Drawing route lines without DEM?
At the moment I am drawing out the rail lines of a quite complicated goods yard in TransDEM 1.2 using the Simple Route editor, drawing the vector lines over Google Earth images, and USGS 1:24000 images.(Part of a route made of such images)
But it suddenly occurred to me....do I need to have the DEM for this route opened in TransDEM while I'm drawing out and positioning the vector lines?
Or is it ok just to draw the lines out on the map raster images, and the route line will be painted on from 'above', so to speak, once all the route data has been fed into TRS2006 from TransDEM?
If the DEM has to be open while drawing out the route line, is there any way of subduing the colours of the DEM material so I can see the rail lines on the raster maps more clearly?
I'm not going to actually use the Google Earth images in the terrain that will go into TRS2006, just the USGS images.
With the blue vector lines painted on top of that. The lines are still blue are'nt they...like the old HOG textures?
Have had a second example of Trans DEM open with just the USGS 1:24000 maps showing...so I can keep referring to that if things get a bit foggy with the Google Earth open TransDem images.
Before all this data gets put into TRS2006, will it be possible to access a function in TransDEM that will paint these blue lines as thin as possible, so, in the goods yard section the lines don't merge into one another?
This is all for the lower part of the Clinchfield route – Spartanburg to Chesnee.
The Clinchfield versions on the Trainz DLS....their not DEM'd, and there are no gradients!
HARUMPH!

So I thought it would be nice to haul coal over some of these 'proper' winding mountain routes.
Don't know anything about the route hardly.
Just waiting for a couple of books from Amazon to arrive about the Clinchfield route.
Wayne.
Lancashire, UK