Post by: KPack on August 02, 2016, 07:09:50 PM
Version 2.0 of RPA is available for download from Ring Engineering's website: http://ringengineering.com/RailProSoftware.htm (http://ringengineering.com/RailProSoftware.htm). Select "upgrade" when prompted.
Change-log (according to info from Tim Ring)
-code to support new hardware in updated HC-2
-other software changes to support future porting to Mac
It should work with the original HC-1's and HC-2's as it did before. All changes appear to be behind the scenes.
Please report any issues here in this thread so they can be brought to Ring's attention.
-Kevin
Post by: G8B4Life on August 02, 2016, 11:52:06 PM
- Tim
Post by: KPack on August 03, 2016, 12:25:57 AM
When updating it appears that my file was erased, so whatever sounds I had created or downloaded are not there. That is easily fixed, as I have all my custom sound files ready to create into new files. Also, my Feature Enable was erased. An email to Ring will fix that. I'm assuming the old personal file was incompatible with the updated RPA so it had to be deleted.
I get an error when I attempt to close the application via the "Exit Page" icon on the program. It causes it to crash and not close correctly. I can close the program by clicking the "x" on the box without any issues.
-Kevin
Post by: G8B4Life on August 03, 2016, 03:37:05 AM
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When updating it appears that my file was erased, so whatever sounds I had created or downloaded are not there.
That is not good Kevin. I was able to test the files and they are indeed compatible. Nothing has changed in that respect so I don't know what happened when you upgraded. I can only speculate that something wasn't recognised so RPA replaced the whole storage file. I'll run some more tests and see if I can replicate what happened.
So people, I'll run some more tests but if you have anything in RailPro Assistant that you simply can't lose, copy the file "RailProAssistantStorage" (it's 32 Megabytes and has no extension) to a safe place, like a folder called "RPA Backup" on your desktop or something. In fact, it's probably a good idea to back it up anyway before upgrading. If indeed your storage file gets replaced and you lose all your stuff I might be able to help you get it back, but only if you backed the file up.
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I get an error when I attempt to close the application via the "Exit Page" icon on the program. It causes it to crash and not close correctly. I can close the program by clicking the "x" on the box without any issues.
I got the crashing from the exit button or the X button. Running the program as administrator prevented the crash on exit. Seems like there might be some file system tidying up that it can't do without administrator rights. More tests. Sigh :'(
- Tim
Post by: KPack on August 06, 2016, 09:51:14 PM
-Kevin
Post by: hirailer on August 06, 2016, 10:32:01 PM
Mel
Post by: G8B4Life on August 07, 2016, 01:11:32 AM
This is related to the "crash on exit" (or more correctly the "administrator") bug. Simply put RailPro Assistant 2 needs to be run under administrator privileges to function correctly. It cannot write to the personal storage file to store your login info, downloaded files, personally created files and other program settings without those privileges.
I imagine if you look at the folder listing for your install it will look like this (don't worry about the folder name rpa5, that's not the folder where yours will be installed to. Yours will be installed to the folder location shown in the second image). This shows that the program is not running correctly; all those .rsc files should not be there as they get put into the storage file on the first run of the program and then get deleted.
This is pretty much what the folder listing should look like.
There might be a couple extra files in that shot from my testing that you won't have.
Also in the pictures you will have seen the "RailPro Assistant Storage" file (highlighted in the first pic), this is the file that contains all your custom personally created stuff. You can copy it somewhere to back it up (I'd highly recommend doing that!).
Run RPA2 as administrator (every time) and you should be good to go.
- Tim
Post by: G8B4Life on August 07, 2016, 07:56:32 AM
A simple test follows.
For those that haven't purchased Feature Enable, if you download something from RE's site (something new, not something that you downloaded previously) , close RPA and then run RPA again, and what you downloaded is showing in the "on this computer" section then RPA is able to save to the storage file. If it doesn't show up then you have to run as administrator to allow RPA to work correctly.
For those that have purchased Feature Enable, you can do the same test as those who haven't or you can create a new sound or accessory project which might be quicker. If it still shows the next time you run RPA then RPA is able to save your files, if not then you'll need to run as administrator.
There might be another way to make it all work without running as administrator by changing file permissions but for most running as administrator is going to be the easiest way.
- Tim
Post by: William Brillinger on August 07, 2016, 09:05:08 AM
Here's how to set Run as Administrator permanently ...At least in Windows 7. Other windows version will be similar.
Right click on the program icon and choose Open File Location
Right click on the "RailProAssistant.exe" program and choose Properties
On the Compatibility Tab set "Run this program as an administrator" and click ok
Each time you run the Railpro Assistant you may get this UAC warning. Just click OK
Post by: CPRail on August 22, 2016, 03:07:17 PM
I successfully downloaded the upgrade to V 2.02 to play with my HC-2b, but when I run the .exe file, it chugs along and then says "Error - Could not copy files from Ring Engineering!"
Any thoughts? I'm running a Windows 10 machine.
Ian Lisakowski
The Great White North
Post by: nodcc4me on August 22, 2016, 06:03:44 PM
Post by: CPRail on August 22, 2016, 06:34:56 PM
Ian
Post by: CPRail on August 22, 2016, 06:43:24 PM
Just for giggles, I went and re-downloaded the .exe file from the Ring site and ran it. Everything worked fine this round.
Apparently I just didn't make enough offerings to the computer gods when I first attempted it.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.
Ian Lisakowski
The Great White North
Post by: nodcc4me on August 22, 2016, 06:50:06 PM
Post by: William Brillinger on August 22, 2016, 06:57:06 PM
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That's good! I wasn't sure if the software was fully compatible with Firefox. I guess it is.
The RailPro Assistant software has no interaction with Firefox after it is installed.
Ring Engineering's website however does not like Firefox very much at all.
If you're using the web based interface instead of RPA to load files, you'll want to be using Internet Explorer.
Post by: nodcc4me on August 22, 2016, 07:08:17 PM
Post by: G8B4Life on August 23, 2016, 07:41:35 AM
A note on RailPro Assistant 2.02, as I've mentioned in the software thread, the location of the storage file has changed. This is to negate the need to run RailPro Assistant with Administrator privileges. This means you might "loose" your RailPro Assistant data (program settings, downloaded and self created files) when you upgrade as I don't think the new version is able to migrate the contents of your storage file to the new location. I've not tested this part yet.
Now, all might not be lost however. The old storage file will possibly still exist in the old location which means that it should be able to be copied directly over to the new location. I'll have to run some tests to confirm this to make sure nothing else has changed between version 2.00 and 2.02.
- Tim
Post by: William Brillinger on August 23, 2016, 08:08:03 AM
Post by: G8B4Life on August 23, 2016, 08:32:35 AM
ProgramData is a hidden folder so you might have to adjust your folder viewing settings to see it. The storage file name remains the same, vis
RailProAssistantStorage. For anyone not familiar see the picture in my post http://rpug.pdc.ca/index.php?topic=256.msg1726#msg1726
I haven't checked if anything else has changed yet, rather tired right now to concentrate on that so I'd really recommend anyone wishing to upgrade before I've checked that out to make a backup copy of your storage file if you have something to loose first before upgrading. I know I must sound like a broken record but if it doesn't migrate your settings and files to the new location and it wipes out the old file during installation then all your work is gone, too bad so sad.
- Tim
Post by: William Brillinger on August 23, 2016, 08:41:57 AM
For example, I f I delete a stored image, and reopen RPA, the image is no longer deleted.
It seems to have remembered my login info and options from the old install, even though I chose "reinstall all".
Post by: G8B4Life on August 24, 2016, 08:39:43 AM
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I loaded the software as a full install and it is not saving changes to my data.
For example, If I delete a stored image, and reopen RPA, the image is no longer deleted.
This is odd Bill, I have spent some time trying to replicate what you are experiencing but I can't do it, I can't make it fail in that way, but I haven't Windows 10 either.
It sounds like RPA still cannot access the storage file with the proper permissions to actually write to the file. You could try running it with Administrator privileges and see if it can then delete old files / save new files. Running RPA v2.02 without Administrator privileges works as intended on Win 7 at least. If it still doesn't work we can then try working on a new solution.
I've also done my other testing, there is nothing different about the storage file and what it contains between v2.00 and 2.02 except the location it's stored.
- Tim
Post by: William Brillinger on August 24, 2016, 10:05:05 AM
Delete folders:
c:\Program Files\Ring Engineering\RailPro Assistant
c:\Program Data\Ring Engineering
Remove the desktop icon
The do a RailPro Assistant install and choose Update.
BTW: Tim Ring says the only difference between "install all" and "update" is "install all" also loads the USB drivers for the older HC-1 and HC-2.
Post by: nodcc4me on August 24, 2016, 10:10:01 AM
The HC-2 drivers were also installed using the update method when the program was first run.
Post by: TwinStar on August 24, 2016, 11:42:48 AM
These steps have solved the problem I was having, but of course I lost my data file. Not a problem for me.
Delete folders:
c:\Program Files\Ring Engineering\RailPro Assistant
c:\Program Data\Ring Engineering
Remove the desktop icon
The do a RailPro Assistant install and choose Update.
BTW: Tim Ring says the only difference between "install all" and "update" is "install all" also loads the USB drivers for the older HC-1 and HC-2.
Bill,
Thanks, this is exactly what I had to do to get it to install correctly. I'm running Mac OS X with Parallels 10 and Windows 7.
Post by: LW93Rcode on August 25, 2016, 09:39:08 PM
-Laurence
Post by: William Brillinger on August 25, 2016, 09:59:31 PM
You'll have to contact Ring Engineering to get them to put the Feature Enable back in your account so you can re-download it to your RPA & HC again.
Post by: G8B4Life on October 02, 2016, 01:38:26 AM
I spent some time on this today. I've solved the problem with running RailPro Assistant 2.02 on WinXP (as I suspected it doesn't actually need Vista or greater). If Bill gives the ok I will upload the patched file to the forum. If Bill says no anyone who want's it can request it directly by PM'ing me. I could possibly create a patch that anyone could run themselves but that would probably take more time than I'd be willing to spend on it.
It's definitely a use at your own risk proposition. I tested it and it works fine downloading files from Ring and into the HC for me. Your mileage could vary. There are no changes to the software's actual code, just the part that tells the OS what versions of Windows it can run on. If RE had spent a few seconds changing that in Visual Studio before compiling it'd have been WinXP compatible in the first place.
I do not know if the CI-1 software can be made to run on XP or not, I don't have it yet.
- Tim
Post by: William Brillinger on October 02, 2016, 07:08:44 AM
Post by: nodcc4me on October 02, 2016, 07:25:12 AM
Post by: G8B4Life on October 04, 2016, 07:13:55 AM
My little netbook is the perfect size to use by the layout. Tim, if you can get the new software to run in XP that would be awesome.
Al, I'll know more when I have the CI-1 and it's software but I imagine it'll do doable.
- Tim