MESSAGE
| DATE | 2015-09-16 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Controlling the Subway with Free Software
|
http://www.nycsubway.org/wiki/NXSYS,_Signalling_and_Interlocking_Simulator
NXSYS, Signalling and Interlocking Simulator
nxsys.gif
Contents
* 1 NXSYS
* 2 NXSYS OpenGL Cab View Feature (Windows Version)
* 3 Download, Version 1 for Microsoft Windows
* 4 NXSYS for the Macintosh (Mac OS X)
* 5 Download, Version 2 for Mac OS X
* 6 Legal Disclaimer
* 7 Copyright
NXSYS
New!!! NXSYS, much improved, is now available for the Macintosh. Click
here.
*NXSYS, New York City Subway Signalling and Interlocking Simulator for
Microsoft Windows®*
A tool and toy and labor of love by Bernard S. Greenberg (contact
Bernard ).
*NXSYS* is an application for modern versions of Microsoft® Windows®
(and now Macintosh Mac OS X - see below) that recreates for you the
experience of controlling switches, signals, and trains in the New York
City Subway system. Rather than conventional menus and toolbars, *NXSYS*
presents to you the exact same user interface as so-called
"Entrance-Exit" "pushbutton interlockings" present to New York City
subway towerpersons, except that instead of pressing buttons with your
finger, you click with the mouse. And instead of commanding real trains
full of people, *NXSYS* simulates them cybernetically. You see the same
display, get the same options and responses, must learn the same skills,
and may enjoy the same pleasures as a towerperson at an "entrance-exit"
interlocking.
There is no more comprehensive, detailed information source on New York
Subway Signalling publicly available, or perhaps even to insiders. This
is *THE* way to learn about New York City Subway signalling. And it's
for free, fun, interactive, extensible, and assumes /no prior
knowledge./ (If you wish to learn about NY City signalling right now on
the web, and aren't interested in trying NXSYS, or don't have a Windows®
machine, *please visit NYC Subway Signals
*, written by the author
of this program and its documentation.)
Signal photo by D. Pirmann
The trains and tracks are imaginary, but the control panel, the
extensive relay logic circuitry, and the real-time behavior and
interaction of you and the imaginary trains and tracks are not. You
press buttons and establish and cancel routings, control signals and
switches, and interact with moving trains. You are limited by the
circuitry to safe moves -- you are prevented from sending trains
crashing at each other, setting routes that conflict with each other,
moving switches while trains are on them, or executing any other invalid
or dangerous action. Learning to control the switches and signals under
these constraints is by no means trivial, and this is wherein the fun of
*NXSYS* lies. *NXSYS* is supplied with two sample interlockings, a
(fairly complex) 4-track layout, and a full-spec detailed three-track
layout, an automatic demo that shows you what to do and comments on it,
and a comprehensive help file in standard Windows® hypertext help format
that explains not only all the functions of the program and supplied
interlockings, but all of the railroad signalling, switching, and New
York-specific concepts involved.
*NXSYS* actually simulates relay wiring and logic designed according to
New York City Transit Authority models and standards that have changed
little in forty years. For the electrically-inclined, *NXSYS* allows the
actual relay circuits to be shown in standard NYCTA notation, printed
out /en masse/ to a system printer, and /actually observed in
operation!/ Information is available for designing your own layouts. Not
insignificantly, *NXSYS* can also be used as a powerful tool for
interactive relay-logic design and simulation.
A lifelike three-dimensional "flight simulator" view, showing the
interlocking as you operate it, as a train operator would see it, is
available. *NXSYS* is also an OLE Automation Server, and can be scripted
by OLE Automation clients such as Microsoft Visual Basic®, or its own
supplied client.
If you find what you think are bugs, or even if you don't, please check
this page and the release notes (see Downloads). Do not hesitate to
contact the developer if
you think you've identified a new bug.
*NXSYS* can be viewed, utilized, or enjoyed at any of four levels:
* An entertaining *rapid-transit video game* for those who love the
subways and wish to recreate the experience of navigating the
tracks, and learn more about the subways and their signals.
* A comprehensive, *interactive learning tool* for the operation of
rapid transit signalling and NX/UR control towers sufficiently
detailed and accurate to be of value to those actually responsible
for operating such equipment.
* A detailed guide to the *sample implementation* of such systems in
electrical relay logic, observable in action down to the relay level.
* An interactive *computer-aided design (CAD) tool* for designing and
debugging your own interlockings and signal circuitry.
NXSYS OpenGL Cab View Feature (Windows Version)
nxgl2.gif
/NXSYS/OpenGL Screen Snapshot./
(OpenGL Cab View not available on Mac version). If you need the special
Windows 95/98 DLL's (if you use Windows NT(tm), you already have what
you need) to run the 3-D Cab View software please read the following:
*NXSYS*' 3-D track view feature exploits the massive power of the OpenGL
Graphics interface developed by Silicon
Graphics®, Inc. (in its implementation on 32-bit versions of
Microsoft® 32-bit Windows) to display a "virtual reality", flight
simulator-like window showing the tracks and signals of interlockings as
they actually appear to eye of the train operator (previously
"motorman"), in full perspective with lighting, shading, etc. If your
machine is fast enough, realistic animation is achievable.
This /cab view window/ appears in addition to the interlocking control
panel, and, running semi-autonomously in a separate thread, has its own
menu and keyboard commands. When you control the signals in *NXSYS* via
the standard means, the "real signals" in the cab view window change
aspect dynamically. You can move the viewpoint up and down the tracks
and turn around. Self-documentation is supplied. *Press F1 for
documentation/help when in the Cab View Window.*
You can use the cab view window in conjuction with the "train system",
and actually see out the front window of a train as it moves over the
interlocking, as with a flight simulator.
In order to try it, you need three components:
* The *NXSYS* OpenGL DLL *NXGLVIEW.DLL*, which is distributed with the
current version of NXSYS (see Downloads).
* The current version of *NXSYS* (see Downloads).
* The OpenGL system. If you are running *Windows 2000*, or *Windows
NT* 3.51 or better, you already have OpenGL as part of the operating
system. If you are running *Windows '95*, you may or may not have
the necessary components. If you have *OPENGL.DLL* and *GLU32.DLL*
already, great. If not, you can get them (Windows '95 only: they are
Microsoft Redistributables) at this link
. Unzip them into
NXSYS' directory, or your windows System directory.
If you have the OpenGL components available, and you place
*NXGLVIEW.DLL* where *NXSYS* can find it (for example, in the same
directory), *NXSYS* will display the new window at the time you load an
interlocking. If you do not have the DLL, or fail to place it where
*NXSYS* can find it, or you are missing OpenGL, *NXSYS* /will not
diagnose an error, but will proceed to operate as it had in the past,
without them./
You need a reasonably fast processor for this to perform acceptably.
Performance on a 90MHz Pentium(tm) is acceptable; performance on a 33MHz
486 is unacceptable; floating point hardware is a *must.* Intermediate
data points are not available yet. It should look like the image above
-- if it does not, please notify the developer
, and be sure to describe
your video card, processor, and operating system.
*NXGLVIEW.DLL* and the *NXSYS* main app "know about" the insides of each
other, so you must have compatible versions to use the former. Thus,
when *NXSYS* loads the DLL, they will negotiate and make a check that
the versions you have are compatible, and if they are not, you will get
a message to that effect advising you to obtain a pair which are. If
that occurs, please fetch the latest *NXSYS* and *NXGLVIEW.DLL* (see
Downloads).
Download, Version 1 for Microsoft Windows
*NXSYS* requires a 32-bit version of the Microsoft Windows® operating
system, meaning Windows 95®, Windows 98®, Windows NT®, Windows 2000®, or
Windows XP® on the Intel® architecture (386, 486, Pentium®, etc., i.e.,
any "PC") only. It is not supported on Win32s®. To download it, click
below, and unzip in a new directory of your choosing, and be sure to
read readme.txt.
For those deeply enough involved with the concepts at hand to attempt to
design their own scenarios (track layouts) in *NXSYS'* "relay language",
which is a subset of Lisp, the "relay compiler" (a 32-bit command line
application) and its associated tools and documentation such as it is
are available. Be forewarned, however, that to create your own operative
interlockings, you have to design and implement all the relay circuitry
-- the tools do not design the interlocking for you.
For those *NXSYS* experts who are also Windows experts who wish to write
OLE Automation Controllers for NXSYS, the OLE automation tools are
useful and necessary. If you don't know what this means, you don't need it.
* NXSYS zip file (500K) -- Click here to download
* NXSYS Relay Compiler zip file (117K) -- Click here to download
* NXSYS OLE Automation client tools zip file (31K) -- Click here to
download
* Release notes.
NXSYS for the Macintosh (Mac OS X)
sm_nxmac20.png
At long last, here is a complete implementation of NXSYS, the New York
City interlocking and signalling simulator, for the Apple Macintosh.
NXSYS/Mac is a port of NXSYS Version 2, which, as you can see from the
screenshot above, allows for unrestricted two-dimensional track and
panel layouts (the Microsoft Windows release of NXSYS Version 2 is not
ready yet). NXSYS/Mac is distributed with four sample interlockings: in
addition to Version 2 ports of Progman St. and Islington from Version 1,
full implementations of two actual fairly complex New York City
interlockings, Atlantic Avenue on the IRT (Division A) and
Broadway-Myrtle on the BMT (Division B) are supplied. Full HTML
documentation of the new Macintosh features as well as a thorough
upgrading of the extensive Version 1 helpfile are included.
Version 2 NXSYS (including NXSYS/Mac) does not support the OpenGL "Cab
View" feature of Version 1. NXSYS/Mac also does not support (Windows
COM/OLE-based) NXScript. Otherwise, it's all there, including TLEdit,
the Version 2 track layout editor (see the documentation inside).
Developed mainly under Mavericks (OS/X 10.9), NXSYS/Mac has been tested
against Yosemite (OS/X 10.10), and continues to support Mavericks, but
not earlier. NXSYS/Mac is distributed as a .dmg disk-image file system,
in whose top directory you will find a README with further instructions.
Download, Version 2 for Mac OS X
* NXSYS Mac version 2, DMG file (5 Mb.) -- Click here to download
Legal Disclaimer
*Legal Disclaimer*. If you want to use these ideas and software tools
for your own model railroad, have fun, but please be aware that the
design of safe, reliable signal circuitry for real railroads and other
life-critical missions is a highly-skilled specialty requiring years of
training, apprenticeship, and certification. Any principles gathered
from the documentation and circuitry of this program, even though they
often reflect standard practice, are not to be construed as a substitute
for circuit design by certified persons and organizations under legal
contract. In specific, the author disavows any responsibility for any
harm, damage, or injury resulting from use of these circuits or schemes
for any purpose whatsoever. These circuits and documentation are
provided for educational, demonstrative, and entertainment purposes
only, and are not to be used for control of life-critical missions. What
is more, if you nonetheless attempt to use these circuits or schemes to
construct and offer for sale any device or system, you alone are
responsible for ensuring that no patents, copyrights, or other
applicable rights are being violated thereby. Download of this software
constitutes acceptance of these terms.
Microsoft, Windows, Windows 95, Windows 98 Windows NT, Windows 2000,
Win32, Win32s, and Visual Basic, are a trademarks of the Microsoft
Corporation . Apple, Macintosh, Mac, and OS X
are trademarks of Apple, Inc. , registered in the
US and other countries. Pentium and Intel are trademarks of the Intel
Corporation .
"NX" refers to a scheme of railroad switch and signal control offered by
General Railway Signal, Inc. (a unit of SASIB Railway Group). Neither
this software nor its documentation has been authorized, approved, or
verified by them or any other railroad signal concern or the New York
City Transit Authority or its successors.
This software is offered without charge, "as is", by the author, Bernard
S. Greenberg . It is
thought to be relatively bug-free, although bug reports will be fielded
using this form , but no
response in any given time promised. No representations, warranties,
guarantees, or claims about operability or suitability for any purpose
are made. This software is intended for educational, demonstrative, and
entertainment purposes only, and is not suitable for use for control of
actual railroads or other life-critical missions. The author assumes no
responsibility for any damage, harm, injury or loss resulting from use
or misuse of either the software or the relay circuit designs therein.
The author assumes no responsibility for errors resulting from
corruption of the distribution media or files or inadvertent or
deliberate corruption in transmission. You may use and share this
program as you wish, but are not permitted to incorporate this program
or its parts in any distribution, collection, or commercial product
without the consent of the author. If you redistribute it, you must
redistribute the zipfiles as you received them, intact, with all their
components as posted. Download of this data constitutes acceptance of
these terms.
*This software is intended for personal use and personal education, and
offered free of charge under those conditions. Business concerns and
governmental organizations, rapid transit and engineering in particular,
seeking to use this software for other than entertainment or personal
education should contact the author at the address below about licensing
arrangements and possible future development.*
Copyright
*NXSYS, NXSYS32, NXSYS for Macintosh,* software, documentation, and
interlockings Copyright ©1994-2001, 2014 Bernard S. Greenberg.
|
|
