Route and Session Basics

The information in this Wiki Page applies to TRS19 and Trainz Plus. This page is intended to provide you with an overview of the properties and features of Routes and Sessions when creating layouts for Trainz. More detailed descriptions of these various features plus instructions on getting you started with creating Routes and Sessions can be found in the Trainz Wiki How To Guides - links are provided at the end of this document.

What is a Route?

A Route (also known as a "Layout") consists of most of what you will see on the screen when using Surveyor and Driver. A Route consists of two parts:-

1. Route Data and
2. Route Layers.

When you save a Route, all the items in the Route Data and Route Layers will be saved

 Route Data: 

This covers all those assets that are "painted" into the Surveyor environment with a brush tool.

Route Data consists of:-

• Landforms or Terrain - baseboards and ground height
• Water height and spread
• Ground Textures including the grid pattern which is a texture
• TurfFX and Clutter - found in the Effects Layers
• Some Environmental Data such as Latitude, Longitude, Altitude, Water Color, Water Surface, Snow Altitude - see  How to Use Environment Tools for more details.

 Route Layers: 

Route Layers are used to hold the scenery assets that you want to appear in all Sessions created for the Route

All scenery assets are held in layers. Route Layers give you a way of organising or grouping the assets displayed in your Route.

Route Layers have those scenery items that you want to always appear.

Route Layers can contain:-

• Track and Track Objects (such as signals, switches, bridges, tunnels, speed signs, etc)
• Most (or all) scenery items and scenery splines (such as buildings, trees, roads, fences, active industries/stations, etc)
• Rolling Stock (including locos) -  Note:  In TRS19 Platinum Edition and Trainz Plus it is recommended that all rolling stock be placed into a Session Layer
• Lineside and Fixed Cameras
• Trackmarks, Triggers, Direction and Priority Marks

A detailed description of Layers can be found on the Trainz Wiki Page How to Use Layers

Loading (and Creating) a Route

Creating a New Route

On the Driver/Surveyor screen the Route options are shown as a set of buttons at the bottom of the screen.

Click  CREATE ROUTE . This will start Trainz Surveyor and open the New Route Dialogue Window.

It is strongly advised that you enter some details before clicking the tick icon to create the new route. This will save you time and hassle later.

Route name:  Enter the name of your new Route (keep it simple)  Session name:  Enter a name for your new Session (again keep it simple)  Geographical region:  Select a region from the drop down list Notes: You do not have to add the name of a Session but when you save a new Route without a named Session a default Session will be automatically saved with the name Default. This can later cause confusion if a multitude of different Default Sessions appear so it is recommended that a unique Session name be entered at this point. A Session can always be deleted later if you have no interest in creating one for your Route but a Route without a Session does have some disadvantages - see  What is a Session? and  Deleting Routes and Sessions below. Setting a Geographical region sets some basic features of the Route - such as its latitude and longitude (only used to determine the season of the year), the altitude (in metres) of the first baseboard, the number and types of moving road vehicles (if any), to name a few. If none of the installed regions are suitable you can download others from the DLS or create a region of your own - see  How to Create a Region Asset All of the above can be easily edited/changed later. From the Edit menu select Edit Route or press  Ctrl   E

Loading an Existing Route

You must first find and select the Route to load from those already installed. At the top of the Driver/Surveyor screen the Route search options are shown as a set of buttons.

Type:	ROUTES  is the default selection. No need to change this.
Source:	PURCHASED  is the default selection, Click and change to  MY CONTENT  for a Route you have created (or already modified) or to  INSTALLED  for one you have downloaded from the DLS.
Region:	ALL  is the default selection. You can select a particular geographic region if required and IF the Route had a geographic region set when it was created.
Search:	You can narrow down the list of Routes by typing the first few letters of its name (e.g. SA) as shown in the image above.

This will produce a display of thumbnails at the bottom of the screen.

Click on the thumbnail for the Route you want to load, then click on the  EDIT ROUTE  button to load the Route into Surveyor.

Loading an Existing Route From Content Manager

Trainz provides a shortcut that allows you to load an existing Route (or a Route and a Session) directly into Surveyor for editing from Content Manager.

In Content Manager select the filter Routes & Sessions select the Route or Session to be edited use the right-mouse-button to open the Command Menu select Open..., then select Edit Asset in Surveyor If you have selected a Session then both the Route and the Session will be loaded into Surveyor for editing.

Loading After an Unexpected Shutdown

If you select a Route for loading after an unexpected shutdown of Trainz then any Route (or Route and Session) that was open and running in Trainz Surveyor or Driver will be left marked as Open for Edit. When you attempt to load this Route into Surveyor or Driver you will see a message listing the Route and Session (if any) that were affected.

Notes: A similar message will appear when you load a Driver Session (see  Saving and Loading Sessions in Driver below) after editing the original Route or Session that was used to create the Driver Session. It is possible that the changes you have made may affect the operation of the Driver Session.

The message is saying that the assets in the list may have been changed since the last time you loaded them and exited Trainz normally. For example if you had been editing the Route and/or Session and had experienced a crash to the desktop or had used Windows Task Manager to terminate the program.

The options you will see are:-

Use changes		Use the edited/changed versions that are in the open database assets - there is a possibility that they may have been damaged during the shutdown and may be corrupted
Revert changes		Ignore the edited/changed versions and load the previous versions instead
Cancel		Cancel the Load and return to the Surveyor/Driver menu screen

You could also use the Content Manager program (select  Manage Content  from the Trainz Launcher) to Submit the open Route or Route and Session assets. This has the risk of replacing the last good copy of that asset or assets with a possibly faulty copy.

Editing a Route

When a Route is loaded or a new Route is created all the assets you add will be automatically placed into a Route Layer

When you create a new Route (with or without a named Session), or load an existing Route without a Session, and start adding scenery assets they will automatically be placed into a Route Layer. See  How to Use Layers for more details.

Any ground textures, water, effect layers (turfFX and clutter) you add, or terrain changes (including new baseboards) you make, will be added to the Route Data.

Warning:

Moving or deleting a section of track that is occupied by a train will cause problems particularly if the train is in a Session and you have only loaded the Route for editing. The train will most likely become a "missing asset". Move or delete any affected trains first before editing the track by loading and editing the Session, not just the Route. See  Loading an Existing Session and  Editing a Session below.

What is a Session?

In general, while a Route provides the physical structures (or "hardware"), a Session provides the services (or "software"). While you can easily have a Route without a Session, it could be a very limited (or even a boring) experience.

A Session is always a part of an existing Route - you cannot have a Session that does not belong to a Route

A single Route can have multiple Sessions, or none, but a Session must always belong to a Route. To put it into Trainz terminology, a Session has a Route as a dependency.

If you create a Route without a Session then ALL the active industries and rolling stock, time, environmental conditions, etc, will revert to their original (default) values. There will be no AI drivers and drivers will have a very limited set of available commands for manual driving

A Session consists of two parts:-

1. Session Data and
2. Session Layers.

When you save a Session, all the items in the Session Data and Session Layers will be saved

 Session Data: 

Session Data are often the "invisibles" that control the operation of a Session.

Session Data contains:-

• Drivers (names, AI commands and assigned locos)
• Driver Commands - those available for AI and manual driving
• Session Rules
• Environment Settings (weather, lighting, time of day)
• Industry Settings (commodities consumed and produced)
• Consist Settings (commodities carried)
• Consist Locations (TRS19 Platinium Edition and Trainz Plus only)
• Switch Settings (left or right) - but the default switch direction is stored in the Route

 Session Layers: 

	Session Layers are used to hold the scenery assets that you want to only appear in that particular Session and not in all Sessions
	Session Layers can be left empty and the Route Layers can contain all the scenery assets

Session Layers give you a way of organising or grouping the assets displayed in your Session.

Session Layers can contain:-

• Scenery
• Rolling Stock (including locos) -  Note:  In TRS19 Platinum Edition and Trainz Plus it is recommended that all rolling stock be placed into a Session Layer
• Trackmarks, Triggers, Direction and Priority Marks

Notes: While it is possible to add track and track objects (bridges, tunnels, turntables, signals, switches, etc) to Session Layers it is not recommended. These fixed assets should be placed into Route Layers.

A detailed description of Layers can be found on the Trainz Wiki Page How to Use Layers

Notes: Scenery, Rolling Stock, Triggers and Markers (Track, Direction, Priority) can be used in both Route Layers and Session Layers. Assets placed in a Route Layer will appear in all Sessions that are based on the Route. The vast majority of (if not all) scenery items will be placed in Route Layers. Assets placed in a Session Layer will only appear in the Session where they have been saved. Examples of assets that would be placed in a Session Layer instead of a Route Layer would include:- products waiting at a factory for pickup in an industrial Session that are not needed in a passenger Session signallers holding lanterns in a night Session or standing alongside manual track switch levers in a shunting Session trackmarks and triggers that are only required in one Session and not in all Sessions crowds of onlookers alongside the track in a Session recreating an historic steam train run, together with historic rolling stock in a vintage train Session running on a modern Route

Loading (and Creating) a Session

Creating a New Session

To create a new Session you must first create a new Route or identify an existing Route

A new Session can be created in two ways:-

Method  Automatically When a New Route is Created
	Follow the steps shown in the section  Creating a New Route above by entering:- a Route name for the new Route a Session name for the new Session (optional) a Geographical Region

Method  From an Existing Route

Remember that a Route can have many individual Sessions so a new Session can be added to an existing Route that may already have a Session or Sessions. The first step is to locate (but not load) the Route as described in the section  Loading an Existing Route above. Once you have selected the Route from its thumbnail, click the  VIEW SESSIONS  button. Then click the  CREATE SESSION  button. If no other Session exists for this Route then this will be the only choice available to you.

Both methods will load the Route into Surveyor and create a new Session with all its values/parameters set at default levels.

Loading an Existing Session

There are two different ways to load existing Sessions into Surveyor.

Method  Search For the Session

The easiest way to load an existing Session is to use the search tools at the top of the Driver/Surveyor screen. Type:  ROUTES  is the default selection. Change this to  SESSIONS . Source:  PURCHASED  is the default selection, Click and change to  MY CONTENT  for a Session you have created (or already modified) or to  INSTALLED  for one you have downloaded from the DLS. Gameplay:  ALL  is the default selection. There is no need to change this Search: If required you can narrow down the list of Sessions by typing the first few letters of its name. This will produce a display of thumbnails at the bottom of the screen. Click on the thumbnail for the Session you want to load and then click on the  EDIT SESSION  button. This will load BOTH the Route and the Session into Surveyor. Notes: If the  EDIT SESSION  option is not present then the selected Session is a saved Driver Session (a "game" saved when in Driver) and cannot be edited. See the section  Saving and Loading Sessions in Driver below.

Method  Select the Route First

Select the Route as described in the section  Loading an Existing Route above. Then click the  VIEW SESSIONS  button. This will display a list of thumbnails for all the Sessions in that Route. Select the Session thumbnail you need and then click the  EDIT SESSION  button. Again, both the selected Route and its Session will be loaded into Surveyor. Notes: If the  EDIT SESSION  option is not present then the selected Session is a saved Driver Session (a "game" saved when in Driver) and cannot be edited. See the section  Saving and Loading Sessions in Driver below.

Driving a Session

To start Driver simply select a Session as described above and click the  DRIVE SESSION  button.

This will load both the Session and the Route into Driver.

You can save your "game play" in Driver at anytime. See  Saving and Loading Sessions in Driver below.

Editing a Session

When a Session is loaded or a new Session is created from an existing Route, all the assets you add will be automatically placed into a Session Layer

When you create a new Session, or load an existing Session, and start adding scenery assets in Surveyor they will automatically be placed into a Session Layer. See the Trainz Wiki Page  How to Use Layers for more details.

Any changes made to the Session Rules (including drivers and their commands), the Environment Tools, Industry or Rolling Stock settings, will be added to the Session Data.

There are also other changes that will be added to the Session Data.

Saving a Route and a Session

Routes and Sessions are saved from the System Menu on the Surveyor screen.

Selecting  Save  or pressing  Ctrl   S  will save the Route, or the Route and the Session, with the previously entered name(s) when they were loaded or created. You will be asked to confirm both the names (and can change them) and the Save command. Selecting  Save As...  will save the Route, or the Route and the Session, with the previously entered name(s) when they were loaded or created. You will be asked to confirm both the names (and can change them) and the Save As command.

Notes on Saving: If you decide to create a new Session and leave its name as Default then a new Default Session will be created to add to any others also named Default that may already be present in a Route - this is possible because they will all have different <kuid> values. This is why it is not a good idea to use Default as a Session name. Many scenery assets actually have their properties stored in the Session Data even when the assets themselves are in Route Layers. Editing the properties of these assets is considered to be a change to the Session and will result in a Save command requesting that the Session be saved as well as the Route. You can decide whether or not to save the Session. These assets include:- junction switches - the left/right switch direction is stored in the Session (but the switch default direction is stored in the Route) industries - the commodities and quantities loaded/unloaded are stored in the Session industry enabled wagons - the commodities and quantities carried are stored in the Session consist locations - this is stored in the Session (TRS19 Platinum Edition and Trainz Plus only). See the Trainz Wiki Page  How to Use the UDS Interface for more details. named route objects - while the name is stored in the Route, adding or changing the name is treated as a change to the Session It is possible for Trainz to request that the Route and/or Session be saved when no obvious changes have occurred. This can happen when a Route/Session with an earlier asset build number has been loaded into Surveyor. For example - loading a Route with an asset build number of 3.7 (from TRS12 SP1) into TRS19 SP3 which uses asset build number 4.8 for all its Routes and Sessions.

Saving a New Route and Session

If you have created a new Route and select Save or Save As..., then you will be presented with the following Save Route Dialogue Windows.

In both cases the name of the Route that was entered when it was created will be shown and you can change the name, even in the Save option. However, there is no option in either case to change the name of the created Session.

Saving an Existing Route

If you have loaded the Route only and not the Session and HAVE NOT edited any Session Data or Session Layers, then selecting Save will produce the following Save Route Dialogue Window.

The Overwrite existing route and Do not save session options are automatically selected. The Route will be saved (Overwritten using its current name) but no Session will be saved. You can select the Save new route and session option and enter a new name for the Route. The Route will be saved with its new name (the original Route will not be changed). A new Session will be created using the name Default and it will be added to the new Route. Because you did not originally load a Session, the Session will be saved with the Default values for all settings. You can select the Overwrite existing route and Create new session options and enter a new name for the Session. The Route will be saved (Overwritten using its current name). A new Session will be created using the name you enter and it will be added to the Route. Because you did not originally load a Session, the new Session will be saved with Default values for all settings.

If you have loaded the Route only and not the Session and HAVE edited Session Data or Session Layers, then selecting Save will produce the following Save Route Dialogue Window.

The Overwrite existing route and Create new session options are automatically selected. Enter a new name for the Session - it is not recommended that you leave it as Default. The Route with be saved (Overwritten using its current name). A new Session will be created using the name you enter and it will be added to the existing Route. You can select the Overwrite existing route and Do not save session options. The Route with be saved (Overwritten using its current name) but no Session will be saved. Any changes you have made to the Session Data or Session Layers will be lost. You can select the Save new route and session option and enter a new name for the Route. The Route will be saved with its new name (the original Route will not be changed). A new Session named Default will be saved and added to the new Route.

Saving an Existing Route and Session

If you have loaded a Route and a Session and have edited the Route or the Route and the Session then selecting Save will produce the following Save Route Dialogue Window.

The Overwrite existing route and Overwrite existing session options are automatically selected. Both the Route and Session will be saved (Overwritten using their current names). You can select the Save new route and session option and enter a new name for the Route. The Route will be saved with its new name (the original Route will not be changed). A new Session will be created using the same name as the original Session and it will be added to the new Route. You can select the Overwrite existing route and Do not save session options. The Route with be saved (Overwritten using its current name) but no Session will be saved. Any changes you have made to the Session Data or Session Layers will be lost. You can select the Overwrite existing route and Create new session options. Enter a new name for the Session. The Route with be saved (Overwritten using its current name). A new Session will be created using the name you enter and it will be added to the existing Route.

If you have loaded a Route and a Session and have edited the Session (Data or Layers) only and not the Route then selecting Save will produce the following Save Session Dialogue Window.

The Overwrite existing session option is automatically selected. The Session will be saved (Overwritten using its current name). The Route will not be changed. You can select the Create new session option. You can enter a new name for the Session or use the suggested name which will include the date, time and Session runtime. A new Session will be created using the entered name and it will be added to the existing Route. The Route will not be changed.

Saving a Route and Session Using the UDS

TRS19 Platinium Edition and Trainz Plus have an additional feature, the UDS (Unified Driver Surveyor) Interface, that allows you to quickly switch from Driver to Surveyor and back to Driver again without having to restart the Session from the start. You can edit a Route and Session while in Surveyor and then switch back to Driver to continue the Session where you left it.

This powerful ability does come with a warning. If you save the edited Session before switching back into Driver then all the moving consists will be saved in their new positions. Other changes, such as the status of Session Rules, will also be saved in new states. See the Trainz Wiki Page  How to Use the UDS Interface for more details.

Most of the problems users seem to be experiencing with the UDS, judging from the posts in the Trainz Forums, is when saving their edited Session before switching back into Driver mode.

	Using Driver Mode involves driving consists (either manually or through the AI) and activating rules. These will change the Session Data
	Overwriting the Session will save changes to the consist locations and the Session Rules

	Notes: An important change that has been introduced by the UDS is that train vehicle placement is now saved as part of the Session, even if those vehicles have been placed in Route Layers.
	For this reason, in TRS19 Platinum Edition and in Trainz Plus it is strongly recommended that all consists be placed into a Session Layer and become part of a Session instead of the Route

When you are in Driver Mode at least one of the consists will probably be moving. Some of the Session Rules may have already been completed while others may still be running or waiting for events (e.g. triggers to be activated). If, after switching to Surveyor Mode, you then choose to save using the Overwrite existing session option then you will be replacing your original starting Session with a new one with the consists saved in their new positions and the Session Rules saved in their new states. So when you later load and restart the Session things will not be the same as they were in the original or starting Session.

 Unless you have a particular reason for overwriting the original Session  then the recommended save options are:-

Option  Do not save session
	This will only save the Route using its existing name. This will save any edits that you have made to the Route but not to the Session.
Option  Create new session
	This will save the Route using its existing name. It will also save the Session using a new name you enter in the text box below the option (Stage 3 in the example shown). The original Session will not be altered. This is useful when you want to test out changes to consists, industry settings, Rules, driver commands, etc but do not want to destroy the original Session.

If you have have NOT edited anything while in Surveyor and select  Save  then you will be shown the Save Driver Session dialogue window to save the Session in its current state as a Driver Session (also called a Game or Driver Game). This is exactly the same as pressing  Ctrl   S  while in Driver.

The Driver Session will appear in the Select Session menu for the Route. Loading it will resume Driver at the point where it was saved.

Exiting Surveyor

If you exit Surveyor after editing without saving then you will be prompted to Save.

Unsaved  Route	Unsaved  Session

	Selecting  Don't Save  will exit Surveyor without saving. Any changes you have made will be lost.
	Selecting  Save  will exit Surveyor after saving. You will be prompted to select what to save as described in the section  Saving a Route and a Session above
	Selecting  Cancel  will cancel the save command and return you to Surveyor.

Saving and Loading Sessions in Driver

Saving Driver Sessions

Driver Sessions (sometimes called "Games" or "Driver Games") are "Game States" saved while in Driver Mode

Driver Sessions save the "state of play" in Driver - the position of consists, the commodities and levels in rolling stock and industries, the state of the Driver Command queues, Session Rules, clock time, etc. Once saved, the Driver Session can be loaded back into Driver to continue the play at the point where it was saved.

When you are in Driver select  Save  from the System Menu or press  Ctrl   S .

This will display the Save Driver Session dialogue window showing the name of the current Session with a date and time stamp (shown left below). If you click the Tick then this will be the name used for the saved game. Alternatively, you could enter your own unique name (shown right below).

The space below the entered name will display any other saved Driver Sessions for that Session.

Loading Driver Sessions

Saved Driver Sessions will be shown with their Sessions for a selected Route. The section  Loading an Existing Session shows two different methods of displaying saved Sessions and their Driver Sessions.
Method will display ALL the saved Sessions and Driver Sessions which may be a very long list.
Method will display ALL the saved Sessions and Driver Sessions for a selected Route, which should be a much shorter list.

Using Method 2: select the Route first and then click the  VIEW SESSIONS  button. This will display a list of thumbnails for all the Sessions and Driver Sessions in that Route.

Notes: Where a Route has multiple Sessions and Driver Sessions they will all be shown by their thumbnails with no way of telling which Driver Sessions belong to which Session. It can also be difficult to tell which thumbnail is a Session and which is a Driver Session, especially if you have removed the date/time stamp Trainz automatically adds to the name of a Driver Session. A simple way to tell is to click on a thumbnail to see if the  EDIT SESSION  button is still visible. If it is not, because Driver Sessions cannot be edited, then the thumbnail is for a Driver Session.

Where there is only one session in a Route, the Session will be the first thumbnail shown in the list followed by the Driver Sessions. Note that the Session is selected by default.

Select (hightlight) the Driver Session you want to load and click the  DRIVE SESSION  button.

This will load the Driver Session, the Session and the Route into Driver.

Warning:
	If you load a Driver Session after you have edited the original Route or Session that was used to create it, then you will receive a message warning you that changes have been made to the original assets. The changes could affect the operation of the Driver Session.
	You will have the options of:-  Cancel  - the Driver Session will NOT be loaded, or  Ok  - load the Driver Session wirh the changes If the changes to the Route or Session have been:- minor and non-operational, such as scenery assets (trees, buildings, etc) then the Driver Session can be safely loaded. more significant operational changes, such as triggers, trackmarks, active industries, consists, tracks, etc, then it may not be wise to load and run the Driver Session. Only you can be the judge.

Deleting Routes and Sessions

All the Surveyor and Driver screens for loading Routes and Sessions have a  DELETE ...  button as an option. Selecting a thumbnail and clicking  DELETE ...  will delete the selected thumbnail and the Route/Session it represents.

Warning:
	If you delete a Route you will also delete all Sessions (including Driver Sessions) created using that Route
	If you delete a Session you will also delete all Driver Sessions created using that Session

Deleting a Driver Session will only delete that Driver Session, not the Session or Route it was created from

If you need a more selective way of deleting Routes, Sessions and Driver Sessions, then use CM (Content Manager) from the Trainz Launch Screen. Select the Filter Routes & Sessions.

The Type column will identify each entry as a Route, Session or Misc. Misc in this case means a saved Driver Session.

You can delete Routes and/or Sessions individually but if you delete a Route by itself then its dependant Sessions and Driver Sessions will be shown as faulty with Missing dependencies. Likewise, if you delete a Session by itself then its dependant Driver Sessions will be shown as faulty with Missing dependencies.

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Trainz Wiki

	Route and Session Building Guides How to Guides Create a Route in 10 Minutes How to Make Good Scenery How to Use the Session Editor
	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

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This page was created by Trainz user pware in September 2021 and was last updated as shown below.

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