Topology... direction ?

[chairman]

Hi,

I notice that I can `design` various topological structures.. but.. I can only get them to run N, S, E + W.

In an ideal world this would be fine, but how can I get a slope to `follow` the line of the track round a long gentle curve ? (I`ve tried to do it manually but it always turns out a bit of a mess :'( ).

I`ve been thinking of maybe using a length of track, one end on a high point the other on the low.. and then filling the ground under it.. would this work ?

I`m sorry for all these questions, they must seem quite simple to all you `old hands`

chairman

 

[JCitron]

Hi,

I notice that I can `design` various topological structures.. but.. I can only get them to run N, S, E + W.

In an ideal world this would be fine, but how can I get a slope to `follow` the line of the track round a long gentle curve ? (I`ve tried to do it manually but it always turns out a bit of a mess :'( ).

I`ve been thinking of maybe using a length of track, one end on a high point the other on the low.. and then filling the ground under it.. would this work ?

I`m sorry for all these questions, they must seem quite simple to all you `old hands`

chairman

Ideally it would be nice to be able to have smooth curved graded slopes, but unfortunately this isn't the case with the built-in tools.

There is a way to do this though using a piece of road or track. Place the track or road on the slope you want, and use the terrain leveling/height tool found in the advanced tool. This will adjust the terrain to match your spline object. When done with the first spline, move it along, or even better use multiple splines and adjust their height to what you want then adjust them. This helps to reduce the stair-stepping wedding-cake effect that happens when creating the topology.

Hope this helps!

John

 

[backyard]

Two ways...

Of course, the Track panel has the Smooth-tool...

But for irregular ground terrain smoothing, go to the Topology panel/get-height(for track height at the specific location after using the track-smooth tool about once)/plateau-tool(the farthest to the right).

The plateau tool uses the selected elevation to smooth the grid in relation to the immediate area selected...

Left-click & dragging away from you manipulates the elevation one way, pulling the cursor to you manipulates the elevation the other way.

Only at a specific location where landmarks exist, like narrow rock walls or narrow embankment may need manual elevation, you can use the track-smooth tool once per length between spline-points.

The topology/get elevation/plateau tool should be used everywhere that's not flat, including along each side of the right of way, to smooth "corners"(vertexes, called "vertices") along the route, to improve performance.

Even where you hardly notice the vertex, smoothing should not alter the effect of elevated embankments, in fact not seeing the vertex is a plus & simplifies hiding the appearance thereof.

 

[lewisner]

You can do curved lines on a gradient by using an Embankment Spline. I use "Embankment Grass" by Bill69. Set the track to the height you want then set the embankment to the same height making sure the spline points are next to the spline points for the track.

 

[chairman]

Thank you for these replies, they really have helped me get my head around this problem...

JCitron - I`m using a road to do as you suggested, there is a very slight "wedding cake" result but I figure I can get round this by using trees to hide this.

backyard - great idea, I was wondering how to put in a rockface (for later in the route) and this seems to be the answer.

lewisner - curved gradients !! The route will require at least one, but that`s a couple of "boards" away !

 

[lewisner]

Here's a curved line on a 1 in 72 gradient done by the method I mentioned.