Immediate help needed in middle of build right now...

[rjhowie]

I am in the middle of route building and I have pressed a wrong key somewhere and the textures have been replaced by the bare bones of the baseborads kind of thing - that is a light blue with tiny squares if you get me?

I could come out of the build and lose the last 20 minutes of work but there is obviously some way to get back into the textures?

 

[mezzoprezzo]

First thought is that you have gone into wireframe mode. Have you tried toggling it off?

 

[mattm]

First thought is that you have gone into wireframe mode. Have you tried toggling it off?

Which is accessed by pressing F9, for reference.

Matt.

 

[mezzoprezzo]

Thanks for adding the method Matt, which I woefully failed to do. Pretty important really if you’re not used to using that function key and it was the cause of the problem!

The other way to toggle it on/off, which I generally use, is with the Wireframe View button located on the bar at the top right of the screen. It’s the one with the grid/portcullis icon.

It’s all gone very quiet following the initial urgency. I’m sure most of us have had that nasty sinking feeling after something has apparently gone irretrievably wrong.

Let’s hope rjhowie has found his way back to normal view rather than deciding to rebuild.

Casper

 

[cascaderailroad]

Ctrl+W is wireframe mode on/off
Alt+W is another view, when inside wireframe mode

 

[rjhowie]

Hi all,

I had a break to give time for any replies from those who might be on. Toggling F9 was the answer! Passinglyc urious what that wire mode is for and at least now should I make the mistake ever again I know the answer. Many thanks for the speedy replies as I was in the middle of a rather fiddly bit of building and didn't want to do it again! Now I can get back with my build of the whole of the NIreland Railway Company.

Again my thanks from a wwwet and cccold Glasgow.

Bobby

 

[mjolnir]

...<snippage>... Passinglyc urious what that wire mode is for ...<more snippage>...

I don't know what it's for, but I know how I use it. If I decide that there is a certain particular area that I need custom content in, I can turn on wireframe mode, and find out exactly what the size of the footprint of the custom content needs to be. Thus I can determine that the bridge needed to cross a particular point needs to be 47 meters long, and not have to make an initial guess of 45, and then a guess of 48, ....



ns

 

[pfx]

what that wire mode is for

Very handy when working with tunnels and also certain track assets such as abutments which generally can't be seen properly above ground. Also if you use the height adjust tool and 'bury' something by accident... Which I never do.

 

[mezzoprezzo]

I have two further regular uses for wireframe.

1. Basemaps
It is very useful for leaving basemaps buried under the ground which will become visible when wireframe is turned on. Textured areas of the ground will have the painted surface temporarily removed so that you can place individual objects, road/rail splines etc. with great precision.

2. Precise landscape modelling
Wireframe will allow much better control when raising or lowering the terrain. Where you grab the surface to make adjustments will considerably affect the result depending on where the compass is placed. At minimum radius, grabbing the centre of a grid square will tend to move the whole square up/down. Doing the same at grid intersections will create a spike or pointed depression.

The alternative wireframe mode, mentioned by cacaderailroad, will double the number of visible polygons by showing one diagonal line between opposite corners of each grid square. The whole grid has a mesh of much finer lines which are much easier to see. There will only be one diagonal per grid square, but it will flip direction depending on which way the terrain is being deformed. It shows how each triangular polygon is behaving as you adjust the landscape and where the hypotenuse “hinge” is placed when adjusting the right angled grid intersections. It also affects the texturing as these “flips” take place. I understand that newer versions do not have this functionality. It would be nice to believe that this function might be restored in future editions.

Of course, like pfx I find that I never, ever, have to use wireframe to find buried/lost objects! (liar)

 

[Deano5]

Sub surface and underground subways/stations, a very important tool for those too.
Five years of Trainz and you never found wire frame til now! wow :hehe:.

 

[Euphod]

It's also useful when objects have hidden or exceeding small "handles" and you want to move, adjust or delete them.

 

[davesnow]

VERY handy when you want to remove the excess WATER that almost always overlaps too far around rivers and such.

I found out water where it isn't needed hurts frame rates.

Cheers,

Dave