Newbie questions about surveyor (TS2009)

[F2Andy]

I bought Trainz 2009 at the weekend, and have been playing around with the surveyor, having read through Chuck Brite's excellent tutorial (http://trains.0catch.com/tutorial.html). I have a few questions that are probably really simple, but have floored me.

Is there a manual somewhere? I bought the game on DVD, and it looks to have an installer for Adobe Acrobat Reader, but no PDF files. What is that about? In there a manual on line or somewhere?

Reading through tutorials, I see it is important with double tracks to lay the track in the direction of travel. Okay, fine. So what do I do with bridges, tunnels and stations that incorporate double tracks (which the vast majority do)? If I use them, both tracks must go the same way.

Is it possible to merge two layouts into a single one?

Is it possible to move a whole baseboard, or to move an entire section, including terrain?

Is there a tool that will adjust the terrain height to match the rail height? I think I read about it in a tutorial. I appreciate you can use the plateau tool for level track; I am hoping there is something for track on an incline.

Can you modify the list of drivers to add your own photos and names?

How do you do overhead electrification? On a related note, do electric trains actually need the correct pick-up to run?

What are some good download sites for UK railways? I am not happly with the DLS, so looking for alternatives. I have found these already:
http://brblueproject.webnode.com/about-us/
http://trainz.neonw.com/
http://www.pikkarail.com/trainz/index.htm
http://www.tafweb-trainz.co.uk/othercontent.html
http://www.trainzclassics.co.uk/

I will probably have more later...

 

[Tanvaras]

I bought Trainz 2009 at the weekend, and have been playing around with the surveyor, having read through Chuck Brite's excellent tutorial (http://trains.0catch.com/tutorial.html). I have a few questions that are probably really simple, but have floored me.

Is there a manual somewhere? I bought the game on DVD, and it looks to have an installer for Adobe Acrobat Reader, but no PDF files. What is that about? In there a manual on line or somewhere?

Reading through tutorials, I see it is important with double tracks to lay the track in the direction of travel. Okay, fine. So what do I do with bridges, tunnels and stations that incorporate double tracks (which the vast majority do)? If I use them, both tracks must go the same way.

Is it possible to merge two layouts into a single one?

Is it possible to move a whole baseboard, or to move an entire section, including terrain?

Is there a tool that will adjust the terrain height to match the rail height? I think I read about it in a tutorial. I appreciate you can use the plateau tool for level track; I am hoping there is something for track on an incline.

Can you modify the list of drivers to add your own photos and names?

How do you do overhead electrification? On a related note, do electric trains actually need the correct pick-up to run?

What are some good download sites for UK railways? I am not happly with the DLS, so looking for alternatives. I have found these already:
http://brblueproject.webnode.com/about-us/
http://trainz.neonw.com/
http://www.pikkarail.com/trainz/index.htm
http://www.tafweb-trainz.co.uk/othercontent.html
http://www.virtualrailroader.com/TrainzDL.html

I will probably have more later...

Hello and welcome to the forums F2Andy

Is there a manual somewhere? I bought the game on DVD, and it looks to have an installer for Adobe Acrobat Reader, but no PDF files. What is that about? In there a manual on line or somewhere? - Should be a pdf file in Extras folder in the installation directory.


Is it possible to merge two layouts into a single one? - Yes, under MAIN MENU there is a merg route option

Is it possible to move a whole baseboard, or to move an entire section, including terrain? - Not that I know of.

Is there a tool that will adjust the terrain height to match the rail height? I think I read about it in a tutorial. I appreciate you can use the plateau tool for level track; I am hoping there is something for track on an incline. - Smooth Spline height tool under Advanced tab on Tracks panel. Though I find sometimes you still need to lower track about -0.20 to make it sit dead flat on ground, Though can vary.

Can you modify the list of drivers to add your own photos and names? -I think so, but never done it, Would check Content creation section on that.

How do you do overhead electrification? On a related note, do electric trains actually need the correct pick-up to run? - Look for Catenary and they are mostly placed as splines trackside. But no you can run an electric train without them, but looks out of place.

What are some good download sites for UK railways? I am not happly with the DLS, so looking for alternatives - Cant help sorry, only got Aussie sites for myself.

Cheers

Trent

 

[Dermmy]

... I see it is important with double tracks to lay the track in the direction of travel. Okay, fine. So what do I do with bridges, tunnels and stations that incorporate double tracks (which the vast majority do)? If I use them, both tracks must go the same way....

That 'direction of travel' thing is an old old urban myth. Lay the track any which way you like - OK - keep some consistency, but you don't have to fret about laying one track in one direction and the other track 'backwards'. Just start at one end of the route and lay away.

It is important though that you don't use double (or triple or quad) track. Only use single track laying two (or three or four) parallel tracks. Bridges etc might be an exception, but I would still try to find single track bridges that 'work' side by side...

Andy

Edit - ooh - 3,500 posts, but who's counting? lol

 

[H222]

Is it possible to move a whole baseboard, or to move an entire section, including terrain? - Not that I know of.

Copy + Paste... Under The wrench button

How do you do overhead electrification? On a related note, do electric trains actually need the correct pick-up to run? - Look for Catenary and they are mostly placed as splines trackside. But no you can run an electric train without them, but looks out of place.

I guess you model UK, and Bloodnok, James Moody, has made a great set of UK Catenary under 'UK' In Splines, you have to play around with some of it, but it's simple after that, or take a look at NexusDJ's 'Midshire Mainline' - I think it's a re-work, but it'S a Great rainy layout,


Jamie

 

[F2Andy]

Thanks for the comments, much appreciated.

Trent

Should be a pdf file in Extras folder in the installation directory.

Ah, right. I saw the option on the laucher, but ignored the lonk at the bottom of that page as it was to TS2006. I guess that is the one you mean. So is there a manual for scripts anywhere?

Yes, under MAIN MENU there is a merg route option

Great. My plan is to build in section.

Is it possible to move a whole baseboard, or to move an entire section, including terrain? - Not that I know of.

Smooth Spline height tool under Advanced tab on Tracks panel. Though I find sometimes you still need to lower track about -0.20 to make it sit dead flat on ground, Though can vary.

I was looking in the terrain section; no wonder I could not find it.

 

[H222]

Is it possible to move a whole baseboard, or to move an entire section, including terrain? - Not that I know of.

Copy + Paste,

Jamie

 

[F2Andy]

Couple more questions, if I may:

For 3rd rail electrification, what do you do over bridges? While stations with built-in track adopt the track style that is connected to it, bridges do not.

Is there a way to turn off track and objects (that is, stop them being displayed), say, while you work on terrain? I am having problems modifying the terrain in that after a few changes the system freezes for up to a few minutes, and I guess it is trying to calculate how to redraw the track. Is there any other work around?

I have now found a couple of tutorials about scripting:
http://online.ts2009.com/mediaWiki/index.php5/Hello_World,_Setting_Up_An_Asset_Script.
http://publish.uwo.ca/~gerard/trainz/tutorials/scripting/index.html

Added in edit: Another question. UK diesel and electric locos are equally happy travelling in either direction, however, when in the cab view, I can only see from one end. Is there a solution to this? I guess that in a single cab loco, you can just look the other way, but that does not work if there are two cabs - there is an engine in the way.

 

[glbotu]

Couple more questions, if I may:

For 3rd rail electrification, what do you do over bridges? While stations with built-in track adopt the track style that is connected to it, bridges do not.

Is there a way to turn off track and objects (that is, stop them being displayed), say, while you work on terrain? I am having problems modifying the terrain in that after a few changes the system freezes for up to a few minutes, and I guess it is trying to calculate how to redraw the track. Is there any other work around?

I have now found a couple of tutorials about scripting:
http://online.ts2009.com/mediaWiki/index.php5/Hello_World,_Setting_Up_An_Asset_Script.
http://publish.uwo.ca/~gerard/trainz/tutorials/scripting/index.html

Added in edit: Another question. UK diesel and electric locos are equally happy travelling in either direction, however, when in the cab view, I can only see from one end. Is there a solution to this? I guess that in a single cab loco, you can just look the other way, but that does not work if there are two cabs - there is an engine in the way.

For 3rd rail, you could either use a separate spline for the 3rd rail or use a bridge which has no pre-built track. (Type FMA into the DLS, you'll come up with a spectacular range of stuff just for this, also allows complex junctions on bridges).

TS2010 has the "layers" system, which I don't think exists in TS2009, so you can't hide tracks when doing terrain etc. If you're doing prototypical routes, I could suggest TransDEM by roland ziegler. It's a bit of payware content that takes digital elevation data and transfers it onto Trainz baseboards, so you generally won't be working with the ground elevation when you're working with the track, as TransDEM will have done all that for you.

For 2 cab locos, hit Alt-C, it should switch you from one cab to the other.