Railpro Assistant V 2.0

[KPack]

Hello gents,

Version 2.0 of RPA is available for download from Ring Engineering's website: 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

[G8B4Life]

I get "Not a valid Win32 Application" when trying to run it on a WinXP machine. System requirements appear to be Win7 or greater.

- Tim

[KPack]

Successful install on Windows 10 here.  Right off the bat I notice that RPA v2.0 has the normal Windows application "box" around it allow you to minimize the program and/or move it anywhere on the screen.  That's a welcome improvement over the previous version.

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

[G8B4Life]

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.

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

[KPack]

My login information is not saving after the RPA update.  Whenever I open it I need to provide my email and password again for it to connect with RE.  Anyone else noticing this?

-Kevin

[hirailer]

I have to sign in each time also.

Mel

[G8B4Life]

Kevin & Mel,

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

[G8B4Life]

I should have pointed out that everyone running version 2 of RPA should check this out. It might save some questions later. Just because RPA runs and you haven't had to put your username and password back in doesn't mean the upgrade has completed correctly.

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

[William Brillinger]

Indeed, Run as administrator fixes the Crash On Exit error and the Data Not Being Saved problem.

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

[CPRail]

Hey Group,

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

[nodcc4me]

Which browser are you using? I was able to download and run the program in IE. I don't know if it will work in Edge.

[CPRail]

I'm using Firefox. The download of the .exe file worked fine, it's once the .exe is pulling files from Ring that I'm having an issue.

Ian

[CPRail]

Okay...mysteries of the interweb...

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

[nodcc4me]

That's good! I wasn't sure if the software was fully compatible with Firefox. I guess it is.

[William Brillinger]

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.