The project organizes all data necessary to calculate one or more scenarios. Therefore the first action after starting ETCS Brake Model Tool is either opening an existing project or creating a new one. Only one project can be open at a time.
A project that has not been saved after the latest modification, is marked with an asterisk ’*’ in the window title.
All project members are organized in packages. Each package can contain one or more project members.
There is always one global package. The global package has the same name as the project and is located in the project directory, i. e. all member files in the project directory are members of the global package.
There might be any number of local packages. Each local package is located in an immediate sub-directory of the project directory. The name of a local package is given by its directory name.
A scenario has access to the other project members of its own package and the global package. A scenario of the global package has access to its own package only, accordingly.
In general, you should keep the global package as empty as possible, i. e. create most data in local packages. In particular, you should create a separate local package for each scenario you want to analyze. Only those project members, that need to be referred by scenarios of different packages should be contained in the global package.
A new package is created by File – Create new Package. You will be asked for the name of the new package. A sub-directory with the given name will be created in the project directory.
ETCS Brake Model Tool supports project members of the following types:
A new project member is created by File – Create new Member. The ”Create New Member Dialog” will open, where you can select the package the new member shall belong to, and the name and type of the new member.
All member files found in a package directory will be loaded when opening a project.
The following files are created and handled within a project:
All files are text files following XML schemes. Therefore they can be read and their information can be interpreted and even changed manually (if someone considers this useful).
In addition certain evaluation results, intermediate results and graphics can be exported to files. Those files are described together with the related export command, see section 9.5.
The project properties as entered and shown in the project properties dialog are stored in the .prj file. The directory containing the project file is the project directory, and also contains the files of the global package.
Each project member has a name, that must be unique within the package. The name of the project member is the same as its file name.
The flexible train model data is stored in one text file in XML format containing the information shown in the flexible train model properties panel (see figure 4. flexible train model file names must be extended by .flex.
The fix train model data is stored in one text file in XML format containing the information shown in the fix train model panel (see figure 5. fix train model file names must be extended by .fix. Note: The data calculated based on this data is not saved in the fix train model file, since it can be re-calculated very fast whenever it is needed. It can be exported for further use, however, see section 4.7.
The normal service brake model data is stored in one text file in XML format containing the information shown in the normal service brake model panel (see figure 10. normal service brake model file names must be extended by .nsbm.
The set of national values data is stored in one text file in XML format containing the information shown in the national values panel (see figure 11. set of national values file names must be extended by .nv.
The track profile data is stored in one text file in XML format containing the information shown in the track profile panel (see figure 12. track profile file names must be extended by .tp.
The scenario data is stored in one text file in XML format containing the information shown in the scenario panel (see figure 13. scenario file names must be extended by .scn. Note: The data calculated for a scenario is not saved in the scenario file. It can be exported for further use, however, see section 9.5.
If you want a certain file to be excluded from the project, but not delete it completely, you can remove it by File – Remove active Member. This will unload the project member and add _ignore to its file extension.
You can add an existing file, whose file name is extended by _ignore, to any package by File – Add existing Member.
Of course you can also add, rename or delete files using a file system tool, such as Windows Explorer, but you shouldn’t do this while ETCS Brake Model Tool is running in order to avoid inconsistencies.
In the project properties dialog all options relating to multiple models of the project can be set. This information is stored in the project file in the project directory (extension .prj).
Name: A user defined identifier of the project. The name is displayed in the title of the ETCS Brake Model Tool window.
Description: An optional description of the project.
The new name and description have to be acknowledged by the OK button.
Select the color and line style for each line shown in limit charts.
The default colors and line styles are re-activated by pressing Set to default styles .
Select whether the correction factors Kdry_rst are presented and exported as correction factors actually, or as absolute deceleration values.