The information in this Wiki Page applies to TRS19, Trainz Plus and TRS22. This page is intended to provide you with an overview of the properties and features of Routes and Sessions when creating layouts for Trainz. More detailed descriptions of these various features plus instructions on getting you started with creating Routes and Sessions can be found in the Trainz Wiki How To Guides - links are provided at the end of this document.
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Workflow Diagrams
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Trainz Worlds
The virtual worlds that Trainz creates can be classified as:-
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Routes |
Routes are created in Surveyor and contain most (if not all) of what you will see in your virtual Trainz world. You can have many different routes, limited only by your storage space. Routes can be built to represent different geographical regions (real or imagined) and different periods of time (past, present, future). Routes also control the environment settings in your virtual world, such as your geographic location and altitude, the season of the year, lighting conditions and the weather. Routes can have:-
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Sessions |
Sessions are also created in Surveyor but are designed to be run in Driver. Sessions contain the instructions that will control your trains when they are operating in automatic or "AI" mode in your route. They also control the goods your trains will carry, load and unload at industries along the way, regardless of whether you are driving them manually or using the AI. You can create different sessions for different aspects of your railway - freight, passenger, shunting or a mixture - or for different seasons of the year or times of the day. Sessions are where you can program the behaviour of objects in your virtual Trainz world. A session can also contain scenery items that are specific to a particular railway operation, season of the year or time of day that will only appear in that specific session. Sessions also control the environment settings in your virtual world, such as lighting conditions and the weather. Sessions can have:-
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Driver Games (or Driver Sessions or Saved Games) |
Driver Games (also known as Driver Sessions and Saved Games) are created in Driver and save the "state of play" in a running session so you can restart it at the same point at a later time. They are optionally stamped with the date and time they were saved and the play duration. |
What is a Route?
A route (also known as a "Layout") consists of most of what you will see on the screen when using Surveyor and Driver. Things such as the landform or terrain, most (if not all) of the scenery items, the ground textures, the effect layers (TurfFX and Clutter), plus some "environmental" features.
A route consists of two parts:- |
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Route Data and |
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Route Layers |
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When you save a Route, all the items in the Route Data and Route Layers will be saved |
Route Data:
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The Route Data stores all those features that are painted into a layout using a brush tool and all the Environmental Data including the World Origin (latitude, longitude, altitude) |
The Route Data includes the Terrain, Textures, Effect Layers, Legacy Water and the Environmental features.
Route Data consists of:-
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Landforms (Terrain) - baseboards and ground height |
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Water height and spread for Legacy Water found in Surveyor Classic |
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Ground Textures including the grid pattern which is a texture |
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TurfFX, Clutter and Water - found in the Effects Layers (including the Water Effects Layer found in Surveyor 2.0) |
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Environmental Settings - World Origin (latitude, longitude, altitude), Water Surface (rough/calm/etc), Snow Altitude, Lighting (sun, ambient and water colours), Sky (clouds), Road Traffic (on/off), Date (day, month), Wind strength, Fog level, Weather (rain/fine/snow), Brightness level. You must edit and save the route for these settings to become part of the Route Data - see the Trainz Wiki page  How to Use the Environment Tools for more details. |
Route Layers:
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Route Layers are used to hold the scenery assets that you want to appear in all sessions created for the route |
All scenery assets are held in layers. Route Layers give you a way of organising or grouping the assets displayed in your route.
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Track and Track Objects (such as signals, switches, bridges, tunnels, speed signs, etc) |
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Most (or all) scenery items (e.g. buildings, trees, rocks, active industries/stations) and scenery splines (e.g. roads, fences, etc) |
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Rolling Stock (including locos) - Note: It is strongly recommended that all rolling stock be placed into a Session Layer |
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Lineside and Fixed Cameras |
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Trackmarks, Triggers, Direction and Priority Marks |
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Scenery objects can also be stored in a session. This can cause confusion if you load a route without loading a session and find that some scenery items are "missing". See  Loading an Existing Route below for how to deal with this issue. |
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A detailed description of Layers can be found on the Trainz Wiki Page:-
- How to Use Layers
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Loading (and Creating) a Route
| The Main Menu screen is shown below. The first option (shown highlighted in the image) opens Driver/Surveyor with all its options including loading and creating a route. |
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Notes:
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| In Driver/Surveyor a strip of thumbnails for all the installed Routes will be shown at the base of the screen. The strip will scroll horizontally if there are too many to display. Just move the mouse pointer onto any thumbnail to reveal the scroll bar device. |
A Left Click on the MAIN MENU button will take you back to the starting or main screen.
A Left Click on the Sort By A-Z button (top right of the image above) will give you a drop down menu of sorting options for the thumbnail list.
A Left Click on the 
button (top right of the image above) will expand the thumbnail list to fill the screen - Left Click it again to return the thumbnails to the strip at the bottom of the screen.
The thumbnail images are colour coded.
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Payware on DLC |
Must be purchased and downloaded, but some may be free - depending on your membership options. If you click a thumbnail with this colour a DOWNLOAD button will appear on the bottom right of the screen. If a price is included in the button then that is the purchase price (in $US) |
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Payware installed |
Already installed from the DLC. DLC items cannot be deleted. To remove them use the Uninstall option in the Content Store from the Launcher. You can reinstall them later without any additional cost |
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Installed |
Downloaded from the Download Station (DLS) or created by you. This includes any cloned DLC Routes and Sessions (see Cloning a Route/Session below) |
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Multiplayer |
For simultaneous development by multiple players. Special conditions apply |
Creating a New Route
On the Driver/Surveyor screen the route options are shown as a set of buttons at the bottom of the screen.
In Surveyor Classic (S10)
in Surveyor Classic (also known as S10), which is supplied with TRS19 and TRS22 and is an option in Trainz Plus, Left Click CREATE ROUTE . This will start Trainz Surveyor and open the New Route Dialogue Window.
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Notes:
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You do not have to add a Session name but when you save a new route without a named session a default session will be automatically saved with the name Default. This can later cause confusion if a multitude of different Default Sessions appear so it is recommended that a unique Session name be entered at this point. |
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A session can always be deleted later if you have no interest in creating one for your route - see Deleting Routes and Sessions below. However a route with a session does have some important advantages - see What is a Session? below. |
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Setting a Geographical region sets some basic features of the route - such as its latitude (used to determine the season of the year), the altitude (in metres) of the first baseboard, the number and types of moving road vehicles (if any) and the side of the road they drive on, to name a few. If none of the installed regions are suitable you can download others from the DLS or create a region of your own - see How to Create a Region Asset |
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The Working scale provides measurements that are comparable to model railroading dimensions, but the actual (physical) sizes of the layout and its assets are not altered or scaled down. It is only the Surveyor Ruler tool that will be affected. The choices are between Real scale (which is the default), G scale (100m real scale = 4.4m G scale), HO scale (100m real scale = 1.1m HO scale) and many other options. |
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The Working units provides a choice between Metric (metres, kilometres) and Imperial (yards, miles) which only affects measurements used by rulers and track distances, and for train speeds (km/h or mph).
Note that track speed signs are always locked at either metric (km/h) or imperial (mph) - there are separate speed signs available for each. The signs will not be altered by this selection but their values will be converted. So a track speed sign that is set at 40 mph, for example, will still be displayed as 40 but it will be read as 64.3 km/h in Driver if the Working Units have been set to metric. So it will be less confusing if you use speed signs that are in the same working units as your route, for example use one set for 65 km/h instead of 40 mph.
Altitudes are always measured and displayed using metric units (metres). |
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A Left Click on the 
icon at the bottom right of the New Route window will create a new route with a single flat baseboard using the data settings you have entered.
A Left Click on the 
icon on the top right of the New Route window will cancel the data entry and create a new route with a single flat baseboard using the default data settings (usually the settings entered for the last route you created).
In Surveyor 2.0 (S20)
In Surveyor 2.0 (also known as S20), which is supplied with Trainz Plus and TRS22 for those who also have Trainz Plus, Left Click CREATE ROUTE . This will start Trainz Surveyor and move straight into the Surveyor World View screen.
If you wish to edit any of the Route settings then open the Route Editor (select Edit Route ) from the Main Menu or press Ctrl + E . |
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The Surveyor World View
Depending on the Route Editor settings and the version of Trainz you are using, you may see the following (shown below right but without the added yellow and white labels and descriptive objects).
In Surveyor 2.0 (S20)
In Surveyor 2.0 there is no separate Topology Tools fly-out. A single Tools Palette replaces all the separate tools "fly-outs" found in the original Surveyor Classic.
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select the Marquee Tool from the Tools Palette (or press the F key). |
| Note that in S20 you can add and delete multiple baseboards in a single step, not just one-at-a-time. |
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Left Click and Drag (using the Left mouse button) to draw out an area where the new baseboards will be added. This area can include the current baseboard. |
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| The Marquee area, shown with a green border in the image below right, shows the positions where 3 new baseboards will be created to add to the existing baseboard. The Marquee area has a Context Tool icon as shown in the image. |
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Left Click on the Context Tool icon or press the T key to open up the Marquee Context Menu.
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| The Key Marquee Baseboard Operations, as shown in the Marquee Context Menu above, are:- |
| Set Marquee to Brush Height |
to create new baseboards in the selected area. The Brush Height is the value stored in the Height setting in the Tool Options palette. This value will be used to set the height of the new baseboards. Any part of the initial baseboard that is covered by the marquee will also have its height set to the brush height |
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| Convert Baseboards to |
a pop-out menu will give the options, 10m Grid, or 5m Grid or (for Trainz Plus only) HD Grid. Selecting one of the options will create the new baseboards in the selected resolution. This tool is also used to convert existing baseboards from one resolution to the other |
| Delete Baseboards in Marquee |
to delete the selected baseboards. The Undo command Ctrl + Z will restore the deleted baseboards |
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Default Baseboard Ground Texture
| When a new route is created or a new baseboard is added in both Surveyor Classic and Surveyor 2.0 it will be covered with the ground texture for the selected Region or the default texture/grid if no region has been set. This can be changed to a different texture (including to the standard TRS19/TRS22 grid pattern). |
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| Steps: To disable the current default ground texture (easiest method):- |
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open the  Surveyor Display Menu |
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select the Ground option |
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select the Grid sub-option. This will use the current grid texture. |
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| A more complex solution is to edit an existing Region or create one of your own to add your preferred ground texture (such as the standard TRS22 grid pattern) to each new route you create and every new baseboard that you add. |
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Notes:
The Baseboard Ground Texture, chosen from the Surveyor Display Menu or by specifying a Region, will become the default for every new route you create and every new baseboard you add, until you change it to something else.
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Loading an Existing Route
You must first find and select the route to load from those already installed. At the top of the Driver/Surveyor screen the route search options are shown as a set of buttons.
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ROUTES is the default selection. No need to change this. |
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PURCHASED is the default selection, Click and change to MY CONTENT for a route you have created (or already modified) or to INSTALLED for one you have downloaded from the DLS. |
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ALL is the default selection. You can select a particular geographic region if required and IF the route had a geographic region set when it was created. |
| Search: |
You can narrow down the list of routes by typing the first few letters of its name (e.g. SA) as shown in the image above. |
This will produce a display of thumbnails at the bottom of the screen.
Left Click on the thumbnail for the route you want to load, then Left Click on the EDIT ROUTE button to load the route into Surveyor.
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Notes: Routes and Sessions - An Endless Source of Confusion
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Loading a Route Into Surveyor From Content Manager
Trainz provides a shortcut that allows you to load an existing route directly into Surveyor for editing from Content Manager.
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Steps:
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in Content Manager select the filter Routes & Sessions |
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select the route to be edited |
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Right Click to open the Command Menu |
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select Open..., then select Edit Asset in Surveyor
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Loading After an Unexpected Shutdown
If you select a route for loading after an unexpected shutdown of Trainz then any route (or route and session) that was open and running in Trainz Surveyor or Driver will be left marked as Open for Edit. When you attempt to load this route into Surveyor or Driver you will see a message listing the route and session (if any) that were affected.
The options you will see are:-
| Use changes |
Use the edited/changed versions that are in the open database assets. Note: there is a possibility that these assets may have been damaged during the shutdown and may be corrupted |
| Revert changes |
Ignore the edited/changed versions and load the previous versions instead |
| Cancel |
Cancel the Load and return to the Surveyor/Driver menu screen |
| You could also use the Content Manager program (select Manage Content from the Trainz Launcher) to Submit the open route or route and session assets. This has the risk of replacing the last good copy of that asset or assets with a possibly faulty copy. |
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Editing a Route
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When a Route is loaded or a new Route is created all the assets you add will be automatically placed into a Route Layer |
When you create a new route (with or without a named session), or load an existing route without a session, and start adding scenery assets they will automatically be placed into a Route Layer. See How to Use Layers for more details.
Any ground textures, water, effect layers (turfFX and clutter) you add, or terrain changes (including new baseboards) you make, will be added to the Route Data.
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WARNING: Do not edit track in a Route that is occupied by consists in any of the Sessions based on the Route
Moving or deleting a section of track in a Route that is occupied by a consist in a Session can cause the consist to become a "missing asset". This can happen if you load the Route only and not the Session. If a consist becomes a "missing asset" then the only immediate solution is to use the Delete missing assets command from the Tools menu in Surveyor.
Prevention:
if you have the consists placed in a Session then always load the Session, not just the Route, and move or delete any consists BEFORE editing the track they are occupying.
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You can edit the Route Characteristics at any time by selecting the Edit Route... option from the Edit Menu or simply pressing Ctrl + E .
This will bring up the Edit Route dialogue window (shown below). |
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Route Characteristics:-
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You can edit the Route name . This will change the route username in the config.txt file but it will not alter the route <kuid> value |
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You can select a new Region . Depending on the region (the Geographic region) selected this could affect other features such as the moving road traffic, season of the year (through the latitude tag) and altitude |
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You can edit the Route description |
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You can change the Route thumbnail . Left Click on the Set Thumbnail button to take a snapshot using the current camera view which will be used as the new thumbnail |
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You can change the Working scale which will only affect the measurement shown in the Surveyor Ruler tool |
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You can change the Working units to Metric or Imperial which will change the display of measurements using the Surveyor Ruler (to metres or yards) and how train speeds are calculated and displayed in Driver (in km/h or mph) |
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You can set or disable the Draw distance cap which will affect how far away from the camera that scenery objects will be drawn. A high setting, particularly the Disabled option (which means no draw distance cap), could affect the game performance, including the fps rate (frames per second), on some systems |
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Left Click on the icon to save the entered values and exit back to Surveyor. Left Click on the icon to cancel any entered values and exit back to Surveyor |
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Notes:
It is possible (and sometimes even expected) that a Route and its Sessions will have different environmental settings - for example the Route may have been created for the summer season but one Session may be set in winter and will require an overcast sky, snow, fog and generally lower light levels. See the Trainz Wiki Page at The Environment Tools for more details.
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Effect Layers
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The Effect Layers tool allows you to add, remove and edit the special ground effect layers |
Effect Layers contain:-
‡ TurfFX Effect is hardware dependent and requires an Nvidia graphics card. TurfFX is an Nvidia software product and is not from N3V.
Merging Routes
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Two (or more) separate routes can be joined together (merged) to create a new route |
There are some important restrictions on the merging of two routes:-
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A detailed description of the process of Merging Routes can be found on the Trainz Wiki Page:-
- How to Merge Routes
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What is a Session?
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A Session is always a part of an existing Route - you cannot have a Session that does not belong to a Route |
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If you create a Route without a Session then ALL the active industries and rolling stock, time, environmental conditions, etc, will revert to their original (default) values. There will be no AI drivers and drivers will have a very limited set of available commands for manual driving |
In general, while a route provides the physical structures (or "hardware"), a session provides the services (or "software"). While you can easily have a route without a session, it could be a very limited (or even a boring) experience.
A single route can have multiple sessions, or none, but a session must always belong to a route. To put it into Trainz terminology, a session has a route as a dependency.
A session consists of two parts:-
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Session Data and |
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Session Layers |
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When you save a Session, all the items in the Session Data and Session Layers will be saved |
Session Data:
Session Data are often the "invisibles" that control the operation of a session. Session rules, driver orders and loco assignments, commodities (loaded, unloaded and carried) and most of the Environmental Settings are examples of Session Data.
Session Data contains:-
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Drivers (names, AI commands and assigned locos) |
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Driver Commands - those available for AI and manual driving |
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Session Rules |
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Industry Settings (commodities consumed and produced) |
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Consist Settings (commodities carried) |
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Consist Locations - this is stored in the session even if the consists are placed in the route |
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Switch Settings (left/right) - but the default switch direction is stored in the route |
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Environmental Settings - Water Surface (rough/calm/etc), Snow Altitude, Lighting (sun, ambient and water colours), Sky (clouds), Road Traffic (on/off), Date (day, month), Wind strength, Fog level, Weather (rain/fine/snow), Brightness level. You must edit and save the session for these settings to become part of the Session Data - see How to Use Environment Tools for more details. If both a route and a session have saved Environmental Settings, which do not have to be the same, then those in the session will be used. If the session does not have any saved Environmental Settings then those in the route will be used
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Session Layers:
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Session Layers are used to hold the scenery assets that you want to only appear in that particular Session and not in all Sessions. The Session Layers can be left empty and the Route Layers can contain all the scenery assets |
Session Layers give you a way of organising or grouping the assets displayed in your session.
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Session Layers can contain:-
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While it is possible to add track and track objects (bridges, tunnels, turntables, signals, switches, etc) to Session Layers it is not recommended. These fixed assets should be placed into Route Layers.
However, it is common to place invisible AI control objects such as Trackmarks, Triggers, Direction Markers and Priority Markers in a Session Layer
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A detailed description of Layers can be found on the Trainz Wiki Page:-
- How to Use Layers
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Notes:
Scenery, Rolling Stock, Triggers and Markers (Track, Direction, Priority) can be used in both Route Layers and Session Layers. Assets placed in a Route Layer will appear in all sessions that are based on the route. The vast majority of (if not all) scenery items will be placed in Route Layers. Assets placed in a Session Layer will only appear in the currently loaded session.
Examples of assets that would be placed in a Session Layer instead of a Route Layer would include:-
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Loading (and Creating) a Session
Creating a New Session
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To create a new Session you must first create a new Route or identify an existing Route |
A new session can be created in two ways:-
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Loading an Existing Session
There are two different ways to load existing sessions into Surveyor.
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Search For the Session |
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The easiest way to load an existing session is to use the search tools at the top of the Driver/Surveyor screen.
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| Type: |
ROUTES is the default selection. Change this to SESSIONS . |
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PURCHASED is the default selection, Left Click on the button to change it to MY CONTENT for a session you have created (or already modified) or to INSTALLED for one you have downloaded from the DLS. |
| Gameplay: |
ALL is the default selection. There is no need to change this |
| Search: |
If required you can narrow down the list of sessions by typing the first few letters of its name. |
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Notes:
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This will produce a list of session thumbnails at the bottom of the screen. As with the route thumbnails, the list can be scrolled horizontally.
The same colour coding system used in the route thumbnails also applies to session thumbnails.
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Payware on DLC |
Must be purchased and downloaded, but some may be free - depending on your membership options. If you Left Click on a thumbnail with this colour a DOWNLOAD button will appear on the bottom right of the screen. If a price is included in the button then that is the purchase price (in $US) |
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Payware installed |
Already installed from the DLC. DLC items cannot be deleted. To remove them use the Uninstall option in the Content Store from the Launcher. You can reinstall them later without any additional cost |
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Installed |
Downloaded from the Download Station (DLS) or created by you. This includes any cloned DLC Routes and Sessions (see Cloning a Route/Session below) |
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Multiplayer |
For simultaneous development by multiple players. Special conditions apply |
Left Click on the thumbnail for the session you want to load and then Left Click on the EDIT SESSION button. This will load BOTH the route and the session into Surveyor.
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If the EDIT SESSION option is not present then the selected session is a saved Driver Game (a "game" saved when in Driver) and cannot be edited. See the section Saving and Loading Sessions in Driver below.
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Select the Route First |
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If the EDIT SESSION option is not present then the selected session is a saved Driver Game (a "game" saved when in Driver) and cannot be edited. See the section Saving and Loading Sessions in Driver below.
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| Both and will load the route and session into Surveyor. |
Loading a Session Into Surveyor From Content Manager
Trainz provides a shortcut that allows you to load an existing session directly into Surveyor for editing from Content Manager.
Loading a Session into Driver From Surveyor
To start Driver simply select a session as described above in Loading an Existing Session and Left Click on the DRIVE SESSION button.
This will load both the session and the route into Driver.
You can save your "game play" in Driver at anytime. See Saving and Loading Sessions in Driver below.
Loading a Session into Driver From Content Manager
Trainz provides a shortcut that allows you to load an existing session directly into Driver from Content Manager.
Editing a Session
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When a Session is loaded into Surveyor or a new Session is created for an existing Route, all the assets you add will be automatically placed into a Session Layer |
When you create a new session, or load an existing session, and start adding scenery assets in Surveyor they will automatically be placed into a Session Layer. See the Trainz Wiki Page How to Use Layers for more details.
Any changes made to the Session Rules (including drivers and their commands), the Environment Tools, Industry or Rolling Stock settings, will be added to the Session Data.
There are also other changes that will be added to the Session Data.
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You can edit the Name of the Session. This will change the session username in the config.txt file but it will not alter the session <kuid> value |
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You can edit the Session Description |
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You can add, delete and edit the Session Rules |
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Notes:
It is possible (and sometimes even expected) that a Route and its Sessions will have different environmental settings - for example the Route may have been created for the summer season but one Session may be set in winter and will require an overcast sky, snow, fog and generally lower light levels. See the Trainz Wiki Page at The Environment Tools for more details.
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Saving a Route and a Session
Routes and Sessions are saved from the System Menu on the Surveyor screen.
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Notes on Saving DLS/DLC Routes and Sessions:
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| DLS Routes and Sessions can be modified and saved as new routes and sessions |
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Modifying and Creating:-
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Saving:-
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Uploading:-
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| DLC Routes and Sessions can also be modified and saved as new routes and sessions ONLY if the creators of the original DLC content have allowed it - see Cloning a Route/Session below for more details |
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Modifying and Creating:-
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Saving:-
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Uploading:-
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Saving a New Route and Session
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Routes and Sessions are saved as entries in the Trainz Database, not as files on your hard drive. After they have been saved into the database you can export them, using Content Manager, as .cdp formatted files for backup or transfer. |
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If you have created a new route and select Save or Save As..., then you will be presented with the following Save Route Dialogue Windows.
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| In both cases the name of the route that was entered when it was created will be shown and you can change the name, even in the Save option. However, there is no option in either case to change the name of the created session because the other options have been greyed out and cannot be selected. |
Saving an Existing Route
If you have loaded the route only and not the session and HAVE NOT edited any Session Data or Session Layers, then selecting Save will produce the following Save Route Dialogue Window.
If you have loaded the route only and not the session and HAVE edited Session Data or Session Layers, then selecting Save will produce the following Save Route Dialogue Window.
Saving an Existing Route and Session
If you have loaded a route and a session and have edited the route or the route and the session then selecting Save will produce the following Save Route Dialogue Window.
If you have loaded a route and a session and have edited the session (Data or Layers) only and not the route, or have already saved the route but not the session, then selecting Save will produce the following Save Session Dialogue Window.
Saving a Route and Session Using the UDS
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The UDS feature is available in TRS19 Platinum Edition, Trainz Plus and TRS22 only |
The UDS (Unified Driver Surveyor) Interface allows you to quickly switch from Driver to Surveyor and back to Driver again without having to restart the session from the beginning. You can edit a route and session while in Surveyor and then switch back to Driver to continue the session where you left it.
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WARNING:
This powerful ability does come with a warning. If you save the edited session before switching back into Driver then all the moving consists will be saved in their new positions. Other changes, such as the status of Session Rules, will also be saved in their new states. See the Trainz Wiki Page How to Use the UDS Interface for more details.
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Most of the problems users seem to be experiencing with the UDS, judging from the posts in the Trainz Forums, is when saving their edited Driver session after switching to Surveyor mode.
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Using Driver Mode involves driving consists (either manually or through the AI) and activating rules. These will change the session parameters |
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Overwriting the Session will save the consist locations and Session Rules in their new positions/conditions |
When you are in Driver Mode at least one of the consists will probably be moving. Some of the Session rules may have already been completed while others may still be running or waiting for events (e.g. triggers to be activated).
If, after switching to Surveyor Mode, you then choose to save using the Overwrite existing session option then you will be replacing your original starting Session with a new one with the consists saved in their new positions and the Session rules saved in their new states. So when you later load and restart the Session things will not be the same as they were in the original or starting Session.
Unless you have a particular reason for overwriting the original Session then the recommended save options are:-
If you have have NOT edited anything while in Surveyor and select Save then you will be shown the Save Driver Session dialogue window to save the session in its current state as a Driver Game (also called a Game or Driver Game). This is exactly the same as pressing Ctrl + S while in Driver.
The Driver Game will appear in the Select Session menu for the route. Loading it will resume Driver at the point where it was saved.
Exiting Surveyor
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If you exit Surveyor after editing without saving then you will be prompted to Save. |
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Steps:
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Open the Main Menu |
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select the Exit Surveyor option |
| Another option is to exit Trainz completely |
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select the Exit Game option |
| Regardless of which option you take, if you have unsaved work you will be prompted to save before you exit |
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| Unsaved Route |
Unsaved Session |
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Don't Save will exit Surveyor to either the Main Menu Screen or to your OS Desktop without saving. Any changes you have made will be lost. |
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Save will exit Surveyor to either the Main Menu Screen or to your OS Desktop after saving. You will be prompted to select what to save as described in the section Saving a Route and a Session above |
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Cancel will cancel the Exit command and return you to Surveyor. |
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Exiting Driver
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If you exit Driver after running a session you will be prompted to Save a Driver Game. |
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Steps:
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Open the Main Menu |
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select the Exit Driver option |
| Another option is to exit Trainz completely |
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select the Exit Game option |
| Regardless of which option you take, if your Session Data has changed then you will be prompted to save before you exit |
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| Options: |
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Don't Save will exit Driver to either the Main Menu Screen or to your OS Desktop without saving. The current state of the session (positions and movements of the consists, commodity levels, time of day, etc) will be lost. |
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Save will exit Driver to either the Main Menu Screen or to your OS Desktop sfter saving. You will be prompted to enter a name for your saved Driver Game. See the section Saving Driver Games below for more details. |
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Cancel will cancel the Exit command and return you to Driver. |
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Cloning a Route/Session
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A Clone is an exact or duplicate copy of an asset. Some Payware routes and sessions cannot be cloned |
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Cloned routes and sessions can be edited and saved as Your Content |
Cloning a Route or a Session allows you to work on a duplicate copy of the original. All changes that you make will be saved in the cloned copy leaving the original copy unchanged.
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Cloned assets are subject to copyright laws and they remain the property of the original creator
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Freeware routes, that have been downloaded and installed from the DLS, can be cloned and saved as new routes.
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Payware Routes, that have been downloaded and installed from the DLC, can also be cloned as new routes if the creators of the routes allow it.
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Sessions that have been downloaded and installed from the DLS (freeware) or DLC (payware) follow the same rules as described for DLS and DLC routes above
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Cloning Using Surveyor
Routes and Sessions that have been loaded into Surveyor can be cloned using the Save As... command from the Surveyor System Menu
Enter a new name or edit the original name (as shown above) for your cloned route or session.
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If the first option ( Save new route and session) is selected then the Route will be cloned using your new or edited name. The Session will be also cloned using its original name but it will use the newly cloned Route as a dependency instead of the original Route.
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If the second option ( Save new session) is selected then only the Session will be cloned using your new or edited name (make sure that you change the "Default" to something else) but it will still use the original (uncloned) Route as a dependency - so it is vital that you DO NOT DELETE the original route.
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Cloning Using Content Manager
Select the Route or Session to Clone
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Steps:
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A Task Window will open to display the result.
In the image above the original Route has been cloned and given a new <kuid> value.
The newly cloned Route will be shown in Content Manager as a New Asset that is Open for Editing.
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Steps:
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close the Task Window |
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select the Open for Editing filter. |
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Rename the Clone (an Optional Step)
You can give the cloned Route or Session a new name and a new description. Note that these changes will not appear until after the New Asset has been submitted.
Submit the Clone (a Necessary Step)
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When submitted a cloned DLC Route or Session will be described as Payware, Modified while a cloned DLS Route or Session will be described as Modified |
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Notes:
You can rename a cloned Route or a cloned Session in Surveyor but the clone would still have to be submitted in Content Manager first using its original name and then loaded into Surveyor. You would then have two Routes or Sessions with the same name to select from - one would be the original and the other the clone, and telling them apart may not be simple. You can use the Driver/Surveyor main screen MY CONTENT source filter to locate and load the correct cloned Route or Session because the clone will have your <kuid> code and not its original code.
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Load the cloned Route or Session into Surveyor, then
Both will also allow you to edit the Name and Description of the cloned Route/Session.
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Saving and Loading Driver Games in Driver
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Driver Games (sometimes called "Saved Games" or "Driver Sessions") are "Game States" saved while in Driver Mode |
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Notes:
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Saving Driver Games
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Driver Games save the "state of play" in Driver - the position of consists, the commodities and levels in rolling stock and industries, the state of the Driver Command queues, Session Rules, clock time, etc. Once saved, the Driver Game can be loaded back into Driver to continue the play at the point where it was saved.
When you are in Driver select Save from the System Menu or press Ctrl + S .
This will display the Save Driver Session dialogue window showing the name of the current session with a date and time stamp (shown left below). If you Left Click pn the Tick then this will be the name used for the saved game. Alternatively, you could enter your own unique name (shown right below).
The space below the entered name will display any other saved driver games for that session.
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Loading Driver Games
Saved driver games will be shown with their sessions for a selected route. The section Loading an Existing Session shows two different methods of displaying saved sessions and their driver games.
will display ALL the saved sessions and driver games which may be a very long list.
will display ALL the saved sessions and driver games for a selected route, which should be a much shorter list.
If using method select the route first and then click the VIEW SESSIONS button. This will display a list of thumbnails for all the sessions and driver games in that route.
Where there is only one session in a route, the session will be the first thumbnail shown in the list followed by the driver games. Note that the session is selected by default.
Select (hightlight) the Driver Game you want to load and then Left Click on the DRIVE SESSION button.
This will load the Driver Game, the session and the route into Driver.
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If you load a Driver Game after you have edited the original route or session that was used to create it, then you will receive a message warning you that changes have been made to the original assets. The changes could affect the operation of the Driver Game.
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| Error creating thumbnail: /bin/bash: line 1: /usr/bin/convert: No such file or directory Error code: 127 |
Options:-
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Cancel - the Driver Game will NOT be loaded, OR |
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Ok - load the Driver Game wirh the changes |
If the changes to the route or session have been:-
| Error creating thumbnail: /bin/bash: line 1: /usr/bin/convert: No such file or directory Error code: 127 |
minor and non-operational, such as scenery assets (trees, buildings, etc) then the Driver Game can be safely loaded. |
| Error creating thumbnail: /bin/bash: line 1: /usr/bin/convert: No such file or directory Error code: 127 |
more significant operational changes, such as triggers, trackmarks, active industries, consists, tracks, etc, then it may NOT be wise to load and run the Driver Game. |
Only you can be the judge but I would err on the side of caution
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Editing Driver Games
It is possible to load and edit a saved Driver Game in versions of Trainz that have the UDS (Unified Driver Surveyor) interface - these versions are TRS19 Platinum, Trainz Plus and TRS22. However, when you save your edit, it will NOT be saved as an update to the loaded Driver Game. Instead it will be saved as a Session. You can select to create a new session or to overwrite the original session.
The Session will be saved with all the:-
Deleting Routes and Sessions
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Deleting a Session will delete that Session and its Driver Games (if any), not the Route it was created from or any other Sessions |
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Deleting a Driver Game will only delete that Driver Game, not the Route or Session it was created from or any other Driver Games |
All the Surveyor and Driver screens for loading routes and sessions have a DELETE ... button as an option.
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WARNING: |
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If you delete a Route you will also delete all the Sessions and Driver Games created using that Route
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If you delete a Session you will also delete all the Driver Games created using that Session
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If you need a more selective way of deleting routes, sessions and driver games, then use Content Manager from the Trainz Launch Screen. Select the Filter Routes & Sessions.
The Type column will identify each entry as a route, session or Misc. Misc in this case means a saved Driver Game.
You can delete routes and/or sessions individually but if you delete a route by itself then its dependant sessions and driver games will be shown as faulty with Missing dependencies. Likewise, if you delete a session by itself then its dependant driver games will be shown as faulty with Missing dependencies.
Trainz Wiki
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Route and Session Building Guides
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More Tutorials and Guides to Using Trainz
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This page was created by Trainz user pware in September 2021 and was last updated as shown below.
