Gradient: of ground UNDER track

[Raymond10a]

Hello,

I know how to change the gradient and heights of tracks, but I need to change the height of the ground under the track to match a track piece that's a certain gradient. (I'm trying to create raised ground under the track only and at some places I need to change height over a distance).

If the track is meant to be horizontal, I can get the ground to match easily. But when I need the track to change height over a distance there's a tool to do that with. Without a tool that I know of for setting the ground to a gradient, it's tough to get the ground to match. Is there a trick to getting the ground to match in gradient over a certain distance?

Thanks for any help!

 

[sniper297]

Ittybittyteenytiny button at the bottom of the tracklaying window that says "Advanced", opens a menu with additional tools;

"Smooth spline height" translated from Australian to English apparently means "smooth terrain under track". Click on each track section between splines with that tool selected, snaps the terrain up under the track.

 

[Raymond10a]

Ah ok - just experimented with it in various ways.

One tiny problem: first time you click it, it decides for you how wide to make that flat area the track is sitting on. Then when you click it a few more times on the same section it makes it even wider a few more times up to a point. Question is: do you suppose there's a way to make it not as wide? I'm thinking not, but figured I'd ask.

 

[sniper297]

I haven't found one yet, altho the gizmo for making the baseboard a 5x5 grid rather than 10x10 might work - at the expense of framerates, again I haven't tried that yet.

It's similar to your question regarding the "Etch-A-Sketch" zigzag painting, it's all square blocks and angles because computers can't draw curved lines. They create the illusion of curves with many little short straight lines, but the more of those they have to draw the bigger the impact on framerates. Changing the grid size allegedly (again, haven't tested this myself yet) makes the squares smaller for a better illusion of curvature.

BTW, this type of question is about building routes, best forum for it would be surveyors, operators, and engineers rather than general trainz.

http://forums.auran.com/trainz/forumdisplay.php?f=5

Not that important but people looking for answers to editor questions usually browse there first.

 

[Dermmy]

...first time you click it, it decides for you how wide to make that flat area the track is sitting on. Then when you click it a few more times on the same section it makes it even wider a few more times up to a point. Question is: do you suppose there's a way to make it not as wide? I'm thinking not, but figured I'd ask.

Click it once only, then lower each spline vertex by .02m for a perfect fit between track and ground...

 

[JCitron]

Raymond,

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this to you yet, but could you please register your Trainz copy. This will make helping you a bit easier, and ensure you get technical support if you need to contact the helpdesk.

Here's a hint for handling slopes instead of grades...

Make a rough cut with the topology tool, making the cut any width you want. Now take a road spline, and lay that up and down the edge at an angle from the bottom to the top, perhaps a little bit away from the top edge.

Smooth the road spline, just like you do track, and the results will be smoother slopes along the cut.

Combine this with the other topology tool such as the flatten, and you can get a really nice looking track side landscape.

John