Consist Editor

[loadman2]

Can anyone tell me if there is a Consist Editor in Open Rails?

If not can anyone tell me how to access the Consist Editor in MSTS?

I am using Windows 8.1 which does not have a start Button like the previous Windows OS

i have no issue running MSTS but the Activity and Consist Editor are not accessible.

My MLT Routes that I have look much better in open Rails.

Thanks for your help

Loadman

[mikeebb]

Well ... first, get a start button. A quick search will produce several alternatives. Daughter's computer uses "Classic Shell" which is free and simple to install, but there are several others.

The consist editor in MSTS is buried inside the Activity Editor, and isn't exactly intuitive to use. Route-Riter (final version) also has one, Convoi is still around someplace I think, and of course if you want something good and supported you can buy Conbuilder.

There is a "Content Manager (contributed)" in Open Rails (Tools button at the bottom center of the main menu dialog) but in my copy it just lists what's there in the way of routes and activities, and attempts to dig deeper simply produce a bunch of unhandled exceptions.

[frankoburns]

You can use Convoi or RouteRiter, or Conbuilder or Yardmaster to produce consists for Open Rails...just make sure it saves the consists to the MSTS install you use for your Open Rails content.

[markus1996]

ORTS currently does not have its own consist editor. You will have to use either MSTS built-in Activity Editor (which also has a consist editor) or use a third-party tool.

Personally, I´d go for the third party route (as most are easier to use than the MSTS built-in one). There, you have multiple options, both free- and payware, which have already been mentioned:

• Convoi (free) - french product (AFAIK), IDK where available or if translated
• RouteRiter (free) - http://msts.steam4me.net/Route_Riter/ (last version, not updated by original creator) http://www.uktrainsim.com/filelib-in...rm_fileid=2588 (last stable version by original creator)
• Conbuilder (pay) - http://www.conbuilder.com/ (excellent program, also comes with some error checking utilities and rolling stock swapper for activities)
• Yardmaster (free) available here in library, I never tried it, though

If you want to do it with the MSTS Activity Editor, you will simply need to create your won shortcut to the AE (no need to install anything extra). Of course, this will only be an option if MSTS actually works on your system (MSTS + Win8 and later + most AMD/ATI graphics card don´t play nicely together).

1. Create a copy of your existing "Microsoft Train Simulator" desktop-shortcut. It should be called "Copy of Microsoft Train Simulator".
2. Rename it to "MSTS Editors and Tools" or whatever you want.
3. Right-click that new shortcut, and click "Properties" in the drop-down menu.
4. In the window now opened, edit the line "Target" to point to "<MSTSinstallationPath>\Train Simulator\train.exe". It should read about like this (WITH the double quotes!): "C:\MSTS\Train Simulator\train.exe"
5. Put your text editing cursor behind the closing double quote and enter "-toolset" (WITHOU the quotes, this time).
6. The final "Target" line should read something similar to my example (quotes as they are shown here): "C:\MSTS\Train Simulator\train.exe" -toolset
7. Click OK, double-click the new icon, and that should be it.

You could, of course, also use Win8´s search tool to find the MSTS editors and tools, but IDK if the installer creates that shortcut at all. Win8 has no start menu, and thus the installer might not know where to put those shortcuts, so it could simply leave them out.

Anyway, to access the search tool in Win8 and Win8.1, press Windows+F (Windows key and F key), select "Everywhere" for where to search, and enter "editors and tools" in the search box. IDK of that brings up any results (I don´t have MSTS installed on my Win8 computer), but that´s the new location of and way of working with the Windows search tool in Win8.

Cheers, Markus

[R. Steele]

I use ConBuilder, if you can afford it, it is an excellent utility.