Hi k5laguy,
The tutorials mean well but do require a bit of rereading, some repetition and some experimentation. I don't know much about trainz or creating but I DO know how to import tiles (especially for Canadian DEMS). I assume you are making a route in Canada?
What I like to do is this:
i) get transDEM running
ii) import your DEM
iii) open up all the trackage (you downloaded the railway vectors from canvec right?)
TransDEM has a function where it can get all the tiles for tracks (which you'll have as a vector[line]) which in
theory is really easy and cool. You just select map path? and let it do it's thing. However, if the trackage is complicated (example, yards, sidings, or it is lengthy, etc) it will probably refuse to do so because it/google earth can't handle that complex of a request (the error it will give is that the path is too complex). Try it and if you get lucky, it might work. Chances are, your route is probably not all single tracked and has a yard or two, which means that you have to do something else which is to:
i) trace over the sections of trackage where you want to have tiles. You shouldn't trace over everything (depending on the size of what you are trying to model). I'd trace a vector no more than 20 KM in size. For the route I am working on, I made about 8 of these "map tile vectors" to get map tiles.
Do this by starting a new polyline over the first trackage section you want tiles for. It doesn't have to be 100% accurate on the tracks, but you basically trace over the current tracks in a new vector. If there is a spur, you don't have to go over each track as the tile is bigger than the track.
Save that new vector, close ALL the vectors and then reopen the saved vector. Now you have a simple path for transDEM to get your tiles and it won't complain about the path being too complex.
Then go to get the tiles and select map as path? and go from there.
Save the tiles to a well-named folder for later and like shampoo, rinse and repeat for all the tracks you want to do. It'll probably take a good chunk of time...which is another reason to save the tile data. Good news is that once you have all the tile data, you can just open that up at any time later and start exporting the tiles when you are ready to do so.
If you are aiming for a lot of depth from the tracks and (have a lot of time to build) you can do the same thing along the tracks by making vectors that go along the tracks. This is tricky and requires experimentation to do properly because you'll probably get gaps where you are too far from your original "map tile path" that you made.
If your memory is limited (like me with 2GB), exporting tiles might be more difficult later but I doubt you'll have that problem.
Hopefully, you have a strong video card, lots of memory and a good computer. If so, you can adjust the specs of the tiles up (which means you'll get really good looking tiles in trainz and this will really really help you later on). This I envy (my old rig/video card can't do that).
Oh, you can also use MS Virtual Earth, which is great for urban areas. Dare I say, better than GE.
If you are still stuck, send me a PM or post here and I'll try to help you out. I'm at work now so I can't use transDEM from here but will help you out (and others here can help out too).
:wave:
Gisa ^^
