RocRail. User experiences

[nnich]

I've been following the topic on "iTrain good or not so good" with considerable interest and I would be very interested in similar user experiences and "how tos" with RocRail.  I am a RocRail user and while I have found it has much of the functionality of TrainController and iTrain it is a very hard learning curve and the documentation is not exactly very helpful most of the time.

 

i am at the point where I have almost full automation but am having trouble operating a true timetable schedule.  I also cannot figure out how to implement U.K. Signaling although I understand there is an add in for this.  

 

I use mostly digikeijs equipment now having started with digitrax.  I find the digikeijs dr5000 control station and dr4088ln block detectors much more cost effective and reliable than Digitrax equipment

 

to to the point, if the new version of iTrain due this year is as good as I am hearing I could be convinced to switch but meantime maybe this is a place we can swap knowledge on RocRail and especially automation and signaling

 

[WIMorrison]

The next version of iTrain (V5) is due for release towards the end of this year, specifically before Christmas and it is being actively developed and tested now though a release candidate is quite a way of yet.

 

it will definitely have UK signalling as that is the enhancement that is being worked on at the moment, with 4,3 and 2 aspect working correctly and just feathers to get sorted. There are many other enhancements being looked at and many will arrive in the new programme.

 

i also considered RocRail before I went for iTrain as the interface was good (much better than JMRI), unfortunately like you I found the documentation very difficult and as I had no desire to become a programmer again I moved away to a more effective product that does what I want without difficulties for me or the programme  

[nnich]

Good to know Iain and thank you for the reply.  A couple of questions if you don't mind and possibly know the answers

1. For those using semaphore signals.  One of my minor annoyances with rocrail is that I have to show a junction signal on my track plan as two individual posts placed after the switch for the diverging routes.   I haven't figured a better way to do it, and of course I have to create actions so that the switch is one of the conditions setting one to clear and the other to stop.  It gets complicated to write the action logic to combine that with not being able to set either to clear if the block or the next block is occupied. 

2. One of the things I do like about rocrail is the staging yard support where you can have trains automatically move from block to block when the one at the head of the line leaves the staging area.   I did have a quick scan of the iTrain documentation but couldn't see if it has similar support.    Does it do you know?

 

i'm going to have a play with it I think. 

Norm

[tophski]

If you figure out the staging support, please post how, that is the part I am about to tackle in iTrain, but I won't be looking at it for a few weeks yet. If I beat you to it I will let you know how I did it!

Chris

[WIMorrison]

Chris

 

what do you mean by staging support?

 

i know iTrain well and there are ways around most things but I need to understand what you mean first

 

iain 

[RAF96]

I have been looking at this and raised a question on Rocrail forum.

Staging yards in Rocrail are a shuflle up system where trains can be stored in a line. When the front one departs, the rest shuffle up a block, leaving the last slot empty.

They also show in the manual how to rig a fan of yard roads for in and out sensors.

My plan is to combine the two methods to auto-shuffle up a fan of storage roads.

The links are in the Rocrail English  forum  automation section.

[Andymsa]

Just a thought but as rocrail is based on traincontroller would the script work in traincontroller 

[WIMorrison]

AFAIK Rocrail is C++ and Java script on multiple platforms whereas TrainController is .Net - completely different?

 

They may have copied the look and feel, but I cant see how they are the same in any way.

Edited March 14, 2019 by WIMorrison

[RAF96]

Rocrail is open source AFAIK so you can go peek at the code and compare.

Edited March 14, 2019 by RAF96

[Andymsa]

That's what I thought, thanks for the replies

[WIMorrison]

I also thought it was 'open source', but I recall having to pay for support from a chap called Rob Versluis - and I think it was €30 PA. I also note that it is described as proprietary on Wikipedia (that well known source of truth :)) and the software pages describe it as 'free' and not open source. I also recall that one of the reasons I had to pay for support was to enable some functionality as it only worked with a valid support key - which you had to pay for.

 

I worked out that over a few years it was more cost effective to buy an openly commercial product and I decided on iTrain as TC( was an exorbitant cost to get reasonable functionality (don't be fooled by the silver and bronze editions)

[BoD]

On ‎14‎/‎03‎/‎2019 at 13:34, WIMorrison said:

I also thought it was 'open source', but I recall having to pay for support from a chap called Rob Versluis - and I think it was €30 PA. I also note that it is described as proprietary on Wikipedia (that well known source of truth :)) and the software pages describe it as 'free' and not open source. I also recall that one of the reasons I had to pay for support was to enable some functionality as it only worked with a valid support key - which you had to pay for.

 

I worked out that over a few years it was more cost effective to buy an openly commercial product and I decided on iTrain as TC( was an exorbitant cost to get reasonable functionality (don't be fooled by the silver and bronze editions)

 

 

I use Rocrail and found that it does everything that I need it to.  What functionality do you not have access to without the support code?  I haven't found any yet.  As far as I understood it you weren't paying for support but were supporting the costs involved.

[WIMorrison]

There are a few elements and these are the ones that I found especially annoying

 

https://wiki.rocrail.net/doku.php?id=rocweb:rocweb-en

 

https://wiki.rocrail.net/doku.php?id=androc-intro-en

 

and then there is the nagware element

 

https://wiki.rocrail.net/doku.php?id=rocgui-donate-en

Edited April 9, 2019 by WIMorrison
created dynamic URL

[BoD]

I hadn't noticed those, probably because they are features that I don't need or use.  

 

The 'nagware' is a bit of a pain but can be cleared with one click each time you open the program if you don't support it.  I, personally, am happy to put up with that because the program does what I need in that it provides a manual mimic panel that operates points and signals with an on screen click.  It can also operate in semi of fully automatic mode so I can sit with my feet up, a coffee to hand, and watch the trains go by.  When I use it manually I use handheld throttles hence no need for those features only available to 'supporters'.

 

I do agree that it is quite a steep learning curve but I enjoyed that aspect and the more I look into it the more I like what it can do and what I can do to tweak  things.  Others may not be so keen on this aspect of things.