fs25-adsmartpickup/docs/USER_MANUAL.md

AD Smart Pickup — user manual

Version 1.17.6 · Farming Simulator 25 · add-on for AutoDrive

Dansk version: BRUGERMANUAL.md

AD Smart Pickup makes your AutoDrive tractors think for themselves. You say what should go where, and the mod decides trip by trip which good to fetch, from which silo, and where to unload it. Everything is set up in one place in the ESC menu, and all tractors in a flow start and stop together.

The mod does two things:

• Supply (into building): keeps barns and factories filled. Each trip, the tractor fetches the good the target needs most, from a silo anywhere on the map.
• Delivery (out of building): empties factories, silos, barns and pallet sheds. Goods are taken to storage or sold when the price is close to the yearly top.

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Contents

1. Requirements and installation
2. Key concepts
3. Prepare the map: markers and Wait points
4. The Smart Pickup menu
5. Supply: keep barns and factories filled
6. Delivery: empty, store and sell
7. Tractors and trailers
8. Start, stop and saving
9. The storage tabs: inventory and statistics
10. Recipes
11. Troubleshooting
12. Glossary

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1. Requirements and installation

Required

• FS25_AutoDrive. The mod builds on AutoDrive's Pickup & Deliver and does not change AutoDrive.
• An AutoDrive road network connecting silos, barns, factories, selling points and Wait points.

Recommended

• Universal Autoload (UAL) on trailers that should carry pallets. Without UAL the mod can only move bulk goods such as grain, milk, silage and TMR.

Installation

1. Put FS25_ADSmartPickup.zip in the mods folder: Documents/My Games/FarmingSimulator2025/mods/
2. Enable the mod together with AutoDrive when you choose your savegame.
3. The AutoDrive setting "Use folders" must be allowed on. The mod switches it on when a flow starts. The setting is global, so it applies to the whole game.

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2. Key concepts

Flow. A flow is a named recipe. It has a direction, buildings, goods, rules and a list of tractors. Older versions called it a run, and the word is still used on some buttons.

Building. A barn, factory, silo, object storage (pallet shed) or selling point. You pick buildings, not markers. The mod finds the AutoDrive marker that belongs to the building's trigger.

Marker. An AutoDrive destination. Every building needs a marker within 40 m of its loading or unloading trigger. A barn often has several, such as one at the milk tank and one at the slurry tank.

Wait point. A marker in an AutoDrive folder with the word Wait in its name. Tractors park here while they wait for space, for a good price or for demand. Wait points are one shared pool for all tractors.

Need. How much of a good a barn or factory is missing. For factories it is measured as time until empty: the good that runs out first is fetched first.

Reserve. What the farm's own barns and factories will use during the next day. The reserve is never sold.

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3. Prepare the map: markers and Wait points

Markers at the buildings

Place an AutoDrive marker where the tractor's nose stops when the trailer is in the trigger. The marker must be at most 40 m from the building's trigger.

• Silos in tight rows: the mod picks the silo whose trigger is behind the tractor's nose in the driving direction. This stops the neighbouring silo from getting the load.
• Barns with several loading points: give each point its own marker, such as Cow 1 Milk and Cow 1 Slurry. The mod shows all of them next to the barn.
• Object storages (pallet sheds): place the marker so the trailer's autoload zone covers the storage's output area, just like when you load by hand.
• Marker names: names are free. The menu shows the building's own name and the marker's name.

Wait points

1. Create an AutoDrive folder with Wait in its name, such as Cow Wait or Wait.
2. Put as many markers in the folder as you have room for. One per tractor is plenty.
3. Connect every Wait point to the road network in both directions, from the buildings and back.

Wait markers are never used as a source or target, even when they stand close to a building. Markers in field folders, such as F91 Wait, are left alone, because it is the folder name that counts.

Tight silos and AutoDrive's trigger distance

AutoDrive tips at the first unloading trigger within its global "Max trigger distance", which is 25 m by default. If your silos stand closer than that, the neighbouring silo can get the load. Set the option to 10 m in that case. The mod writes a warning to the log the first time it sees a storage target with a neighbouring trigger.

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4. The Smart Pickup menu

Press ESC and open the Smart Pickup tab. It has five sub-tabs:

Tab	Contents
Flows	The board with all flows, editing of the selected flow and the Wait pools
Factories	Inventory and statistics for the farm's factories
Silos	Inventory and statistics for the farm's silos
Barns	Inventory and statistics for the farm's barns
Pallet sheds	Inventory and statistics for the farm's object storages

The flow board

At the top there is one line per flow. The selected flow is marked with >.

> Milk sale: Milk · Cow Barn 1 + Cow Barn 2 → Sell · price >= 90 %, storage > 80 % · Virtus · Running (1/1)
  Barn feed: by need · all silos → Cow Barn 1 · need · JCB 1 + JCB 2 · Stopped (2 tractors)

Read the line as name: goods · from → to · rule · tractors · status.

• A ! after a building name means the building has no marker.
• !! in the status is a warning, such as a selling point that cannot be reached.
• The status also says why a tractor is waiting, such as SUGAR 78 % of top (needs 90).

Buttons

Button	What it does
New run	Creates a new flow. It starts as Into building
Rename	Renames the selected flow
Delete run	Deletes the flow and stops its running tractors. Cannot be undone
Start run / Stop run	Starts or stops all tractors in the flow

Pick a flow in the Run field at the top. The details of the selected flow are shown below the board.

Direction

The Direction field switches between two kinds of flow:

• Into building is supply. See section 5.
• Out of building is delivery. See section 6.

The building list

Each building is shown on one line with its markers and their distance to the trigger:

Cow Barn (large) — Cow 1 Milk 6 m · Cow 1 Slurry 4 m
Silo 7 (silo) — NO MARKER within 40 m — place an AD marker at the trigger

Set Yes on the buildings the flow should use. The list is sorted by name, so Silo 9 comes before Silo 10. A building you have sold shows as building no longer exists.

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5. Supply: keep barns and factories filled

A supply flow keeps one or more buildings filled with everything they use.

Setup

1. New run, and leave Direction on Into building.
2. Under To: set Yes on the barns and factories to fill.
3. Under Goods: choose Auto or Select.
   • Auto fetches everything the building accepts. For factories, that is the inputs of the productions that are switched on.
   • Select lets you tick specific goods.
4. Set Loops, Return from Wait below and Wait pool. See the rules below.
5. Set Yes on the tractors that should drive.
6. Press Start run.

From always shows all silos. The tractor fetches from any silo on the map.

How each trip is chosen

Before each loading, the mod looks at the targets and picks:

1. The neediest good. For factories, that is the good that runs out first. For barns, it is the lowest fill level compared with capacity.
2. Full loads first. Goods where a whole load fits come before goods where only part fits.
3. The barn that needs it most. With several targets, the neediest one gets the trip.
4. Which silo. Your own silos are used before borrowing from neighbours. The least-filled silo is emptied first, so leftovers get cleared. Milk, slurry and digestate are taken from the fullest source, so production never stops.

A factory's own inputs are never taken from the factory itself. Straw in a TMR factory stays where it is.

Factories follow their productions. Switch TMR on in a factory, and the tractor starts fetching silage, hay, straw and mineral feed by itself. Switch it off, and the tractor stops. Productions the map switched off because an input ran out still count as wanted, because those are exactly the ones that need filling.

Best feed first

Feed in a barn trough shares space. If better feed such as TMR is on the list, lower feed such as silage and hay is only fetched when the trough is at least 75 % empty. That way silage does not fill the trough while TMR is available.

Several tractors on the same barn

The mod remembers what is already on the way to each barn. With four trailers on the same barn they spread out. One fetches TMR, another straw, and a third drives to the next barn, instead of all of them fetching the same thing.

Leftover loads and Wait

When the target cannot take the whole load, this happens:

1. The tractor unloads what fits.
2. The rest is taken to the nearest free Wait point, so the trigger is not blocked for the next tractors.
3. It drives back when the target can take the whole rest, or has dropped below Return from Wait below.

A rest of less than 100 l that the target cannot take counts as empty. The tractor drives on instead of blocking the trigger.

Load swap

When a tractor waits with a good the target is full of, while the target needs another good on the list, it swaps loads:

1. The rest is unloaded in an ordinary storage silo that accepts the good and has room.
2. The tractor then fetches the good the target is missing.

This only happens when the target is missing at least a quarter of its capacity of the other good, and there is a road to the silo and on to the target. With no suitable silo, the tractor stays at Wait.

Supply rules

Rule	Meaning	Values
Loops	Number of trips per tractor before it parks	0 = endless, otherwise 1–99
Return from Wait below	A waiting tractor returns when the target is below this fill level	10–90 %, default 50 %
Wait pool	Which Wait folder the tractors wait in	All (nearest free) or a folder

Below the rules, To fetch lists the goods the flow is fetching now, neediest first.

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6. Delivery: empty, store and sell

A delivery flow takes goods out of buildings and drives them to storage or to a selling point.

Sources

Under From you can pick:

Source	What is taken
Factory	The factory's outputs, both bulk and pallets from the pallet spawner
Silo	The silo's contents
Barn	Milk, slurry and manure from the barn's loading points, including attached extension tanks such as Milk Tank Extension
Object storage	Pallets and bales. They are taken out one at a time

Sources with shared storage: some storages are extensions that share their stock with everything within a set distance, such as a row of milk tanks. Loading at one empties them all. The mod detects this and treats them as one stop, so the tractor does not drive between the tanks. The first one in the list is used, and the log says which sources were merged. Choosing a single tank as the source is enough.

Policy per good

Every good in the sources is listed with its amount and current price. Pick a policy:

Policy	Meaning
Off	The good is left alone
Store	Taken to a silo, a pallet shed or one of the farm's own factories that uses the good, such as slurry for a biogas plant. This happens when there is a full load, or the source is nearly full
Sell	Sold when the price is close enough to the yearly top
Sell, else store	Sold at a good price. Otherwise taken to storage when the source is nearly full

Bulk goods need a tipper or tank. Pallet goods need a trailer with Universal Autoload.

Delivery rules

Rule	Meaning	Values
Sell from	Goods are sold when the price is at least this share of the yearly top price	50–100 %, default 90 %
Drive to storage above	Store goods are moved when the source is filled above this share	50–95 %, default 80 %
Collect in one trip	Collection round, see below	Yes/No

How each trip is chosen

Before each loading, and every five seconds while the tractor waits, the mod checks:

1. Sell. If a Sell good's best reachable selling point pays at least the threshold, the tractor drives to sell regardless of amount. This makes sure you get the money when the price peaks. The highest price share goes first.
2. Store. If a Store good has a full load, or a source is above its threshold, it is taken to the nearest silo with room for the whole load. The fullest source goes first. Markers another delivery flow loads from are only used for unloading when nothing else fits. That way a storage trip does not unload where a sale trip needs to load.
3. No trip. The tractor parks at a Wait point and tries again. The status says why, such as holding at Wait 3: SUGAR 78 % of top (needs 90), storage 41 %.

The price

Selling points are the map's real selling points and factories the farm does not own, such as the map's dairy. Deliveries to the farm's own factories and barns do not count as sales. The price share is the good's current price compared with the yearly high. The mod uses the same seasonal curve as the game's price graph. Goods with a flat curve always count as 100 %. The selling point with the best price wins, as long as the road network reaches it.

Reserve: never sell what the farm needs

Before selling, the mod subtracts what the farm's own factories and barns will use during the next day. It only sells when a whole load can be taken without touching the reserve. The status shows, for example, SUGARBEET: 196.0k reserved for TMR factory. The Store policy does not touch the reserve, because the good stays on the farm.

Collection round

With Collect in one trip switched on:

• Tipper: the same good is collected from several sources until the trailer is full. The next source is only visited when at least 10 % of the space is left.
• Autoload trailer: several pallet goods with the same destination go on one trip.

Pallets and Universal Autoload

• The mod switches AutoDrive's AL unload on for the trailer when the flow starts.
• Straps are tightened after loading and released 25 m before the unloading trigger.
• A full load of pallets is at least four pallets.
• Pallets for storage go to the nearest pallet shed that accepts the good and has room.
• From an object storage, pallets are taken out one at a time, so none are left on the ground.
• If the storage gets stuck, loading ends after 30 seconds with what is on board. If an autoload source makes no progress for 15 seconds, the tractor leaves with what it has.

On-screen warnings

When a selling point cannot be reached, or no silo has room, the mod shows a red AutoDrive message, for example:

'MT635' cannot reach selling point 'Grain Elevator' for SUGAR – check the road network

The message also goes to AutoDrive's message history, to log.txt and to the flow's status. The tractor waits at Wait and drives by itself once the road is connected. The warning is only repeated when the tractor, station or good changes.

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7. Tractors and trailers

At the bottom of the flow, the farm's vehicles are listed with their capacity. Set Yes on the ones that should drive.

• Capacity is shown in litres for bulk trailers and as autoload (pallets) for UAL trailers.
• Vehicles that cannot be used are locked and show the reason. The reasons are in the table.
• A vehicle can only be in one flow. If it is moved, it shows moved from 'other flow'.
• If you remove a running tractor from a flow, it is stopped.
• Names: tractors automatically get an AutoDrive driver name after their flow, such as Milk Collect 1 and Milk Collect 2. A tractor that is alone in its flow gets the flow's name. The name is used in AutoDrive, in the menu and in the log, and the menu shows the model name in brackets. When a tractor leaves its flow, it gets its model name back. Names you set yourself in AutoDrive are only changed while the tractor is in a flow.

Reason	Meaning
no trailer	The tractor has no trailer attached
trailer cannot carry the run's goods	The trailer accepts none of the flow's goods
pallet goods need Universal Autoload on the trailer	The flow has pallets, but the trailer has no UAL
too far from the road network	The tractor is too far from AutoDrive's network
no target / no recognised source	The flow has no buildings
no good selected	A delivery flow with no good set to Store or Sell
no Wait point in the pool	Delivery needs at least one Wait point

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8. Start, stop and saving

Start run does this on every approved tractor:

• Puts AutoDrive in Pickup & Deliver with the flow's goods and loops.
• Switches Use folders on globally and sets rotation to loading only.
• Sets the flow's markers. They are picked again for every trip.

This overwrites the tractor's own AutoDrive settings. Tractors outside flows drive as before.

A flow starts even if one of the chosen buildings has no marker. The status then names the building. If none of the buildings has a marker, start is refused with '<building>' has no AD marker at its trigger.

Stop run stops AutoDrive on the flow's tractors. The tractors stay in the flow, so it can be started again.

Saving. Flows are saved in savegameN/ADSmartPickup_runs.xml when the game is saved, and on every Start and Stop. After loading, tractors that AutoDrive saved as running carry on. Tractors that were waiting at a Wait point resume waiting by themselves. If a flow is stopped after loading, press Start run again.

Flows from older versions load automatically. Old marker choices are translated into buildings.

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9. The storage tabs: inventory and statistics

The Factories, Silos, Barns and Pallet sheds tabs each show one type of building. They work the same way. Figures update every second, and each tab remembers the building you picked last.

Statistics for a building

Pick a building in Show building. Below the selector there is a table with column headings and one row per good:

Item	In building	Value now	At top price	Farm	Lasts	Use/prod. per day
Silage	483.5k/935.5k 52 %	€ 173,921	€ 193,400	1.7M	34.0 days	-50.0k
Milk	1.3k/10.3M 0 %	no selling point		233.1k	-	+14.4k
Building total		€ 425,885	€ 429,039

Column	Meaning
In building	Amount and capacity in the selected building, plus fill level
Value now	The value at the best price right now, across all selling points on the map
At top price	The value if you sell at the year's highest price
Farm	The farm's total amount of the good across all buildings, including those on the other tabs
Lasts	How many days the farm's stock lasts at use minus production. rising means the farm produces at least as much as it uses
Use/prod. per day	Daily use with a minus sign and daily production with a plus sign

At the bottom, Building total shows the building's total value now and at top price.

Overview of the tab's buildings

Below the statistics, the tab's buildings with contents are shown as a grid. The building name is on the left, with up to two goods per row. Factory outputs are marked with *, and pallet sheds show the number of pallets.

What is counted

• Factories: use and production of the productions that are running right now. Factories that are idle or missing inputs are not counted.
• Barns, use: feed, straw and water. Water is not counted when the barn has automatic water. Feed use is split across the feed types in the trough.
• Barns, production: each animal's output by age times the number of animals. This covers milk, buffalo milk, manure, slurry, eggs, wool and goat milk. Young animals below production age do not count.

Goods the farm does not use show a dash under Lasts. Goods with no selling point show no selling point.

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10. Recipes

Keep a cow barn fed

1. Wait folder Cow Wait with 2–4 markers close to the barn.
2. New flow, Into building, To = the barn, Goods = Auto.
3. Wait pool = Cow Wait, Loops = 0.
4. Two tractors with tippers, Yes, Start.

The tractors share feed, straw and water by need and pick TMR over silage.

A TMR factory feeding several barns

1. Flow A: Into building, To = the TMR factory, Goods = Auto. The tractor fetches what the switched-on productions are missing.
2. Flow B: Out of building, From = the TMR factory, TMR = Store. TMR goes to a silo.
3. Flow C: Into building, To = all cow barns. The neediest barn gets the trip.

Sell milk at a high price

1. New flow, Out of building, From = barn(s) or milk tanks.
2. Milk = Sell, else store, Sell from = 90 %, Drive to storage above = 80 %.
3. One tanker, Yes, Start.

The tanker waits at Wait until the price is high. If the tank fills up first, the milk goes to storage.

Empty a pallet shed for sale

1. New flow, Out of building, From = the object storage.
2. Goods = Sell, Collect in one trip = Yes.
3. One UAL truck, Yes, Start.

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11. Troubleshooting

The mod writes every decision to log.txt with the prefix ADSmartPickup:. The log is in Documents/My Games/FarmingSimulator2025/.

Problem	Fix
The building shows NO MARKER	Place an AutoDrive marker within 40 m of the trigger. Wait markers do not count
A barn's slurry or milk point is missing	The points are often at opposite ends of the barn. Give each point its own marker
The tractor is locked in the list	Read the reason next to it in section 7
The tractor just sits at Wait	Read the status. It is usually waiting for price, space or demand
The neighbouring silo gets the load	Set AutoDrive's Max trigger distance to 10 m
cannot reach selling point	Connect the selling point to the network in both directions
The pallet shed does not hand out pallets	Move the marker so the trailer's autoload zone covers the output
Pallets fall off	Check that the trailer has UAL. Straps are tightened after loading
The tractor does not fill at the silo	After 30 seconds without filling, the mod lets go and AutoDrive drives on
The flow does not run after loading	Press Start run again
All tractors fetch the same good	Check that they are in the same flow. Only tractors in one flow share the work

The log lines are written in Danish. Typical examples:

ADSmartPickup: 'JCB 1' bytter læs: 2400 l STRAW tilbage i Silo 3, målet mangler FORAGE
ADSmartPickup: 'Virtus' holder ved Wait 3: MILK 82 % af top (kræver 90), lager 41 %
ADSmartPickup: 'Fastrac' genoptager ventning ved Cow Wait efter genindlæsning

These mean: a load swap, a tractor holding for a better price, and a tractor resuming its wait after the savegame was loaded.

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12. Glossary

Term	Meaning
AD	AutoDrive
Flow / run	A named recipe with buildings, goods, rules and tractors
Marker	AutoDrive destination at a building
Trigger	The area at a building where goods are loaded or unloaded
Wait point	A marker in a folder with Wait in its name, where tractors wait
UAL	Universal Autoload, a mod that loads pallets automatically
Object storage	Pallet and bale storage, such as the one in the HVF pack
Top price	The good's highest price during the year according to the game's seasonal curve
Reserve	What the farm's own barns and factories use during the next day
Time until empty	How long a factory's stock of a good lasts at the current use