Grading DEMs

[Rougespear7mm]

Hey there all,

I have about 25 miles of track down on the DEM. I have prototype grade profiles (%'s) and I'm ready to begin grading the ROW. I was told that I should not hit the "smooth" function in surveyor before all my track is properly graded. Right now, the track sits ontop of the terrain. Is there a way that I can adjust the spline points to they can sit "inside" of the terrain and stay there? That way I can adjust the splines along the route until I am happy with the grade, and then begin "smoothing" the terrain around the ROW.

Any other suggestions/thoughts any of you helpful folks may have before I begin? I was planning on manually adjusting the spline point's height and using the "gradiant" tools...

Cheers, Brent

 

[Dermmy]

Just hit either 'Apply Gradient' or 'Set Height' (or is it Apply Height? - whatever) and the track will move to the required position even if that is temporarily underground or way up in the air. Once you have grade and alignment right, hit 'Smooth'. Then (if you have the patience!) go back along the track and reduce every spline point's height by 0.20 meters to put the track right at ground level....

Andy

 

[Rougespear7mm]

Ahha, I didn't realize about lowering all the spline points! Why does Trainz draw them like that, or am I missing the reason as to why they should be lowered?

 

[Dermmy]

Trainz will place track more-or-less at the local ground level, which will generally result in steep up-and-down roller coaster track. Railways are not laid on the terrain but generally run through it using cuts and fills. It is rare to find any track at all - with the exception of yards - laid at 'ground level'. To replicate this in Trainz we need to raise and lower track to get it running through the topography at a realistic grade....

Andy

 

[backyard]

...or...

Use the Height adjustment tool(F4, Advanced Tools, Ctrl+H) tool, touching every other (white) circle sets a grade for the length between points.

An additional help with smoothing out scenery is to place the compass on a satisfactory point & going to the Terrain Tools, Plateau Tool(F1, G-get then P-plateau).

Run the tool up/down the main extended about 30-50 feet either side the track...it will smooth jagged edges & smoothing reduces load.

Using the smooth tool is not a taboo. You can remove spline height, raise or lower the grade, use the straiten spline tool & the plateau tool will smooth unwanted changes in the terrain.

Use Microsoft Bing(formerly Microsoft Virtual World) to find actual terrain height at a given location on your track charts...if the charts have elevation, compare for correct data.

The track charts are not a rocket science. Some places the grade may exceed the charts for a short distance. They give you an idea of approach to how grades may be for locomotives to handle. You have to use sighting along a string of cars of required length to determine how a region is crossed.

You have to avoid thinking that Trainz will see a bunch of white spline points & know exactly what to do...there are programs that can do this using vectors, but eventually Surveyor will try to reset to a specific height previously used & bizarre results happen...don't think you did something wrong & need to scrap it, start over & everything will be wonderful now...

Surveyor is a great tool to use for route building, along with track-charts, Microsoft Bing Birds Eye, Google Earth Camera View & running the route in Trainz.

Thanks For Using DEM!