Catenary installation is unpleasant.

[RobWed]

Doing some work extending one end of the mainline off the board in Schwaninger Land. I'm limited in what asset choices I have because I want to keep it prototypical and stick with the library of assets already being used. The masts were straightforward but the lines and hangers... OMG. There's over 1500 assets all labelled with an obscure code. Which meant getting a whole bunch of pieces out and looking at them until I worked out the code.

I don't know how it works in Surveyor 1 but in Surveyor 2, the only thing on any of the 1500 assets that is grabbable is the attachment point that connects to the track. And no sticky points on the wires! Those damned wires are so thin you've gotta get up close to see them but you've also got to look at the ground so you can see the attachment point. Then you've got to move the wire a bit then zoom around on all three axes to see if you've got the end of the wire anywhere near the hanger. All in all a colossal pain in the arse and a really unpleasant day. And I haven't even finished...

 

[martinvk]

Now imagine the ROW crew putting up that catenary IRL. At least you're sitting in comfort.

 

[JCitron]

Doing some work extending one end of the mainline off the board in Schwaninger Land. I'm limited in what asset choices I have because I want to keep it prototypical and stick with the library of assets already being used. The masts were straightforward but the lines and hangers... OMG. There's over 1500 assets all labelled with an obscure code. Which meant getting a whole bunch of pieces out and looking at them until I worked out the code.

I don't know how it works in Surveyor 1 but in Surveyor 2, the only thing on any of the 1500 assets that is grabbable is the attachment point that connects to the track. And no sticky points on the wires! Those damned wires are so thin you've gotta get up close to see them but you've also got to look at the ground so you can see the attachment point. Then you've got to move the wire a bit then zoom around on all three axes to see if you've got the end of the wire anywhere near the hanger. All in all a colossal pain in the arse and a really unpleasant day. And I haven't even finished...

Yes, it is painful. It doesn't help that there are shadows too. I find myself grabbing at the shadow instead of the wire. What helps a bit is to set the time of day to noon in the environment while in Surveyor and adjust the ambient light as well as remove the fog. This makes the environment bright and clear, and much like working in older versions of Trainz.

Surveyor 1.0 (Classic) is actually easier to use but much more limited. Click on the scenery items tab then change to splines. Click on the + to add assets or the arrow to move them around. It lacks the asset-locking and selecting features found in S2.0 but sometimes it's faster to use. The other tabs such as the track tab work similarly.

I agree that the asset-naming conventions are confusing especially with oddly-named parts such as the various hangers. I gave up using the individual components because I couldn't make head nor tails of what the parts are and ended up using the all-inclusive spline kind for my interurban tram route. I understand why you are being prototypical and using what's there but sometimes it's the frustration that kicks in and this is supposed to be "fun".

 

[RobWed]

Now imagine the ROW crew putting up that catenary IRL. At least you're sitting in comfort.

I was actually thinking it would be quicker to do it IRL!

Yes, it is painful. It doesn't help that there are shadows too. I find myself grabbing at the shadow instead of the wire.

Haha! Yep!

What helps a bit is to set the time of day to noon in the environment while in Surveyor and adjust the ambient light as well as remove the fog.

I must try this. It's set in the morning so long shadows at the moment.

It lacks the asset-locking and selecting features found in S2.0 but sometimes it's faster to use.

If it wasn't for asset locking it would have been impossible. I was constraining selection to Scenery Splines with 6060 in the name for the wires and Trackside objects with 6045 in the name for the hangers. Didn't help that everything is in the one layer. Try finding a 4 pixel dot in amongst all the trees and bushes! Ended up moving all the frills into their own layers. Trees layer, Plants layer, Buildings layer, Roads and Road vehicles? Layer! Just so I could see clearly. Not a bad plan actually and probably a method I will employ when I start my own build.

I did see S10 a bit when I was logging bug reports. Decided I much prefer S20. I quite like the fact I can manipulate X,Y, and Z coordinates directly. I was able to put together a yard in pretty short order with a bit of trigonometry and just punching the numbers in.

 

[martinvk]

...

I agree that the asset-naming conventions are confusing especially with oddly-named parts such as the various hangers. ...

This has always been a week point in Trainz. Every creator has a better idea on how things should be named, plus it doesn't help that some people use other languages to describe things. At least with multiple pick-lists, common items can be grouped together to make selecting them a bit easier.

 

[RobWed]

This has always been a week point in Trainz. Every creator has a better idea on how things should be named, plus it doesn't help that some people use other languages to describe things. At least with multiple pick-lists, common items can be grouped together to make selecting them a bit easier.

The creator of these assets is German and I fully support his right to use his own language. As it turned out, the code was fairly simple. i=inner, c=centre, o=outer, li=links, re=rechts, the last two numbers of the 4 digit code being track seperation or tower spacing depending on the asset. But yes, having to work out each author's system is time consuming as, with a few notable exceptions, everyone seems to hate writing documentation.

Organising pick lists is on my to-do list.

 

[JCitron]

Pick-lists will be your bestest friends ever with a project like this.

I agree without on the virtues of S2.0. I used that recently to move buildings close to each other to create an extension from another. Doing this in Classic Surveyor is a bit frustrating as the first object jumps around unless it's locked and even then, the second object has to be fiddled into place. Using S2.0 I was able to cinch in the second copy of the building easily and build my extension on the grand hotel.