Unable to place signals

[PamBrooker]

I have a major problem ive been confused about for weeks.. When I attempt to place a signal, It disappears as soon as I click the mouse button. If I place one at point A, a second appears which I place at point B and the one at point A disappears, Or, I place one at point A and press the right mouse button to stop placements, and the one i placed disappears. This happens with every signal regardless if its freeware or payware or european or american, and a few other objects as well.. I am very confused. Has anyone else seen this, solved this??

[Chacal]

Maybe the editor drops them high in the sky or deep below ground level?

[GreatNortherner]

Hi,

It's hard to tell from your description, but you may be missing a step in your placement routine: after selecting the signal, don't click anywhere just yet. Select your signal from the list, move it roughly where you want it to be, click and hold the left mouse button to rotate the signal into the desired direction (position and rotation don't have to be precise yet).

Now let go of the mouse button and see how the first track link of the signal is active -- place that one, with a single left click, on the track right next to your signal. Now the next track link will become active, place that one on the far side of the switch on the through/straight track. More links will come up depending on what signal you selected, go through all tracks protected by this signal and place the links one by one.

You must not click anything other than "placing signal links on tracks" during the link process, any click on the grass or a right-mouse button click will cancel the whole setup process for that signal. Once the last link is in place, the signal will also stay put and be ready to use. You can now select it again and fine-tune its rotation and position.

BTW, the numbering of track links for a signal starts at "0". So, for example, a two-track turnout signal "2H2T" actually has THREE links, you'll need to click three links on the tracks to complete the placement -- link 0 next to the signal, links 1 and 2 on the far side of the switch.

Then again you may have been doing it like that already, in which case I would have no idea what could be wrong.

Cheers
Michael

[PamBrooker]

Chacal:: No.. they arent actually even being placed. As soon a I right or left click, theyre gone completely.. I already checked that possibility.. good idea though..

[PamBrooker]

Hi,

It's hard to tell from your description, but you may be missing a step in your placement routine: after selecting the signal, don't click anywhere just yet. Select your signal from the list, move it roughly where you want it to be, click and hold the left mouse button to rotate the signal into the desired direction (position and rotation don't have to be precise yet).

Now let go of the mouse button and see how the first track link of the signal is active -- place that one, with a single left click, on the track right next to your signal. Now the next track link will become active, place that one on the far side of the switch on the through/straight track. More links will come up depending on what signal you selected, go through all tracks protected by this signal and place the links one by one.

You must not click anything other than "placing signal links on tracks" during the link process, any click on the grass or a right-mouse button click will cancel the whole setup process for that signal. Once the last link is in place, the signal will also stay put and be ready to use. You can now select it again and fine-tune its rotation and position.

BTW, the numbering of track links for a signal starts at "0". So, for example, a two-track turnout signal "2H2T" actually has THREE links, you'll need to click three links on the tracks to complete the placement -- link 0 next to the signal, links 1 and 2 on the far side of the switch.

Then again you may have been doing it like that already, in which case I would have no idea what could be wrong.

Cheers
Michael

Hi Michael..

I'm surprised.. Your suggestion works for the SMM Signal Lamps. That means i can use a pole or a gantry or bridge to place the signal, which is better than nothing. For Standard signals such as two tall or three tall and semaphores, I can select the type of signal ( cbq for example ) and move it to the position I want. Holding down the mouse button and moving the mouse, simply moves the signal to the place where the mouse is pointing. releasing the mouse button, creates a second signal ready for placement elsewhere ( and doesnt allow me to rotate the original signal ), and placing a second signal elsewhere, causes the first to disappear. clicking the right mouse button causes the signal to disappear without a second signal being spawned..

I have only tried and tested this on the route I created way back in 2010, so i dont know if its a bad route file or not, and need to test it on other routes.

This is really baffling me..

Pam

Update: The problem appears across all routes, whether freeware or payware, Old or new..

Update 2: I have an old copy of TS-2015 on my system and tested this problem out there. Placement was flaewless and smooth and I experienced no problems. So apparently, the problem is only occurring in T-2017. I've uninstalled and am re-installing

Update 3: While reinstalling, I copied my ts-2017 assets and content folders over too the ts-2015 directory and the problem re-appeared in ts-2015. Is there any file in the content or routes folder that could cause you to not be able to place signals???

[PamBrooker]

Ok, so i was able to trace out the problem. After having the issue occur in TS-2015 after i copied over the content folder. I started going through replacing files.. After replacing the majority of files installed by steam, I replaced the PlayerProfiles.bin with the one i had from ts-2012. Replacing that file seems to have done the trick. I dont know what was changed in it or possibly corrupted, but replacing the above file does appear to allow for placing signal and other objects in game..

[GreatNortherner]

Hmm... how strange this is! Your mention of the profiles file makes me guess that, possibly, the editor's display options reset during the udpate to TS17. The flyout window where you can toggle whether you want to see the sound spheres, track markers etc. or not. Maybe disabling something (markers?) in there interferes with the signal placement like you described?

Cheers
Michael

[buzz456]

I tried to replicate Pam's problem and couldn't.

[PamBrooker]

Hmm... how strange this is! Your mention of the profiles file makes me guess that, possibly, the editor's display options reset during the udpate to TS17. The flyout window where you can toggle whether you want to see the sound spheres, track markers etc. or not. Maybe disabling something (markers?) in there interferes with the signal placement like you described?

Cheers
Michael

I have a feeling it did more than disable things. I have copies of both the working and dysfunctional PlayerProfiles.bin on my system and did a simple file size comparison. The funtional file is 2K larger than the file installed by ts-2017. I can only theorize why this happened. Each time i validate my local cache, it is reported that there are 5463 files that need replacing. The number of files, never changes, it always exactly 5463. Those fles are re-downloaded and the problem continues. There could be multiple reasons for that error to be occurring, but with the consistency of the reported number of corrupted files, I find myself thinking that there is a problem on steams end with my account as simple packet loss would return a variation in the validations report.. As it stands, I now have three backup copies of this file, located on different devices, just in case it happens again.

[PamBrooker]

I tried to replicate Pam's problem and couldn't.

I wouldnt expect that you could nor would i hope you could, because that would mean you were in danger of experiencing the same issue. The 2K difference in file size tells me there are several lines of code completely missing from the updated file on my machine. Had I not had multiple copies of trainsim on my computer, I would have never known,and would have never found the issue. The problem itself is not common, however there are enough reports/complaints about it on the web to let me know that in one variation or another this problem exists elsewhere on a scale large enough to have several people at the very least here and on trainsim.com, scratching their heads. The solution in general with regard to un-placeble objects/signals or disappearing signals, has been to reinstall the game. For me, thats a nearly thirty gigabyte download over a slow connection. Its not an option. I keep three copies of rail simulator on my system, from different periods of time. the oldest is untochable as it always worked and i know its a good copy. the middle one is my test platform.

[hertsbob]

This happens if you have auto rotate selected in the bottom left flyout. It would make sense that the setting for this is included somewhere in your player profile and why your problem went away when you changed the files, because it's not selected by default.

Autorotate.JPG

Cheers

Bob

[Dakota]

BOOYAH!! This totally punked me out! Still there in TS2019. Your explanation of how to (laboriously) lay long straight track accurately aligned to the real world saved me the embarrassment of "adjustment sections". Now this! I went crazy trying to place speed signs and signals. Simple explanation, and again you save me. THANK YOU!!! I had done some route building last year and never saw this issue. Then I played with laying trees etc and used the Auto-rotate for variety, and never turned it off. Weird cross-coupling. And the info previous to this in the thread consists of shots in the dark. YOU GOT IT!