Creating route geography

[Hank335]

Still clawing my way up the learning curve day by day.

In addition to TRS2010-EE, what other tools do I need to create the geography of a route in an area I'm interested in.

If it were MSTS, I could do that in 5 minutes, with TRS I don't have a clue.

Or please direct me to resources.

Thanks
Hank

 

[WYO]

Still clawing my way up the learning curve day by day.

In addition to TRS2010-EE, what other tools do I need to create the geography of a route in an area I'm interested in.

If it were MSTS, I could do that in 5 minutes, with TRS I don't have a clue.

Or please direct me to resources.

Thanks
Hank

Hank,

You need Dr. Guth's MicroDem program, the dem's (preferable 10 meter res.) and a program called HOG (hand of god) from Trainz.luvr.net. All of these are freeware. You might also want to download the Tiger files for the area of interest, although I find them to be inaccurate in the placement of roads, rivers, etc. There is also a payware solution called TransDem. I can't comment on it as I haven't tried it. Hope this helps. My apologies to geophil for misspelling the name of his program.

WYO
a short lived short line.

 

[geophil]

If it were MSTS, I could do that in 5 minutes, with TRS I don't have a clue.

The 5 minute solution would be the aforementioned TransDEM which is payware but has quite a few more features than the full version of DEMEX for MSTS. TransDEM not only processes the DEM but all the maps and ortho-images as well. And if you want you can even lay track. It might be bit rough to run a train on it, but much easier to use than MSTS marker files.

See here for more information: http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?t=60233

 

[Hank335]

I tried the MicroDEM-HOG method and though I did get results, something is not right.

I'm assuming the values for height range is in meters. The actual elevation in the area would range from near sea level to about 500 feet.

I followed the tutorial by Bill Slack. I turned off grids, but when I opened the work up in Surveyor, there were all kinds of anomalies. I know the area I extracted and there was very little ground truth....deep valleys, peaks the followed what might be embedded grid lines. Overall elevations may otherwise be near correct.

Hank

Something else I'm not getting any feedback on is how to connect my many signal models to the scripts in TRS. My 3D object software can export in the TRS format, but like MSTS, the graphics have to have specific nomencalture and hierarchy. And that's what I need to know.

 

[HiBaller]

My tutorial was primarily for TS2004. For TS2010 there are several interim steps you have to take before it can be used in 2010. I haven't revisited that tutorial in over three years to it's quite out of date now.

Bill

 

[Ricke82]

... when I opened the work up in Surveyor, there were all kinds of anomalies. I know the area I extracted and there was very little ground truth....deep valleys, peaks the followed what might be embedded grid lines. Overall elevations may otherwise be near correct.

Someone on one of the forums (sorry but I don't remember who) posted a work-around for the "valleys and peaks" issue. Create the HOG route as you normally would and then, without opening it first in Surveyor, create a one baseboard map and merge the HOG route to it. You can then delete the blank baseboard.

I tried this on a couple of routes and it virtually eliminated the problem. In a few cases there were still a few "dips and mounds", but they weren't noticeable after texturing.

 

[Sek_Hakuna]

yup, merging the one board route to the dem fixes the anomolies. I made dozens of maps with the freeware stuff and had a good time with it.

I recently purchased TransDem from Geophile and am extremely happy with it. The maps look much better and the added ability of overlaying a georeferenced map is just too cool.

The program cost $30 and is worth every penny.

Randy

 

[Hank335]

yup, merging the one board route to the dem fixes the anomolies. I made dozens of maps with the freeware stuff and had a good time with it.

I recently purchased TransDem from Geophile and am extremely happy with it. The maps look much better and the added ability of overlaying a georeferenced map is just too cool.

The program cost $30 and is worth every penny.

Randy

Great! I just made the purchase and have set it up. I ran through the first tutorial and after a little trial and error, got it working.

The only problem is trying to add a locomotive in surveyor just the run over the "auto" placed track.

What sources are you using for US data? I've tried loading some of the USGS seamless data and it doesn't load.

Regards,
Hank

 

[geophil]

Just tried again. Easy solution: By default, TransDEM 2.1 lays track into its own layer (in TS2010). Any stock to be placed on this track must be in the same layer. Use the info dialog in Surveyor to find the layer for the track, use the layer pull-out toolbox to set this layer for editing.

 

[Sek_Hakuna]

Hank,

The seamless server is a bit tricky. To get the files for TransDem one needs to clik on the Download button and choose what file type is needed....and that would be "geotiff". I have been following the tutorials in TransDem for Maptiles. It is really fun to do this.

First, research the railway or route you would like to model. Find it in Google Earth, or at least the location. Then open Transdem and follow the tutorial for creating the georeferenced maptiles. Once that is completed Transdem will tell you what .dem files are needed for the route. Then goto this website:http://dds.cr.usgs.gov/srtm/ To get the .dems.

One trick with the srtm files is to load them into Transdem and then "save as" to a .dem file. Do that for each srtm file then start loading the .dem files. The process is to "open" the first .dem and then "add dem" for each additional one. Once the route is established and all the .dems are loaded simply export to Trainz and a route is generated with all kinds of good information on the map.

I know it all sounds a bit confusing now, but follow the tutorial and it will start to make sense.

I'm going to try orthomaps next.

Randy

 

[Hank335]

Just tried again. Easy solution: By default, TransDEM 2.1 lays track into its own layer (in TS2010). Any stock to be placed on this track must be in the same layer. Use the info dialog in Surveyor to find the layer for the track, use the layer pull-out toolbox to set this layer for editing.

Thanks, geophil and Randy

I downloaded DEM from the USGS seamless server in 1/3 arcsecond geotiff format and it loaded just fine in tranzdem.

Will I be able to use the USGS 24K DRG's directly, or will I have georeference those after import?

Will I be able to make the vector data for a rail line from the loaded maps in TranzDEM?

Hank