new csv except without the SWLTDB prefix i e perhaps GNHLMainWBTemplate act Finally copy and rename the SWLACT files in a similar manner The activity act file name and the CSV file names MUST be the same except for the SWLTDB and SWLACT prefixes for Activity Generator to be able to open the correct activity file when the player selects the CSV file to use as a template in generating new activities Template Design Caveats Some routes such as the default Northeast Corridor route USA1 route do not have any switches the player can operate manually In order to design activities for routes like this you ll need to instruct your end users to use the Convert all Switches to Manual button before Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Tra
21. other when you start an railcars that will be placed in the generated activity for purposes of realism and ei t the feeling of a busy railroad Adding more cars can reduce your frame rates ac oe y pene Ca aad however So use this screen to control just how many cars will be added and activity but first set this tele slider all the way to the How Many Aailcars Should be Added to the Activity left to Don t add any a railcars 3 Don t add Add masiman any railcars possible Another alternative if iw Place cars on ard tracks that won t be worked you want to have the program fill the world iw Add cars to ard tracks that WILL be worked with at least SOME railcars is to try lower cars Will only be placed added in Regions where work i called for settings here perhaps just or 2 cars Allow car placement in Regions that won t be worked if unchecked Maxinurn number of cars to add per track T e o e How Many Railcars Should be Added to the Activity slider This slider controls how many total railcars will be added to the activity you generate over and above those that Activity Generator placed on tracks for you to work The program will examine all the spurs available to place cars on based on your other settings described below and add up the Capacity of each If the slider is all the way to the right maximum the program will try to add as many as will fit based on your other settings
22. player paths When using the AE path editor s use as template feature you can keep choosing the exits that result in only one line being displayed on the route diagram thus ensuring that all your paths though they have different starting points traverse the same route I created paths and services for AI traffic usually going in the opposite direction from the player service I used the VCR tool see a reference on using Microsoft s Activity Editor to preview the meets This doesn t always work because it s impossible to predict what switching work the program will call for but it can be very helpful if you see problems even in testing mode with the VCR tool it is virtually guaranteed that there will be problems when generating and running actual activities Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 64 e then saved the activity exited the activity editor and started Activity Generator I chose Create CSV Files for Activities and then Create an Activity CSV File from an act File I chose the activity I d just saved GNHLMainEBTemplate act edited the Activity CSV File as described in the Edit an Activity CSV File section of this manual so that each car was assigned the proper car type e Instead of going on to immediately create the track CSV file I exited the Activity Generator and opened the Activity CSV file GNHLMainEBT emplate csv for editing I
23. so if more cars were added behind it up to the capacity I set for the track they wouldn t run off the end of the track see the note on car placement in this manual e went to ViewlAction Events and added a pick up event for each consist I placed you may prefer to add the pick up event as soon as you place the consist that works just as well and is just a matter of your preference I am still hopeful that one day I ll figure out a way to eliminate this step e then added in some more cars where the player wouldn t ever be running including locomotives on a helper spur for example for decoration eye candy as well as some types of cars the player wouldn t switch such as passenger cars sitting near a station You might do this with cabooses also The only difference is I DIDN T assign a pick up event to these cars or engines so in effect Activity Generator wouldn t know they were there these cars will appear in the MatchErrors file but not in the final CSV file e created an initial path in the Activity Editor from one end of the route Whitefish to the other Havre which is east of Shelby the east end of the default Marias Pass route and routed it past as many trailing point spurs spurs that can be reached worked using the rear coupler rather than the front as possible I named this path the same as the activity GNHLMainEBTemplate act plus a description of the path so the f
24. such as cement hoppers cars will be placed on or delivered to the spur So it doesn t hurt to give this a quick look and make sure that the lengths make sense based on how long the sidings really are If you DIDN T check this box the siding length will be based on the number of cars you placed in the spur when creating the activity act file If you set this number too high your users may generate work orders that the player can t complete or worse yet get an Activity Begins with Objects in Collision error as the program places more cars on each spur than will actually fit So it s better to err on the low side on this CarTypeWanted this is initially set based on the type of car that is currently sitting in the siding But you are free to change this to reflect the types of cars that would be received by this industry or at this spur New for AG4 You can call for multiple types of cars to be shipped to a single spur now To do this separate the car types by hyphens no spaces For example for a spur at a chemical plant that could receive either tank cars or covered hoppers you could enter T CVH into this column for this spur In some cases because the car type wasn t known or there weren t any cars in the siding in the act file the CarT ypeWanted was set to A for Any This is the default when the type of car wanted can t be determined by the program If left unedited this track will be set to accept any
25. switches cannot be operated manually they re dispatcher controlled and certain spur switches off the main line are facing the wrong way to be serviced by say a westbound train Since the player can t manually operate all the main line crossovers it isn t possible to run around cars picked up with the front coupler except in yards Because of this spurs that can t be serviced by a westbound train were deleted by the activity designer from the westbound TRER Track CSV file so the Activity Generator won t ever schedule any pickups or setouts on these spurs when generating a westbound activity Same thing in reverse for the eastbound activity template In the case of Marias Pass and local work on most other US Class 1 long haul mainlines this is actually prototypical the railroad won t want to tie up the main line with a lot of run arounds etc and will generally schedule local freights in both directions so each can service only trailing point switches in the direction of normal travel Also the AI traffic is often different in the Westbound and Eastbound activity generation templates so as not to interfere with the path you ll be driving Q Iran the Activity Generator and it generated an activity that was impossible to complete successfully Is there a bug in the program When will it be fixed A As with any computer program there is a chance that useless results will be generated if meaningl
26. the activity derailed Note that it s ok to place a car on EITHER end what we re concerned with here is the DIRECTION THE COUPLER FACES Since cars will be added behind the coupler If cars are placed on a spur such that some run off the track THIS WILL CAUSE MSTS TO FAIL WHEN THE ACTIVITY IS STARTED WITH THE MESSAGE OBJECTS BEGIN IN COLLISION WHICH IS PROHIBITED 2 Place some other cars of a type that will be delivered to the industries somewhere in the activity file These will be the cars that will be chosen to be set out at the industries in the region The purpose of this is to give Activity Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 34 Generator examples of the types of cars to be set out at the industry tracks if they are different from the cars already sitting in those industry tracks for example if all your coal mines have loaded coal cars in them you would place one or more empty coal cars somewhere in the activity so you can name them perhaps CLMT for Coal Empty in the car CSV file That way when you set the track CSV file so the CarTypeWanted at the coal plant is CLMT Activity Generator will be able to find an example of that car type to place in a source track somewhere or in the player train DON T FORGET to place at least one marker car in any yard tracks or other tracks that the user may want to choose to get cars to be set out later at the in
27. to match anything followed by letters that will be common to all of your template files followed by to match all remaining characters and file extensions types For example the GNHiLine template has two sub templates in it an Eastbound EB and a Westbound WB version that works best for signaled routes with AI traffic So in the File name box I entered GNHLMain Why didn t I include the word Template Because with two templates GNHLMainEBTemplate and GNHLMainWBTemplate you wouldn t catch all those files Why did I name my temlate GNHLMain Who knows just a choice I made So now the Add dialog in WinZip looks like this Add PK ROUTES SAMPLES saves SOUND TEMPLATE To create the template zip file click Add with wildcards the symbol not simply Cancel Action Password Add with wildcards Add and replace files E Compression lf Include subfolders Noma Save extra folder info Attributes removable media on Include only if archive attribute is set Reset archive attribute Add which only adds the selected file or folder Be sure to check the Include subfolders box Store filenames in 8 3 format i Include system and hidden files Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 60 Be sure to check the Include subfolders check box so all the subfolders in which the various files are s
28. type code A car with the word chem in its name and a car with the phrase tank in its name both map to type T for Tank car The program stops searching on the first match it finds The third column isn t used it s just to help us poor humans to remember what the codes mean If you add types to your csv file then when the program searches using Create and Activity CSV File it will look for the new types you created also But this isn t necessary to add new types to templates you create Loads and Empties and more specific car typing For those cars where a load is obviously different than an empty such as lumber beam cars log flats and coal or other open hoppers if you want your activities to be the most realistic you should probably define your own types to differentiate between loads and empties Also you will probably want to name covered hoppers differently than open hoppers and perhaps even grain covered hoppers differently than say chemical cement or plastic hoppers This is all done by editing the cars csv file as described here Here are some examples ideas You are free to use any naming nomenclature you d like as long as you re consistent within your own template Different Activity Generation Templates can use different naming schemes Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 41 GRN CVH CL or CLLD Loaded coal or other open hopper C
29. type of car That will we ok but you may end up with hopper cars in strange places Edit the car type if you know it Enter A if you WANT the spur to accept any kind of car for example for an auxiliary or yard track You can limit the car types Activity Generator will use when placing cars of type A or Any see Step 6 Setting Any Car Types Also if you ve edited the car types in the SWLACT csv file to create different types of cars for loads and empties see Step 3 Edit the Activity CSV File then you should set the CarType Wanted to the opposite of what s sitting there now CarTypeShipped will indicate the type of car that s sitting there now For example let s say this is a lumber mill that ships loaded lumber beam cars and accepts empty beam cars First you may have placed a loaded lumber car on that spur because that s the type of car this industry will ship out or perhaps you just placed a box car there Assuming you coded loaded lumber cars as L and empty lumber or beam cars as LMT the CarTypeWanted and CarTypeShipped for this spur the lumber mill will be set by Activity Generator to L since that s what s there now Or if you were creating a template for AG4 and did it the easy way just placing any type of car on each spur to use as a marker without regard to type you should change the CarTypeWanted to the type of car that shoul
30. up to a maximum of 500 when you start getting to 600 or more cars the sim begins to have problems including sound problems and Send Don t Send The increments are in fifths so the 4 position will add 4 5 of the cars that could possibly be added the third position will add three fifths etc If the slider is set all the way to the left NO cars other than those on industry tracks where you ll work and the cars in yard tracks you need to pick up will be added All cars added via this screen are for scenic realism purposes and aren t included in the work order Place cars on Industry tracks that won t be worked Cars are automatically placed on all the industry tracks that WILL be worked sometimes depending on randomization and whether or not simple mode was checked more than need to be picked up on that siding spur Checking this box also places cars on other Industry tracks where you don t have any pickups or setouts scheduled for purposes of scenic enhancement realism Place cars on Yard tracks that won t be worked This causes the program to place extra cars on other yard tracks not the tracks you ll be picking up cars from It can have an effect on the activity though in that it s possible that this will give you less room to store cars while switching so it might make the activity more challenging but most likely will simply add to the feeling of a working busy yard Place cars on Yard tracks that WI
31. you create to users who don t have Activity Generator since they can t convert the switches to manual without this program you can of course distribute the template you create freely to all Activity Generator users 2 Create specific paths to get you or the player through the switches and signals into an area where the switches can be controlled This is explained in greater detail below Designing Templates for Routes with Signals and Dispatcher Controlled Switches When creating paths for routes with some automatic switches you should begin the path in a yard where the player can move freely and pick up any cars called for by the generated work order to assemble the starting train Then the path will take the player to a branch or industrial park where the player can once again operate the switches manually and perform whatever work Activity Generator calls for Another challenge for the designer is AI traffic and the signaling system Some of the signal scripts are fairly good and the player can make it through moderate traffic In other cases you can end up with head on meets on single track mainline known as cornfield meets signals that never clear turn green etc Whereas with a traditional scripted activity the designer can carefully time all of the AI traffic to mesh with the player s run as long as the player keeps strictly to the designed path and completes the work within the timeframe expected by the desi
32. 0 CL 2147614722 Ctn Gondola_f 32770 3 30 G 2147614723 Wonderacf 32786 0 98 U 2148663296 Wonderacf 32786 1 98 U 2148663297 nw161696 32788 0 92 BX 2148794368 Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 40 Editing the CarType information Now we ve seen these Wonder ACF cars and they re covered hopper cars So enter CVH or whatever you choose to use to identify a covered hopper car in place of U in the Car Type column When you save this file be sure and save it as a csv file NOT as an Excel Worksheet See saving csv files Possible Car Types Here s a listing of some of the car types that are used by default the types are assigned automatically based on the name of the given car from a database of common names that ships with the program You can create your own car types also Just remember what codes you used and be consistent within your activity CSV file HP Hopper cars CL Coal G Gondola BX Box car F Flat L Lumber finished incl gyp board amp beam cars T Tank car LG Logs W Woodchip F Flat CMT Cement lime RFR Reefer Note for advanced users the list above came from a file called cartypes csv which is stored in your Program Files SwitchlistGenerator folder The first column is a key if the name of the car contains the key text then the car is assigned the type code in the second row Note that more than one keyword can map to the same car
33. Activity Generator User s Manual Version 4 2007 Table of Contents WOO UG TIS AY AIM cl Usage ee ceria ect aatsaacas as a cure pane erecta wi mais deeds wees cm pee Rea tet i eacttet aed E eee Siemans 4 Overview What does this program DOZ resernicerorcenecerniiiieer n n 5 Installation iseina EEEE EEE E E E E CEE E 6 Quick Start Guide I hate reading manuals How can I get started QUICKLY 6 Details Oni Generate ACU VNC caste eatin Seacrest shes dovhand ates abide noe sts barsind den al Sees 9 CHOOSE Acvit y TING wuiccarcrnaieiuaieasiuns eeu aieadidc haan E E a T 10 Other functions available from the Main screen ccc eeeeeeeeseeesseeeecceeeecececeeenaaeeeeeeeeeeeeees 12 Convert all the switches in a route to Manual ccccccnneeeseessesseeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 12 Restore a route s switches to their original state 2 0 0 0 eeseseeccceeeeeeeeeeesseeeeeeeeneas 12 Convert all the signals in a route to Permissive cccccsssseeeeceeeeeeeeeeeeeseeeeeeeeeeaas 12 Restore a route s signals to their original State cccccccssssssssecceceeeeaeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaas 12 m Set Location of Shape View Program tissssisvssseccdcnacsstecvedetee crass ste EE e TEENA 13 Create and Modify Activity Creation Template ccc cceccssceeccceeeeseeeeeeeeeeeeenaas 13 Customize ACUIVILY SCTECN rieti a E T edeitaadaacdaysionrs N 13 e Maximum Total Cars to Handle ccccccccccccccceeeeeseseeeeeeeeececceeeceeeeeeeeaaeeeeeee
34. DISTRIBUTE ANY ACTIVITY YOU MIGHT CREATE USING MICROSOFT S ACTIVITY EDITOR TOOL Now for the part that IS different from what you d do to distribute a traditional MSTS activity you created you also need to distribute the two activity csv files and the pro and ctp file if any These should be saved into the user s ACTIVITIES folder in the appropriate route folder One of the csv file names will start with SWLACT the other will start with SWLTDB These files which you ve created by following the steps outlined in this section supply the information that the Activity Generator needs to generate new activities from the activity template act file you created If you created multiple paths for your template you will also need to add all the possible player paths you created All will be in the Paths folder and will have the template name within the file name This is because MSTS only associates a single player path with each activity Using WinZip to Package your Templates If you use WinZip to create the zip files you will use to distribute the templates you create you can add all the files you need all at once by using the Add With Wildcards function Here s how it s done step by step Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 58 First create a new zip file with the name of your template In this case I called the file GNHiLineTemplate zip and open that file i
35. In BM Branch 3 4 BX 119 17361 BX 3683 3678 BM Ore In 1 BM Branch 3 6 ORE 194 5162 OREMT 3679 To see how this file looked before editing please see Track SWLTDB CSV File Before Editing Here are some of the edits that were made above described RegName First we changed all the region names from the default Region 1 to an appropriate region name the list above is sorted by REGION and THEN by Track name so the tracks shown are somewhat different than what s shown in the before edit figure RegNum Then we set the RegNum which is a short 1 or 2 character code for each region it doesn t have to be a number to a unique number for each region CarCap We didn t change this but if we weren t going to use the entire spur for instance if we placed the marker car somewhere up the spur we might want to decrease this number This is covered best in our Video Tutorial on Template Creation available free at www skylinecomputing com on the Video Tutorials page CarTypeWanted We changed tracks shipping out STOCK loaded stock or cattle cars to wanting receiving cars of type STKMT empty stock cars to be delivered to set out at those spurs Also not shown in the before edit figure we changed cars shipping out empty hopper cars type HPMT to wanting loaded hopper cars HP under CarTypeWanted For the shop track Blackfoot Shops 1 we will ship out empty flat cars FMT but changed the Ca
36. LL be worked This will add more cars to the Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 22 yard tracks where pickups are called for If you don t check this box then the only cars placed on a yard track you re working will be the ones you need to pick up This one WILL impact your activity it can make the switching a little more challenging bu making the cuts of cars longer than just what you need to pick up It s still mainly a scenic enhancement though o Allow car placement in Regions that won t be worked if you ll only be traveling in the regions that you ve checked to work then there s no reason to check this box If however you may pass through other regions but won t have work in them checking this box will cause those regions to possibly have cars on their Industry or Yard tracks depending on the other check box settings so the world you drive through doesn t look barren It s important to note that even if you do check this box only the regions you CAN travel through to will have cars added to them based on the path you selected New in AG4 for AG4 templates this is the default but AG4 only fills those regions you ll actually run through based on the location of the first and last regions you ve checked to work For through trains AG4 will fill tracks in regions from the starting region to the last region reached typically the region where the destination tracks are located Maximum
37. LMT Empty coal or other open hopper STL Coiled orother steelload __ Lo Loaded lumber beamears LMT Emptylumberbeamcars IG Loadedlogears FMT Empy flat other thanlog GMT Emptygondolacar You can expand on this as much as you want even to the point of loaded or empty box cars grain cars etc as you wish You can differentiate by types of loads so only gravel hoppers or gondolas are placed at gravel pits with empties delivered etc It s up to you STL MT L LMT LG FMT GMT Blank UID s in the Activity CSV File When you create an activity CSV File from an activity file it s possible that there may be some cars consists that the program couldn t find the spur for If this happens you ll get an error message and another CSV file with the name of the template you used followed by the word MatchErrors will be created and saved in the same Activities folder The file looks like this when opened using Excel or a similar spreadsheet program US2WoodChipper 32768 0 US2WoodChipper 32768 1 This may be by design perhaps you placed some rolling stock or locomotives on the route for decoration purposes and you don t expect the user to pick up those cars or engines Or these cars are in areas that your paths will never reach and you simply didn t want to go to the trouble of deleting them from the activity template If that s the case simply ignore this file If however some o
38. UP 32772 1 NP_5Oft_30603 BX DEST whitefish Siding 6 Kalispell c and c Plywood PICKUP 32774 2 SP5_40ft_11394 BX DEST whitefish Siding 6 Kalispell C and c Plywood SETOUT 4 32 CBO_40ft_60770 BX FROM Initial Train Kalispell cC and c Plywood SETOUT O 33 NP_40ft_28623 BX FROM Initial Train Kalispell C and C Plywood SETOUT 34 GN_50ft_35707 BX FROM Initial Train Kalispell C and Plywood SETOUT 35 CBO 40ft_60770 BX FROM Initial Train Kalispell Erickson Bras PICKUP 32790 0 SPS_40Tt_11394 BX DEST whitefish Siding 6 Kalispell Erickson Bros PICKUP 32790 1 GN_5Oft_4377 BX DEST whitefish Siding 6 Kalispell Erickson Bros PICKUP 32790 2 NP_50ft_30603 BX DEST whitefish Siding 6 amp 6 Kalispell Erickson Bros SETOUT 39 NP_50ft_30603 BX FROM Initial Train Kalispell Erickson Bros SETOUT 40 ceQ 40ft_32046 BX FROM Initial Train Kalispell Kalispell Carter 0il PICKUP 32778 g TANK UTLX 23500_mt TMT DEST whitefish siding 6 Kalispell Kalispell Carter 0il PICKUP 32778 1 TANK UTLX 23500_mt TMT DEST whitefish siding 6 Kalispell Kalispell Carter 0il SETOUT 279 TANK MAG 1277 T FROM Initial Train Kalispell Kalispell Carter 0il SETOUT 30 8TANK MAG 1277 T FROM Initial Train Kalispell Kalispell Carter 0il SETOUT 31 TANK UTLX 23500 T FROM Initial Train Running the activity Now for the fun part Start MSTS and find the generated activity you just created If you created an activity for the Westbound Template in the Marias USA2 rou
39. a Test Team and template authors who have suggested new features and options for Activity Generator AG4 is borne out of the inut of these users and more Norman Beveridge Denis Gionet Peter Laier Moe Smith Craig Koepke Dave Flagg Ed Hawkins FEFFFFF And special thanks to Rich Garber and Joe Smith Joe Bandit for their help support suggestions and inspiration
40. al plant so it s actually more prototypical for some types of switching On the other hand if simple mode is NOT checked you may be required to pick up the first 5 and 8 cars on that spur which is also realistic for certain types of industries I ve even seen railroads do this with a Corn Syrup transloading plant If you check the box the switching will be a little simpler in that each cut will generally consist of cars in sequence If you don t check the box you ll be more likely to have your initial pickups scattered over multiple yard tracks and industry pickups could be any cars on the track they aren t guaranteed to be sequential some templates override this setting e Select route path This will be visible only if the activity designer set up more than one possible path usually to give multiple starting points for an activity Choose the path which basically controls your starting point and the direction your locomotives will be facing You aren t required to follow any certain path to complete the activity however No Al Traffic Checkbox If the activity you re working with has Al traffic and that traffic is interfering with your ability to get to the spurs you need check this box to generate an activity with no Al traffic Also if you used the Convert all the signals in a route to Permissive function then checking this box is highly recommended It can also be helpful if you ve checked the Convert all the s
41. ame you want to remove in the right hand window then click the Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 20 Remove button Or to start from scratch and remove all the locomotives from the player driveable consist click Remove All Flip Direction Click this button to cause the engine to face in the direction opposite to the initial direction of travel in the window means the engine will be facing forward View Selected Unit If you have Paul Gausden s Shape View program installed and used the button on the main screen to tell Activity Generator where this program is located then when you have a locomotive highlighted selected in the left hand screen you can click this button to see a 3 D rendering of that locomotive This can help with selecting the engines to drive Last Car in Consist Because ActivityGenerator may add freight cars after the units selected in the Player Consist box you may wish to select a specific car that will always be placed at the end of the player train regardless of whether or not the program adds cars to the player train Use this drop down box to do that Simply scroll through a list all rolling stock not stored will appear in the list You can select a car then click the small View Selected gt button to view it as above this works if you have Paul Gausden s Shape View program installed This feature is mainly included t
42. as etn eiceedenee 49 Track SWLIDB CSV File Aft t Eding scscicss cotissvvsntteset bwasansivdatelsaatetidaneentteaatiedlactinarts 49 Step 5 Setting the Order in which each Region is reached for each Path in the Template 50 If you ve designed an activity that gives the player a choice of multiple paths and or starting points and the route you re working with has some switches that can t be manually operated as is the case with the majority of routes or signals that the player will need to navigate through and you don t want to require the player to use the 50 You can tell Activity Generator which regions will be accessible for each possible path the player might select when generating an activity using the Activity Template you created and the order in which the regions will be reached Doing this is easier to use Maryo mene eener EA E EA 50 Click the Set Regions worked and order reached for paths button ssseeneesesssseeeeeessss 51 The Path Region Order Dialog new for AG arerioen T 52 Description of the Set Path Region Order COntrols cc eeccccccceccceesseeeseecceeeeeeaaaeeseeeeeees 53 DELCE Pat 10 E de N A E neemeceee 53 COPY FON ene E a E EA 53 Maximum Length of Player Train at Path Start 00ssenennneeessssseeenssssssssseerrsssssssseeeees 54 All Reeions m this Template s secisnriaesisaiia a a E iisagatees 54 Tracks in the Region and car capacity Of each esessssoeene
43. ates page at www skylinecomputing com it indicates which templates have been tested or certified for SLG v 2 0 and AG3 0 or later and which haven t been The list will be updated as new templates are created or tested to work with Version 2 and later versions including this latest version Activity Generator will correctly run Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 29 all SwitchList Generator 2 and later templates but SwitchList Generator 2 which is no longer supported will not necessarily run all AG 3 and later templates to their full advantage There is only one issue you might have in using templates that haven t been tested certified for this version or SLG version 2 or later you may get an error message in MSTS when starting the activity Objects begin in collision which is prohibited If this happens you can often fix the problem by adjusting the Fill World slider as described in Set Railcar Fill and or by lowering the Maximum to pick up from any single siding setting to 1 or 2 cars and generating the activity again Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 30 PART TWO Creating your own Activity Generator Templates Ok you ve run all the Activity Generator template activities you can get your hands on or maybe there isn t one posted for a route you like and now you want to create your own template for Activity Generator so you can generate ac
44. ator Page 45 RegName the is the name of the region that this spur is located in By default when the track CSV file is created every spur is assigned to Region 1 This can work ok for small routes or activities with limited paths for example the run is always from a yard to a particular town and Activity Generator is only being used to select which spurs are to be serviced and which cars picked up set out in that town If used for larger routes such as Marias Pass Ohio Rail etc you will likely end up with work orders encompassing the whole route such as cars to be picked up in Whitefish Yard and set out in Kalispell Essex and Cutbank for example with pickups in those towns and others This can make for a very long activity or where branch lines are present an activity that is impossible to create If you use regions you can give the player more choices when generating the activity using your template A good practice is to create a region for each town that has several spurs to service and include smaller towns and lone spurs near that town in the same region Note for AG4 now that the regions reached in a path are stored in the pro file there is no practical limit to the number of regions you can have See Step 5 Setting the Path Region Order for more information on the Path Region Order pro file It is preferable to have multiple small regions because the regions will appear in order in the Activity Gene
45. button will not add those levers to the simulation but you WILL be able to throw the switches using the Q key to throw the switch in front of your locomotive or Shift G to throw the switch behind your train Restore a route s switches to their original state Pressing the convert all switches in a route to manual button MAY have a detrimental effect on Al traffic on the route in some activities So it s best to restore the switches back to their original state when you don t NEED them to be manual for instance when you re running a through train rather than a switching activity This button enables you to convert the route s switches back to their original design Switches in the route that were originally manually operable will still be manually operable while switches that were originally dispatcher controlled will once again be dispatcher controlled Convert all the signals in a route to Permissive This button can be a bit dangerous It will allow you to pass any signal displaying red without ending the activity But SO CAN THE Al TRAFFIC So if you re using this feature and generating an activity using Activity Generator it s best to check the box Check here to generate an activity with NO Al traffic Unless the Al traffic runs on a different track or all the main line is double tracked etc If you run into a red signal you can t pass and need to you can save the activity exit use ActivityGenerator to c
46. ch also come with two csv files used to tell the program what kinds of cars are on the spurs what type of car should go to each spur and how many etc These are posted on the Skyline Computing web site www skylinecomputing com and some are available at www train sim com This program does not modify the Train Simulator program in any way nor does it change any of your existing Train Simulator files You can also create your own activity creation templates for routes for which these aren t yet available This does however require the use of the MSTS Activity Editor You can start with an existing activity or create your own template from scratch Once you ve created a template you will be able to create an endless variety of freight switching activities with just a few clicks of the mouse The procedure for doing this including specific screens from the MSTS Activity Editor is detailed in this manual in the section entitled Creating Your Own Activity Creation Templates There are also a number of free tutorial videos demonstrating how to do this on the Video Tutorials page at www skylinecomputing com A function is included which will generate the two csv files the program needs for each Activity Generator activity creation template AG4 in this manual refers to Activity Generator Version 4 the latest full version To see a list of enhancements included with AG4 see New for Version
47. ck Help Don t worry about the error message It just means you are CORRECTLY saving this file as a cSv file rather than as an Excel xls file which is the preferred format for Excel Click Yes to proceed and keep the file as a csv file Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 43 Step 4 Create amp Edit the Track CSV File After you create the Activity CSV file or load an activity CSV file from the main screen the Create a Track CSV File button becomes active it s no longer grayed out It could be though that you exited the program so you could edit the Activity CSV File and now that you have a polished Activity CSV File you re ready to create the Track CSV No problem the Load Activity CSV File button the one on the MAIN SCREEN can be used to load it Simply press this button and browse to the SWLACT file you edited You ll see an error message saying that the Track database file SWLTDB couldn t be found but in this case that s ok you re about to create that file To actually create the Track CSV file just click the Create a Track CSV File button The reason you need the activity file to be created and edited first is that the program uses the information stored in that file about the types of cars sitting on each spur and how many cars are there to determine what type of car should go in each spur and how many cars the spur will accommodate After you clic
48. ctive Click it Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 7 e The customize your activity screen comes up If you see a Select Route path drop down box use it to choose the path you d like to drive and where you Il start for instance Kalispell to Columbia Falls Some Activity Creation Templates will have only one path with those this drop down won t appear Select route path Big Sandy Havre B H e Determine if your template is an AG3 or earlier template or an AG4 or later template On the Generate an Activity Screen you ll see either e i a a as at Ber ir tt If this is an AG4 or later template e The simplest start is to start with cars already in your train To start with a train already built enter the number of cars you want your train to start with in the Maximum cars in starting player train box Maximum cars in Starting Player Train E Max for path 20 For AG4 or later templates the suggested maximum appears in green to the right Here it s 20 cars e Also enter the maximum train length in the Maximum Cars to Handle box or accept the default of 25 Maximum Total Cars to Handle 25 e There are three list boxes on the right Choose your Source Tracks Check the Regions or Spurs you d Like to Work and Destination Tracks To build a through freight which will have setouts only at the end of the run your
49. d be delivered to this industry For this lumber mill you might want to deliver empty beam cars empty wood chip cars and maybe even empty box cars to the spur Assuming this is what you want to do you would change the CarType Wanted to LMT WMT BX so that Activity Generator will call for Lumber Empties empty beam cars Empty Woodchip hoppers and box cars to be set out at this spur Do NOT include the quote marks Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 47 CarTypeShipped This is new for AG4 templates and is set by the template author in the exact same way as the CarTypeWanted Often it will be the opposite type of car from the CarTypeWanted Given the example above of a spur which receives empty lumber beam cars empty Woodchip cars and Box cars you would set the CarTypeShipped to L W BX do NOT include the quote marks so that Activity Generator will place loaded lumber beam cars loaded woodchip cars and box cars on this spur and call for pickup of those types of cars 1f the user elects to work this spur Again initially this is set to whatever car type was originally placed in that spur in the MSTS activity act file If you already placed a loaded lumber beam car in the act file then by default the CarTypeShipped will indicate that a car of type L is to be shipped AG4 note AG4 will never place multiple hyphen separated car types in the CarType Wanted or CarTypeShipped columns even if you as t
50. d there will call for the pickup of 32787 0 first So if you place the car at the other end it will work but the player doing the pickups will have a little more work always having to pick up the whole cut then drop trailing cars such as 32787 1 and 32787 2 1f present back in the spur lunnel Switch Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 33 Figure 11 Poor placement some of the spur is wasted reducing capacity for pickups YATunnel Switch Not the best placement one car D gt can fit behind this coupler but if E two cars are added one will start yf Ozark Hwg off the track derailed n P In Figure 11 the car is placed in the middle of the spur So if you set the capacity of this spur to three cars and the program fills the spur with three cars then the last car will run off the track causing the error Objects in the World Begin in Collision when the activity is loaded in MSTS Figure 12 Worst case placement of a car on a spur B Ad 7 7 one A tch Even a single car placed behind AOzark Hd id this coupler will start off the track resulting in an error Figure 12 above is an example of the worst placement choice Even though this spur could hold at least 2 cars probably 3 only one car can ever be placed here You would need to set the capacity to 1 That s because ANY car added behind this car will be hanging off the track starting
51. dustry tracks Remember Activity Generator can t place cars on a track whether for pickup or later setout unless you place at least one marker car on that track as described in this section 3 Create a new Action Event View the Action Event window in the Activity Editor click View then Action Events and click New to create a new Action event Pick Up Cars for one of the cars on each spur Don t worry the player won t actually have to pick up one car on every spur This is simply a marker used to help the Activity Generator generate the cars CSV file telling the program about the cars on the route and where they are Click on New in the Action Events Window as shown below Action events Click the New button to create a new Action Event Action Pick up cars Action Pick up cars Pick up cars P Action Pick up cars Actions Pick up cars jp Action4 Pick up cars Action Fick up cars Actions Fick up cars b ction Pick up cars lt i gt Designer s note I was unable to determine from the coordinate system used in the activity act file which track a car was on For example in an activity file a car sitting at a spur is listed like this Wagon WagonData Ctn40ftb_e Ctn 40ft Boxcars UiD 0 Direction 0 ID 32808 Tile 1L1263 13980 320 10 4824912 Now it s pretty clear here that this is a 40
52. e two siding markers by the route designer This can help you to adjust the CarCap based on the type of car that will go there and the average length of those cars TrkT ype By default all tracks are assigned the type code T for Industry tracks unless the name has the word Yard or Interchange in it in which case the type Y is assigned With AG 4 and later there is a new track type code track type X If a track is assigned type X Activity Generator will place cars on this track depending on the user s World Fill settings but will never call for pickups from or setouts to this track This is useful for double track main lines where there are spurs on the opposite side in the opposite direction the player will be running which can t be reached or worked via your path but you don t want all those spurs to look unprototypically empty Another track type you can use is track type Y for Yard tracks The primary use of this track type in Activity Generator is to mark those tracks close to where each path in a region will start as Yard tracks and also to serve as a guide to players as to the appropriate tracks to use as Source Tracks from which to build their train These tracks will appear first in the list of tracks in the Select Source Tracks and Select Industry Tracks to Service boxes But it isn t necessary to set any Yard tracks in order for the
53. eaeeaesseeeees 22 Generi e anew AC Uy es A E ne cea ae 22 Printin a W Ork Order socere E baat aiemdie ease aieadiectds 22 R mine the ACH VILY srr cuiendenndsnnndesetandenta seadsbesunederalunsodmeedandvedaseadtbstuandeecduenuamedtendeetacesuahedt 23 Distributing Activities you Generate cnctnutiinrsaiteuds caine eee 23 Nole Of 1le SANG TAIN tie ntti est se encanerae E a abate ashen 24 Problem with packaging some Act y 16S sennecese nn ie titas aetna ed eaiiemaes 24 OKA gaan se sacs as aes eda eee ee ee on ee we eb 25 Saving Activities you Generate to Run them Again ccceecccccccccccceeseseeecceeeeeeaeesseseeeeeeeeaaas 28 Activity Templates Routes and Downloads Needed cccccccsseesseeeceeeceeeaeeeeeeeeceeeeeaeeeenees 28 Known Issue with Activity Generator version 4 or later and some earlier templates 28 PART TWO Creating your own Activity Generator Templates cccccccccssseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 30 Step 1 Create the Activity Creation Template act File using the Activity Editor 30 1 Place cars on the industry spurs and yard trackS ccccccccccsssseeeeeceeeeeeeaaeeeeeeeeeeeeeaas 30 IMPORTANT Note on placing Cars OM Spurs sssssssseeessssssssseerrssssssseerersssssseeerresssss 31 2 Place some other cars of a type that will be delivered to the industries somewhere in MN C2 AC HVAT TING S E E E E A E E E E TE E A E E E E E EAS 33 3s Create a mew ACON Ven
54. eeeees 14 e Maximum cars to pick up from any single industry cccceccessseeeeeeeeceeeeaeeeesseeeeees 14 e Maximum cars to set out at any single industry SIdING cc ceeeeeeeceeeeceeeeeeeseeeeeees 15 ACHVILY Sarl OUI nica arora onnces a E E 15 e Check Here for Sequential Pickups Setouts ccwnuitninndvacnsidmnwknnbain wens 15 Selectro te Path Joare a a Siisnaactuwsige dian iadlelaniheutiiauacte 15 NorAIrallic CE CK DOX serren irnn SEAE R COI 15 e ACU E cy tet esa a hea a ia A cee 15 e Maximum Cars to Add to Player Consist cccccccccssssssssecceccceeaesecseeececeessaaeesseseeeees 15 e Force all Industry tracks selected for pickup to pickup all cars on track 0 16 e Allow pickups from source tracks in one region to be set out in a different region 16 e Allow pickups from source tracks in one region to be set out in that same region 16 e CHOOSE Y OUT SOULCE aC wsetet di exidag sete ade ew eds eae neha Bde ines 16 e Work Tracks Check the regions or spurs you d like to work pick up and set out cars 16 e Optional Choose Destination Tracks ssessseoeenssssssssseerrsssssssscerrsssssssseeerrssssssseeeeees 17 e Check to view print the Work Order using Notepad ccccccssssssseeceeeeceeeeeeseeeeeees 17 Command DUNOIS renar a a cette eae ted jae T verdes eee eos 17 ORS Generate anr ACV fetal rete ha sunaseacen N E E 17 View ACh vity IDOT rera e 17
55. ess or conflicting information is entered This is much more likely to happen with pre AG4 templates With all the settings available to the user selecting the player path and starting point tracks to service and especially allowing the program to pick cars from one region to be set out in another see Check here to allow Setouts to come from Yard Tracks in different regions than the Industry Track being serviced it is possible that you might select a siding for work that you can t get to in the order needed The best advice in this case is know your route Maps of many of the routes for which templates have been created and in fact most available routes can be downloaded at www train sim com and often other sites If you are able to select spurs you can t reach to work this is a problem with the template not Activity Generator Please contact the author of that template for help or questions Also you can solve many problems by using the Convert all Switches in a Route to Manual button on the route And if you just can t get permission to pass a red signal use the Convert all Signals to Permissive button Q I followed the directions above and I can reach all the spurs I need to but the ORDER of the setouts is messed up I start in Kalispell but along the way I have to set out some cars I don t have yet which I ll need to pick up in Whitefish But once I run all the way to Whitefish I can t get back t
56. f these are cars you meant for the player to pick up then this means that you didn t assign a Pickup Action Event for the consist that the car is in See Setting Pickup Action Events for more information on how to do this If this is the case you should go back into the Activity Editor find the consist in question and assign a Pickup activity to a car in that consist as described in Step Then repeat Step 2 Saving the CSV File If you used a spreadsheet program like Excel to edit the csv file you Il need to save the file you edited as a csv and NOT as an Excel Worksheet or other format Here s how Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 42 Save As 4 SWLTDBCanton csv 8 WORKORDER CA5_CantonTemplate csv 8 WORKORDER Canton Start Canton csv Note that the Save as type is Comma delimited or csv tele My Network ee Places Save as type csv Comma delimited csv Filename SWLACTCanton Start Canton csv When you press the Save button you may see what looks like an error message as shown below Microsoft Excel SWLACTCanton Start Canton csv may contain features that are not compatible with CSV Comma delimited Do you want to keep the workbook in this format a To keep this format which leaves out any incompatible features dick Yes a To preserve the features dick No Then save a copy in the latest Excel format To see what might be lost di
57. foot box car But if someone reading this manual can tell me how to discern which siding is located at these coordinates please e Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 35 mail me and we can eliminate this step in this procedure Email Steve Davis SteveDavis skylinecomputing com 4 Assign the Pick up Cars Event to each consist placed Click on a car in the spur for which you re creating this pick up event remember to do at least one car per spur one is really all that s needed and you ll see the number of the car you chose in the window as shown below 2 The action event after you select the car shows this number along with the name of the siding here lt really doesn t matter what Outcome is selected here Just use the default Action event properties Atypon Pick wp cars rs Car location 34783 0 Yard siding 2 lt it gt aa Dr Event Actrration level l Triggered text 32783 Untnggered text Hotes Humber of outcomes l Chiteome 0 Chitcome Complete Activity secessfilly Event 1 In the Action drop down here select Pick up cars from the list of actions Note In previous versions of Activity Generator you needed to enter the Consist Number here This is NO LONGER NECESSARY with this version You can now leave this box empty e Keep adding these action event
58. fy Activity Program Templates CSW Files 7 by Seve Davis Hit Page 37 AFTER you ve created or modified an activity file to provide the needed information see Step 1 click this button to bring up the next screen Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 38 Next the Create and Modify Activity Templates screen comes up w Create and Modify Activity Templates Sel The buttons below will create the files you need to design your own Actryity Generator templates from actrity files Two new comma delimited files will be saved to your Activites folder MO MSTS FILES WILL BE MODIFIED by this procedure you need to create or load a Car CS file before you can create a Track CSW fle Please see the accompanying POF documentation for complete instructions iw Calculate Siding Capacities Average railcar length meters 28 Set Car Types Ok to use as Anp in a Template Set Regions worked and order reached for paths E xit You create an Activity CSV file one of two CSV files used by the Activity Generator to generate new activities by first clicking on Create an Activity CSV File from an Activity act File If you ve already created and perhaps edited an activity CSV file and you want to create a Track CSV file you can go to the previous screen and select Choose an Activity CSV File to load this file You ll see an error message about there not being a Track csv file but y
59. g a spur doesn t GUARANTEE that the program will schedule a pickup or setout at that spur only that this spur will be included in the list of possible sours where work might be scheduled For AG3 or earlier templates the regions in this box also appear in alphabetical order and for AG4 or later templates the regions appear in the order reached for each path So for shorter runs call for work in regions near the top of the box The choice of regions and spurs doesn t have any effect on where the player will start the activity this is controlled by the route path selected or set by the template designer Again yard tracks are listed first mainly so you can skip them if you ve used them for source tracks In this version of the program there is no special significance to yard tracks other than being listed first You can pick up or set out cars from to yard tracks the same as any other industry spurs This is a change from previous versions Optional Choose Destination Tracks AG will schedule the cars you picked up at the Work tracks you selected to be set out later at one or more of these tracks You need to select destination tracks that you will reach at the end of your planned run With AG4 and later templates this is fairly easy because the regions are listed in order in all the selection windows With AG3 and earlier templates you will need to consult a map to ensure that you will actually reach these tracks at or to
60. g cars if you intend to sometimes have the program fill the whole spur with cars be sure and place the car towards one or the other end of the spur and face the rear of the car into the spur Then even if you place only one car and the program fills with more cars it won t fill past the limits of the spur and thus Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 32 cause the MSTS error Objects in World Begin in Collision when loading Here s an example Figure 9 Two cars on a spur that could hold perhaps three Rear coupler where additional cars will be added Front of consist Note from Figure 9 above that on the Ozark Hd Wd spur there is probably only room for two cars three at most Figure 10 Placing just one car so that the maximum number of cars can be added behind that car for pickup by the player ys Good placement ok to add up to 2 cars to this coupler Above we ve placed one car at an end So if one or even two cars are added behind this car by the program for the player to pick up the cars still won t run off the end of the spur Also note that MSTS will number the cars beginning with the one you placed So for example if this is 32787 the car you see will get the number 32787 0 and cars behind it will be numbered 32787 1 32787 2 etc This can be a consideration because when using sequential pickups the program if calling for 1 car when 3 were place
61. ge 8 reached at the end of the run check a map if necessary For AG4 or later templates the program will take care of this for you e Optional Choose the season weather and or start time by clicking the appropriate buttons and or change the locomotives you ll drive by clicking the Change Engines button e Optional For an activity with more complex switching and more randomization uncheck the box next to Check here for Sequential Pickups Setouts e Click the OK Generate Activity button e Start MSTS go to the route you used for example Marias Pass and find the activity named SLG MP1_KAL_ CF WFTemplate Choose that activity and enjoy e Ending the activity Since you used the default Activity Ending Last Pickup when you ve completed all your pickups and setouts the activity you generated will end automatically If this was a through freight the activity will end after setting out all your cars on the destination track or tracks you chose e If you want to run this activity again with different pickups and setouts just follow these same steps again and when you re run the same activity starting with SLG the work order will be different AG saves the templates you ve opened in a drop down box on the main screen so it is easy to run your favorite templates again and again e To generate activities for more routes download and install more Activity Generator Ac
62. gies This is the Choose Regions or Spurs to work list box Select at least one region View Acti Into File This button only appears if the template designer included a special rft file Designers see the section on Adding a Template Guide to work in Click the boxes to the left to see the individual spurs in a region The Customize Your Activity screen is the control panel you use to tell the Activity Generator about the specifics of the activity you want to create Here is a detail of every control and setting on this screen Maximum Total Cars to Handle Enter a number greater than 0 The program will search all available spurs attempting to locate this many cars to pick up total OR if you are generating a through train this will be the length of your total train You must enter at least 1 here in which case you ll have a 1 car train or 1 pickup or 1 setout or 1 car in a train to set out at the end Maximum cars to pick up from any single industry Enter the maximum number of cars you d want to pick up at any single industry the initial Source tracks don t use Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 15 this number just industry tracks Setting this to a low number such as 1 will cause the program to generate a work order with many spurs to work in order to attempt to find all the requested cars Setting to a high number will potent
63. ging the Player Consist mainly the locomotives In the list box on the left are all the drivable locomotives currently installed on your hard drive listed in alphabetical order EXCEPT any that have been stored using TrainStore To choose an engine to use in the activity you re about to generate simply highlight the engine in the box on the left by clicking on it then click the Add button This adds it to the end of the Player Consist list on the right You can eliminate items from the Player Consist for this Activity box by clicking on a line in that box and then clicking the Remove button Or start from scratch by clicking Remove All Adding Locomotives to the Player Consist The Add button puts the name of the engine highlighted in the left window into the window on the right side of the screen after any other items already in that window The box on the right shows the engines that will make up the locomotive consist in the activity that will be generated Note that some locomotive names are followed by These are driveable locomotives The program requires that the FIRST locomotive in the consist be a driveable locomotive Others can be AI locos trailing units etc Removing locomotives If you d like to change your mind and remove a locomotive from the locomotive consist or delete locomotives in the original default consist before you get started click the locomotive n
64. gner the freeform nature of Activity Generator generated activities makes it difficult if not impossible to solve AI meet problems by timing It s safest to keep AI traffic out of activities where the player might be able to start just about anywhere and go just about anywhere For designers who like a lot of AI traffic I d recommend designing activities with a specific start point and destination in mind with AI traffic to complement that If there will be multiple paths for the player to choose from they should usually all be in the same direction just with different starting and end points If you would like to provide entirely different paths for Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 68 the player it s best to design separate activity templates each with it s own path and AI traffic pattern Also AI traffic should be avoided if the user will need to use the Convert all Signals to Permissive function to get to some spurs where work is to be done unless those spurs will be away from where the AI traffic will run New for Version 4 New SWLTDB file format O O Stores both siding marker track numbers for each spur solves problem with track numbers in SWLACT and SWLTDB files sometimes not matching Field for CarTypeWanted as always PLUS new field CarTypeShipped so these can be changed simply by changing the SWLACT file without a need to edit the activity act file It no longer
65. h Havre route first Next I removed Whitefish and Columbia Falls from the beginning of the list using the Remove button discussed below and saved that I did the same thing for other paths which started further to the east such as paths starting at Glacier Blackfoot Cut Bank etc Maximum Length of Player Train at Path Start To ensure users of your templates don t create trains that are too long to fit on the spur where the path starts causing MSTS load errors and the dreaded Send Don t Send message AG4 now enforces the starting Player Train Length in the Generate Activity screen This number defaults to 0 If as is often the case it is safe for the player to start with a train already built enter the number of cars that can safely fit but not more than 99 at the start point This will NOT mean that players will always start with cars in their trains when running your templates that is up to them and the default when generating activities is still O cars What it DOES do is prevent players from starting activities with more cars than will fit as may be the case when say the path starts in an engine shed etc MSTS note When placing cars in the player train UNLIKE when adding cars to spurs for pickup or setout MSTS builds from the rear So wherever you have set the player path start point is where the LAST car or locomotive in the player consist train will be Other cars locomotives will be FORWARD OF
66. he settings you made on this screen to a file name of your choosing so you can reload them and not have to re enter all the information when generating another similar activity Load Saved Settings Grayed out unless you have previously saved some settings for this template Allows you to call up previously saved settings for a template Once you ve loaded the settings you can change them on the Generate screen to your heart s content Cancel Exit this screen without generating an activity Clicking the to the left of a region name expands the list so you Figure 6 Using the Track Selection Boxes can see each spur in that region The then becomes a which you can click to collapse the list again Check the Regions or Spurs you d like to work pickup or setout cars Click in each of these boxes to tell the rceneaux Tobacco Industry C BlackLight Power Corp 1 Industry made ran to include that J BlackLight Power Corp 2 Industey region or siding when m DUS Gypsum Corp Jeadasty generating the work Wilsmere Smere ard Trk 6 ard order C wilsmere ard Trk 8 Yard C wilsmere ard Trk 9 Yard C General Motors Autorack 1 Industry C General Motors Autorack 2 Industry C General Motors Autorack 3 Industry J AIP Track 1 Industry I RIF Track 2 Industry wilsmere Eastbound Make Up Industry L wilsmere Engine Track Industry m
67. he template designer placed multiple different car types on those spurs It simply goes by the type of the first car in any consist If you placed a marker car say a box car in the spur you ll need to set BOTH the CarTypeWanted and the CarTypeShipped to the appropriate type AG4 Design note This feature was added at the request of our template authors While it may seem like additional trouble to separately set the CarType Wanted and CarTypeShipped boxes it turns out that it usually makes template creation easier The reason is often while test running our templates we ll deliver a car to a given spur that we THOUGHT was a certain type of industry based on the name of the spur but actually it needs a different type of car than we thought To fix this under previous versions the actual activity file had to be modified replacing the car sitting in the spur now with a car of the corrected type then the SWLACT file had to be modified to reflect the corrected car type sitting in that spur then finally the SWLTDB file was changed to reflect the corrected car type to be delivered to that spur Now with AG4 to change the car type delivered to a spur and the car type picked up at a spur you need ONLY edit the CarTypeWanted and CarTypeShipped columns for that spur in the one file the SWLTDB file TrkLength You don t edit this It shows you how long the spur is in meters or more accurately the distance in meters between th
68. hem and then double click the exe files that were embedded in the zip files Note It won t do you any good to install these files for routes you DON T have wait until you acquire the route before you install templates for it Otherwise you ll just end up with extra files and folders which may get overwritten when if you DO install the route If you have trouble there is a Tutorial Video on how to install the program on the Video Tutorials page of the www skylinecomputing com web site Quick Start Guide hate reading manuals How can I get started QUICKLY First follow the installation instructions in the preceding section to install the program and activity creation templates which you ll need to download for the routes you have Then to generate a new activity Click your Start button then Programs then Activity Generator to launch the program When the program starts click Choose Activity CSV File to select the activity creation template which you d like to use to generate your new activity Choose Activity CSV File o Example To create an activity for the default Marias Pass route browse to your Train Simulator Routes USA2 ACTIVITIES folder and select the file SWLACTMP1 KAL CF WFTemplate csv Double click the file name or click the file name and then click the Open button See Choose Activity CSV File for details The Generate Activity button will become a
69. higher than the maximum number of cars to pick up and set out If you want to build your own train from the initial source tracks set this box to 0 Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 16 Caution this feature MAY get you into trouble if you use it with AG3 or earlier templates With some templates or paths the start of the path is in an engine shed or somewhere else where there isnt room for a train behind the locomotives To be sure if the activity template designer hasn t provided documentation letting you know which paths are ok for starting with a train in tow it s best to first generate an activity with a given path using the default maximum of 0 zero cars Then if you see plenty of room for a train behind your starting point you can either run the activity you just generated or exit it and regenerate this time adding cars to the initial train Force all Industry tracks selected for pickup to pickup all cars on track subject to user limits This is designed to simulate unit operations such as coal lumber and often grain When the program selects a track to work it will schedule every car on that track for pickup subject to the maximum pickups per track limit you set So assuming that the total number of cars to pick up and set out and the total cars to pick up on each track are high enough then when a spur is scheduled to be worked all of the cars on that spur will be picked up
70. his is a number or single letter associated with each region you create Every track in the same region should have the same RegNum number or letter and no two regions should have the same region number When doing this since you ve just finished naming the regions it helps to sort the list by region name then track name Then simply go through and set the RegNum column for all tracks in the first region in the list to 1 set the RegNum column for all the tracks in the second region to 2 etc Or choose letters that make sense to you Sorting the list first will ensure that you assign all tracks in the same region the same RegNum and that you don t accidentally use the same number for two different regions I need to acknowledge German programmer Ulrich Milde Ulrich developed the first work order generating program for MSTS that I ve seen known as RaWoWin He introduced the concept of regions which I ve adopted in this program Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 46 CarCap this is the maximum number of cars that can be delivered to this spur It s not important that you count cars and make sure you account for every car that could possibly fit If you checked the Automatically calculate siding lengths the program will do a pretty good job of figuring this out for you but some adjustments may be needed if particularly long such as Auto racks or particularly short
71. ially pull more cars from each spur There s no danger in setting this too high the program will never call for more cars to be picked up than can fit ona spur Remember that the actual number to be picked up will be a random number between 0 and this many cars to pick up on any given siding spur Maximum cars to set out at any single industry siding Zero will cause the program to generate an activity with no setouts only pickups Enter any number again the program will never call for setting out more cars than the siding can hold This does not apply to the Destination tracks though setouts will only be limited by the capacity of the tracks for Destination Tracks Activity Start Hour Initially the default start hour chosen by the template designer is shown here You can change this to any hour you like Use 24 hour military or European time 11 am is entered as 11 12 noon is entered as 12 1 pm is 13 midnight is 0 You don t enter minutes just the hour The start time of the activity will be changed to the time you select and all Al traffic will be adjusted accordingly o Check Here for Sequential Pickups Setouts less randomization When this box is checked when you work an industry track you will be asked to pick up a certain number of cars but those cars will be in order l e you may be asked to pick up the first second and third cars This is what you d expect if you were just switching a commodity such as a co
72. imulator Page 25 Q amp A Q How can I create a Through Freight activity without any switching in it A Enter the length you want your train to be in the Maximum Cars to Pick Up and Set Out at All Industry spurs If you want to build your train at the beginning select some Source tracks in the top right list box If you want to start with your train already assembled do not select any Source tracks but be sure to enter the number of cars you want your train to be into the Maximum Cars in Starting Player Train box Q Will I get a whole bunch of activity files on my disk from running this program No unless you WANT to Each time you run the Activity Generator for a given activity it over writes the last generated activity for that same activity template unless you choose to use a name other than the default name the program suggests The generated activities will all have the prefix SLG unless you manually override this when saving Q Does this program modify any MSTS files or activity files written by others Q No The program will read an existing activity generation template but when generating a new activity the program creates NEW files NO MSTS files or third party files are changed by this program What files are created when I run the Activity Generator when I press the OK Generate Activity Possibly as many as five 5 files One act activity file
73. in Simulator Page 67 running activities generated from your template so they can throw the switches and do setouts and pickups With Activity Generator version 4 there is now almost no route for which Activity Generator can t generate activities The only exceptions are routes where the sidings spurs haven t been named or the siding markers are so close together that there isn t room for any railcars there Even these things can be fixed by some relatively simple adjustments to the route file You should get the original route author s permission before doing this though Many routes have some switches which can be thrown manually and some that can t The NEC4 route and the default Marias Pass USA2 are like this as 1s Ohio Rail and 3dTrainStuff s Tehachapi Pass II route Crossovers on the main line and sometimes branch lines or spurs off the main line use automatic or dispatcher controlled switches which are actually controlled by the path the designer creates whereas switches inside industrial areas can be manually thrown With routes like this you have two choices 1 Instruct your users to convert all the switches to manual allowing you and other players greater freedom of movement This is the easiest procedure but you may have conflicts with AI traffic especially if you or another player take a switch onto the path of an oncoming AI train Also you won t be able to distribute the activities
74. ing the Open button or by double clicking on it this is how all files are opened in the following screens Next open the route you want to create an activity for In our example let s first open USA2 the default Marias Pass route 2 Select the Activity File to Use as a Template i ROUTES 307s TEH TUTORIAL ROUTE yBodiddly RR DUSAL CAJON DUSA 1A Canton DUSA conrailindy Crawford IEUROFE1 QEUROPE2 Your Routes folder will most asaPant likely have different routes a sJAPAN2 listed Double click USA2 CkHPass2 shown here to open the ICa Marias31 A default Marias Pass route Files of type SwitchList Config Files csv Cancel Open as read only Figure 2 Choose the Route and Activity to use as a basis Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 11 Once there open the Activities folder Select the Activity File to Use as a Template Look in USA2 t E Documents gt File name Open My Computer Files of type Cancel Look in SWLACTMP 1_KAL CF WFTemplate csv SWLACTMP 1 WestboundTemplate csv Figure 4 Activity Templates CSV Files in the Marias Pass ACTIVITIES folder In that folder you ll find some csv files such as SWLACTMP1_WestboundTemplate csv Note If you DON T see any files like the ones shown above that means you don t have an Activity Generator template for tha
75. ing the button down while you drag over all the text to copy then press the control key along with the letter C or ctrl C Next find the spot where you want to paste the new text click your left mouse button there and press ctrl V to paste Path names in this case would be Marias KalispellKalispell to Columbia Falls Marias KalispellColumbia Falls to Kalispell Marias KaliespellKalispell to WhiteFish etc When the path list comes up on the choice list presented to the users as shown in the first section of this manual the activity name will be STRIPPED from the display So the users will only see the Kalispell to Columbia Falls Kalispell to Whitefish etc Step 2 Create the Activity CSV File The first step in creating the necessary CSV file is the easiest part the Activity Generator includes a utility to create the file from a properly edited activity file as set up in Step 1 Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Activity Generator Main Either click Choose Activity File to open a new Activity Creation template or choose one of the previously opened template files from the list below Generafor Ferson d ad Houle Moqnicaron Convert all the switches in Restore a routes switches a route to Manual to their original state Convert all the signals ina Restore a route s signals to route to Permissive their original state Set Location of Shapeview Create and Modi
76. ity act file except with the extension ctp for CarTyPe Note to advanced users The list of car types is built from the SWLACT Activity CSV file If you edit that file and add more car types to that CSV file after setting the usable car types and saving them no problem Those new car types will appear in the list of car types in this window the next time you access this screen By the same token if you DELETE any car types those types will not appear in the list the next time this screen is loaded By default any new car types will NOT be checked as ok to use Step 7 Distributing the Templates you Create Creating Activity Creation Templates for others to use can be more rewarding than simply creating a single activity or even a series of activities since the user can use your template over and over again to create entirely new activities for virtually endless replayability So how do you distribute an Activity Template you created It s fairly simple First you need to either use the Activity Packager found in Microsoft s Activity Editor or use a program such as RouteRiter or your favorite installer to collect up all the files related to the template you created See the section in this manual on Distributing Activities earlier in this manual for details on what files these are and how to do this It s important to note that THIS PART OF THE PROCESS IS NO DIFFERENT THAN WHAT YOU D NEED TO DO TO
77. k the button open your MSTS Routes folder select the route the activity csv and act files are located in the route you re creating a template for and click the name of the tdb file 1f the last file you opened was an Activity file you ll need to click the Up One Level button to get to the correct folder A tdb file is the Track Database file for an MSTS route Select the Track Database file TDB to use in creating the new activity Look in usa2 do H marias tdb Up One Level File name ha Open Files of type Track Database Files tdb Cancel Open as read only Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 44 Important Note the actual track database tdb file is NOT modified by this procedure All that happens is that anew SWLTDB lt template name gt CSV file is created When the procedure completes in a second or two you ll see a dialog like this Processing Complete Found 66 Sidings Wrote output to C SWLTDBCanton csv Editing the Track CSV File Now it s time to edit the track csv file Open the file found in the route s ACTIVITIES folder exactly as you did the Activity csv file The track file viewed here in Excel looks like this before it s been edited partial file shown below Track SWLTDB CSV File Before Editing CARTYPE CARTYPE Track Track Name RegName RegNum CarCap WANTED TrkLength TrkType SHIPPED Altirk 1576 Big Sandy Freigh
78. kups and will end when the player sets out the cars in the original train on the track or tracks selected as Destination Tracks Automatically calculates capacity of selected destination tracks as they are selected by the user and displays the total at the bottom of the Generate screen to aid in determining how long a train may actually be generated Depending on capacity of those tracks all industry pickups will go to that track or tracks If there aren t enough industry pickups to satisfy the total pickups then yard track pickups will be added to go to the destination track New track type i e not Y or I or U for template designers just for world fill X Pickups setouts will never be scheduled for these tracks and they won t appear in the track Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 69 selection list boxes They are ONLY used for world fill This would be useful to place cars on the other side of the tracks for double track routes or for spurs that can only be used for facing point setouts which are passed by a train but may not be schedulable for work by the template designer Users can now save all the input and selections made on the Generate Activity screen in a new ags Activity Generation Settings file This enables users to reload previously saved settings for a given template So if all the source tracks industry tracks number of pickups etc can be reloaded and ano
79. lator Page 14 w Customize Your Activity New Style Template Regions appear in order for each path Sele Optional Choose your SOURCE TRACKS below Here IS where you select the tracks These are the regions and tracks that cars to be set from which cars to be set out later will out will come from originate If you start with cars aie andy ave already in your train you don t have to select any tracks here If you do select tracks here be sure they are at the START of the path you ll be Work Tracks Check the Regions of Spurs you d like poa to work pickup or setout carsi driving L Big Sandy f Clear f Rain C Drow C Havre Select route path Big Sandy Havre B H z Check here to generate gfi actrity with NO Al traffic vill have no effect if the anginal achGity template doesn t hawe Al traffic This drop down will only appear if the activity designer set up the activity with multiple possible paths Otherwise nothing will be displayed here 0 MPH f Assemble Train 0 Max for path 20 Optional Check any track or tracks to use as the final destination for your tram where pickups will be set out Destination Tracks Cars you pick up at Work AN tracks along the way or cars in your initial train will be set out at any destination tracks you select here Ok Generate Activity Figure 4 Total car capacity of selected destination tracks n
80. ling stock supplied with the route or the default rolling stock would be enough to create a good template In this case I decided it wasn t the default rolling stock 1s too modern for the era modeled by Michael Stephan While I like to minimize downloads to enable as many people as possible to enjoy the templates I create in this case there were quite a few downloads Michael required for the activities he created for his route I figured most people downloading the route would also run those activities and download the rolling stock so I felt safe using some of that stock I came up with a subset of that rolling stock for my template not all of it is required for the template Plus there were one or two Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 62 pieces of rolling stock that were not included that I felt would be important to a realistic representation of this route such as a loaded woodchip car o Note since I also have Activity Master and I don t want to create templates that require too many downloads I ll often use the bare minimum of rolling stock one or two of each type of car The end user can always use Activity Master to replace the base rolling stock in the template with his her favorites adding variet or to model a certain era For more information on the Activity Master utility please see the Activity Master page on our web site at www skylinecomputing com For this template though I did requi
81. lude the same Core Text in all names I create when in the MSTS Activity Editor For example here every path service player service consist etc had the text GNHLMain in their names Your Rights as a Licensed Activity Generator User As a licensed Activity Generator user you may freely distribute any and all activity templates you create using the Activity Generator program for free or for profit We only ask that the following credit be included in your distribution documentation Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 61 This is an Activity Generator template file You will need to have Steve Davis Activity Generator Activity Creation Utility for MSTS installed to use this template to create your own activities For more information on this utility for MSTS please visit www skylinecomputing com Adding a Template Guide for your users It can be very helpful to include documentation hints and advice to those who will use your template to generate activities This can be especially helpful for letting users know when it s ok to add cars to the initial consist some starting points may be in an engine shed etc where there is no room to add cars behind the engines To do this just use any word processor such as Wordpad included free with Windows or Microsoft Word Whichever editor you choose be sure and save the file as type rtf which stands for Rich Tex
82. matters what type of car is sitting in each spur in the act file so templates can be created by simply placing the same type of car perhaps a box car in every spur if desired Fields allow for multiple car types wanted or shipped hyphen delimited so a spur could accept say covered hoppers and or tank cars or any combination of cars and ship out the same or different cars Improved error checking handling Improved World Fill For pre AG4 templates checks the path name selected and 1f the name of a region appears in that path name that region will be filled with railcars in accordance with user s Fill World settings For AG4 or later templates the program now examines the regions checked for work and fills the starting region plus all regions reached between the starting region and the last region marked for work This functionality is enabled by the user by checking the Add cars to regions not worked check box which is now checked by default in V4 New track selection window in Activity Generation Screen Destination track s O O These tracks provide a destination where cars picked up at Industry tracks online shippers customers will be scheduled to be set out Also this new track type facilitates creation of Through Train activities with no switching enroute If the player elects to start with cars already in the train then selects ONLY destination tracks the activity generated will have no pic
83. n or an out and back run To set this up correctly just get out a map or look at the MSTS Activity Editor and visualize yourself running a train along your path Which regions would be reached by such a train in which order Simply add regions to the Regions Reached via this Path in Order box by using the Add button in the order they would be reached Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 55 Remove Removes the region currently selected in the Regions Reached via this Path box from that list Does not actually remove or delete the region itself Remove All Removes all of the regions currently displayed in the Regions Reached via this Path box basically clears the box Again this does not actually remove or delete any of the regions This is used to start from scratch if you would like Save Changes to this Path Clicking this will save the region order for this path and the Maximum Length of Train at Path Start value you entered if any into temporary storage for this path It does NOT write your changes to the disk file but it will prevent you from losing those changes when you use the Select Path to Edit box to select a different path to work on Regions Reached via this Path in Order This list indicates which regions can be reached as a player travels along the currently selected path in the order in which they will be reached You build this list using the Add
84. n except you can have railcars and engines in the simulation to pick up set out and generally interact with You can also use this feature for any activities not just those created by Activity Generator in case you get stuck behind a red signal Again though be mindful of opposing Al traffic Restore a route s signals to their original state Once you ve finished the activity in which you needed to pass one or more red signals or better yet once you ve passed the signal or signals you needed to pass it s best to use this function to restore the signals to their original state permissive signals remain permissive but Absolute signals go back to being Absolute so you can run other activities that may have complex Al traffic etc Simply save the activity exit restore the signals then re load and the signals will function normally Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 13 Set Location of ShapeView Program Ifyou have installed Paul Gausden s great freeware Shape View program available at www train sim com and http steam4me railpage org au trainsim index html among other sites use this button to tell Activity Generator where the ShapeView program was installed on your machine usually C Program Files Shape Viewer Just find the sview exe program and double click it or click it once and then click Open to tell Activity Generator where this program can be found on your compu
85. n WinZip You Il see a screen like the one below I m using WinZip Classic interface NOT the so called easy interface which 1s too difficult complicated for me to do this sort of work with File Actions Options Help Cae Go Favorites krack Wizard Modified Ratio Path Click the Add button to add files to that zip file You ll see a dialog box like this Add drop down sets where the files you will add will come from IC AG3 2 3 S16 PathRegion 4G3 Working Archive Fi wSadme SLG M 3 OriginalEXE 1 WRL3680 tmp 2 SLG62 3workingArchive TS ActivityGenerate 3 SL6 12 Archive Folder Up addcars txt SLG 2 working archive button Ea AG4Beta zip SLG Source BU File name BS Cancel Help Actor Password Add with wildcards Add and replace files Ede Compression Include subfolders Noma o Save extra folder info Attributes removable media ony Include only if archive attribute is set Reset archive attribute Store filenames in 8 3 format i Include systern and hidden files Now use the Add drop down or the Folder Up button to the folder where you have Train Simulator installed Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 59 You should see something like this ROUTE GEOGRAPHY CREATOR 7TRAIM ROUTES SAMPLES saves SOUND TEMPLATE Next in the File name box type an asterisk
86. o Kalispell No joy A This can happen if you are running a pre AG4 template and checked the Check here to allow Setouts to come from Yard Tracks in different regions than the Industry Track being serviced check box AND checked yard tracks in regions other than the region you started out in We recommend that unless you really know the route or you ll be running a Turn where you run out and back you select source tracks ONLY in the region where you ll be starting out Or start with all the cars already in your initial train by Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 28 setting the Maximum Cars to Add to Player Consist to a number equal or greater to your Maximum cars to pickup setout at all industry spurs setting QO What s in those files the program needs to read A The program reads in two CSV files One tells the program what all the spur names are what region each spur is in how many cars the spur should hold and what type of car the industry served by this spur receives and ships out The other csv file tells the program about all the cars in this activity where they are currently located and what their numbers such as 32887 0 types tank car covered hopper car box car etc and descriptions i e ORW 40 box car are In addition for AG4 and later templates there may be a ctp file that controls what types of cars can be placed on spurs calling for cars of
87. o allow you to add a caboose at the end of any train or for modern runs to add a Fred if available But you can place any car at the end of the train even a passenger car for mixed train operations Set Railcar Fill This will bring up a second screen that allows you to set how many additional railcars will be placed in the simulation to make it appear more realistic like a working busy railroad The more railcars that are placed though the greater impact you may see on your frame rates If you don t click this and make any adjustments the default will usually be ok However if you want more cars in your world or fewer maybe because of frame rate problems or because it s a little used branch line click this button to control how many or whether ANY railcars other than the ones you ll be picking up or setting out are added to the simulation and where they might be added Also this filling process can cause an error when starting MSTS Objects begin in collision which is prohibited especially when used with templates that haven t been tested certified for Activity Generator version 2 0 or later See yellow boxes below next page Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 21 Oo If you get an Objects The generated activity will always include railcars on spurs where pickups Begin in Collision error and or setouts are called for This screen allows you to set the amount of
88. onad Elevator 1 Type Cap 2 kades Conrad Blackfoot Conad Elevator 2 Type Cappy 4 Yaler Branch BM Branch Conrad Elevator 3 Type Capp 17 Conrad Ctalls Conrad Industry Type Capy 4 7 Chester Conrad North Industry Cattle Type Capy 9 eS Er Conkell Conrad Service Montana Western RA Type C Conrad Conad West Siding Type Capy 13 Cut Bank Remove All E Plains Ethridge Save Changes to this Path Ft Benton GF Mil Tracks in Region Shows tracks in each region and their capacities Save to dat File Informational only Exit Description of the Set Path Region Order controls Select Path to Edit Click the arrow to the right of the entry box to drop down a list of all the paths you have associated with your template When you click on any path the Regions reached via this path in order box far right light green will either be cleared if you are setting this for the first time or will display the regions that you ve told AG4 the player will reach in the order they are reached when running down that path You can click different paths here just to review or see what you ve set up for each one If you make changes to the Regions Reached either by adding or removing some and haven t clicked the Save Changes to this Path button you will see a warning asking if you want to change the path and save the changes change the path and discard the changes
89. onvert the signals to permissive and then load the saved activity and the signals will be changed One caveat sometimes if you are already looking at the red signal when you convert and reload the signal still won t be permissive You ll know it s been converted because the track monitor press F4 to see it will say STOP_AND_ PROCEED instead of STOP If that happens change direction throw the reverser and move slightly until you re looking at a different signal in the monitor Then when you reverse back to your original direction the signal will have changed This is because sometimes when saving activities MSTS will save the state of the signal as well This move causes MSTS to recalculate the signal state o Some Activity Creation Templates for Activity Generator may require you to use this function Why do we have this You may have found yourself unable to back up to pick up your train or get into or out of a Sour you need to switch because pressing tab to ask the dispatcher for permission to pass a red signal sometimes results in the dispatcher saying permission denied So you re stuck and can t complete the activity This feature coupled with the convert all the switches in a route to Manual feature will make nearly EVERY route Activity Generator Friendly and will allow users to explore routes and create and complete open ended and freeform activities as with the Explore a Route functio
90. op down arrow is clicked the previously loaded template files will be displayed and clicking on one will load it without further searching for the file The Generate Activity button will then be enabled ready to generate Incremental upgrade path for template authors Each of the new file types Cartype for Any or ctp Path Region Order file pro and the new format SWLTDB file with added Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 70 columns can be added alone to any template AG4 searches for these files individually it doesn t require that all of them be present So a template author could upgrade a template to enable multiple car types to be set out or picked up on certain industry spurs or the author could add a Path Region Order file to get the regions to appear in order etc and distribute an updated template with just those files AG4 is NOT an All or Nothing proposition Backward compatibility All AG3 and SLG2 templates anything that ran in AG3 will run equally well in AG4 and will have a few additional options and features such as the use of Destination Tracks Paths are no longer renamed with region codes in brackets 1 e Tulsa Claremore T S C These sometimes caused MSTS errors if there were too many regions in a path Credits Acknowledgements This program and manual were written by Steve Davis SteveDavis skylinecomputing com Many thanks to the hard working Bet
91. or Page 31 the limit of the track Activity Generator can t place any cars on a spur for the player to pick up unless at least one of these marker cars is placed on the spur b If you fill the spur with cars Activity Generator can use the number of cars placed on each spur to estimate how many cars will fit on the spur However with Activity Generator version 4 it s usually easier to place just one car on each spur Activity Generator can calculate the spur lengths for you Also you can adjust the calculated lengths later by manually editing the track csv file as described later to tell Activity Generator the maximum number of cars to place on that spur for pickup or allow for setout Note with some large routes filling all the spurs with a lot of cars can cause errors after you save the Activity file n MSTS Activity Editor and then try and reload it Important You don t have to place cars in ALL the spurs but you should try and get most of them if you ever want the player to have a pickup from a given spur If you don t place a car as a marker in a spur Activity Generator will be able to call for SETOUTS to but not PICKUPS from that spur Note that when the activity is generated Activity Generator may or may not actually place one or more cars on the spurs where you ve placed these markers when creating your template it will depend on whether work is being called for at that spur and how the end u
92. or stay with the same path This is just to prevent you from losing any work you ve done simply because you forgot to click the Save Changes to this Path button Note when updating older templates previous versions of Activity Generator indicate what regions were reached via each path but not the order in which they were reached by adding the region abbreviations to each path name Since in this example I was updating my existing GNHi Line template the Conrad Valier Turn shows up as Conrad Valier 4 VI was the RegNum for Conrad in that template and V was the RegNum for Valier You can ignore this Copy From This can be a real time saver For paths that will traverse many of the same regions and just have different starting points I first set up the Path Region Order for the very Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 54 longest path In the case of the GN Hi Line I set up the Path Region Order for Whitefish to Havre first for those familiar with the default Marias Pass route Havre isn t on that route it s even further east than Shelby the eastern most town on that route It took a while to add regions one at a time to the Regions Reached by This Path box But once I d done that and saved it it was easier to set up other shorter paths For instance I had a path that started at Conkelly and also could go all the way to Havre So I simply copied from the Whitefis
93. ou can ignore that this time you re about to create it Once you ve done either of these things the Create a Track CSV File button will be enabled Remember you need to complete Step 1 editing the activity act file before you attempt to create the Activity CSV file or the operation will fail Provided that the activity file was set up correctly you ll see a message box like the one below Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 39 Processing Complete Found 191 Railcars in 40 consists Wrote output to C SWLACTCanton Start Canton csv Step 3 Edit the Activity CSV File You don t absolutely have to edit this CSV file The purpose of editing this file is to ensure that the cars are assigned the correct type codes such as Hopper Box car etc to help Activity Generator build more realistic work orders You may want to fine tune the type codes Activity Generator assigned to the cars you used For example there is a visual difference between a loaded coal car and an empty one Activity Generator will by default assign the type CL Coal to any cars with coal in their names But you might want to improve on this by perhaps leaving the loaded coal cars as CL but renaming the empty coal cars to CLMT or CLX If you re the impatient type you can take the chance that the Activity Generator made good guesses as to what type of car each car found was The
94. p Yard whitefish whitefish Siding 6 SETOUT 32773 0 TANK UTLX 23500_mt TMT FROM Kalispell Carter 0il whitefish whitefish Siding 6 SETOUT 32773 1 TANK UTLX 23500_mt TMT FROM Kalispell Carter 0il whitefish whitefish siding 6 SETOUT 32779 0 NP_40ft_9162 BX FROM Kalispell Equity Eleva whitefish whitefish siding 6 SETOUT 32780 0 NP_40ft_9162 BX FROM Kalispell Frei bre Shed whitefish whitefish siding 6 SETOUT 32782 g gn_reefer_60272 RFR FROM Kalispell Flathead che whitefish whitefish siding 6 SETOUT 32788 0 Hopper_GN_71330 CMT FROM Kalispell Cement whitefish whitefish Siding 6 SETOUT 32790 O 5P5_40ft_11394 BX FROM Erickson Bras whitefish whitefish Siding 6 SETOUT 32790 1 GN_5Oft_43778 BX FROM Erickson Bras whitefish whitefish Siding 6 SETOUT 32790 2 NP_5Oft_30603 BX FROM Erickson Bras whitefish whitefish Siding 6 SETOUT 32938 O 5P5_40ft_12909 BX FROM LaSalle Siding whitefish whitefish siding 6 SETOUT 32938 1 qn6367 BX FROM LaSalle Siding whitefish whitefish Siding 6 SETOUT 32938 2 GN_5O0ft_35707 BX FROM LaSalle Siding whitefish whitefish Siding 6 SETOUT 32938 3 NP_40ft_9162 BX FROM LaSalle Siding whitefish whitefish Siding 6 SETOUT 32938 4 cBQ_40ft_61180 BX FROM LaSalle Siding Kalispell Associated Seed Growers SETOUT 23 gn6367 BX FROM Initial Train Kalispell Associated Seed Growers SETOUT O 24 CBQ_40ft_6077 BX FROM Initial Train Kalispell C and Plywood PICKUP 3277 0 cBO_40ft_32046 BX DEST whitefish Siding 6 Kalispell c and c Plywood PICK
95. plate csv file The other starts with SWLTDB which stands for Activity Generator Track Database file Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 65 e I exited Activity Generator and opened the track csv file that the program created using Microsoft Excel e took a look at the car capacity that Activity Master assigned to each spur and adjusted it as necessary See Editing the Track CSV File e Although Activity Generator no longer restricts the player to sourcing setouts from cars designated as Yard tracks there IS some value to designating tracks as Yard tracks code Y Yard tracks are always listed first in the select source tracks or select tracks to work list boxes within each region This helps guide users as to which tracks in a region are appropriate to use as yard tracks for instance a spur servicing an Oil Transloader probably wouldn t be it would only ship out tank cars So I assigned some tacks as yard tracks at the point in each region where each of the player paths would start to make it easier for the player to identify which tracks to use as source tracks when beginning the run This is done simply by entering the letter Y into the track type column in place of the letter I This is entirely optional though you need not define any tracks as Yard tracks for players to be able to generate activities from you
96. ppear in the order in which they are reached along the selected path On the following page is an example of a portion of the printed switch list from an activity created using the GN Hi Line template for Michael Stephan s GN Hi Line route Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 23 Activity created by Activity Generator Version 3 9 0 REGION TRACK NAME WORK CONSIST CAR CA4AR DESCRIPTION TYPE NOTES INSTRUCTIONS whitefish whitefish Siding 6 SETOUT 32768 O PRLP_logf lat LGMT FROM Halfmoon Lumber In whitefish whitefish Siding 6 SETOUT 32768 1 PRLP_logf lat LGMT FROM Halfmoon Lumber In whitefish whitefish siding 6 SETOUT 32768 2 PRLP_logf lat LGMT FROM Halfmoon Lumber In whitefish whitefish Siding 6 SETOUT 32769 0 D amp sLF lat2055 amp L FROM Halfmoon Lumber Out whitefish whitefish siding 6 SETOUT 32769 1 D amp SLF latz2057 amp L FROM Halfmoon Lumber Out whitefish whitefish siding 6 SETOUT 32771 0 NP_5O0Tt_30603 BX FROM Rocky Mtn Lumber whitefish whitefish Siding 6 SETOUT 32772 0 cBQ_40ft_32046 BX FROM C and C Plywood whitefish whitefish Siding 6 SETOUT 32774 1 NP_50ft_30603 BX FROM C and C Plywood whitefish whitefish siding 6 SETOUT 32772 2 SP5_40ft_11394 BX FROM C and C Plywood whitefish whitefish siding 6 SETOUT 32777 40 GN_Go40_scrap SCP FROM Kalispell Scrap Yard whitefish whitefish siding 6 SETOUT 32777 1 GN_Go40_scrap SCP FROM Kalispell Scra
97. program to ensure that users don t start with trains that can t fit at each path s start point This is stored in the Path Region Order file for each path For templates that have a Path Region Order file the warning about starting with cars in a player train in AG will go away but the maximum number will be limited to the maximum set here by the template author Since trains build from the rear in most cases the max can likely be 99 but in some cases there won t be this much room This will enable users to SAFELY start with a train already built up to a length determined by the template author A new file type ctp CarTyPe also with the same name as the template itself and a new input screen enables template designers to narrow down which types of cars will be placed on any spurs that call for cars of type A or Any So if there are some special cars in the template perhaps a Burro Crane passenger cars in a coach yard etc these types of cars can be precluded from showing up in yards and other places except where they were specifically placed or called for Template authors can now set the typical car length in meters for siding length calculations but still provide 28 M default too The program now stores the last 20 template files that the user has opened in the slg ini file Once at least one file has been successfully opened a new drop down box appears at the top of the main screen If the dr
98. r template If you don t though the player may have difficulty figuring out where to get the initial pickups from e Since I mostly just placed box cars in the act file to save effort most of the spurs had their CarTypeWanted set to type BX So I edited the CARTYPEWANTED and CARTY PESHIPPED columns to reflect the cars that needed to be delivered to or shipped out of each spur if it wasn t a box car I also made sure to differentiate loads vs empties where appropriate So if the CARTYPEWANTED was going to be an empty lumber car LMT then Id set the CARTY PESHIPPED to a loaded lumber car L as appropriate to the industry in this case a lumber mill e For yard tracks it s important to set the capacity but the type CARTYPEWANTED is not important You can use the A type for any or if it s a log for coal cars lumber cars etc you might use that type so when the tracks are used by the player as Industry rather than Yard tracks those types of cars will be sitting there When tracks are used as Source tracks the program will automatically place cars on those tracks as needed to be set out at the industries to be serviced e Hint When I created the GNHLMainWBTemplate I adjusted the region starting points to reflect the east most point in each region rather than the west most point as I d done for the EB template If I hadn t done this I would have ended up with a player train
99. r settings starting with the text SLG For example if the original activity name was Kalispell Switcher then the name of the generated activity will be SLG Kalispell Switcher The original activity file will NOT be changed in any way To run the generated activity start MSTS and open the activity starting with SLG Press Cancel if you don t wish to generate a new activity at this time View Activity Info File This button is not always visible it only appears if the template author included a special readme or documentation file Change Engines Allows you to select the player locomotive consist and add a caboose at the end of the generated train Set Railcar Fill This will bring up a second screen that allows you to set how many additional railcars will be placed in the simulation to make it appear more realistic like a working busy railroad The more railcars that are placed though the greater impact you may see on your Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 18 frame rates If you don t click this and make any adjustments the default will usually be ok However if you want more cars in your world or fewer maybe because of frame rate problems or because it s a little used branch line click this box to control how many or whether ANY railcars other than the ones you ll be picking up or setting out are added to the simulation and where they might be added Save Settings Saves all t
100. rTypeWanted to CRATE or a flat car with crates containing parts on it For the BM Ore In track ore empties type OREMT are shipped out so we called for loaded ore cars ORE to be Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 50 delivered These are the smaller hopper cars often used during the era modeled on the GN HiLine route to haul ore also known as Ortner cars CarTypeShipped When we created the activity act file using the MSTS Activity Editor we went to the trouble of placing appropriate car types on each spur So the CarTypeShipped column was already correct in this case However if a generic marker car such as a box car were placed on the spur instead then you d need to also update this to indicate the car type shipped by each spur Also if more than one car type will be shipped out of this spur you d want to update this to reflect the multiple types that might be shipped TrkType I didn t edit this yet I need to The Stockyard is not really a Yard track it should probably be type I for Industry The Blackfoot Yard tracks 1 2 and 3 are correctly identified as Yard tracks Since the user can select any cars as Source tracks via the Generate Activity screen this isn t all that important but it can be helpful in pointing the user to a suggested track to use as a source track track from which cars will be picked up to be set out later at Industry Wo
101. ration screen and on the printed work orders To take the Marias example you might name the region near Whitefish including the entire yard Whitefish the town of Columbia Falls and it s yard Columbia Falls the yard in Kalispell and all the spurs up and down the branch Kalispell etc You can have as many or as few regions as you like There should be a region for every path start point So if one of your possible player paths will start in Kalispell there should be a Kalispell region For more on creating multiple player paths see Multiple Paths For regions where paths will start it is best to keep the regions small consisting only or primarily of yard tracks where trains will be built from As a guide to the user as to which tracks to use as Source Tracks when starting in a given region it helps to have at least one track designated as a yard track TrkType set to Y in each region It isn t required though Hint when placing tracks in to regions it can be helpful to sort this list alphabetically by track name first then go through the route in the route editor from one end to the other finding each spur in the list and assigning it to a region as you go That s the way I do it when creating my templates Also I ll either delete tracks that will never be worked or assign them to Region 1 and don t include Region 1 in the regions that can be worked for any of the paths RegNum t
102. re quite a few downloads To make this easier on those who might want to use this template I zipped up a rolling stock file making sure first that all the rolling stock I zipped was either freeware allowing unlimited distribution or that I got the creator s permission to redistribute it Since these templates are all free most designers of rolling stock are ready to give permission to redistribute it I ve run into a few who don t like it and I always honor their wishes e created a new activity in the Activity Editor named GNHLMainEBTemplate act e right clicked on most of the spurs that a player could reach and used Place Consist I created a single car consist with only one box car in it which I named 1 x box I put that single car consist on nearly every spur and yard track but NOT passing sidings to use as a marker for AG to use when placing cars On a couple of long yard tracks in Whitefish Yard I created long consists with every piece of rolling stock I would need to be available in the template For example I placed about 10 different box cars on a single track The important thing here is to make sure that at least one of every possible type of car that a player might need to set out at an industry track or pick up from an industry track was placed somewhere in the world either on a yard track or an industry track When placing the consists I was careful to observe the facing of the consist
103. really no way this could impact your system or MSTS The program reads some MSTS files and doesn t modify any of them The only files it creates are CSV files for reading and printing which aren t special and can be read by any text editor such as Notepad or Wordpad and it creates a new activity act file and sometimes a new service srv and consist con file Those filenames will start with the text SLG if you stick with the default naming suggested by the program when saving We ve had no reports of problems with MSTS caused by this program although quite a few copies of our program have been sold Q I don t trust you What can I do if this program DOES cause a problem with MSTS or if after generating a new activity file now my MSTS or the route will no longer open Or I get the dreaded Send Don t Send to Microsoft message or my brother gets mad at me for messing with his computer A If for any reason you suspect MSTS problems or have problems loading MSTS after you ve means any text can go here it will be the name of the original activity file you used to generate this activity from unless you saved using a new name Also you may need to delete an SLG srv file if any in the route s SERVICES folder and one or more consist files SLG con in your TRAINS CONSISTS folder Your MSTS setup and files will then be exactly as they were before you generated the activity If you wish to get
104. resent a less confusing and cluttered experience You can tell Activity Generator which regions will be accessible for each possible path the player might select when generating an activity using the Activity Template you created and the order in which the regions will be reached Doing this is easier to use than you might think Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 51 Click the Set Regions worked and order reached for paths button w Create and Modify Activity Templates Sel The buttons below will create the files you need to design your own Actyity Generator templates from actrvity files Two new comma delimited files will be saved to your Activites folder NO MSTS FILES WILL BE MODIFIED by this procedure you need to create or load a Car CS file before you can create a Track CSW file Please see the accompanying POF documentation for complete instructions Create an Activity CSV File from an act File mw Calculate Siding Capacities Average railcar length meters 28 Set Car Types Ok to use as Any in a Template Set Regions worked and onder reached for paths Exit This button brings up a screen that allows you to select which of the car types defined in your template can be placed where car type A Any is called for Click this button to bring up the screen used to set which regions a player can reach along each possible route you ve given
105. rid of all the activity service and consist files that this program generated simply delete every file in the route s ACTIVITIES and SERVICES folders starting in SLG and ending in act or srv and delete every file in TRAINS CONSISTS beginning with SLG To get rid of EVERY file that this program has ever created delete everything ending with csv and all files starting with WORKORDER QO How do I uninstall this program A Easy Just go to your Windows Control Panel Add Remove Programs find Activity Generator click it and select Remove The program and all references to it will be completely removed Q I have an activity I really like and would like to use this program to create new switch lists for that activity so I can run it again and again with different work orders weather etc How can I set up this activity to use with the Activity Generator program A You ll have to create an Activity Generator Template from that activity or you can create these from scratch of course Read the section in this manual entitled Creating and Modifying Activities to Work with Activity Generator QO Why are there sometimes separate templates for Westbound vs Eastbound activities such as with the Marias Pass USA2 route Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 27 A Not all routes will need this In the case of the default Marias route and many others many
106. rk tracks and also these always appear at the top of the workorders and track selection lists within their given regions Step 5 Setting the Order in which each Region is reached for each Path in the Template If you ve designed an activity that gives the player a choice of multiple paths and or starting points and the route you re working with has some switches that can t be manually operated as is the case with the majority of routes or signals that the player will need to navigate through and you don t want to require the player to use the Convert all Switches to Manual or Convert all Signals to Permissive because you d like to have some AI traffic or simply want a more prototypical experience you will want to use this function This way you can prevent the users from getting into trouble and generating activities that call for pickups and setouts on spurs they can t reach because the path doesn t go there It also makes the work orders on screen and printed easier to understand because all the regions will appear on the workorder and Generate Activity screen in the order in which they are reached For all but unsignaled routes with all manual switches doing this is HIGHLY recommended And for templates I ve written for unsignaled routes such as the Frisco Ft Smith and A amp O Sub I have also used regions just to help the player make intelligent decisions about the spurs to work and basically p
107. rs would be grouped together For example all the lumber beam cars were coded by default as type L I coded the empty cars as LMT and left the loads coded as type L Now Activity Generator will know the difference between a load and an empty and not place an empty where a load needs to go I did the same for other car types for which this was important e Now that I had a good Activity CSV file I ran the Activity Generator again and used Choose Activity CSV File to load the file I d just edited I got a good load message for the activity CSV file followed by an error message stating that the associated Track csv file could not be found Of course it couldn t be found we re now about to create it so disregard this error message in this case After loading the Activity CSV I clicked Create CSV Files for Activities and then clicked Create a Track CSV File from a Route s tdb File e I found GN_Hi Line tdb in the ROUTES GN_Hi Line folder the Track Database file and selected it to open There will always be just one tdb file in each route folder I checked the automatically calculate siding lengths box gt The two comma separated value csv files the program creates and uses to generate activities are prefixed with two somewhat cryptic looking acronyms One file name always begins with SWLACT This is an acronym for Activity Generator Activity Tem
108. s associated with them The settings you made that relate to the paths you already had will still be there Exit This allows you to exit the Set Path Region Order screen without saving any of the changes you made since you last pressed the Save to pro File button You will be warned if you press this that changes will be lost and given another chance to save the changes exit without saving or return to editing Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 56 Step 6 Set the Car Types that can be used when Any Car Type is called for w Set Car Types to use as Any for Templ Eg Check the box nest to the car types You want to inclide when your template calls for placement of a car of Ary Check All ee pics Uncheck All When you press the Set Car Types to be used as Any in a Template button from the Create and Modify Activity Templates screen you ll see a screen such as the one above This is a completely OPTIONAL step you do not have to use this screen to create a working template This is used only 1f there are some car types that are highly specialized which you placed in your template but which you DON T want AG to place in the world as scenery or have in yard tracks or the initial player train One example would be specialized cars for a steel mill such as hot metal cars You might want to place these in the steel mill and call for them to be picked up
109. s for each spur that has a car on it or add a number of cars on different spurs to the same Action Event it accomplishes the same thing Then save the activity If you were working on an activity you d like to keep Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 36 save this version of the activity with a different name preferably one that indicates that this was designed to be used as a seed or template for the Activity Generator such as Template Multiple Paths optional If you wish to provide multiple choices of starting points or paths for your users here s how to do it Edit the Player Service Under Path click the New button When using multiple paths each path name INCLUDING the default path you save with the activity MUST start with the activity name then be followed by a description that the player will understand you can keep the original path unaltered but just with a different name by clicking the Use as Template button instead of the New button This naming convention enables the Activity Generator to locate all the paths that have been set up to work with this activity Example If the activity name is Marias Kalispell then each path name you create should be prefixed with that EXACT TEXT it s best to use cut and paste to do this In the Activity Editor highlight the text you want to copy by clicking your left mouse button and hold
110. s type Any for each template I used the Set Car Types to use as Any function to accomplish this e Next I created some activities and ran them to make sure they could be completed successfully and that I didn t run head on into any AI traffic or face red signals that wouldn t change Just like designing any other activity in that regard Of course the player COULD use the convert all switches to manual or convert all signals to permissive features to get around this As a template designer you should point out the need for the player to do this in your readme or docs e Shortcut for creating multiple templates for the same route You may find yourself making two or more activity templates for the same route perhaps an eastbound and a westbound version as I did with Marias Pass so the work can progress in a linear path that the player can follow If you re like me you really don t enjoy going in and assigning all those Pick Up Events or placing cars in spurs twice If so you can create ONE master template FIRST which has pickups and setouts for every spur that can be reached when traveling either eastbound OR westbound Then open the CSV file that the program creates and delete all spurs from the template that will become your eastbound template that a player running eastbound couldn t reach OR set the TrkType to track type X meaning place railcars there for scenic purposes
111. ser of your template has set the fill world settings when generating the activity as described in Set Railcar Fill IMPORTANT Note on placing cars on spurs To place cars on spurs as markers you open the MSTS Activity Editor find the spur you want to place one or more cars on Hold down the right mouse button and move your mouse towards you or away from you to zoom in and out on the track diagram to better locate and isolate the spurs When you ve found the spur on which you d like to place one or more cars right click on that spur From the pop up menu that comes up choose Place Consist You can then place any consist you want on the track I usually create a single car consist to use to place as a marker and name it just 1 so it always comes up first in the list of consists to choose from You can change the type of cars actually placed on the track after placing the consists by right clicking on the car and selecting Properties from the pop up menu Now you can change the type of car and the number of cars on that spur You can also use change direction to flip the car you placed to facing the other way With AG4 it isn t necessary to change the car types except SOMEWHERE in your template you need to place an example of at least one of each type of car that any of your industries will ship out or receive More on this in the section on editing the activity csv file Important When placin
112. ssssssseeeersssssssseeresssssssseeeees 54 I PEI E E IEAI E E EE NE I E A EE E E A E E TET 54 K O ea eee ech gee a ree cee 55 R eA ee a E E ecu 55 Save Canes tohi SPa iee a a atouers taetas arcu eanecaaceeer Tee 55 Regions Reached via this Path in Ordefennesnirececira e 55 SVE 0 I Taio FIO D O ieena a a a a ee 53 j ED E ER EEA E E E E E E A E E A AE E AE A ae 55 Step 6 Set the Car Types that can be used when Any Car Type is called for 56 Step 7 Distribute the Templates you CTE sormieni N 57 Using WinZip to Package your Temp ates srcsiisinciiseiiiaia aa a 57 Your Rights as a Licensed Activity Generator User eessessssoeeesssssssseerersssssssseerressssssees 60 Adding a Template Guide for your Useisiin vaca eeacients 6l Activity Template Creation Tutorial Process and Insights ccccccccccccssseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 61 Template Desie nt Se Bir ES ieee ner eta ene E On eee 66 Designing Templates for Routes with Signals and Dispatcher Controlled Switches 67 ING WOE Verson eenn E E T 68 Credits NCKMOW ICG Semel Sit iarsdaahorieabnlas ah deviates ad whundetitade aaah tovia tater atidentae sna esata ee ate 70 Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 4 About this Manual This manual is an Electronic Document What that means is while you can print it out to read or refer to it it works better when viewed on a computer screen using Adobe Acrobat That
113. starting at the west end of each region and heading westbound from there meaning they would be unable to work the region they started in Also we d have yard tracks at the ends of regions rather than the beginning which would be very confusing to the player since the yard tracks are listed first in the listing of spurs to work in each region Doing this wasn t as hard as it sounds All that had to be changed was which spur had the letter Y for track type and the region names and numbers for some of the tracks In a future version we will add a function to allow the template designers to set which region each path starts in Then the yard tracks in that region will be selected by default as source tracks when the path is selected In the meantime users need to figure out which region each path starts in by the name of the path or from reading the supplied documentation Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 66 e Next for each template EB and WB I set the Path Region Order using the Set Path Region Order screen to control which regions the player would reach and in what order while traversing each path e then set up which car types could be used as Any car types so that some passenger coaches and MOW rolling stock such as burro cranes etc wouldn t be added to player trains or placed in yards gratuitously J excluded those from cars that I allowed AG to use a
114. t Format This is a standard text format that supports multiple fonts bold and italics and basic word processing functions Save the file with the same name as the activity template file except the extension last three letters must be rtf For example for the template NEC_CSXNB act I created a file named NEC_CSXNB rtf Save this file into the route s ACTIVITIES folder Doing this will not only cause AG to enable the View Activity Info File button but using this naming convention and saving in the ACTIVITIES folder will ensure that the zip file you create if you created a zip file as described in Using WinZip to Distribute your Templates will include this file and place it in the correct place when the user unzips it When an rtf file with the same name as the template act file is present in the route s ACTIVITIES folder a button will appear on the user s Customize Your Activity screen entitled View Activity Info File Go to the section on Customize Your Activity to see what this button looks like when it displays When the user clicks on this button your rtf file will be displayed Activity Template Creation Tutorial Process and Insights Here are the steps I took to create the GN HiLine Template Great Northern over Marias Pass in the 1950 s by Michael Stephan for Activity Generator e took a look at the types of sidings in the route and determined whether the rol
115. t Siding Region 1 1 6 Bx 165 664 Bx 1577 1562 Big Sandy North Elevator Region 1 L 2 BX 56 003 BX 1553 1560 Big Sandy South Elevator Region 1 1 2 BX 68 479 BX 1581 1584 Big Sandy Stockyard Region 1 L 2 STOCK 62 156 STOCK 1585 1572 Box Elder Freight Region 1 1 3 BX 101 2019 BX 1573 1564 Box Elder North Elevator Region 1 1 2 BX 67 5 61 BX 1565 1568 Box Elder South Elevator Region 1 2 BA 68 064 Bx 1569 1566 Box Elder Stockyard Region 1 1 1 STOCK 4 94 STOCK 1567 1560 Laredo Elevator Region 1 d 3 BXx 95 1386 Bx 1561 To see how this file looks after editing please see Track SWLTDB CSV File After Editing The program made some judgments as to what type of car each spur will accept based on the type of car placed in the spur when the MSTS activity file was created in step 1 It also determined how many cars will fit in each siding based on the distance between the siding markers set by the route designer Some editing here can make a big difference in the quality of the work orders that the Activity Generator creates If you just placed the same type of car in each spur say a box car then you will DEFINITELY want to edit this file to tell Activity Generator AG what type of car to ship to that spur and what type of car ships out that spur The columns you edit in this file are the RegName RegNum CarCap CARTYPEWANTED TrkType anc CARTYPESHIPPED columns Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simul
116. t cars Maximum cars to set out at any single Industry siding 0 99 5 Weather fe Clear f Ran f Snow C west C Walton select route path Conkelley Havre 24 C5E G9GFHJFRSH O alton ard 1 ard Holds 26 Cars m Check here to generate an activity with MO Al traffic will have no Walton tard 2 ard Holds 20 Cars effect if the orginal activity template doesn t have Al traffic Q Walton ard 3 Yard Holds 18 Cars Activity Ending Q Walton ard 4 ard Holds 14 Cars LastPickup Setout Reach 20MPH Assemble Train Bee eee Q alton MOW Track Industry Holds 5 C Maxinum cars in Starting Player Train m Max for path am eee acier C Blackfoot Allow pickups from source tracks in one region to be set out in that Optional Check any track or tracks to use as the final SMe region destination for your train where pickups will be set out Force all Industry tracks selected for pickup to pickup all cars on C Conkelly track subject to user limits above oO West Check here to open your Workorder with Notepad when Switch E walon List Generation is complete Cy Summit Check here to generate a diagnostic report while generating the M Glacier Ackivity Total car capacity of selected destination tracks eu genes Generate View Acchvity Change Load Saved aa Iie He Enare Set Railcar Fill Save Settings Sein Cancel Help Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simu
117. t een ease tee te cece a heaton eee 34 4 Assign the Pick up Cars Event to each consist placed cceeeccesccccecceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeenaas 35 D5 M l pie Paths OpuOnal esse a E A D a deelnemnee 36 Step 2 Create the Activity COV FIG 36 Step gt Edt DCAC CSV Fie eea a E 39 Editino the Carr ype MoOrnmmaON aiena Piven eee lee eee AE eet 40 Poso DISC ae TY DO aE tote eetio ume tetolmeatsnaud a treet eme beta 40 Loads and Empties and more specific car typing ccccccccccccceesseeseeceeceeeeaaeeeseeeeeees 40 Blink UID scm the Activi CSV H Enaeeaa N 4 Saving the CSV Tlenia ctseevauetan tie tentraionseh ec uicanialeduanees 4 step Create amp Edit the Track CSV Pile secies aaa a E 43 ditimevthe rack CSV Fe eran a A E casa ae 44 Track SWLTDB CSV File Before Editing nsoessseoeeesssssssseeerrssssssssereressssssseerresssss 44 RESIN iM irea E a EEEa 45 ROON ia sealer a a near eae ec ae naan nace 45 E 0 ere eerie ter Pree mee tee ner Oot eter en Waren een ree nu Or ee ideeT eer aren ae re mr nena ver een oe nt 46 Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 3 CLIPES ai 0 0 26 Deter teen E ee erence ten Mer aemnTe eatin nt Mmemeren arnt wae 47 AGT DESNO om eee ae Rn ee ee Ree OR EES es ESET OC REED oe noes RE 47 Tik Lees il aemererrere emer re er or rer treet a eterna 47 a Baja IAT ae tierce A de Meme ran A E tm seed me Manone tr eT ES A ENT E tn coe Tera 47 Savne he Trick CSV asset aes AE a pawns pene
118. t route Visit the Templates page at www skylinecomputing com to see if there is a template there for the route you want Select that file by double clicking it or clicking on it once and then clicking the Open button You ll see a couple of message boxes telling you how many cars were located and how many tracks etc just click OK on both This simply confirms that you had a good file read As you might infer from the name SWLACTMPI1_WestboundTemplate csv is set up to enable you to generate Westbound freight activities SWL means Switchlist all the csv template Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 12 files start with that ACT means Activity there s also a TRK or Track csv file for every activity creation template Other functions available from the main screen Convert all the switches in a route to Manual This function works with any route whether it s an Activity Generator template or not If you find yourself unable to throw a switch that you need to throw usually this means the switch is a dispatcher controlled or Al switch rather than a manual switch you can click this button to convert all the switches in a given route you choose the route to manual user operable mode Note that the visual appearance of the switches will NOT be changed you may have noticed switch stands or levers next to all your manual switches Pressing this
119. te then when you select the Marias route from the MSTS Drive a Train screen yov ll see the original activity template don t use that one PLUS a new activity called SLG Westbound Template or the new name you selected when you saved the file AU the activities created by the Activity Generator will default to start with the letters SLG unless you manually select a different name when saving Simply select the activity and run it Distributing Activities you Generate Asa licensed Activity Generator user you may freely distribute any and all activities you create using the Activity Generator program for free or for profit We only ask that the following credit be included in your distribution documentation All or part of this activity was created using Steve Davis Activity Generator Activity Creation Utility for MSTS For more information on this tool please visit www skylinecomputing com Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 24 To package your activities for distribution you can simply use the Activity Packager utility that comes with Microsoft s Activity Editor tool When doing this be sure and open the activity you GENERATED NOT the template activity you started from For example if you generated an activity called SLG MP1_Columbia Falls to Kalispell don t open the MP1 KAL CF_WF_Template act file and package that Rather open
120. te a new activity using that new name Renaming enables you to create multiple activities from the same activity template without over writing the original one Problem with packaging some activities We have found that when attempting to package activities using Microsoft s Activity Editor tool the apk files created by the Activity Package function in the Activity Editor for certain routes are not usable This isn t a Activity Generator bug or issue the problem occurs even when Microsoft s tools are used to create and package the activity One route we ve seen this problem with is 3DTS s Cajon Pass route Activities for routes like this whether created by Microsoft s Activity Editor tool OR the Activity Generator can still be distributed However doing this requires finding all the files used in the activity and zipping them into a single zip file for installation on the end user s drive The process is no different for Activity Generator created activities Just make sure you zip up all the needed files If you have RouteRiter it will do this for you under Activities Stock Zipping is preferred because some end users are unable to get the Microsoft Activity Unpackager to work correctly For more information on how to use WinZip to package and distribute activities and templates you might create see Using WinZip to Package Your Templates Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train S
121. template to Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 48 generate good activities With the regions appearing in order in selection screens and work orders any Yard tracks will appear at the beginning of track lists with the region with other Industry tracks being listed in alphabetical order Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 49 Saving the Track CSV File Once you ve made your edits to this file save it as a csv file as described in Saving CSV Files in step 3 above Below is an example of what the edited CSV file should look like now sorted by RegName Track SWLTDB CSV File After Editing CARTYPE CARTYPE Track Track Name Reg ame Reg um CarCa WANTED TrkLength TrkType SHIPPED AltTrk 1566 Box Elder Stockyard Big Sandy B 1 STKMT 64 94 7 STOCK 1567 1560 Laredo Elevator Big Sandy B 3 BX 95 1386 1 BX 1561 009 Blackfoot Coal Blackfoot 2 4 HP 118 5913 HPMT 010 011 Blackfoot Elevator Blackfoot 2 17 BX 500 0064 Bx 012 305 Blackfoot Shops 1 Blackfoot 2 T CRATE 213 0233 FMT aG r96 Blackfoot Yard 1 Blackfoot 2 564 1582 324 Y A 795 793 Blackfoot Yard 2 Blackfoot 2 20 BX 001 191 Y BX r94 791 Blackfoot Yard 3 Blackfoot 2 20 HP 195 1814 HPMT 192 3695 BM Aux 1 BM Branch 3 5 GMT 147 2305 A 3694 3692 BM Aux 2 BM Branch 3 4 Bx 113 3347 BX 3693 36096 BM Bulk Loading 2 BM Branch 3 3 CMT 09 5908 CMT 3689 3680 BM Coke In BM Branch 3 4 CMT 118 77941 CMT 3681 3682 BM
122. ter Create and Modify Activity Creation Templates If you haven t been able to find an Activity Creation Template to generate activities for a route you re interested in you can create your own This is a bit more complex than simply generating activities though See PART TWO Creating your own Activity Generator Templates to learn how to create your own templates Once you ve selected an Activity Template either by the method shown here or by using the drop down box at the top of the screen to select a template you ve opened before you ll be back to the main screen of Figure l except the Generate Activity choice will no longer be grayed out Go ahead and click on it and you ll get the Customize Activity Screen on the next page Customize Activity Screen w Customize Your Activity New Style Template Regions appear in order for each path Maximum Total Cars to Handle 25 Optional Choose your SOURCE TRACKS below ae These are the regions and tracks that cars to be set Maximum cars to pick up at any single Industry siding 1 99 5 out will come from C Conkelly a l C west Actrvity start hour use 24 hour time 1pm 13 Belton Siding 1 Industry Holds 9 Cars W Check here for sequential pickups setouts less randomization J Belton Siding 2 Industry Holds 4 Cars Season J i f Spring f Summer C Fall C Winker Work Tracks Check the Regions or Spurs you d like to work pickup or setou
123. that needs to be set out later on the Source tracks you select So for maximum realism you probably should not select industry specific sours such as a coal mine or oil loader as Source tracks Just more generic team tracks yard tracks etc Note the source tracks you select will not be used if you set the Maximum cars to add to player consist above to a number high enough that all cars to be set out can come from the initial train Work Tracks Check the regions or spurs you d like to work pick up and set out Cars This box works the same as Choose your Source Tracks above except Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 17 this is where you choose which industry tracks you ll work For through freights don t check any spurs in this list box These will be the tracks where you ll make pickups and or setouts Any cars to be set out will either come from the Source Tracks you selected in the box above or from your initial train Click on the symbol to the left of a region name to expand that list and show all the spurs in that region click the symbol to collapse the list so your screen isn t as cluttered Click the box to the left of a Region Name to select it all the spurs in that region for possible pickups or setouts OR check the boxes next to individual spurs if desired See Figure 6 Using the Track Selection Boxes You can check as many spurs as you d like Checkin
124. them to choose from Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 52 The Path Region Order Dialog new for AG4 As the instruction below says first select a path using this drop down box You will set which regions are reached in what order for that w Editing existing file C Program Files Microsoft Games Train Simulator ROUTES GN_Hi Line At Use the Select Path drop down to select a player path in your template The lett hard list bow lists all of the regions available in your template Select a region by clicking in the lett bos and use the Add button to add that region to the Region Order list on the right in the order in which a train would reach each region when moving along the path A region can be listed twice if it wall be visited more than once as with a Turn job IF some of our paths visit many of the same regions in the same order you can use Copy From to save time Seed Hatt ta fart lt select a path from the list below gt F Looe fone AMfaaxgmum f engih af Player 7 rain at Path Stari 0 33 cars AA Aiegians if HS ffreacks IR TOOR and car Aegan ennai capaci of each for reference Mes path i order Chale If you will copy Chester oneal this from another Conrad path select the Cut Bank E Plains path to copy from Ethridge En using this box GF Milw GF Shope GF ard Glacier i
125. ther activity can be generated using all the same settings This could be useful if you generated an activity but don t like the work order you got the length of the train the amount of fill etc and would like to generate the same activity again It will also be helpful for template designers testing their templates Once the settings were loaded users can make changes before pressing the Generate button or generate with exactly the same settings Anew Path Region Order pro file has been created to be associated with each template file Template designers have a new screen that creates this file which controls for each path the order in which each region is reached Regions can be entered twice into the list if they are reached twice as with a turn By using this new list the program can check to be sure that cars picked up on a given source or industry track will only be scheduled for setout at an industry or destination track reached later in the run Also workorders will print and appear on the F11 screen in the order that in which the regions will be reached along the selected path more user friendly for those running activities generated from templates especially if a map isn t handy It can also be useful for users who like to block their trains at the start based on the order in which the work will be done Template designers can set a max cars in initial player train for each path This will help the
126. tivities for a route for which templates aren t yet available This is the place to start The good news is that Activity Generator comes with utilities to create the CSV files and other support files you need to do this The bad news is for best results you ll need to do some editing of these CSV files and some use of Microsoft s Activity Editor is required If you learn better by a live demonstration we have a series of free Video Tutorials that show how to create Activity Generator Activity Creation Templates on the Video Tutorials page at www skylinecomputing com Step 1 Create the Activity Creation Template act File using the Activity Editor Activity Generator needs to read an MSTS activity file act file to generate two csv files which in turn provide the information needed for the program to generate activities You could use an existing activity as the template However for all of the sidings to be eligible to be called on by the user for pickups there must be at least one car on each siding and there must be a Pick up cars event for at least one car on each spur that you would ever want the player to be able to work Usually there won t be So I recommend that even if you ll be basing your activity creation template on an existing activity you first copy the activity file act either directly in Windows or by opening it in the Activity Editor and then using FilelSave As to save the activity with
127. tivity Creation Templates which can be found on the Templates page at www skylinecomputing com Please join our free Forum and suggest routes for which you d like us to create Activity Generation Templates e NOTE ON TEMPLATES Some templates have been tested to work correctly with this latest version of Activity Generator but some haven t see the Templates page it indicates which templates are certified for SLG v 2 0 or later which includes Activity Generator v 4 0 and which aren t There is only one issue you might have in using templates that haven t been tested certified for version 2 or later you may get an error message in MSTS when starting the activity Objects begin in collision which is prohibited If this happens you can often fix the problem by adjusting the fill world slider as described in Set Railcar Fill and or by lowering the Maximum to pick up from any single siding setting to or 2 cars and generating the activity again Please use the forum to let us know which templates not yet certified work ok with the new versions and which don t and if possible what problems you noted so we can keep the list up to date e That s it If you do want to learn more about what all the settings and controls do and how to further customize your activities to your liking read on Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 9 Details on Generating Activities
128. to be set out at the industry tracks you choose to work or destination tracks at the end of your run will either come from these source tracks or your initial train if you entered a number greater than 0 into the Maximum Cars to Add to Player Consist box You should try and select tracks towards the beginning of your route path Click on the symbol to the left of a region name to expand the list and show all the spurs in that region click the symbol to collapse the list so your screen isn t as cluttered See Figure 6 Using the Track Selection Boxes Click the box to the left of a Region Name to select all the spurs in that region OR check the boxes next to individual spurs if desired You can check as many spurs as you d like Checking a sour doesn t GUARANTEE that the program will schedule a pickup on that track to be set out later only that this spur will be included in the list of possible spurs from which your initial train will be built For AG3 or older templates spurs are listed alphabetically within each region except yard tracks are listed first in both boxes But for AG4 or later templates the regions are listed in the order in which they will be passed for any given path The individual spurs within the regions however are only in alphabetical order It is usually more prototypical for your train to originate from Yard tracks but that isn t required Realism note AG will place any type of car
129. tored CONSISTS PATHS ACTIVITIES SERVICES etc etc are included it isn t always checked by default Then click the Add with wildcards NOT the Add button After clicking you ll see that all the myriad files and folders associated with an MSTS Activity and an AG Template were added to this zip file along with their path names RELATIVE TO THE TRAIN SIMULATOR FOLDER I start within the Train Simulator folder so the paths will be relative to that folder not the C Drive for example because many MSTS users put Train Simulator in folders other than the default Program Files Microsoft Games folder Below is a truncated shot of the zip file File Actions Options Help SaeVeEgvags New Open Favorites Add Extract View CheckOut Wizard Ratio Path MicrosoftExcel 6 4 2007 6i 86 749 ROUTES GN_Hi Line ACTIVITIES MicrosoftExcel 6 4 2007 6 2 024 ROUTES GN_Hi Line ACTIVITIES W GNHLMainEBTemplate act ACT File 5 29 2007 6 320 538 ROUTES GN_Hi Line ACTIVITIES W GNHLMainEBTemplate ctp AG Cartype File 7 13 2007 6 103 ROUTES GN_Hi Line ACTIVITIES W GNHLMainEBTemplate pro AG Path Region 7 7 2007 10 956 ROUTES GN_Hi Line ACTIVITIES MFJ GNHLMainEETemplate rtf Rich Text Format 5 29 2007 6 320 538 ROUTES GN _Hi Line ACTIVITIES Ej GNHLMainEBTemplateact bak BAK File 5 15 2007 1 390 490 ROUTESYGN_Hi Line ACTIVITIES W GNHLMainEBTemplateBig Sandy Havre B H pat PAT File 5 29 2007 6 6
130. ull path name became GNHLMainEBTemplate Whitefish to Havre I used this naming method Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 63 because I planned on creating multiple paths for the player to choose from and to do that every path must start with the same text 1 e in this case GNHLMainEBTemplate This is how the program knows what paths are available for the player to select from when using Activity Generator to generate activities o Hint The player doesn t need to run all the way to the end of a path for the activity to end The path should be long enough to get the player to all the spurs that he she might choose to work It s ok if the path runs off the end of the territory The player basically sets the ending by choosing the spurs to work and the ending mode including perhaps Destination Tracks So I didn t necessarily intend for a player to run all the way from Whitefish to Havre although they COULD if desired If the player wanted to work Whitefish to Conkelly or Blackfoot the player would still choose the Whitefish to Havre path but only call for work between Whitefish and Conkelly or Blackfoot The idea was this would be the primary eastbound path a player would use if starting at the west most origination point Whitefish yard and head east Choosing the path is a lot like setting the start point and heading towards settings on the familiar MSTS Explore a
131. wards the end and thus be able to set out your Work pickups there Also if you don t have any Work pickups or have fewer than the Maximum Total Cars to Handle setting cars from the initial player train or cars from the Source tracks will be scheduled by AG to be set out at these Destination tracks So to create a through train you can start with cars in your initial train select ONLY destination tracks to work and your train will be scheduled to run to the destination track s you selected and the activity will end when the cars in the train are set out on those tracks Or to begin by assembling a train you could set the Initial player train length to 0 or a number less than the Maximum Total Cars to Handle and add some source tracks in which case your train will be assembled from cars found on those source tracks Realism note since any kind of car picked up along the run will be set out at these Destination tracks it is more prototypical to select team tracks yard tracks or other more generic tracks rather than a coal mine or oil loader for example Check to view print the Work Order using Notepad Checking this box will bring up the work order as soon as it s created using Notepad available on all versions of Microsoft Windows for you to view or print This is the default Uncheck it if you have problems with Notepad launching Command buttons Ok Generate an Activity will generate a new activity based on you
132. witches in a route to manual box for the route for which you re about to create an activity If the original activity didn t have any Al traffic to begin with this box will have no effect Activity Ending Check last pickup for an activity that will end as soon as the last car scheduled for pickup or setout is worked Check reach 20 MPH for an activity that will end after all pickups and setouts are completed and then the train reaches 20 MPH in the FORWARD DIRECTION note that if you re using your front coupler and pulling in reverse you may never be able to reach 20 MPH Finally check assemble train for the program to create a new task to put together a train of all the cars you picked up anywhere you like So you can run to the end of the path or into a yard and put together the train to end the activity Maximum Cars to Add to Player Consist This is a new feature If cars are to be set out at industry or destination tracks they can either come from Yard tracks or from the original train the Player Consist When a number greater than zero is entered in this box setouts will first come from the initial train The program will build your train based on the cars to be set out later If there are more setouts scheduled than the number entered in this box the remaining setouts will come from Yard tracks So if you want to start without doing any switching at the beginning of the activity set this number
133. with the same name as the original activity file that the generated activity was based on except with an SLG in front of the name unless you chose to rename the file when prompted for the file name This file will be saved into the route s ACTIVITIES folder For example if you generated an activity based on MPI_WF_KAL_CFTemplate act the activity file generated will be named SLG MPI_WF_KAL_CF act Notice that the word template is dropped Then two WORKORDER files are generated One is a csv file that you can open print or edit using a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel and the other is a text file which can be printed directly or read edited and printed by any text editor such as Notepad or Wordpad These two files don t do anything They re just for you to read and or print These files will be saved in the route s ACTIVITIES folder Often if the consist or path were changed a new Service file srv in the route s SERVICES folder and a new consist file con in TRAINS CONSISTS both prefixed by SLG and the name of the activity you generated will also be generated Can this program cause problems with MSTS Activity Generator Version 4 for Microsoft Train Simulator Page 26 A Although this program is provided as is without warranty and we can t state unequivocally that it will have no impact on your computer or your MSTS installation there is

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