Smooth Track tool behaving strangely

[MeowRailroad]

I have a hard time building slopes because I elevated the track, but when I go to smooth it, it either doesn't go up to the track all the way, leaving a gap between the earth and the track, or it will cause further down the track to sink in a depression below the ground. Anyway to prevents this from happening/make tool work as intended.

 

[ldowns]

I've encountered this kind of problem if I haven't manually set the height of splines before smoothing the track. If you lay the track on a slope the track will conform to it but the spline circles will remain white, indicating that they haven't been 'fixed' into place. Clicking on a spline circle with the adjust height tool will fix the spline point's height, after which the smooth spline tool works much better. (However, most track will still leave a slight gap between the track and the scenery if viewed directly from the side; this is a problem for as far back as I can remember.)

Lamont

 

[cascaderailroad]

The only way to fix the 0.20m gap (which was invented to stop track flickering), is to write down on a piece of paper, or place a house, and "name it" using the "?" button, showing the original exact track spline point height measurement numerals.

Do this for your entire route (all 10,000 baseboards:hehe ... Then ... add 0.20m to each and every of your 10,000,000 trackspline points ... hit the smooth spline tool again on all the tracks ... then re-lower them to the original spline point height numerals ... Believe me ... It is fun, as white warshin' a long picket fence Huck !

 

[MeowRailroad]

Well, that was so complicated I didn't even understand it. Flickering kind of looks realistic, like moving ballast or something. I kind of like it for track and splines.

 

[JCitron]

The other thing you can do is ensure the following lines are in the config.txt files of the track you are using. If the line exists, modify the value to the one shown here.

This is located in the track container for the track container.

adjust-height-to-ground-offset -0.01

You'll find the track will dig into the ground and you won't have that gap underneath.

 

[cascaderailroad]

Unfortunately that tag is not allowed in 06.

Does it really work in 09, 10, 12 ?

And what if you add that line to the modified track that you use on your route, and it sets the track level to the ground on your route ... what happens if another person downloads your route, and uses the original default track, that does not have that tag (adjust-height-to-ground-offset -0.01) ? Would it revert to floating + 0.20m ?

 

[JCitron]

Unfortunately that tag is not allowed in 06.

Does it really work in 09, 10, 12 ?

And what if you add that line to the modified track that you use on your route, and it sets the track level to the ground on your route ... what happens if another person downloads your route, and uses the original default track, that does not have that tag (adjust-height-to-ground-offset -0.01) ? Would it revert to floating + 0.20m ?

Any route you upload will have the original paramenters of course because this is added to the config.txt of the track you are using.

It does work in TS12; not sure about the others. Given the track I modified is '09 vintage, it probably works there.

If you're not bothering to upload the route anywhere, then go ahead and use it.

Never thought about '06 since I haven't used it since... I forgot when.

 

[Vern]

Best solution until the problem is finally (so we are told) fixed in T:ANE is to use a track with a thick base - for a US route most of the JR track splines are so fitted and some of the Russian standard gauge track on the DLS, too.

Failing that then there really is no option but to manually drop each spline point 0.2m (or thereabouts) so the track is flush with the terrain. It doesn't take nearly as long as you might think, but a job best done once all the track is laid and no more adjustment to the network is required. Also don't forget to do it with roads too, as they look even worse floating in mid-air.