Speed issues
Q: Updating a lot of objects simultaneously is time consuming.
A: When doing mass update, AutoCAD can sometimes use a lot of "overhead" drawing up extra stuff during the update. By setting the system variable GRIPOBJLIMIT to i.e. 10, AutoCAD will not do this drawing operation while objects are updated.
Q: My computer is very sluggish and slow. What can I do?
A: Check if the ShowReferenceAlignment tool has been turned on. If the reference alignment is very long, or if you selected many alignments at a time, then your computer will slow down notably. The ShowFoulingPoints tool has the same effect on computer speed Use these tools when needed, otherwise keep them turned off.
Manage Stages
Q: I am using the Stage Manager in V1.0 (RC-ManageStagesUsingLayerNames), but some of my layers won't show up.
A: There is a bug in AutoCAD which quite often causes random layers to remain frozen even if they are turned on by the RailCOMPLETE software. This bug only occurs to layers that reside in XREF’ed drawings. To fix it, do the following: Open the AutoCAD layer manager with command LAYER and find a layer that is currently visible, i.e. the light bulb is bright (ON) and the sun is shining (THAWED). Just click on the sun icon and click again on the snow crystal that shows up to get the sun back again. Your invisible layers are now turned on and are consistent with the current Stage Manager layer selection again.
Q: I am using the Stage Manager in V1.0 (RC-ManageStagesUsingLayerNames). When I select a certain stage as current stage, there are still partial graphical elements which are not made invisible, but I know for sure that these elements belong to objects that are not present in that operational stage.
A: A possible reason for this behaviour can be that you have set as current layer (with the AutoCAD LAYER command) the layer that the object(s) in question reside on. When the Stage Manager tries to turn off that layer, it is not allowed to do so due to the way AutoCAD operates – you can’t Freeze the current layer, i.e. it remains Thawed. But the Stage Manager is allowed to turn Off that layer (the light bulb in AutoCAD layer manager goes out), so all graphical elements residing on this Thawed object layer will become invisible. However, if the object – for instance a switch – has graphical elements residing on other layers, say a layer for track center lines, then these parts of the switch will be visible as long as that layer is Thawed and On. The solution is to change the current layer to for instance layer 0 with the AutoCAD layer manager, just double-click on layer 0.
Object Type Definitions
Q: I made an update to the OTD in my model file, and now I cannot read positions any more. I cannot select objects residing in XREFs either.
A: The present V1.0 requires that the OTD in XREFs must be the same as the OTD in the model file you are looking at.
Position
Q: I Turn on the Position tool, but the transient position info doesn't show in my drawing's modelspace.
A: You may have activated the Position Snap mode. If the Position tool has been de-activated and is then re-activated, then you must select a track explicitly again in order to turn on the position. Otherwise it would not know which track to calculate positions relative to.
Q: The object says that it is located in the center of the alignment, yet it doesn't look that way in modelspace. The @distancetoownalignment property is 0.
A: Check if you have tilted your CAD editor view axis, such that the Z axis is not pointing directly towards you anymore. If the object has an non-zero elevation above sea level and you look at it from an angle, then the object will appear to not snap to its alignment, since the 2D alignment geometry is shown as a 2D polyline with Z=0. Use the AutoCAD NAVVCUBE command to show the navigation cube, and click on “Top” to see everything strictly along the Z axis again.
LUA
Q: How can I check if an alignment has superelevation information (or gradient) or not?
A: When no information is available, Lua may return a “NaN” value. This is a very specialized value, which is the only one that is not equal to itself (!), that is, (NaN ~= NaN) is actually True. The trick is to test (x ~= x). See the following example – a local function isnan(x) and an example where cant or 0 is extracted from an object’s own alignment:
RailCOMPLETE dialog window is not visible
Q: I have started command RC-AutoCreateSwitchesAndConnections, but the dialog window does not appear on my computer screen(s). When I click on the AutoCAD-icon at the bottom Windows line of my computer screen, I can see a thumbnail picture of my window, so I know it’s there somewhere, outside my screens.
A: This is a common Windows problem which typically occurs when you undock your laptop from a docking station and either re-dock it in the same or in another docking station. Windows gets confused about where to display new windows.
A workaround is to click on the AutoCAD icon in the bottom Window line on your main computer screen. You shall see a thumbnail version of the missing dialog window. Right-click on the window and select “Move”. Then use your keyboard arrow keys (left, right) until the missing window appears on one of your active screens.
3D
Q: Why do I have to specify a 180 degrees 3D rotation about Z to show turnouts correctly in 3D when they are diverging in the inbound direction? Most other objects just have 0 here no matter the direction it is pointing.
A: The Export3D algorithm uses the @dir direction property for objects that have this one, in order to turn the object the right way. Turnouts in railML 2.3 do not possess the @dir property, so we use the @connectionorientation property instead, and turn the turnout around by 180 degrees if it is incoming, or leave it at 0 degrees if it is outgoing.