Train-Sim.Com How To: Activities Made Easy For Newbies

Activities Made Easy For Newbies
By Otto Wipfel

This will help newbies create a new activity easily and quickly, useful for testing and messing.

RUN the MSTS EDITOR / ACTIVITIES Editor.

Select FILE - NEW, or OPEN for amending an existing one.

New - Select a ROUTE. In this case Route 1. "1" to keep it at the top of the Routes Folder.

New Activities - I used 1 again to keep it at the top of other listed Activities for that Route.

Display Name and Duration - again 1. Having your finger on the 1 anyway, it's convenient.

Edit Activity Description and Activity Brief - 1 will do again as you don't need to know what this

Activity is all about, creating it yourself! To EXIT them click on the X.

Player Service - select New.

Service Editor - Name and Display Name - guess what, 1 again.

Consist - click on the Drop-Down-Menu Pointer and select your favourite Loco / Consist.

Path - select New and yet again call the PATH and PATH DISPLAY NAMEs 1

Path Editor / Starting and Ending Location - the above also applies.

Starting Point - Move the Path Editor Window out of the way if needed and Enlarge / Zoom part of the Route

you want to start at. Placing the Mouse Pointer over a Track will change it to a small CIRCLE. Right-Click

and select Place Start Point.

A little bit further along the track, in the direction of the intended Player Unit Travel, do the same but

this time select Place End Point. This will make the Activity FREESTYLE, "Do what you like" Mode and

providing the Route's Switches / Points are "MANUAL", confirmed by small levers beside them, ALL of them

can be moved!

You should now have 2 blue dots straddling the Track. The Green circled one denoting the Starting Point

and the RED the End Point. It is sometimes necessary to Toggle the direction of Travel, the Path Editor

having its own ideas occasionally!

You can REMOVE or DRAG the "Points" at will. All done? Leave Path Editor and after SAVING the PATH CHANGES

click on the Service Editors OK to Exit it.

EXIT or X the Activities Editor, SAVEing the ACTIVITY on the way out. No, I'm not going to tell you

again what to call it! But following my suggestion you will find the .act, .pat, .srv Files listed at

the top of their respective Folders!

You will soon want to place some other Consists into sidings to use for Shunting / Switching. NO PROBLEM!

If not in the Path Editor move your Mouse Pointer over a track anywhere and you will get that small Circle again,

Right-Click on it and the ensuing options will be self explanatory.

I can do all the above in less than one minute and so will you soon!

Moving your START or END Points or changing your CONSISTs is easily done by OPENing an Activity and Edit - changing it.

If desired Starting, Ending Location and other Display Names can also be changed at any time to be more descriptive.

HAVE FUN!

O T T O

The #1 TEST ROUTE ACTIVITY with my SANTA-FE-EXPLORER raring to go!