TransDEM Questions

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MickC57

Active member
Hello everyone. I have been trying my absolute best to find out where and how to get TransDEM, but to no avail. Roland Ziegler has yet to reply to any emails I have sent and I'm a bit at my wits end. My main interest in Trainz is creating reasonably complex original routes and it seems a near impossible task without something like TransDEM. So now to my main question which I hope Is okay to ask on this forum...

Is there anyone who could create a TransDEM base for me of an area I'd like to model. I would pay for this service, of course. My idea is to do a fictional branchline of the Southern Railway in the foothills of NC. Any direction on this would be super appreciated.

Thank you!
 
The following may explain why you did not get a response: https://forum.transdem.de/viewtopic.php?t=575

Due to heavy spam attacks I had to suspend my standard contact email address as shown in the TransDEM program or in the manuals.

You'll find a new contact email on my web page (slightly obfuscated, to make it a little bit more difficult for the bots), or contact me via this forum.
Click to expand...
See: http://www.rolandziegler.de/StreckeUndLandschaft/startseiteTransDEMEngl.htm
| contact | rolandziegler | de |

(Anti Spam: substitute with @ and . where needed.)​
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Finally got the program. A bit daunting. I have spent two days working with it and have yet to be totally siccessful, but I'm not giving up. Thanks to c44d9w. I couldn't have done it with out your reply.
 
MickC57 said:
Finally got the program. A bit daunting. I have spent two days working with it and have yet to be totally siccessful, but I'm not giving up. Thanks to c44d9w. I couldn't have done it with out your reply.
Click to expand...
The program isn't that difficult to use. Like many programs, we only need a small subset of all the tools that are available. The more complex aspect of using TransDEM for our needs is obtaining the data from the National Geologic Survey servers. What used to be a simple process has now become quite complex due to how the data access and download process has changed.
 
JCitron said:
The program isn't that difficult to use. Like many programs, we only need a small subset of all the tools that are available. The more complex aspect of using TransDEM for our needs is obtaining the data from the National Geologic Survey servers. What used to be a simple process has now become quite complex due to how the data access and download process has changed.
Click to expand...
I got it to work! Yea! I've learned that you much take each step in a particular order. I'm starting off very easily and slowly with by modeling Tweetsie Railroad in North Carolina. It's a simple 3 mile loop in the mountains and has a lot of personal significance from with I was a kid.

Thanks for all of you all’s help and suggestions!
 
Hello, I am posting this here as it is the most recent thread concerning Tranzdem. ( I am a licensed user ) When using the USGS data download, the 1 X 1 degree ( Data extent ) selection no longer appears to be available. Could this be the reason I am getting errors such as "No Data available" when I try to "Download data"?

 
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Hot_Box_Detector said:
Hello, I am posting this here as it is the most recent thread concerning Tranzdem. ( I am a licensed user ) When using the USGS data download, the 1 X 1 degree ( Data extent ) selection no longer appears to be available. Could this be the reason I am getting errors such as "No Data available" when I try to "Download data"?
Click to expand...
On the NSGS website, click on the data availability button to view if there is actually 1 x 1 degree data available for download. Not all areas have that resolution with many are at 3 and 9 arcsecond.
 
JCitron said:
On the NSGS website, click on the data availability button to view if there is actually 1 x 1 degree data available for download. Not all areas have that resolution with many are at 3 and 9 arcsecond.
Click to expand...
Yes, I did that. It changes color, but I don't know what that means. :confused: One would think an area as populated as Memphis, TN would have that data available.:rolleyes:
 
OddRails said:
What are you trying to download? Maps or Dems?
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DEMs... I made a screenshot of the issue, but I am unable to post it here. The "Data Extent " 1 X 1 Degree " selection button does not appear on my screen. Hence, when I search, "no results" are returned. I did get 2 results from this same area last week, but when I tried to load them into Tranzdem, they failed "with errors". Unfortunately, it did not state what the errors were.
There are dems available, at least there were 10 years ago when I attempted this same route. It's Memphis, Tennessee, with all 5 Class 1 railroads, so one would think that data is available from USGS. It's not like I'm out in the boondocks somewhere.

Update: I tried a smaller area. It did return two TIF files. ( about 482MB each ). I assume these are some type of DEM. When I tried to open them with Tranzdem, they immediately showed "Errors reading file". Same as before.
 
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I had TransDEM but lost it a while back, switched computers and hard drives, and I believe I would have to pay for a new version that works with 2019 and 22. There are a few DEM's that I wanted but I currently have no way of making them myself. One is Mahwah, NJ to near Hoboken, NJ about 30 miles, to merge with two other DEM's, one is Salisbury, NC to Old Fort, NC, to merge with other DEM's, and the other is Cincinnati, OH to Lexington, KY. Fishlipsatwork did the NJ DEM called Woodbridge, and the Cincinnati to Lexington DEM and they were on his site one time, but the Wayback links don't work. Some Lars person said that he has most of the DEM's from Fishlips site. The NJ route is essentially the NJ Transit Main and Bergen lines, I have merged DEM from Mahwah to Binghamton, NY and a DEM of the Hoboken area but missing the rest of the NJ section. I want these routes to run steam excursions on.
 
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rwk said:
I had TransDEM but lost it a while back, switched computers and hard drives, and I believe I would have to pay for a new version that works with 2019 and 22. There are a few DEM's that I wanted but I currently have no way of making them myself. One is Mahwah, NJ to near Hoboken, NJ about 30 miles, to merge with two other DEM's, one is Salisbury, NC to Old Fort, NC, to merge with other DEM's, and the other is Cincinnati, OH to Lexington, KY. Fishlipsatwork did the NJ DEM called Woodbridge, and the Cincinnati to Lexington DEM and they were on his site one time, but the Wayback links don't work. Some Lars person said that he has most of the DEM's from Fishlips site.
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I didn't use it for years and Dr. Zigler re-instated me. I had it before 2016, probably before 2012. I think all updates are free, and will work with Trainz 22+. Email Dr. Zigler, he probably has you on file.
 
Hot_Box_Detector said:
DEMs... I made a screenshot of the issue, but I am unable to post it here. The "Data Extent " 1 X 1 Degree " selection button does not appear on my screen. Hence, when I search, "no results" are returned. I did get 2 results from this same area last week, but when I tried to load them into Tranzdem, they failed "with errors". Unfortunately, it did not state what the errors were.
There are dems available, at least there were 10 years ago when I attempted this same route. It's Memphis, Tennessee, with all 5 Class 1 railroads, so one would think that data is available from USGS. It's not like I'm out in the boondocks somewhere.

Update: I tried a smaller area. It did return two TIF files. ( about 482MB each ). I assume these are some type of DEM. When I tried to open them with Tranzdem, they immediately showed "Errors reading file". Same as before.
Click to expand...
You did pull the file out of the zip, right?

If you did, then there may be something wrong with the .tif file. I've had issues before with data such as the Geo-PDFs being way off from where they are supposed to be.

As an alternative to the .tif files, try a .img.
 
JCitron said:
You did pull the file out of the zip, right?

If you did, then there may be something wrong with the .tif file. I've had issues before with data such as the Geo-PDFs being way off from where they are supposed to be.

As an alternative to the .tif files, try a .img.
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Wait ! What ? It did not appear to be zipped up to me. it had a .TIF extension. :oops:
 
A tif file will be black and white and about the size you mentioned.

They've changed the selections. A 1 arc-second DEM is about a 30 meter resolution. The former 1/3 arc-second DEMs were about a 10 meter resolution.

I think the old hgt data files that we used in the beginning were a 30m resolution. We had to unpack those to get the DEM out of them.

If you are lucky you might find 1 meter resolution DEMs that represent a 10km square. It adds up to a lot of data for Transdem to crunch by the time you collect enough for a whole route. I guess it could be done in sections.

The 1 meter DEMs are good for contemporary work. But often have too much earthwork to smooth out for historical routes.

How much RAM memory do you have? Transdem is good at gobbling up memory when reading new files and also when merging.

i haven't tried to download any DEMs recently. So I don't know if the USGS has corrupted things at their end or if the corruption could be happening at your end.
 
I downloaded a couple of .tif files tonight. Tranzdem would not open them ( errors ). I opened them with irfanview and they looked like regular black & white dems to me.
I don’t plan on taxing Tranzdem with all the work. I’m only doing a few miles across Shelby County Tennessee. This includes Memphis & suburbs. I can easily make several routes and merge them in Trainz. Memphis is relatively flat area. The drop in elevation comes at the western edge of town, about 70-90 feet above the Mississippi river. On the Arkansas side of the river it’s ruler flat rice & cotton fields.
 
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