act and service files

Hi,

I have a few old act bases from old act Ideas in the past, Rather than delete them and the already created service files can I re-name the act files and services without opening the AE to change the names and re-saving them with creates a new act file but leaves a copy of the old one behind as I found out when I changed my LMS Seasider acts into a VSOE version. instead.

What I'm asking is can you re-name act files found in your route activity folder and your routes service folder without causing errors in your msts install?

Hi Ben,

The answer is yes, but you have to be very, very careful to ensure that everything matches in ALL the affected Folders, ie. Activity, Service, Path, Traffic, plus the relevant File names must also match the Name inside the file.

As an example from one of my activities:-  Service File name  S - PrincesSt P6Cl 101 6car

SIMISA@@@@@@@@@@JINX0v0t______

Service_Definition (
Serial ( 5 )
Name ( "S - PrincesSt P6Cl 101 6car" )
Train_Config ( "Class101 Sc51225 6car" )
PathID ( "S - PrincesSt P6" )
MaxWheelAcceleration ( 0 )
Efficiency ( 0.75 )
TimeTable (
StartingSpeed ( 0 )
EndingSpeed ( 0 )
StartInWorld ( 0 )
EndInWorld ( 0 )
)
)
The Path id must also match the Path File Name ie , S - PrincesSt P6
SIMISA@@@@@@@@@@JINX0P0t______

Serial ( 44 )
TrackPDPs (
TrackPDP ( -6112 15145 -616.9 56.0491 574.338 1 9 )
TrackPDP ( -6112 15145 -742.668 56.0491 532.273 1 9 )
TrackPDP ( -6112 15145 -801.153 56.0491 513.163 1 9 )
)
TrackPath (
TrPathName ( "S - PrincesSt P6" )
TrPathFlags ( 00000020 )
Name ( "S - PrincesSt P6" )
TrPathStart ( "PrincesSt P6" )
TrPathEnd ( "PrincesSt P6" )
TrPathNodes ( 3
TrPathNode ( 00000000 1 4294967295 0 )
TrPathNode ( 012c0002 2 4294967295 1 )
TrPathNode ( 00000000 4294967295 4294967295 2 )
)
)

It also advisable that a path doesn't have 2 different names as this can cause confusion within MSTS - changing the start or end point as a minimum is sufficient to avoid any confusion.
When doing these changes manually I suggest that you copy, paste and then rename each file first so as not to lose the original.

The easiest way is to use AE if you can and use the Template option for each item you wish to change.
Whatever you do, as I'm sure you know well, make back ups of everything first, preferably outside of MSTS.

Hope this helps,

Stephen