Visual Auto Namer

Visual Auto Namer

Clear names. Readable routes.

Keep your transport network organised with automatic line names, clear route icons, your own name format and extra line statistics.

Video

Watch Visual Auto Namer on YouTube

Features

• Automatic naming — updates line names and closes numbering gaps after deleted lines, separately for each transport type or again in each town.

• Transport numbering — for each transport type: automatic names on or off, a number prefix of up to 3 letters and the first number.

• Ready and custom formats — Simple, Numbered and Detailed, each coloured or plain, plus your own formats. Apply a format to all lines, to one transport type or only to the selected lines.

• Readable routes — farms, factories, ports and stations are named by what they are instead of the nearest town. Cargo rides on the route arrows (→, and ←→ when it travels both ways), and cargo selected at a stop with nowhere to go is marked red. Show each place only once, or untick places of one line in the VAN menu to leave them out of its name. Road cargo lines show a truck icon instead of a bus.

• Place badges — towns, stations and industries as coloured badges with the game's icons: stations in the colour of their transport type, industries in the colour of their product. Seven styles, including Outline, Capsule and Signpost, with or without the place icon and with your own text colour. Can be turned off for plain names.

• Route places — your own word for each station type (for example "Dw." for railway stations), your own names and colours for industries, the town after every industry or only where needed to tell them apart, word abbreviations in station and industry names, with a live example while you edit. Your own names always win over abbreviations.

• Format builder — create and manage your own formats in a separate window from the transport icon, line number, cargo icons, vehicle count, arrows, separators, your own text and your own line name. Click a piece and then its new place, drag it, or move it step by step with the arrows; drop it on the red bin to remove it. Live preview for freight, intercity and public transport lines and for the line selected in the Lines window, one look for all lines or a separate one for each transport type, and export/import as text.

• Short place names — shorten town and place names in every format and choose how short they are (1–10 characters). Your own short name for a town (Settings → Visual Auto Namer → Aliases and abbreviations → Town short names) replaces the automatic one, also inside longer place names and in the Detailed formats. To give one line its own short names, select only that line and open VAN. Town names in your game stay unchanged.

• Line list order — by number, by transport type in your own priority, alphabetically by town or by name, or by line group.

• Line groups — a town's passenger lines and the supply chains that bring cargo to it, found automatically, step by step from the town outwards. Add or remove lines by hand in the VAN menu, give each chain the colour of its product on the map (your previous colours can be restored), and show the groups in the Lines window with the town button next to the filters.

• Line statistics — a Supply and demand panel under the line statistics, and short or full names, with or without badges, in the statistics window.

• Custom-name protection — preserve your names and manage protected lines individually or all at once. A name you type yourself can be shown in a frame of your style and colours, or inside your own format in place of the route.

• Display options — full-name tooltips and scrolling for long names at your chosen speed.

How It Works

1. In the Lines window, open VAN, choose where to apply the format (all lines, the selected lines or a transport type) and pick a ready or custom format.

2. Tick the checkbox next to VAN to turn on Auto Names, which update unprotected lines automatically.

3. To make your own format, press Format builder, create a new format or copy one, arrange the route pattern, check the preview and press Save format.

4. Choose Look by transport type to give road, tram, rail, water or air lines their own look; the others use the common one.

With Auto Names OFF, choosing a format only saves your preference. Use A+ to apply a format to selected lines manually.

Existing lines are protected when you first add the mod to a save. To allow automatic naming, remove their protection under Settings → Visual Auto Namer → Name protection.

Manual edits remain protected even with Auto Names OFF. Names chosen through A+ are protected by default; you can disable this option. Removing protection while Auto Names is OFF leaves the name unchanged.

Configuration

In the Format builder, the Appearance tab sets the place name length, the line number format, how many cargo icons and route places are shown, the place badge style and whether place icons are shown.

Under Settings → Visual Auto Namer: Automatic names, Line list and statistics, Places and colors, Aliases and abbreviations, Name protection, and Line groups.

Installation

Subscribe through the in-game Mod Hub, then enable Visual Auto Namer in your save’s mod list.

Updating

Download the latest update through the Mod Hub and restart the game. Keep only one copy enabled.

Uninstall

Back up your save and disable the mod before unsubscribing. Names already applied to lines are retained.

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