CTC Simulator Updates: New Features, Crew Time Handling, and Preparing for .NET 8

It’s been a long time since the last post—too long, really. So, what happened?

One major development has been the introduction of ChatGPT. Additionally, I got a new computer and set it up to share the CTC source files with the old computer. This was done in preparation for a new CTC release line (version 6.x) that will use a newer .NET interface. On the old computer, I still build the .NET Framework line (version 5.x). There are differences between what you can and cannot do in .NET 8 compared to .NET Framework 4.7.2. All of those details have been worked out, so we may release a .NET 8 line in the future, which will be better suited for what’s ahead.

In the meantime, we’ve implemented a variation of the drawbridge feature. This feature involves a bridge that is mostly closed but opens for boat traffic when needed. This is how large swing bridges, which carry both rail and automobile traffic across rivers, typically operate. The trigger for opening such a bridge uses the foreign train feature, which, as you know, sends trains at random across tracks that intersect with your scenery at certain diamonds. CTC allows you to set up foreign tracks and even hide the crossings from view, so you wouldn’t even know that the “boats” are actually trains. Additionally, derail switches can now be set up for drawbridges, ensuring that the entire sequence of opening and closing bridges happens in the proper order.

We’re currently working on the design and implementation of Crew Time Handling—specifically, the maximum time a train crew can operate a train before a dispatcher needs to arrange for a replacement crew. Softrail’s TrainDispatcher has a similar feature, but there, you have an unlimited resource of replacement train crews, which, as you know, doesn’t reflect the reality of real-life operations. In CTC, we’re introducing the concept (class) of train crews, who can work for a set period but then need to rest before returning to duty. The train crews will essentially run the trains but will be idle during breaks, waiting for a replacement, or resting at home. There are numerous regulations and policies that must be followed, and we’re striving to reflect these in our CTC simulator. You can read more about this on our forum, where we’ve had some discussions.

Some elements of this new feature may appear in the next release of the CTC simulator, such as the establishment of one or more train crew offices where crews wait for their next assignment. These offices will be associated with specific areas they cover, meaning you’ll need to contact the office closest to the block where the replacement is needed. The farther away the office, the more time it will take for the crew to arrive. Additionally, the office will be dedicated to the type of train crew you need, whether for freight, passenger interurban, or long-distance trains.

As always – enjoy the game and happy Dispatching
Your WebRailRoader Team

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New territories, packages and such

It has been a while but now we finally got around to have something new for you.

First of all, there are two new territories, and an update of an old one we have already in our library. All three of them were originated by contributor and fellow Dispatcher James Perva – you might remember our previous post showing his “office” here . As you can see, he has two monitors side-by-side, showing one of his territories spread across them, basically a “wide” version of his territory. James has created a wide version for each of his three territories, which he has offered to put into our library.

The wide versions have the same data as the regular versions except they are intended for use on dual monitors. The schedules are the same as well as the basic structure of the territory. We have decided to give each of them their own ID, their own unique entry in our library.

Since the regular and the wide version of such a pair are essentially the same, we have decided to introduce package deals in our system. One such package consists both regular and wide version of one particular territory, and, again, given a separate ID in our library. If you buy such a package, you get both regular and wide versions for a reduced price, as opposed buying them separately. Note, you still have both versions available when you run the FREE or STANDARD versions – the licenses affects only the PREMIUM versions.

It is possible we might extend our offers to add other packages in the future.

For more information about the packages in general see our manual – which by the way has also been updated.

But wait, there is more…

The CTC program has also been updated, among other things to help you to navigate thru the package deals. With older versions you can also buy packages, it’s just you can’t see how the items are related. With CTC 5.8 you can now see what is going on.

Go to our download page to get the good stuff!

As always – enjoy the game and happy Dispatching

Your WebRailRoader Team

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Is It Real Or Is It CTC

We have recently received a photo from our contributor and fellow Dispatcher James Perva, showing how HE is running our CTC program:

WebRailRoader’s CTC in Action

The middle and right monitor has the track scenery spread over both of them, while the left one shows the train data table plus the stack routes window.

I have to say – I’m jealous! I myself can run only two monitors side-by-side and the space on the my desk is also a little bit tight.

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CTC Release 5.5 is now available

CTC version 5.5 has now been released and is available from our download page. It contains some enhancements partially based on customer feedback.

There was a problem not being able to assign a speed list when none Continue reading

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Service Upgrade and CTC Update

We have now completed the technical stuff, so everything should be back to normal.

We have relocated the forum and the CTC user manual to https://forum.webrailroader.com/ and https://ctc.webrailroader.com/ respectively. Notice the “https” – not utterly important for our purpose, but some browser may complain about the regular “http”, so here we go.

The old places will now redirect to the new places.

The manual has now a different look – it little bit bland, but it has the advantage of being mobile friendly, and therefore load more quickly. The contents have also been updated today.

As for CTC – the  version 5.3 has now been released, with basically two upgrades:

The Editing of Display-only objects (“Others”) has been upgraded with regard to display of texts: you can now select the anchor position of the text (box) so as you type in text, on the main screen it will flow the way you want it. Also you can save some text parameters has defaults and apply these defaults to other text objects. So you don’t have to rely on the group edit for disp-only objects to make font style, size, and colors the same for multiple text objects.

Also, we implemented a customer suggestion to simplify the linking procedure of blocks which are not so near by. The “Link nearby Objects” function within the block tool will not do only the link nearbys, but also show open connections which you need to care of also, since the tool cannot do it. Those spots are now marked with yellow dots. You just need to click on these dots (the first with the left button, the other with the right button) to connect those ends.

I should have come up with these idea much earlier….

Your WebRailRoaderTeam

 

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Service Upgrade

Once in a while there is a service upgrade on the platform where we have our website located and the services that come along with it. Our website is hosted by Hostgator, and we are usually quite happy with them.

Now they have decided to upgrade the PHP interpreter. PHP is a language used to write very complicated stuff, like you can do with languages like C++. WordPress sites, like this one, are using PHP. WordPress is maintained by some open source organization, and so they take care of it. Normally, WordPress upgrades are handled seamlessly. It was not a problem for this very site that you’re reading this now.

Our forum was a little different. But we re-deployed the newer software to a different location, and mapped the database to the one already established. So the forum is now located in forum.webrailroader.com instead of webrailroader.com/forum (so in a subdomain instead of a plain folder), and a redirect is in place to guide you from the old place to the new place.

The manual for the CTC software is a different story. It is also a wordpress site, but it is heavily peppered with our own PHP code, which creates the nice linkages between the pages. Now the theme used for this site as well as the plugins used to make our scheme work haven’t been updated for quite some time. The PHP code that we wrote have been updated, so the interaction between the CTC program and the services on the website seem to work, so whatever you do in CTC, including reviewing what you have bought, or initiate a purchase should work (including the confirmation page on the web). So that is fine. The only thing missing is the manual.

We are working hard to make the manual working again. In the meantime download links are provided in our relocated forum here:

https://forum.webrailroader.com/index.php?topic=11602.0ly

Your WebRailRoader Team

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Update on Recent Developments (Release 5.1)

I just want to give you an update on recent developments, on where things stand, etc. This blog appears to me a good place to communicate some background info among other things.

Why Release 5.x?

When CTC was started using .net framework with VisualStudio, the framework was version 2.x (and I was running Windows XP). If you have the framework 2 on your computer from some time ago, everything is fine. But this is not always the case. A few years ago, a customer had a problem and he manually downloaded the libraries, but today this is not possible anymore. So the project needed to be upgraded to a more recent .net framework version. This opportunity was also used to cleanup some things (new project in VS, etc). So 5.0 is basically 4.13 but targeting .net framework 4.7.2, the latest available. This has apparently solved a more recent problem installing CTC.

For 5.0, I added a little welcome window, so that you know that CTC has started – it may take a little time for a territory to load, but you have at least an early indicator that more is to come. Incidentally, this was a benefit for myself – after post-production of 5.1 I didn’t get the welcome window, but because of that I was able to quickly resolve the issue.

Do you use two monitors side by side?

Then I have good news for you. You can now move – and save – the window position and size for the probably most important windows, the main window, the detailed list window and the train data window (runtime only). Especially during editing you may have quite a number of windows open, so a second monitor will help you a lot with the added real estate. CTC has been adjusted to save and restore window position and size for the mentioned windows especially with side-by-side monitors in mind.

Y-Switches

Not on an urgent list, but a customer request. TDP doesn’t have them, but there is a clone that has them, but I don’t know how they behave with regard to the speed restrictions. Here’s how CTC will handle that: Speed limits will be enforced on both legs, so the “straight” leg (now bent to build one leg of the “Y”) will be behave like the “diverge” leg.

In CTC, a speed block can have one or two speed lists. This is useful if a block has different speed limits based on the directions. If you have two lists for one block, the first one is used for trains heading to the left, the second one for those going to the right. If you have only one list, the limits apply to both directions. If a speed block is assigned to a switch, you have – until now – only one list that applies – a second speed list will just be ignored. This has been modified for Y-switches: if you assign two speed lists, the first one will be applied for trains facing the switch heading to the left, the second one for those to the right. So it possible to apply different speed limits for each leg.

Default Position of Switches

This was a customer request. Without any further action, any switch will be displayed in status “0”, which is “straight” for normal switches. Because of special conditions for slip switches, “straight” shows as “diverge” on the display. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Not having thought about this myself, but thanks to the customer request, you can now set the default position yourself. If you open the detailed window of a switch or a slip switch, and click on symbol showing the switch and its state with the right mouse, you can change it to whatever you want. The main display as well as the symbol in the detailed window will change to show the new state. If you click again, it will go back to what it was (for single slip there are 3 states, and for double slip you have 4 states, so you need to toggle more often).
This function is available only during editing. The state is property of the individual territory. Older CTC versions than 5.1 will ignore the state even if present in the file, and if the file does not have the state info, CTC will continue to display the state as before.

Disable Form Timer

Also a customer request. This is something I had for quite some time for myself – you know, privileged developer as I am, not want to give away not all the goodies. So that was easy to implement. just had to open it up for the release version. The timer was introduced to help to de-clutter the desktop from open detailed windows, that you have forgotten and sitting somewhere.
The option has been added as a check-mark in the sub menu “Operation Mode” of the main panel. If you click to check it on, the timers will stop; if you click to check it off, the timers will resume.

Fill Up

If you ever wanted to shift (move) a big chunk of territory symbols from one place of the layout to another, you had to cover the whole area to be moved with dots in the shifting tool of the editor – by “drawing” lines until you have covered the whole area. Now you can draw a rectangle or any construct that surrounds the area you want to move. The only condition is the boundary needs completely enclose the area you want to move. The new button “Fill Up” allows you to turn on the fill-up function. You can then click on any grid within the area and the tool will put the dots in the area on the grids that don’t have dots yet. Clicking on a grid that already has a dot will do nothing, as won’t do any click on the boundary or even outside the area.

Finally…

CTC 5.1 was released to include one error correction, which was important enough to release as it is right now – even more changes are going to come.
So keep watching

Your WebRailRoader Team

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Coronavirus and CTC

I just want to give you an update how the Coronavirus pandemic is affecting us.

We are in an area of emergency orders (who is not!), and all non-essential businesses are ordered to be shut down.

So who determines what is essential? I would make the point that CTC is essential, for me as the developer, and for you as customers.

More seriously – since I run everything from my home office, and there is no direct contact with my customers (other than electronically via mail or internet interaction) I am officially allowed to continue.

Of course, I do social distancing – with my wife….

I hope, of course, that you are doing ok. If not, please get better.

Just want to say, that in these times of staying at home, not able to travel, probably not much to do, CTC is just perfect to get thru it. You can spend hours playing it, and get a taste of the wide world (CTC wise of course).

It is still free. And while there are limits unless you purchase some licenses, you can continue to use the free version, and when your situation improves especially financially, you can get the licenses then.

I still think that is a good deal, don’t you think?

The current version of CTC, by the way, is 4.12.

Enjoy the game and happy Dispatching

Your WebRailRoader Team

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An Update …

I haven’t posted here for a while, so first off I want to apologize for my silence.

No, it wasn’t Dorian (came close).

However, soon after that, I got involved into a software project, which of course takes some time away. Good news is, though, that I could use things from the CTC project into this new project – and from there things feed back into CTC, including problems I found that apply to both projects. Over there, I added a feature that allow to add images to be placed on the scenery – adjusts the size when zooming in or out. In CTC graphics (lines, circles, even texts) are drawn onto the screen, larger or smaller as needed. Actually, external images (from a file) are also drawn by the graphics routine, I just haven’t done it before and have since learned how to do it.

Although slowed down, development on CTC is not idle. As of now, the current release is 4.11. Besides of corrections here and there, you might notice additions for the future support of the helper function.

CTC will support both types, the coupled and the un-coupled types. While the coupled type could be run using the train merge/split feature, the required setup via train schedule is not flexible enough, e.g. you could not use any helper engine – it has to be the one assigned on that schedule, not anyone that happens to be currently available.

Note, we are talking here about pushers (aka bankers), not helpers in the middle of the train (those would still have to be handled by scheduling)

Part of it is an adjustment of the runtime model – the algorithm that determines the speed and acceleration/braking needed for any situation encountered by the train. The current model has a weakness when it comes to slow speeds which is detrimental for a good helper performance.

The next feature after that is probably going to be the crew time handling, e.g. the time available until a train crew needs to rest and to be replaced with a fresh crew.

That’s it for now. Hopefully there won’t be that long period of silence on my part!

As always

Enjoy the game and happy Dispatching

Your WebRailRoader Team

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Dorian and CTC

Well, the saying is, it’s the season.

Like two years ago, a strong hurricane is approaching our area. Depending on where Dorian hits, we here may not be online for some days.

Last time the interruption lasted for 55 hours.

If you are not affected yourself, you can of course run CTC and access the website, even purchase things. However, registration codes may not be produced for a while – you will get them once we’re back online.

 

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