New Basemap Technique: Request for Comments (*Large Images*)
- Thread starter ModelerMJ
- Start date
RoysTrainz
Rembrandt van Trainz
superb Mike
Mike,
congrats on this absolut fine piece of tool for us proto developers.
probably you not know me but if you have a minute to see my canadian rocky mountains thread you see massive mountains where I had the impression that google maps only would fit on relative flat grids/topos.Pls correct me if I can overlay my Roland DEM's with this tool and kind of rerun those part to finish or check/redo.
most appriciated what you do also wait kind of for a slimming and spa tool for google sketch objcts as there are mighty fine ones I want to use in the near future. I pm you with request for manual.
best regards,
Roy
Mike,
congrats on this absolut fine piece of tool for us proto developers.
probably you not know me but if you have a minute to see my canadian rocky mountains thread you see massive mountains where I had the impression that google maps only would fit on relative flat grids/topos.Pls correct me if I can overlay my Roland DEM's with this tool and kind of rerun those part to finish or check/redo.
most appriciated what you do also wait kind of for a slimming and spa tool for google sketch objcts as there are mighty fine ones I want to use in the near future. I pm you with request for manual.
best regards,
Roy
It will be free, although I will not turn down 'contributions' if anyone cares to make them. I am actually in the process of looking for Beta testers right now - since your route is not in the US, would you be interested in being a tester? I have not tried this tool on locations outside the US yet so it would be interesting to see how well it fares in other areas of the world.
Regards,
-Mike
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ModelerMJ, this looks like the answer to really building a prototypical railroad if you have Transdem. If I was to get a download a DEM from the seamless server, when I import the DEM to Transdem, will there be an option where this new program you have in the works be able to automatically place basemaps without having to use the UTM options and knowing the coordinates. If that is possible, then that would be awesome. Would these high quality basemaps make cause a laptop with integrated graphics to lag with trainz. I saw the screenshots of this new program that is in the works above and it looks great so far.
Thanks for the look see. It is now much clearer. For those that use TransDEM and Sketchup, I can see that this will be a powerful tool to getting more prototypical routes made and into Trainz.
I tried TransDEM but prefer MicroDEM for my routes. I works better for my workflow process. And since most of my routes have very little elevation differences anyway, flat basemaps are still a workable alternative.
Congratulations for having spent the time and effort to develop it.
I tried TransDEM but prefer MicroDEM for my routes. I works better for my workflow process. And since most of my routes have very little elevation differences anyway, flat basemaps are still a workable alternative.
Congratulations for having spent the time and effort to develop it.
As I noted in my original post, layers are essential to the process; and TS2009 does not have layers. So I would say, unfortunately, "no".
Regards,
-Mike
Thanks. I have never used MicroDEM; does it output any kind of file similar to the "_TransDEM_info.txt" file that TransDEM produces? If so I would be interested in seeing a sample file.
Regards,
-Mike
Hello Mike ( ModelerMJ),
Within Transdem, option Map tile server - file type ( orthophoto ) , I frequently using MS Virtual earth instead of Google Maps as provider.
Why? - for the area ( Belgian coast ) that I need, the view in MS Virtual Earth is much clearer than the view in Google Maps ( zoom max 18 ).
Is MS Virtual earth also a possibilty with your tool?
How many number of 1000m tiles can be created with your tool?
Best regards
Kurt :wave:
Within Transdem, option Map tile server - file type ( orthophoto ) , I frequently using MS Virtual earth instead of Google Maps as provider.
Why? - for the area ( Belgian coast ) that I need, the view in MS Virtual Earth is much clearer than the view in Google Maps ( zoom max 18 ).
Is MS Virtual earth also a possibilty with your tool?
How many number of 1000m tiles can be created with your tool?
Best regards
Kurt :wave:
Only Google images are currently possible as the imagery comes to me via internal functions of SketchUp, which is of course a Google product. The produced basemaps are 720m x 720m, not 1000m, which means they match the size of the Trainz baseboards.
The only limit on the number of basemaps is the size of the Master Map (i.e. number of baseboards) that SketchUp can handle, and so far that limit remains to be found. I wouldn't expect to be able to do a thousand, but 100-200 should be no problem; I've broken up my own route into 8 separate sections to keep the number of baseboards in each manageable, and so I have not run into any issues so far.
Regards,
-Mike
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Mike,
I was wondering if it is possible to use the images from the Seamless Server? These are Google maps that are used for display. I don't know how they integrate into the Seamless Server, or if they're only for display purposes.
If this is possible, then it would save a step in having to go back to Google again for the same information that is downloadble into Transdem.
John
I was wondering if it is possible to use the images from the Seamless Server? These are Google maps that are used for display. I don't know how they integrate into the Seamless Server, or if they're only for display purposes.
If this is possible, then it would save a step in having to go back to Google again for the same information that is downloadble into Transdem.
John
Part of the "secret" to what I am doing is the use of the geo-location feature in SketchUp, and the terrain and imagery data that feature provides. Without that feature in SketchUp, this tool would not even exist. Therefore it is necessary to obtain the data via that interface, and I guess if you have gathered a lot of imagery from other sources already then it means repeating some work.
I am certainly in that same boat - I spent a ton of time gathering 1:24K maps from the MS Maps site through TransDEM, and then geo-referencing Google Earth images "manually", and trying other methods (remember my ground textures tutorial?), but still did not get the kind of design-time imagery I really wanted. So I made this tool, fully realizing I was going to have to go through another round of image collection; but given the clarity of the images and the fact that they sit on top of the terrain, with no wireframe view to contend with, the extra effort is worth it for me. And yes, my route is "of significant size", so I am not just casually tossing out a few baseboards worth of work.
Now, please don't think I'm dismissing the idea of using alternate imagery, for I am not; that is an excellent suggestion and I would love to find a way to make that work. It would be great to paint these basemaps with nice clear topo maps, or historical maps, or whatever, because it would make the tool all the more useful. Even for me, because part of my route doesn't even exist any more today, and even though I can still trace where the tracks used to run on the Google Earth images, it would still be cool to have alternate versions of the basemaps for those few baseboards, that carry the USGS topo maps I have from 1976.
Actually there is a LOT of neat stuff that could be added to this tool, given time. . .
Regards,
-Mike
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Not sure, I don't see any txt file associated with any of my microDEM generated gnd files. What is in the file? perhaps it's elsewhere.
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Here's a sample "_TransDEM_info.txt" file for one section of my route. RubyTMAP uses pretty much all of this data to provide its various features.
Code:
TransDEM Trainz Export --- © 2006-2011 Roland Ziegler
Geodetic Datum = WGS84
UTMZone = 18T
UTM Southwest Corner Easting = 428720
UTM Southwest Corner Northing = 4653360
UTM Northeast Corner Easting = 436640
UTM Northeast Corner Northing = 4659840
Extension East-West = 7.920 km
Extension North-South = 6.480 km
Trainz World Origin = N 42° 03.515' W 75° 48.817'
Baseboard UTM Grid Offset: x = 0 m, y = 0 m
# Trainz Baseboards East-West = 11
# Trainz Baseboards North-South = 9
# Trainz Baseboards total = 99
# actually created Trainz Baseboards after filtering = 73
# hereof in 5 m grid = 73
Actual Elevation Range Minimum = 253 m
Actual Elevation Range Maximum = 497 mThis file is emitted by TransDEM automatically for every route it exports. If MicroDEM has a way to provide this same information then we might be able to do business.
Regards,
-Mike
The "lat/long reader" method, mentioned above, will not be compatible with Mike's tool. The underlying principle of TransDEM to map the curved surface of our planet to the flat world coordinate system in Trainz is the UTM projection, as most TransDEM users will know. The lat/long reader, on the other hand, uses the Trainz internal projection which is not documented, but definitely is not UTM/WGS84. Now, Mike's tool itself apparently is not using UTM directly or implicitly either. It works with individual local Cartesian coordinate systems per baseboard. That's what the Google API, the core of Mike's tool, is providing. However, the tool's workflow allows to roughly adjust those local coordinate systems to approximate UTM coordinates for each baseboard, so that systematic error should not build up with increasing distance from the world origin. That's quite different with the "lat/long reader".
Hello Mike,
Thank you for your reply. Presently, for my route, the maps have been created using Transdem and I'm satisfied with the result.
Nevertheless, I will keep an eye on the evolution of your tool.
Best regards
Kurt :wave:
Thanks for the clarification; you are of course correct in your description of the underlying methodology of my tool. As a possible point of interest, I actually do use the UTM zoning, northing and easting values that you give for the southwest and northeast corners to draw the extents grid (for building the Master map), but before doing so I convert them to Latitude-Longitude so they will match the "local" coordinates returned from the Google API. SketchUp has a pretty fair array of functions for geo-location tasks; and at the end of the day, everything does seem to line up and fall into place where it should.
Regards,
-Mike
Mike,
That makes sense. Thank you for responding. Maybe in the future there could be options/tweaks that would allow for other images besides those from Google. Now doesn't Google offer historical maps as well? Are those usable. although I do not care for them or need them at the moment. I'm just curious.
Hehe. The product isn't even off the ground and I'm suggesting add-ons.
John
kenwortht950
New member
Hi Mike top work how can i get a copy and will it work with trainz 12
thanks mike
thanks mike
kenwortht950
New member
Hi Mike top work does it work in trainz 12 if so how can i get a copy
thanks
thanks