"Bereich" in Automaticbereiche.

[Per Olsen]

Hello !

I use the German version of X.3.  I programmed one "Zugfahrten-Automatic", and I edited all the German "Bereich" 1-12 to more sensible texts for my use.  All this worked fine.

Today I created one more "Zugfahrten-Automatic", with a new name, and all still looked OK.  I changed back and forth between the two several times.  Suddenly I discovered that all the new texts I had replaced the "Bereich"-texts with, are gone.  And all the old "Bereich"-texts are back.  How could this happen?  Did I do something wrong?  I have made several backups, but unfortunately the last backups were with the "Bereich"-texts, I did not notice that..  So I have no backup any more with the changed texts.

It is not a big deal to write the texts again, but I do not want this to happen more times.  Any suggestions to what I have done wrong?

Best regards,
Per.

[Peterlin]

Hello Per Olson,

in fact there was a small problem saving these section names of a brand new ZFA file, of course in the meantime fixed.

Internal information:

If you save a new ZFA, it will be save as f.e. NAME1.ZFA and an additional file automatically called ZFA_NAME1.DAT ( here you can find the section savings,too). In some cases the second file was not bound correctly.

Work around:

1: Call first an old  ZFA file with no section names changed
2: Open a new ZFA file without section names changes
3: Save the new ZFA file
4: Call the new ZFA file again, change the section names and save the file.

If you want, you can controle via a text editor  this new file ZFA_XXXX.DAT

best regards

[Per Olsen]

Hello !

(My name is still Olsen (Norwegian), not Olson (Swedish..).  Minor "bug" 

Thank you for that information.  I have printed it now, in case this happens again.  Glad to see that it is a known (fixed) problem.

I enjoy the X3 version very much!  Especially am I fond of all the new automatic route- and tours-editors.  Very nice!  And also the check-functions, very good.  By the way, one question:  When automatically making a new route (or several routes at the say time), I have a small problem (or maybe I do not understand it well...):  When there are several signals (typically 2) for the train to pass by, one at the start of the route, and another half-way (in case of making special long routes, which normally should have been 2 routes, but for special needs, need to be just 1), the automatic route-generator sets the signals correctly, but set them back to RED when RMK by the signal is FREE.  This do work for the first signal, but not for the second.  As that RMK already IS free at the start of the route.

I always set the signal back to RED when the train occupy the NEXT RMK after the signal.  In Norway that is how NSB does it, the signal goes back to red as soon as the loco has passed it.  So for me, it would always be better for the automatic route-generator to set the signal back to red at the NEXT RMK after the signal.  Always.  What do you think?

Best regards, and THANKS again !

Per.

[Markus Herzog]

Hello Per,

For add-on switchings the option "Contact free" means "Switch when free again". This means, the program waits until the contact has been occupied, waits until it is free again and then when free again the signal will be set to desired state.

We introduced this "Free again" function sometime ago. Maybe I forgot to mentoin this when translating the manual (classic copy&paste problem). We included this function because without this the free function had limited functionality.

Best regards
Markus

[Per Olsen]

Hello !

OK...? Well, then I will have to check again.  I did make some routes with this function, but the signal did not go back to red at all.  Maybe I did something else wrong.  If you say this is how it works, I will try again. 

But I still need to set the signal to RED just after (next RMK) the loco has passed the signal.  Not wait until the entire train has passed, which is what happens if "free after busy" works.

I did not find it it neither the German nor the English manual.  It might still be there, although I did not find it.  Especially in the German version.

By the way, the German manual for version ProX is 574 pages, and the English manual for ProX.3 (should be bigger than ProX) is "only" 486 pages.  So surely the German manual should be more correct/complete...? 

But again, my German is not so good (but getting better!) still.

Best regards,
Per.

[Markus Herzog]

Hello Per,

maybe you´re right. I found it in the english/german manual of ProX only for partial releases (see last sentence of chapter 8.8.2). Maybe it has been mentoined in an update information before and has not been included into the manual. I will talk to the manual´s author.

The different number of pages has several reasons:
-The english manual is not an exact translation, because in many cases I describe the things with my own words, in my experience exact translations are often not the best way.
-When describing things with my own words I tend to make the description as short and precise as possible.
-We have removed several examples from the english version, because they are "very german" (only valid for german railways)
-Most sentences in english are shorter than in german.

...but all functions should be described in the english version as well in the german version and that´s the aim of both manual versions.

But I still need to set the signal to RED just after (next RMK) the loco has passed the signal.  Not wait until the entire train has passed, which is what happens if "free after busy" works.

I checked this "free after busy" function some minutes ago and it works perfect. I think it is a subjective question if you like more to switch the signal back to red using "free after busy" with the contact next to the signal or using busy of the next contact. Many users told us, that they like more the "free after busy" function, so this became the golden standard. We had some users who told us for example, that the "busy of the next contact" reaction was no good idea, because their next contact begins directly at the signal. And so the train driver of a long steam engine would see the signal being switched back to red before passing the signal.
I could continue with many examples. I hope you see, that there is not perfect answer to this problem and so we had decide for one solution and I did not remember any complaints about this.

Best regards
Markus

[Per Olsen]

Hello again.

I did not have time to test the function again, but I take your word for it, that it works as you describe.  In fact, in many cases I have already programmed, such a "free-occupied-free_again" function would be very useful for other things, but I did not know it existed...

The signal (in my layout) is placed at the end of the destination-section, just before the next section (RMK).  So of course it could be a problem with long steam engines, but I have no such engines...  I prefer more modern locos.  OK, it is a matter of taste.  Anyway, I will always program the signal back to red when the first section after the signal gets occupied.  If I was using long steam locos, I would either place the signal more into next section, or use the NEXT RMK to set the signal to red again.  But I will not wait till all the train has passed.

OK, I will still do these changes manually, no problem, but quite a lot of work at times, especially when using the wizard to create a lot of routes at the same time.  The wizard is great!

Ok also about the manual.  I have written a lot of english documentation for another program, where I am a beta-tester.  And that program's original language is French!  So I learned a lot more French   With WDP I sometimes have to look in the German manual anyway, as I use the German version ProX.3, and sometimes need to "compare notes" to understand the meaning of the text in the manual.  And, in fact, the examples are very often very useful, when there is something I do not really understand.

Thank you for all your input!  I will continue to enjoy WDP, for sure !

Best regards,
Per.