Camera spheres is a layer that puzzles me.

[JonMyrlennBailey]

Why would anybody lay track or install a bridge under "camera spheres" anyway?

What in the heck is camera spheres all about anyway? Those green domes are bothersome.

 

[oknotsen]

Are you just posting to moan or are you actually trying to ask a serious question?
If the first, let me know so the topic can be locked.
If the later, consider changing your attitude and with that the way of posting.

The fact that you don't understand something does not by definition mean it is stupid.

 

[JCitron]

I will tread lightly here and maybe attempt an explanation...

A camera sphere is something that the original content-creator is using to place dramatic train-following cameras, which exist in a particular zone. If you hide these assets that are located on their specific layer, by original creator's choice, you won't have them in your way. This is what layers are for and are quite useful for many other things as well.

 

[norfolksouthern37]

What in the heck is camera spheres all about anyway? Those green domes are bothersome.

Camera spheres are used to see the effective range of cameras for lineside viewing (camera mode 3) they are simply reference tools and are on their own layer so they can be hidden and not be in the way. since you have two very good answers to your question I would say this thread is over.

 

[cascaderailroad]

Use the blue cylinder camera quide for placing rotating trackside cameras make them touch cylinder walls so they overlap @ 10m, eyeball the rotating trackside camera centering it in the blue center post, zoom in all the way using the KB arrow keys, and PgUp/PgDown tap them @ 4 times or more to zoom out a tad, and elevate a tad, move the camera to a fine tuned placement ... save ... they can be deleted after using them

Mix up your cameras so that they zig zag down the track from R to L, to avoid boring repetition

 

[JonMyrlennBailey]

But is there any reason a highway bridge should be in the "camera spheres" layer? I merged some train boards onto my layout the other day and some of the road bridges were invisible until the camera spheres were made visible by selecting the eyeball icon in Layers tab. Yes, the damn domes get in the way when one is working on a layout. What happened was I merged the train boards from a route which I had deleted the camera spheres layer by mistake instead of bringing it over during the merge operation. The road bridges were visible in the old route, in Route Layer, when the camera spheres were turned off but when the bridges came over to another route during a merge, they would not be visible in Route Layer unless I had merged over the camera spheres layer from the old route as well. I don't know why the bridges in question depend upon the camera spheres to be visible anyway. This is a weird phenomenon. I ended up with a few bridges that couldn't be seen unless camera spheres were turned on! I tried using the ? tool to reassign these bridges to route layer but the Properties dialog box would not show up so this was not possible. I had to do the merge procedure all over again by including the camera spheres layer during the merge instead of just only the route layer and this was successful the second time around. The bridges did finally show up when camera spheres were turned off following the merge the second time around for some mysterious reason. Something told me that the mere presence of the camera spheres layer was somehow connected to the visibility of these bridges in Route layer but to this day I still fail to understand this completely.

In short, I learned that when one merges routes it is best that both route AND camera spheres be merged and not just route layer or some content might not show up in surveyor normally. I rename the layers selected for merging so as to avoid two layers with the same name during a merge. If one route is giving some of its its layers and train boards to a new route I will name the donor route's layers something like "donor camera" and "donor route" and then merge those into the new route's "camera spheres-1" and "route-1" layers respectively. I have never found a need to merge session layers.

 

[JCitron]

This is true for any layers. The "Camera Dome" layer is just a named layer created by NorfolkSouthern37 (Justin Cornell from Jointed Rail) for his use when building the route. Why the bridges got caught up is not a mystery, but instead it's due to the quirky nature of the layer system. When one is using layers, he/she need to ensure that objects are assigned properly and the proper layer is picked when assets are placed.

I found this out the hard way. I often use a layer I call XXXX when I am temporarily placing assets such as barrels and crates on a loading dock along with workmen and other things that look appropriate. To do this I will create the XXXX layer and make that the active layer while I place the objects. This allows me to fiddle with them without moving the loading dock or other assets around them. It's actually quite useful for this. The problem, however, is I've forgotten to switch back from the XXXX layer and ended up placing track and other stuff on it. I found this out when I went to adjust track and it couldn't be selected. I usually merge the XXXX layer into the route layer when I'm done anyway, but in this case I wanted to adjust things, but forgot to switch first.

John

 

[nicky9499]

Layer locks are there for a reason. And you can always merge or move objects to another layer in the properties dialogue. /thread

 

[clam1952]

Anyone noticed that you can turn off the route layer which just leaves the terrain and nothing else, extremely handy for touching up the ground textures or re doing them as well as tweaking or correcting! the actual terrain, then just turn the route layer back on and save with the changes.

 

[JCitron]

Anyone noticed that you can turn off the route layer which just leaves the terrain and nothing else, extremely handy for touching up the ground textures or re doing them as well as tweaking or correcting! the actual terrain, then just turn the route layer back on and save with the changes.

I just discovered that myself. It sure is handy!

John