Error when opening Course Architect

[Stan Nehilla]

I agree with Brian.

Suggest you download and install the CLTool. Make sure Sahalee is your default library, then cloak all but stock libraries.

Then open architect and you should be good to go.

[stillgolfing]

Thanks to all for your help, especially DC#1. Architect and then wizard now open O.K.
Cheers, Dave

[stillgolfing]

Sorry, but now I'm going around in circles here. Architect was working O.K , but when I went to play a game I got the "Could not Initialize course" message. Then I remembered (I had casually reviewed the guidelines for the Cloaking program that came with it), I hadn't unCloked the custom libraries. So I Opened up The Cloaker and deCloaked custom libraries and then the course I was attempting to play worked O.K.
So let me get this straight, if I want to use the Architect I have to cloke a certain number of custom libraries to ensure the total is 70 or less. Then, if I do that and want to play the game, I have to remember to unCloke the custom libraries before I go play a game? If that is true, I don't know what medication you guys are on, but I am definitely going to need a lot of it if I have any hope of becoming a designer! Unreal!

[A Brandt]

When designing a course you should have ONLY the libraries you are using uncloaked. This should be significantly less than 70. I try to keep it to less than 20, including stock libs. You can also use the projects tab in the Cloaker to quickly cloak/uncloak libraries between different design projects. Also, you can double click on any course in the courses tab and it will show you all the required libraries needed and you can uncloak them with a click of the mouse.

[stillgolfing]

When designing a course you should have ONLY the libraries you are using uncloaked. This should be significantly less than 70. I try to keep it to less than 20, including stock libs. You can also use the projects tab in the Cloaker to quickly cloak/uncloak libraries between different design projects. Also, you can double click on any course in the courses tab and it will show you all the required libraries needed and you can uncloak them with a click of the mouse.

Well at this point, whether it's 3 or 20 wouldn't matter since apparently, there is no way to view the contents of libraries so I don't have any idea which libraries I would need or choose for my course. Just call me Yossarian.
Cheers, Dave

[A Brandt]

I hear ya there! You literally have to uncloak any libs you think you might use, open the arch, then meticulously go through each one, noting which objects/textures you like. It can be pretty painstaking when you're not familiar with most of the libraries. I myself have only maybe 10 libraries that I use, then tweak the textures to my liking and create a brand new library. Don't worry, the more you go through the libraries you'll start to remember which ones you like for certain designs.

[sandwedge]

It sure would be nice to have a pictorial atlas of all the objects or a program that could organize the objects of each library installed. It also would be nice to be able to take objects from libraries that are already in existence and paste them into a newly created library - that way you would not need so many libraries installed for each course, just one for each one installed. I know - intellectual property rights - don't want mine violated anymore either, but it would make it a lot easier for designers who are not proficient at making textures, objects and panoramas to at least get into the game. I think that was the original intent with the architect - just no one imagined how many libraries we would actually end up with or how many courses would require 16 of them for installation

[Indy Anna Jones]

To the best of my knowledge all courses and libraries are free to use (or abuse) to your hearts content as long as you're not selling them. With wideband it's no big deal, but back in the day of dialup it used to be really frustrating when you had to dl the course (which might take 2 hours or even overnight) then have to dl 3 or 4 new libraries with maybe 2 or 3 objects on them. I always thought years ago it would have been a great idea to amalgamate object types (fir trees, pine trees; hardwood trees; shrubs; rocks, etc. so that it would only take a few libraries to play any course. It never happened though and I don't think it'd be worth the effort now with so few designers.

You can certainly make your own photo library though; it'd take awhile but if you used "screen save" for each course and print them into a folder or two you wouldn't have to do the "hunt and peck" search ever again; kinda like what was done with panos 5 or 6 years ago.

Thanks for the info on setting a default libe. Monterrey has been my default libe forever and I think I used it once.