Trainz09, importing DEMs w/ Tiger lines

[SlickWilly]

I am using Trainz 2009 and I have been trying to make a DEM with the TIGER roads, rail, lakes, rivers overlayed(painted) over the elevated mesh(called the basebords?) I created using MicroDEM 10.0, build 2008.12.30.1. Here is the link for the full install http://www.usna.edu/Users/oceano/pguth/website/microdemdown.htm
I will explain step by step what I am doing. The area I am doing is based on the DM&IR operations in Northern Minnesota, USA (I am also building a Nscale layout of this too) In this thread I will focus on the line from the ore docks in Duluth then up the 7 mile 2,2% grade to Proctor. Do a search for "Missabe" and find the historical
I downloaded AND installed MicroDEM listed above.
I got the DEM from here ftp://e0srp01u.ecs.nasa.gov/srtm/version2/SRTM3/North_America/
I downloaded N46W093.hgt.zip to a new folder I created. The file name is the lon/lat of the North West corner of the area I want.
I move a copy of the zip file into the folder MicroDEM created during install -C/mapdata/DEMs - Do not unzip just move a copy into it.
Now I start MicroDEM, click FILE/Open then browse to C/mapdata/DEMs/ N46W093.hgt.zip and get this
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk238/ke9902/NewBitmapImage.jpg
This covers a very large area. Then I click on "subset & zoom" and zoom into a smaller area to work on like this
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk238/ke9902/2.jpg
Now click "modify>elevation" and then select "Chroma depth colors" select OK and now I have this
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk238/ke9902/3.jpg
Now I click modify>Grid and then make sure that "neither" is selected. I think you only have to do this once, but I check every time. Then just close that window.
Click on Info and I get this and write down the "Screen pixel size" is 43.82
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk238/ke9902/4.jpg
Now click on "zoom in" and enter 4.382 since I needed to change to 10m (screen pixel size divided by 10)
Now DL the :US Census Bureau TIGER/Line 2006 file from here http://data.geocomm.com/catalog/US/61055/35/group144.html
Put that in to a subfolder Labled DM&IR in C/Mapdata/tiger
Then in MicroDem I click "Load County tiger map" in the toolbar, point to the file I just put in above and now I have this
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk238/ke9902/5.jpg
Now the county Tiger line that is displayed is probably covers a geographical area 10 times larger then the DEM I have here, so use "subset & zoom" in the tool bar for the tiger data and zoom from the NW corner N46.97 W92.50 to the SW corner N46.62W92.02
With those coridinates it makes the tiger data I have a little bit smaller then the DEM. Is that ok? Do you usually clip off the end boards in surveyor anyway? Now I change the screen size to 10m by dividing the screen size by 10. Click on zoom in on the toolbar and enter 4.93. Screen size for the tiger county map was 49.30. Now I have this
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk238/ke9902/6.jpg
You can see the crosshair over the Proctor yard and this matches the location of the mouse pointer over the DEM.
This where I am stuck. Most of what I have learned to this point is from here http://freepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wewain/trainz/homepage.htm but some of this info does not work with current MicroDEM
I changed the the exported BMP to a .tga for use w/ HOG and am able to see all the hills and river valleys in surveyor. I am not able to figure how to have the Tiger lines show up in surveyor. I have cut and pasted the tiger lines the over the DEM with no luck. I also saved the tiger lines as a .tga and inserted them in "Optional image to serve as layout texturing guide, but then I get a warning as shown here
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk238/ke9902/7.jpg
Do I need to make the tiger.tga the exact same lon/lat as the DEM? Seems very hard to cut the image in MicroDEM exactly the same size with mouse pointer. Is there someway to enter cordinates by typing them in? I think I am getting close, I just need a little more help.

Willy

 

[Dermmy]

zooming and subsetting he Tiger data might be your problem. I don't since I had problems with that approach on my first map. HOG applies its baseboard filter to the 'teal' Tiger lines, so using the full Tiger will lead to a lot of 'flat' baseboards on one or more edges that will need to be pruned manually, but at least Microdem gets its best chance of lining the Tiger and DEM up correctly with the complete Tiger file.

Andy

 

[SlickWilly]

If I dont shrink the area of the tiger then it requires 6500MB of space when I convert it to 10m. I tried doing an area slightly larger then the DEM but then I get the error in HOG that I posted above. Are you sure I am not missing somthing along the way? At what point or what program am I suppose to use to add the tiger lines over the DEM, and how?

Willy

 

[Dermmy]

MicroDem In a nutshell:

1. Open Dem
2. Modify - Elevation - Colors
3. Modify - Grid - Neither
4. Note Min/Max Elevation (for HOG later)
5. Screen Pixels to 10m
6. Save image (for HOG)
7. Overlay all TIGER
8. Modify - Display Parameters - Blank
9. Save image (for HOG)

That should do it....

EDIT - I just re-read your post above and you are changing the DEM resolution after overlaying Tiger, which could have come from an ambiguous comment of mine above, now corrected. You should do all necessary DEM mods - resolution, merging etc - in MicroDem before the 9 steps above....

andy

 

[RPearson]

Well Andy beat me to it. But I think I can add these comments:
1) the tutorial you reference isn't really that out of date and you don't seem to be following it as closely as you should. As far as I see from reading it, it should work for a lot of things - displaying the dem, setting the pixel size, saving the image file, displaying the Tiger data as an overlay on the SAME plot as the DEM image and saving the tiger image. In some cases MD 10 has been enhanced to make some steps easier like you can now set the horz pixel resolution directly from Modify-> Map area -> Set map Pixel size. Just enter 10 in the dialog that comes up. No more calculating required. You can also save the images directly as targa files. But the old ways still work just not as easy. It can't be followed for moving the gnd file into TRS2006, TC1/2,3 and TS9. But these are covered in the current forums you just have to dig. Also setting up the HOG texture files but this has also been covered in the forums.

2) In your 1st post you indicate you are displaying the DEM data as 1 plot and then creating a separate plot of just the Tiger data. This is bound to introduce big errors in alignment. DON'T DO IT this way!!!

3) Follow the tutorial. After saving the chroma elevation image of the DEM (in ver 10 you can save directly as tga file - just select it from Save as type -> targa selection in saved image file dialog box) go right back to the displayed DEM plot and do the following:

a)From overlay menu -> ALL TIGER to display the tiger data directly on the dem display. This will correctly position and scale the tiger data to match the dem display. This is important.
b)From modify menu -> Display parameter -> blank. This will create white background for the tiger image.
c)From file menu -> Save image. Save the tiger image as tga file (select targa from Save as type -> targa selection).

Now you should have a chroma image and a Tiger data image that are the same size and will align as good as MD can do it. It's posible to make other changes in a paint program but it's very easy to mess up the alignment if not done right.

What you should have at this point should be good for HOG to work with.

Bob Pearson

PS. In HOG you can use the same tiger data image for texturing the baseboards and filtering the route to only make baseboards that are within a specified number of boards from the track line(s) in the tiger image.

 

[SlickWilly]

a)From overlay menu -> ALL TIGER to display the tiger data directly on the dem display. This will correctly position and scale the tiger data to match the dem display. This is important.
.[/quote]

This is what led me to believe that those instructions where out of date (not to mention I think they were dated 2004)
There is NO ALL TIGER in the overlay menu in the latest build of MD. Look at picture
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk238/ke9902/8.jpg
This is where I have been stuck. Is there a different option to overlay the tiger lines in the latest MD

 

[Dermmy]

Willy the option must be there, perhaps worded differently, perhaps under a different menu heading, but a bit of searching should turn it up. I have an older version of MicroDem, but it does what I need it to do flawlessly and I know there are folks creating HOG images from the later versions....

 

[grumplstink]

WILLY for Tiger Overlay go to...Overlay...vector outline..Click on "File Type " to get dropdown showing Tiger Files ...Find Tiger file ..load ...This overlays your Elevation Map ..Then do the "Blank "..etc...as Early posts indicated...I was caught by this variation in the ver 7.0 to ver 10.0...Regards

 

[SlickWilly]

That was what I needed grumplstink. Thanks! Thanks to everyone else too

 

[grumplstink]

anytime...regards

 

[RPearson]

Sorry Willy, I checked it with the version on my laptop which is supposed to be ver 10 and it was there. I'll have to check it again when I get home for my own curiosity.

Bob Pearson

 

[SlickWilly]

No reason to apoligize. I am laying track now and thats what matters. Thanks again for the help.

 

[RPearson]

Glad to here you're making progress. When I 1st started with Trainz making terrain like this was not possible. We were still figuring out how to use displacement maps to make realistic looking ground. The prospect of making the 32 mile route of the EBT in the Alleghenies of PA using that technique with the tools available in Surveyor was daunting, scary and IMO impossible. HOG was developed just in time. While things have gotten a lot easier finding the resources and tools probably the biggest aid is that there are lots of people on the forums that are able to help out when things don't seem to work out. Back then most anybody trying this was on his own.

I checked my version of MD and it says 10.0 and lists All Tiger in the overlays drop down menu as can be seen below. I don't know what it all means but I'm a little confused. Since it's possible to mix and match the main program and the DLL versions maybe that's what I've done. I probably should go back and DL the latest full version.

Bob Pearson