mezzoprezzo
Content appreciator
I’m trying to build an accurate “one mile train” to use as a measuring tool to place gradients from an old BR gradient profile, but am finding errors with the ruler in Trainz tools.
I had the ruler set to metric and measured 1609.3 metres; a few centimetre short of a mile, but near enough given that the ruler on my version only measures to one decimal place. The ruler arrow points are blurry anyway, so I wasn’t expecting micrometer accuracy.
I went into Surveyor>Edit Route>Working units and change from Metric to Imperial and found that the ruler length now measures 5364.2 feet, when I was expecting something closer to the correct measure of 5280 feet.
Trying it out in reverse, 5280 feet confirms the inaccuracy at 1583.5 metres!
I’ve cross checked the width of a single baseboard. I measured from directly overhead using the compass to ensure correct alignment at a grid square intersection. The ruler was placed exactly along a single grid line, the board was totally flat and the measurements taken using the more accurate mouse arrow pointer with its sharper end touching the centre of the yellow 10m gridline. A perfect 720 meters. So metric looks OK.
However, when the working units are changed, the 720 metres becomes a totally inaccurate 2400.1 feet (which equates to 731.52 metres).
It appears that the factor used to convert to feet is 3.2 x m, when it should be 3.28083990 (3.281 would do).
The lesson seem to be, “Always work in metric”, unless I’m doing something completely wrong (not impossible!)
It is a pain given that my current project is based on historical Imperial scale maps, and I’m keen to correctly apply gradient profiles at the correct track positions from old plans that I have acquired. It appears that I will have to convert all of the mileages into metric, unless I missing something.
Am I right in thinking that the Imperial ruler measurements are inaccurate in Trainz ?
If so, it also calls into question as to whether the odometer option in Edit Session>Display Custom HUD is accurate when Imperial working units are set. I’ve tried moving a loco exactly one mile ahead using this feature, but get very mixed results. Maybe it’s to do with inconsistent speeds or wheelslip, but the results are different each time. However, on a positive note, there appears to be a much smaller margin of error between metric and imperial when using this feature. Maybe the conversion factors are more accurate in this part of the program.
I’m really keen to get my gradient changes set at the correct prototypical distances. Does anyone have any ideas or tips on how to get an accurate measurement?
I had the ruler set to metric and measured 1609.3 metres; a few centimetre short of a mile, but near enough given that the ruler on my version only measures to one decimal place. The ruler arrow points are blurry anyway, so I wasn’t expecting micrometer accuracy.
I went into Surveyor>Edit Route>Working units and change from Metric to Imperial and found that the ruler length now measures 5364.2 feet, when I was expecting something closer to the correct measure of 5280 feet.
Trying it out in reverse, 5280 feet confirms the inaccuracy at 1583.5 metres!
I’ve cross checked the width of a single baseboard. I measured from directly overhead using the compass to ensure correct alignment at a grid square intersection. The ruler was placed exactly along a single grid line, the board was totally flat and the measurements taken using the more accurate mouse arrow pointer with its sharper end touching the centre of the yellow 10m gridline. A perfect 720 meters. So metric looks OK.
However, when the working units are changed, the 720 metres becomes a totally inaccurate 2400.1 feet (which equates to 731.52 metres).
It appears that the factor used to convert to feet is 3.2 x m, when it should be 3.28083990 (3.281 would do).
The lesson seem to be, “Always work in metric”, unless I’m doing something completely wrong (not impossible!)
It is a pain given that my current project is based on historical Imperial scale maps, and I’m keen to correctly apply gradient profiles at the correct track positions from old plans that I have acquired. It appears that I will have to convert all of the mileages into metric, unless I missing something.
Am I right in thinking that the Imperial ruler measurements are inaccurate in Trainz ?
If so, it also calls into question as to whether the odometer option in Edit Session>Display Custom HUD is accurate when Imperial working units are set. I’ve tried moving a loco exactly one mile ahead using this feature, but get very mixed results. Maybe it’s to do with inconsistent speeds or wheelslip, but the results are different each time. However, on a positive note, there appears to be a much smaller margin of error between metric and imperial when using this feature. Maybe the conversion factors are more accurate in this part of the program.
I’m really keen to get my gradient changes set at the correct prototypical distances. Does anyone have any ideas or tips on how to get an accurate measurement?
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