Atomic Systems

After my recent frustrations with Railworks I decided yesterday to install MSTS on the new laptop, which is a Win 7 64 bit machine. MSTS itself installed okay following the guidelines here, but trying to put some of the utilities on was another matter. We know that Train Sim Modeller won't install or run on 64 bit and TS Tools didn't really work on anything above XP properly. However when I tried to install Demex 1.51 the installer aborted before even unzipping the files. I copied and manually amended the file type to zip, successfully extracted the setup files but trying to run the installer (with and without admin rights) the same problem occurred.

Apart from the even older TSTF, without access to TS Tools or Demex, that pretty much puts the nail in the coffin for any plans to revive MSTS route building. I'm assuming that the original developer of Demex has all but abandoned the programme and there are no plans to issue an upgraded 64 bit version?

I did see there was some sort of workround for Demex posted at TS, but that involves bringing all the files from a 32 bit machine and hacking around in the registry. Not really my cup of tea and given the fact other utilities not yet tried might encounter similar problems I abandoned the attempt to revive MSTS and have to just accept it's Trainz, Railworks or nothing (unless someone creates a route editor for Open BVE).

We know that Train Sim Modeller won't install or run on 64 bit and TS Tools didn't really work on anything above XP properly

Vern, I've been using TSM for over 3 years and also TSTools on Vista 64bit without problems.

There is the option of a dual boot system, described somewhere on these forums, or keep a 32 bit Windows XP PC as I have to run these utilities (I never throw things away). DEMEX tends to be used only in the very early stages of route building so, although it's a bit of a hassle, you can generate your route on the 32 bit system and port it to your 64 bit system for further development. Similarly Train Sim Modeller can be run on the 32 bit system and it's no problem to move models from one system to another.

Having said this, the reports are that once you have fiddled the install of these utilities on to a 64 bit Windows 7 or Vista system they work perfectly well.

Dennis

dee4141 wrote:

We know that Train Sim Modeller won't install or run on 64 bit and TS Tools didn't really work on anything above XP properly

Vern, I've been using TSM for over 3 years and also TSTools on Vista 64bit without problems.

Same here, but with Win7 64-bit.

The problem generally lies with the installer for these old programs, they are 16-bit creations. From Vern's description of Demex the workround is identical to that for TSM. The author of TSM was requested to revise the installer, all to no avail so far.

John

I just purchased Demex 1.51 and it loaded with no problems using Win7 64.

I used the work around to migrate TSM from my XP 32 machine.

Harold

bigvern wrote:However when I tried to install Demex 1.51 the installer aborted before even unzipping the files. I copied and manually amended the file type to zip, successfully extracted the setup files but trying to run the installer (with and without admin rights) the same problem occurred.

The difficulty is with the old 16-bit installer. If you can arrange for access to an earlier machine, this has worked for several people, myself included.

If you have a DEMEX install on a Vista 32-bit machine, XP machine or earlier Win operating system, just copy the entire DEMEX folder (just two files in it) to the new machine. That will let you run DEMEX in un-registered mode. That may be all you're after.

If you wish to have a registered install for the complete tool-set, extra measures are required.

1. Arrange to have a DEMEX install on an earlier operating system (I used my 2nd PC with Windows XP). DEMEX must be Registered there.

2. As before, copy the DEMEX program folder from the old machine to the new computer.

3. Find the DEMEX registry location with the registration key and export this branch; HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\DEMEX (not HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE). Give it a clever name like "Demex.reg" and copy it to the new machine.

4. Run the reg file on the new computer as the user that will be running DEMEX.

I have probably forgotten all of the places I have backed up the DEMEX folder and the reg file...

Off Topic Note to Vern:
http://www.trainsim.com/vbts/showthread ... a-la-oroya

regards,
charlie

I never got round to registering, just used the free version. Guess I will have to run it on the desktop and copy across, before that gets upgraded to 64 bit later in the year.

That attempt at the Peruvian Central looks interesting - worth following.