Martinvk Track Spacing Guide Question

[matruck]

Howdy All i'm using Martinvk's Track spacing guide's of which he has quite a few on the DLS

and so far i have found them invaluable in helping me get the spacing i want and the track nice and straight once you hook the track from one to another of these spaced how ever far apart you want a straight section of track.
But i was wondering why there is a different concrete type object either side of these Guide's.


Of if these were placed there for any particular reason, Maybe the Guide's are supposed to be placed facing a certain direction ?. Anyway i find them fantastic and are actually helping me a great deal with my Route Building.
Cheers Mick.:wave:

 

[mezzoprezzo]

Hello Mick.

I can’t fully answer your questions but have some observations.

I originally thought that the concrete plinths might have been a guide for catenary pole bases or signals. However they are a little too close to the tracks for the type used on my Italian Routes. I suppose they might be designed for another country.

Where I have found them useful is to grab the asset for height and rotation movement. Other than the pushpin, there is no other part of the asset which allows you to pick up and move it. Grabbing one of the plinths makes it very easy though.

The concrete base which has the embedded metal frame also has a black panel attached to it. When the World Origin is set, the panel will show the precise lat/long of the asset at the point of the pushpin. The lat/long display remains visible in Driver, (although the pushpin disappears), which is a pity because it is not prototypical. Deleting the World Origin will remove the values, but the plinths and the blank black panel remain visible. I’ve got around this by deleting the asset, but the tracks then need to be re-connected.

Casper

 

[matruck]

I’ve got around this by deleting the asset, but the tracks then need to be re-connected.

Thanks for the reply Casper i also found that it depends on what direction you first have these Guide's placed as when you connect the track to it the track kind of double connects to it so i normally place a section of track off it as in my first pic above then once all 4 are done i go back and delete each long section and i now have my Guide in position ready too attach track too from the other side of it, Kind of complicated sounding i know that is why i asked if maybe i wasn't using it as it was meant to be used.
Cheers Mick.

 

[kenneth18278]

I also use these guides extensively, Mick, as they're a great help to me (not the best track-layer in the world!!), and I've found that, as the plinths cannot be removed, I just hide them by plonking down a small bush or a lump of grass. Get the positioning right and it works, and adds a bit of scenery to the route.

Ken

 

[mezzoprezzo]

Hiding the plinths with other objects is a good idea.

Another method is to delete each guide asset after the track is correctly laid, add a piece of track to "mend" the gaps. Then (important!) use the straighten tool to correct the new short pieces which in turn, will automatically realign the intervening longer sections, which were between the guides, back to the correct shape.

It's important not to simply snap the exposed track ends together. That will distort the result, and undo all the good work done with the guides.

 

[JCitron]

Is it possible to use the tag in the config.txt to make the object invisible in Driver?

I can't remember the syntax offhand that's why I've asked this way.

John