DEM request

[rwk]

I have a request for DEM in eastern PA. Tremont, PA in Schuylkill County to Elizabethtown, PA in Lancaster County following former Reading and PRR railroad lines. It's for a project. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanon_and_Tremont_Branch#/map/0

 

[JackDownUnder]

Anyone with the Trainz version of TranzDEM is not allowed to produce DEM's with their licence other than for the construction of their own route which of course may be uploaded to the DLS.

 

[rwk]

What, so nobody can make DEM's for DLS anymore like fishlipsatwork did and others? How much would a current version of TransDEM cost?

 

[rick1958]

Anyone with the Trainz version of TranzDEM is not allowed to produce DEM's with their licence other than for the construction of their own route which of course may be uploaded to the DLS.

I've always had an issue with that. To me, thats like saying someone with Photoshop can't make a graphic or someone with 3ds can't make a model for someone. Just my opinion.

 

[OddRails]

Last I checked, Transdem was USD$28 ... but that might be out of date.

The market for a program like Transdem is fairly limited. A handful of people producing terrain for others could completely wipe out sales.

The program has many features and abilities designed for international users that I've never tested. But they are part of the program for people who do need them.

Transdem has greatly increased my enjoyment of Trainz.

Predictably, the first project for me was the UP/SP trackage through my hometown.

Followed by anything that catches my fancy. At one point I even tried some of the late Ish6's content on a rather low resolution terrain map of Mars from NASA.

Many months ago we had a discussion about a train blocking a crossing when that was the only road into a neighborhood for an emergency vehicle responding to a call. I made a crude copy of that siding and the mainline to see the situation more clearly.

 

[BlackDiamond1964]

Anyone with the Trainz version of TranzDEM is not allowed to produce DEM's with their licence other than for the construction of their own route which of course may be uploaded to the DLS.

Wow, that pretty much ends my route building in Trainz.

 

[Sek_Hakuna]

This is news to me. I first purchased transdem in ?2014? I contacted geophil to specifically ask about this sharing of routes created with his software. His response was "yes of course you can share your route creations". I took a browse through his forum pages but could not find any info about it.

What would be the difference? A fleshed out route with track, trees and trainz and a bare route?

Randall

 

[geophil]

Nothing has changed. And, of course, you can share your routes based on TransDEM generated terrain with others and publish them. If you want to do that commercially, then please purchase a commercial TransDEM license. Otherwise, the only thing I ask is that you actually build a route of your own, and surpass a "threshold of originality" (copyright law terminology). And I do not object you working in a route builder team, with one of you doing the geo data stuff and exchange TransDEM output with other team members, but please keep it within your team.

This discussion comes up every other year. TransDEM for Trainz has celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. And there could be a reason why it is living so long and I have not given up on this project. My tiny cottage industry is a one person enterprise. Billion dollar companies like Adobe, mentioned in a post above, may have different license policies. I am not competing with them.

 

[BlackDiamond1964]

That was close...everything I work on has a TransDEM origin. I couldn't see me packing my bags after as much time as I've spent creating content in Trainz.

 

[rwk]

So what, asking someone to make a DEM for you is against the terms of service of TransDEM or is it allowed? BlackDiamond, I was almost going to ask you if you could do it.

 

[BlackDiamond1964]

So what, asking someone to make a DEM for you is against the terms of service of TransDEM or is it allowed? BlackDiamond, I was almost going to ask you if you could do it.

I think I have something already made, but it doesn't go as far a Lancaster County. I would have to look at my collection.

 

[Sek_Hakuna]

@rwk

I believe that is what has been clarified......"And I do not object you working in a route builder team, with one of you doing the geo data stuff and exchange TransDEM output with other team members, but please keep it within your team."

Randall

 

[rwk]

BlackDiamond, even if you had Tremont to Lebanon I would take that. I have a DEM from Lebanon to the south from the DLS.

 

[BlackDiamond1964]

BlackDiamond, even if you had Tremont to Lebanon I would take that. I have a DEM from Lebanon to the south from the DLS.

PM Sent

 

[dangavel]

Nothing has changed. And, of course, you can share your routes based on TransDEM generated terrain with others and publish them. If you want to do that commercially, then please purchase a commercial TransDEM license. Otherwise, the only thing I ask is that you actually build a route of your own, and surpass a "threshold of originality" (copyright law terminology). And I do not object you working in a route builder team, with one of you doing the geo data stuff and exchange TransDEM output with other team members, but please keep it within your team.

This discussion comes up every other year. TransDEM for Trainz has celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. And there could be a reason why it is living so long and I have not given up on this project. My tiny cottage industry is a one person enterprise. Billion dollar companies like Adobe, mentioned in a post above, may have different license policies. I am not competing with them.

Phil, I've come across a very strange effect in a DEM I downloaded for the DLS, with the aim of possibly using it in the future, the track cannot be raised, in fact when I try to do anything with it, it dives down 50 feet below ground and for some reason refers to -50.4ft ( 3000 ). It occurs with any track, deleting old track makes no difference. Do you have ANY idea what might have happened here ? Its probably Trainz related and not a particular transdem issue as I've never seen it happen before. its in trs 2022, I've yet to test if the same thing occurs in 2019.

 

[geophil]

the track cannot be raised, in fact when I try to do anything with it, it dives down 50 feet below ground and for some reason refers to -50.4ft ( 3000 )

There was a feature in early versions of Trainz for splines to cling to the surface. More recent Trainz versions no longer acknowledge this. Current TransDEM sets spline points at DEM elevation.

 

[OddRails]

Dan, I don't know what DEM you are using. But I DL'd the "Colorado Midland Ry. - Colo Springs to Granite - DEM [unedited]" into TRS19sp5 to see if anything was unusual. The track strings are sitting on the surface of the terrain just fine. They also let me change the height, without complications.

Many times I'll use JOSM to capture trackage from OpenStreetMaps to import the trackage into TransDem, and later into Trainz. OSM trackage has no elevation data and ends up at elevation 0 meters until the vertex height is cleared using surveyor track tools. At which point it rises to the terrain surface. But what you are describing sounds very different.

So perhaps TRS19sp5 isn't doing what you are seeing in your build of TRS22.

Edit: I need to admit that I'm still using TransDem 2.6.6.2 in case the latest version handles zero-height vertexes differently.

 

[dangavel]

Dan, I don't know what DEM you are using. But I DL'd the "Colorado Midland Ry. - Colo Springs to Granite - DEM [unedited]" into TRS19sp5 to see if anything was unusual. The track strings are sitting on the surface of the terrain just fine. They also let me change the height, without complications.

Many times I'll use JOSM to capture trackage from OpenStreetMaps to import the trackage into TransDem, and later into Trainz. OSM trackage has no elevation data and ends up at elevation 0 meters until the vertex height is cleared using surveyor track tools. At which point it rises to the terrain surface. But what you are describing sounds very different.

So perhaps TRS19sp5 isn't doing what you are seeing in your build of TRS22.

Edit: I need to admit that I'm still using TransDem 2.6.6.2 in case the latest version handles zero-height vertexes differently.

I opened it in 2019 , I could raise track up and down , no issues , I saved under my kuid and imported into 2022. Same issue as before, track plunges into the depths.I noted that in the route info the creator states that hes fixed an "elevation cap" issue, I think that is probably what the problem is, the height of the route was lowered by 1900 m and this is now causing problems in trs 2022. DRAT !

 

[OddRails]

Amongst very high mountain ranges, it is very common to lower a Dem. This is not good. I hope a good solution is found.