How to view curve radius in surveyor 2.0
- Thread starter c44d9w
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Are you sure about that? In the Classic Track Tools (F4), Advanced section for Trainz Plus it shows Gradient value, Track Condition value and Height value. There is no Curve Radius value. Nor do I ever recall seeing such a value.
You are correct. I never noticed that or ever used it.
So the answer to your original question
... none that I have found (but I never noticed or found that facility in Surveyor Classic so that answer should not fill anyone with confidence).
I never noticed that either in all the years I've used Classic Surveyor. I wonder when that crept in and it's too bad that's tool isn't available in Surveyor 2.0. Hopefully, this is another useful feature that will find its way eventually into S20.
After having a play with the Show Curve Radius tool, I think I know why all of us old dogs saw it but yet never used it. It frankly makes little sense. It has a range of 0 to 399 which doesn't make sense in terms of degrees of curvature and its value varies greatly along the length of the curve which I assume shows the builtin easement of using splines to draw curves. However, without a way to set and apply a value to a curve, I fail to see the usefulness of it. We have all been eyeballing curves for decades.
Edit: Further experimenting indicates that the range of the readout is much greater than I thought. Examining random trackwork I have seen numbers well over 16000 on a section of track that looks dead straight to my old eyes. And it isn't measuring distance either as within 10 meters, the number drops to the low 4000s. All together confusing tool to use.
Edit: Further experimenting indicates that the range of the readout is much greater than I thought. Examining random trackwork I have seen numbers well over 16000 on a section of track that looks dead straight to my old eyes. And it isn't measuring distance either as within 10 meters, the number drops to the low 4000s. All together confusing tool to use.
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This is a case where familiarity blindness paid off and all the more to ignore it and carry on as we have.
The number is the radius (in meters) of the curve at the point. The changing value comes from the "splining" that Trainz does.
One would expect that a simple curve consists of an easement (increasing radius), a steady radius, and another easement (decreasing radius). But that is not the case. I tried to create a circle, but it is quite difficult.
I also eyeball curves, but sometimes use the tool to ensure that all parts are good for the desired speed.
One would expect that a simple curve consists of an easement (increasing radius), a steady radius, and another easement (decreasing radius). But that is not the case. I tried to create a circle, but it is quite difficult.
I also eyeball curves, but sometimes use the tool to ensure that all parts are good for the desired speed.
But see the issue is the tool isn't accurate.
Eight 100m rulers measuring the radius to be 100m as close as you can get it given the difficulty of getting all 8 endpoints to have the bar of the ruler in the exact center of the track. The track radius at the end of 7 rulers is 86 and one is 88. That is a huge margin of error. Yes the radius does vary along the curve between spline points but it varies above and below 86, not 100.
In settings>Control Settings, the tool is named Get Curve and has a keyboard shortcut for Classic surveyor but that function is not listed under Surveyor 2.0 so you can't add a shortcut. It also doesn't appear in the popup menu for the selected track segment. Perhaps you should suggest it be added to Surveyor 2.0 in the suggestion forum.
SeafarerUZ
New member
I’ve used to switch to Surveyor Classic when I need to use the tool ( I’m only using it to check if the straight didn’t become curve ) and then switching back to 2.0