Smooth Ground Under

[rhban]

I see other people have complained about the Smooth Ground Under tool without getting a satisfactory answer. I am very reluctant to go back to S1, but this tool does not work at all well.

It is very difficult to create a smooth gradient by hand, and in the past one could get over this by smoothing road or track over the top any unevenness. You could even draw your track over a cliff and the tool would create a nice even slope. The S2 tool does not understand cliffs at all and simply leave your road or rail track with a cliff. Even on relatively smooth ground, it ignores any unevenness, and to add to the annoyance, it can take up to 3 minutes!
I am quite prepared to wait if it's going to do a good job, but it really doesn't do this. It's only when you come to drive a train over your "smoothed" track, that you realise just how bumpy it is.
Certainly, it is possible to use the Set Height tool to make absolutely flat tracks, but this does not work on slopes. I am very unhappy with this tool.

 

[JCitron]

You should smooth the spline points on your track, otherwise, you can end up with derailments. Track in real life tends to be relatively flat and smooth even with rises and falls unlike regular bitumen roads that follow the terrain.

This isn't saying that the tool is annoyingly broken in S2.0.

 

[pware]

I am very reluctant to go back to S1, but this tool does not work at all well.

The S2 tool does not understand cliffs at all and simply leave your road or rail track with a cliff. Even on relatively smooth ground, it ignores any unevenness, and to add to the annoyance, it can take up to 3 minutes!

I presume that you are taking about the Smooth Ground Under Selected option in the context menu for spline segments.

I have not experienced any such issues with this tool. In fact I find it far more useful than the equivalent tool in S10. In S20 you can select multiple spline segments and smooth the ground under them all. It is almost instantaneous even when 100s of metres of track spline have been selected. I use it all the time.

 

[Sebo007]

My only disappointment with this tool combined with HD Terrain is only that, the minimum radius of making embankments is 10 meters at the base. Seriously, still broad embankments even with HD feature? I have map generated on TransDEM and I need to fill the gap between original embank and track a little bit. So this tool is still unuseful for me.

 

[rhban]

I presume that you are taking about the Smooth Ground Under Selected option in the context menu for spline segments.

I have not experienced any such issues with this tool. In fact I find it far more useful than the equivalent tool in S10. In S20 you can select multiple spline segments and smooth the ground under them all. It is almost instantaneous even when 100s of metres of track spline have been selected. I use it all the time.

Clearly you have the version of Trainz that most of us wish they would produce. In addition to the tool not working as well as the old S1 version, I also object to what happens if you double click, which can happen by accident. Instead of something sensible like selecting between the nearest switches or end points, this will frequently select the entire length of that piece of track and the "smooth" function then goes to infill all your bridges and strip the tops of tunnels. I have timed the 3 minute thing - I didn't just pull a number out of thin air.

 

[pware]

I have the stock standard Trainz Plus and TRS22 Platinum Edition, which are available to everyone.

Double left click of the mouse is one of my most commonly used actions in Surveyor. It selects multiple copies of the same asset (or the entire consist if used on a rolling stock asset). I frequently use it on a spline segment to select the entire spline from one junction (or the first endpoint) to the next junction (or the last endpoint) in both directions. Selecting the entire length is what it is supposed to do.

I cannot recall the last time I accidentally double clicked - if I did it is easily undone. If you are having problems with accidental double clicks then I would suggest looking in the mouse controls under Windows Settings.

I also use Shift + Double Left Click to add other objects to the selection.

Mass selecting the track, including on bridges and through tunnels, is useful and a significant time saver (compared to S10) for setting the track condition - found in the Tool Options Palette. When I want to smooth the ground under a section of multiple track segments but not include a bridge or tunnel I can use the Shift + Left Click option on individual multiple track segments or, if I am feeling lazy and the section of track is long, then I simply add a temporary track junction before the tunnel and/or bridge and use Double Click. The Double Click selection is stopped at the junction, which I later remove.

I just did a test run using the Smooth Ground Under Selected option on 73kms of continuous track (including multiple bridges - but no tunnels) and it took 1 to 2 seconds.

My experiences.