Revision as of 11:35, 3 March 2022

The information in this Wiki Page applies to TRS19 and Trainz Plus. This page is intended to provide information for understanding the different asset Status labels used by Content Manager.

Content Manager Status

Start Content Manager by clicking Manage Content from the Trainz Launcher.

The Status column in the Content Manager display gives information about each listed assets location, availability, and its "currency" (installed, obsolete, modified, Payware, unknown, etc).

If the Status column is not present in the Content Manager display, then:- right mouse click on the column heading where you want it to be inserted select Insert Column and then Status Columns in Content Manager can be:-  Removed  Right mouse click on a column heading and select Remove Column  Moved  Hold down the left mouse button on a column heading and drag it left or right  Resized  Move the tip of the mouse pointer onto the dividing line between two column headings, hold down the left mouse button and drag it left or right

Notes: It is important to remember that:- many assets on the Download Station (DLS) are available in more than one version, the original and at least one update. When an asset is updated by the release of a new version, the original, and any previously existing updates, will remain on the DLS for those who prefer to use them instead of the latest release. The status labels Newer version available and Obsolete are the result of updates. an update will not always have the same name as the original or previous updates. It may also have a completely different Asset ID (or <kuid> code number).   Example 1: the list below shows the same asset, the original and 3 updates, using 4 different names for the same <kuid> - the trailing :digit> is the update number.   Example 2: the list below shows the same asset, the original and 2 updates, all with the same name but each has a different <kuid>. The fact that they are updates of the same asset can be shown with the List Asset Versions command. Assets with negative <kuids> can only be updated by issuing them with new <kuid> codes but this can also happen with any asset update.

Available for Download

This modified search filter will show all the freeware assets including their different versions that are available on the Download Station (DLS). Set the Content Manager search filter to Download Station and edit as shown below.

Open the filter (click the small triangle pointer on the left of the word Filter:) Remove (click the (-) buttons on the extreme right) of the filter lines:- Out of date and Obsolete You can save this as a new filter Click the Save button (which will appear as soon as you delete one of the filter lines) Give the new filter a name (e.g. Available for Download) Once saved you can reuse the filter whenever needed.

The filtered list will show all the assets except Payware that are available on the DLS. The Status labels that you may see would be:-

The Status label "Newer version available" means that a later version of that asset can be downloaded and installed The Status label "Obsolete" means that a later version of that asset is already installed in Content Manager

	You can also check to see what is the latest version of an asset that is listed as Newer version available or Obsolete. This will produce a list of all the previous versions (installed or not), currently installed (if any) and later versions of the selected asset.
	right mouse click on the asset select the command List Asset Versions The list can be sorted into alphabetical/numerical order using a particular column by clicking on the column heading. first click - sort ascending A to Z, 1 to 9, Jan to Dec second click - sort descending Z to A, 9 to 1, Dec to Jan third click - same as first click, etc
	In this case the latest version of the selected asset is already installed (Installed from DLS) and it does not have exactly the same name as the original. If the latest version is not installed in Content Manager then it will be shown as Available for download.

Create an "Updates Filter"

A very useful Content Manager filter to create and save is one that will identify and display assets that have updates available on the DLS. Detailed step-by-step instructions for making the filter (it is a simple process) can be found on the Wiki Page Set Up An Update Filter but a summary is provided below.

Create a filter as shown in the figure below:- Set the Installed filter line to True (it normally is) Change one of the remaining filter lines to Out of date and set it to True Delete all remaining filter lines Save the filter - "Updates Available" would be a good filter name You can then highlight, right mouse click and select Download to get the updates for the selected assets. Note: This will show but not update assets that are Built-in or Base. See the Wiki Page Using Content Manager to Update Assets for instructions on updating those assets.

Installing the Latest or an Older Version of an Asset

Where there are multiple versions of an asset that is Available for download, including Newer and Obsolete versions, you can select any listed version and Content Manager will download and install only the latest version.

In the figure above all the assets shown are different versions of the same original asset with the last entry the latest available version. Select any version of the asset, it does not matter if it is labelled Obsolete Right mouse click on the asset and select Download Content Manager will skip over any Obsolete or not yet installed versions and will download and install only the latest available version even if that version is not shown in the list.

You can download and install an earlier (older or Obsolete) version of an asset if you don't want the latest version.

In the figure above all the assets shown are different versions of the same original asset with the last entry the latest available version. Select the specific version of the asset you want, it can be one labelled Obsolete which means that you already have a later version of the asset installed Right mouse click on the asset and select Download this Version Content Manager will ignore any and all newer versions of the asset and will download and install only the selected version.

Installed

This search filter will show all the assets that are installed in Content Manager. Set the Content Manager search filter to Installed. The Status labels that you may see would be:-
[For simplicity only the major labels are shown in the figure below]

The Status "Newer version available" added to a label means that a later version of that asset can be downloaded and installed The Status "Obsolete" added to a label means that a later version of that asset is already installed in Content Manager An asset that was originally Base, Built-in or Packaged can be changed to Installed from DLS by installing a newer version from the DLS

Modified	The asset is one you have created yourself, or have modified or cloned from another asset
Built-in	The asset was installed when Trainz was installed on your system. Built-in assets cannot be deleted
Packaged	The asset is included in a DLC package that you have installed. See the Packaged and Payware section below
Installed from DLS	The asset was installed from the DLS
Base	The asset was installed when Trainz was installed on your system. Like Built-in assets, Base assets cannot be deleted

Notes: You can delete assets that are labelled as Installed from DLS, Obsolete You cannot delete assets that are labelled as Built-in, Obsolete or Base, Obsolete

Third Party

You may occasionally see the following label on installed assets:-

Third Party The assets availability is "questionable". It may be best to avoid using until its status is resolved.

This will appear on assets that:-

• you have uploaded to the DLS but they have not yet been approved for distribution. Usually it takes 24 hours (sometimes more) before approval is given. After approval the Third Party label will be changed to Installed from DLS
• have been removed from the DLS listing, for a variety of reasons:-

• if the reason was copyright violation then the assets will no longer be available to anyone who had not already downloaded and installed them before they were removed. If you had downloaded them then they will appear as Third Party in your Content Manager. If you include them in an uploaded Route then they will appear as <unknown assets> in the Content Manager of users who have downloaded your Route but do not already have the assets.
• if the reason is repair work then they can still be downloaded and installed, as Third Party assets, and the repaired assets will (eventually) become available as updates that will be identified using the "Updates Available" filter as shown in the example below.
• in some circumstances a removed asset might still be downloaded as a dependency of another asset but not as an individual asset in its own right. It will receive the label Third Party once downloaded.

Running the Updates Available filter (see the Create an "Updates Filter" section above) will identify any Third Party assets that have updates available as shown in the figure below:- Highlight the listed assets, right mouse click and select Download from the pop up menu. The updates for the selected assets will be downloaded and installed.

Disabled

You may occasionally see the following label on installed assets:-

Disabled The asset has been manually Disabled (from the Content menu select Disable).

Disabling assets will "hide" them from other assets, including Routes and Sessions, so they cannot be used. It is a useful technique for deleting troublesome assets from a Route or Session without actually deleting the assets themselves. For an example of this see Deleting Stubborn Scenery Assets. Normally you would restore the Disabled assets after fixing the Route or Session (from the Content menu select Enable).

Payware assets that are Disabled will have Payware (not active) as their status label.

Open for Edit

Open for edit The asset is currently in use by another process such as Surveyor, Driver or Content Manager.

This label will appear on any asset that you have:-

• currently open in Surveyor (a Route that is being edited) or Driver (a Session that is running)
• opened in Content Manager for editing - for example changing its config.txt file or image files
• imported into Content Manager from a Content File (.cdp file) or a Content Folder when the same asset is already installed

In the first case, exiting Surveyor or Driver will close the open Route and Session assets.

In the second and third cases you will need to manually close the open assets.

To manually close open assets:- select the open assets (individually or as a group) right mouse click on an open asset select the Submit Edits command to close them with the edits saved, or select Revert to Original to cancel the edits and return the assets to their previous unedited states

Notes: Assets that are Open for edit cannot be exported to a .cdp file. They must be closed first If you import assets into Trainz from a Content File (.cdp) or a Content Folder then Content Manager will not search for and install any missing dependencies from the DLS. You will have to do this manually. See the Missing Dependencies section below If Trainz unexpectedly closes while using Surveyor or Driver, such as a Crash To Desktop or it is terminated by Windows Task Manager, then the loaded Route and Session will be Open for edit when you restart Trainz. See the Trainz Wiki Page Route and Session Basics for more information on dealing with this situation

Unknown, Incompatible, Not Installed

Set the Content Manager search filter to All Content and click the Status column heading (once or twice) to sort the very long list according to their Status labels. Scroll down the list and you may see:-

Unknown Location

The Status label "Unknown location, Obsolete" means that a later version of that asset is already installed in Content Manager

Unknown location The asset is listed as being on the DLS but it is unavailable

The Unknown location label can appear if a later version of an asset has been uploaded to the DLS but the original version was not or had been removed for some reason, as shown in the example below.

If the asset is simply labelled as Unknown location then try the following:- right mouse click on the asset select List Asset Versions You may find a later version is Available for download

Incompatible

Incompatible The asset is designed for a more recent version of Trainz than you are currently using.

For example: TRS19 and Trainz Plus (SP4) will load Routes and Sessions with Trainz asset version builds up to and including 4.9. Routes and Session with build versions 5.0 and above will be labelled Incompatible and will need a later Trainz version (for example TRS19 SP5 for build 5.0) to be loaded.

The Build Version column will identify the minimum Trainz build that the asset needs.

	To display the Build Version column in Content Manager:- right mouse click on any column heading where the new column will be inserted select Insert Column and then select Build Version
	A list of all the Trainz Build Version Numbers with their corresponding Trainz Version Names and service pack numbers can be found at "Trainz-build"_number

Not Installed

Not installed, Payware (not active) The asset is in a DLC package and must be installed using the Content Store option from the Trainz Launcher

Unknown Asset

An <unknown asset> can appear when using the List Asset Versions or the List Dependencies commands on a selected asset.

The label "<unknown asset>" will be shown in the Name column and the Status column will be blank.

unknown asset The asset cannot be found on your system or on the DLS.

Using the List Asset Versions command on a selected asset will often reveal one or more unknown assets. In this example:- the first version of the asset (<kuid:122285:1161>) is also the original version and is available on the DLS but it is now Obsolete the fourth and latest version (<kuid2:122285:1161:3>) is labelled as Packaged and is installed in Content Manager. It is also available on the DLS. The two intermediate versions (:1 and :2) are unknown assets and are not available on the DLS. They may have been created but never uploaded. It is not unusual for asset creators to leave "gaps" in the Asset ID update numbers (the trailing ":digit" in the <kuid>) during the development process. If the two unknown assets shown above had been uploaded to the DLS then they would have been made Obsolete by the latest version.

Apart from the example above, unknown assets are almost always dependencies of other assets that you have downloaded and installed. The installed assets would be labelled has having Missing dependencies. See the Missing Dependencies section below.

Note: Having an <unknown asset> is not necessarily a problem. If an installed asset with an unknown asset as a dependency is not classified as Faulty then it can often be ignored. A Route, for example, can be labelled as having unknown assets but still function perfectly well.

The unknown asset may:-

• be from an independent (3rd party) web site
• have been made by the same creator as the dependant asset but was not uploaded to the DLS
• have been removed from the DLS for some reason (a rare event but it does happen)
• simply not exist, anywhere

Fixing this may not be easy. Possible solutions are:-

• There is a very long thread in the Trainz Forum where you can find posts looking for missing/unknown assets. See Missing kuids? Post them here
• You can try contacting the creator via email (their address may be in the config.txt file) or a PM (Personal Message) through the Forum

Neither is a guaranteed solution.

If the unknown asset is in a Route or a Session then a third option is to use the Delete Missing Assets command from the Tools menu in Surveyor, but make a backup copy of the Route or Session first.

Packaged and Payware

Some of the Status labels that can appear on Packaged and Payware assets are:-

The Status label "Newer version available" means that a later version of that asset can be downloaded and installed The Status label "Obsolete" means that a later version of that asset is already installed in Content Manager An asset that was originally Packaged or Payware can be changed to Installed from DLS if an update is installed from the DLS. It is possible for a Payware asset to be replaced by an updated "Freeware" version,

Notes: For current DLC packs, there are two important clarifications:- Packaged - means that the asset in an installed DLC package. DLC packages are normally installed using Content Store selected from the Trainz Launcher. If there is no Payware label after the Packaged then the asset will be Freeware and will, most likely, also be available on the DLS. But it could also be on an independent 3rd party web site and not on the DLS. Depending on any license conditions given by its creator, you could modify it for personal use and it may be possible for you to upload the modified version to the DLS or another site Packaged, Payware - means that the asset is Payware and has been encrypted so it cannot be edited or copied

Also Note: DLC packages cannot be installed, updated or uninstalled using Content Manager. The Content Store in the Trainz Launcher will perform those tasks

Can you use Packaged assets in a Route or Session that you will upload to the DLS? An asset will be labelled as Packaged if it is on the DLS and is also part of a DLC package that you have installed. The same asset can be in both locations and its status will be labelled according to how it was installed. For example:- You have installed a DLC package that contains an asset NZ House 1-4 as shown. Even if you had this exact same asset from the DLS before you installed the DLC package, it will now be labelled as Packaged in your Content Manager. You then use this asset in a Route that you have uploaded to the DLS. Anyone who downloads and installs your DLS Route, and who does not already have the asset or the same DLC package installed, will have NZ House 1-4 downloaded and installed from the DLS by their Content Manager as normally happens with all DLS dependencies during the Route installation process. When they look at the asset in Content Manager they will see:- If they later install the same DLC package, or another that contains the same asset, its status will change to Packaged. So the answer to the question is Yes.

Missing Dependencies

This is a label to be avoided.

Missing dependencies The asset relies on the presence of other assets (dependencies) that must be installed on your system and at least one of those assets has not been installed.

The first thing to check is to see if the missing asset or assets can be identified. Right mouse click on the asset select the command List Dependencies All the assets that are required by this asset will be identified. In this case, the Missing dependency is shown as Available for download so it is on the DLS and can be installed to fix the problem. If there are several assets that are listed as Available for download, select and download them all. If the Missing dependency is an <unknown asset> then it can be a much harder problem to solve. See the section Unknown Asset above for possible remedies.

This situation shown in the example above can occur if you have:-

• deleted the asset without realising that it is needed in other assets, such as a Route or a Session, or
• used the Import command to install the asset from a .cdp file or a content folder - Content Manager will not search for and install missing dependencies when you import an asset.
  

To avoid the possibility of accidentally deleting an asset that is a dependency of other assets:- right mouse click on the asset to be deleted select the command List Dependants This will give a list of all other assets that use the selected asset.

Trainz Wiki

More Tutorials and Guides to Using Trainz How to Guides Driver Commands List Session Rules List (Alphabetical) with Parameters Session Rules List (Categories) With Parameters

This page was created by Trainz user pware in January 2022 and was last updated as shown below.