TSRE - A Better Way of Doing Business

[scottb613]

Hi Folks,

Been using TSRE quite a bit lately - one thing that truly bothers me is anything that pulls my attention away from laying track - to focus on the auxiliary panels. Clearly finding the right track pieces in the menu is like pulling teeth. Working a long grade and inputting the grade on each and every track piece is extremely tedious.

Voice Attack to the rescue - yep - my favorite program once again. It's a "Voice/Joystick/Keystroke" controlled - Macro program. It supports Mice Macros which are essential for TSRE. It's so easy to generate new commands - this can easily be adapted to any phase of route building. I use it in combination with a Logitech XBox Controller - and I seldom have to touch the keyboard. Laying track is vastly faster and so much more enjoyable - not having to type "a1t......." in the search field is a godsend.

See the video I made below - just a couple minutes showing operation in TSRE.


Current TSRE Commands - some of the most common assigned to Controller:
VA_TSRE.jpg


Find Double 250 Straight - Macro Example:

Begin Integer Compare : [_speech] Equals 1
    Say, '{CMD}'  (and wait until it completes)
End Condition
Fully restrict mouse movement
Move mouse cursor to screen coordinates (1850, 165)
Click left mouse button [duration 0.5 seconds]
Press Left Ctrl+A keys and hold for 0.15 seconds and release
Quick Input, 'a2t250m'
Unrestrict mouse movement
Play sound, '{VA_SOUNDS}\confirmation_beep.wav'

The video example operates a bit slower than normal - as you can speak pretty fast - and the Text to Speech function for the demo is pretty slow. I turn it off when not in Demo Mode. After you train the speech engine a bit - it seldom misses a command.

Video Demonstration of using VA with TSRE:

Hardware: $20 Speaker Microphone - $20 Game Controller
Image3.jpg

Software: $10 Voice Attack

https://voiceattack.com/

Just food for thought.

If there's any interest - I can post my profile. You would just have to update the screen coordinates for various TSRE fields and buttons with those from your own machine.

Regards,
Scott

[pwillard]

Man. that's really neat.

[scottb613]

Man. that's really neat.

Hi Pete,

Yeah - this program has been a constant companion of mine for years - in Train Sim, Flight Sim, ArmA, 3DC, Blender, and PSP. Even if some routine repetitive task pops up on my PC - it's just so quick to build a macro to make your life easier. It's one of the most powerful and intuitive programs I've ever used - I've certainly got my $10.00 out of it. I'm not related to the company in any way - just an extremely happy customer.

As far as Route Building goes - the "Text to Voice" demo I made - slows it way down. I speak pretty fast while working and the recognition is excellent. I would say it doubles the speed at which I can work in TSRE. Having to continually shift focus to type in side panels - completely interrupts the flow.

Regards,
Scott

[ruifonseca]

I'm curious... the screen coordinates... depend on the screen resolution?

[scottb613]

I'm curious... the screen coordinates... depend on the screen resolution?

Hi.

Yes - if you note in the image I posted - on bottom right - is a category called: Screen Positions. I work on two machines - so I had to update these (5) items when I moved to a different machine. All the macros are click and dialog driven - so you're not actually writing the macros. Simply open the mouse move command - move your mouse to the desired coordinates - hit [F8] and the coordinates are captured to the command for future use. It took all of 30 seconds to update all (5). Then any other macro that requires those coordinates - simply calls the mouse move command you defined.

Regards,
Scott

[landnrailroader]

Friends,

Of all that the most necessary fix, as far as I am concerned, would be an ability to lock the gradient. For example, as I work on the CM (Cumberland - Manchester) branch of the CV division the grade varies so much that one can only figure the average between noticable points, like mileposts or maybe the end of a curve. So if I know that the next 10 curves with included tangents are all on a -0.2% grade, then it would be nice to key this in and lock the value till I come to the break in grade point. Just as an aside, I have a 1949 track chart of this area but a friend who works for a signal contractor (I used to work there to until Elmo took over CSX in the spring of 2017) sent me the current chart. Around mile 203, there has been some line changes so that in one place a 4 degree curve is now a 6 degree, while in another a 7 degree is now a 5 degree.

Jerry

[scottb613]

Friends,

Of all that the most necessary fix, as far as I am concerned, would be an ability to lock the gradient. For example, as I work on the CM (Cumberland - Manchester) branch of the CV division the grade varies so much that one can only figure the average between noticable points, like mileposts or maybe the end of a curve. So if I know that the next 10 curves with included tangents are all on a -0.2% grade, then it would be nice to key this in and lock the value till I come to the break in grade point. Just as an aside, I have a 1949 track chart of this area but a friend who works for a signal contractor (I used to work there to until Elmo took over CSX in the spring of 2017) sent me the current chart. Around mile 203, there has been some line changes so that in one place a 4 degree curve is now a 6 degree, while in another a 7 degree is now a 5 degree.

Jerry

Hi Jerry,

Probably the best way to handle that would be a change to TSRE.

That said - it would be easy to do in Voice Attack. The application has full support for variables and basic program control logic. So - again - Voice is not needed - as you can trigger any Macro by Joystick Button Press - or - Keyboard Shortcut. Simply have one Macro record the desired elevation to a variable - then use that variable every time you execute a "Set Grade" command. It will remain unchanged until you set it again - the caveat is you need to execute the Grade Change via Voice Attack to work.

Hi Folks,

Also noted - the FREE DEMO on the site is full featured and doesn't expire - you're just limited to 20 macros - if you care to try it.

Regards,
Scott

[scottb613]

Hi Folks,

Two things.

To address Jerry's comment a bit further - I started messing with grades. I didn't know it at the time but VA remembers your last spoken command - so when doing long grades - instead of looking to your left and clicking and typing the grade for every single piece of track - you set the first one by saying "Grade 5" which I defined as a command - that sets the first one. Place the next track section - and just say "Repeat" - which will repeat the last spoken command. Once started on a grade - slap down a track and say "Grade 5" - slap down another and say "Repeat" - slap down another and say “Repeat” - slap down another and say “Repeat” - and so on - and so on. It goes so fast and you stay focused on where you are laying track.

You could also set it as a variable "token" and use that. I do it for track numbers when searching for track pieces "Track Single" "Track Double" "Track Triple" "Track Quad" - - - which substitutes (a1t, a2t, a3t, a4t respectively) - as part of the automated input to a search string. So when I say "Find 100 Straight" it recalls the set token to start the string - for the correct track number.

Here's my Voice Attack profile to help get started if anyone takes the plunge. Currently - it's solely focused on track laying. You can "Import" it via the VA interface.

VA-TSRE-Profile.zip

Regards,
Scott