Tutorial-Tracklaying Gradients Topography Textures Scenery

[cascaderailroad]

Who would enjoy sharing different techniques on tracklaying, gradients, topography, textures, scenery ... giving each other, tutorials, via Forum-PM, or E-Mail-InstantMessenger ?

Lots of experts out there need no tutorial, as they already know most of all there is need to know.

But I have heard that some new persons, are quite frustrated with tracklaying, gradients, textures, and topography, and scenery.
I have heard that some say that they are no good at it at all, and that they are ready to give up, as surveyor is no fun, and is frustrating ... But only with tutorials, and many hours of practice can one master the skills mentioned above.

I have thought about webcam, pointed at the other persons Trainz screen (so that you could get "real time" view of what the other tracklayer is doing in surveyor) ... but that would mean the two people would have to run Trainz windowed ... or have 2 PC's going.

Anyone who wants to join in on the learning experience, and share their techniques with others, please post here.

I have also thought of people sending their routes as a CDP, and the other person edits the route, straightening yard ladders, fixing curves and gradients, for the other person, and returning the corrected route back to the original person.

Sound like a good idea ?

 

[nfitzsimmons]

I could buy into that. Maybe people could each contribute accdording to their area of expertise. I seem to be reasonable good at some things, but terrible at others.

 

[mezzoprezzo]

“How to do it”, guides on Surveyor techniques are badly needed. The more the merrier!

I've occasionally been asked for advice from people who have asked via PM, and have given it. However, my preference is to share ideas with a wider audience.

That way everyone can contribute and learn from everyone else. PM’s are too personal and help no-one other than the individual recipient. Instant messaging and emails wouldn't be much better IMHO.

Isn't, therefore, a Forum thread the best platform to run this?

 

[mjolnir]

...<snippage>... Isn't, ... a Forum thread the best platform to run this?

Not in my opinion. If the proposed thread is adopted, and as posts are added and the thread gets longer, it will be a challenge to find the really good answer to a particular question which appeared in earlier posts. In addition, the current implementation of this forum does not allow embedded images, nor an index. I'd also suspect that there is a limit on the length of posts.

While I do see the value of collecting how to information in a single location, I propose as an alternative the wiki format. It can be indexed, have a table of contents, allows in-line images, and has no limit on the length of individual pages. I see the utility of the forums as supporting the WIKI; a user who wants help on doing certain Trainz, tasks, whether creating or modifying terrain, or could post a request for a WIKI page describing how to accomplish the desired task.

ns

 

[cascaderailroad]

So ... Who wants to know my tracklaying techniques ?

I am thinking of writing a short story, or a Blog, or a webpage, or some other format of sharing stuff with a large audience.

I will post something later >HERE< by editing this post

Those who are having difficulty with surveyor ? Please PM me, or post here.

 

[belgian46]

Who would enjoy sharing different techniques on tracklaying, gradients, topography, textures, scenery ... giving each other, tutorials, via Forum-PM, or E-Mail-InstantMessenger ?
Lots of experts out there need no tutorial, as they already know most of all there is need to know.
But I have heard that some new persons, are quite frustrated with tracklaying, gradients, textures, and topography, and scenery.
I have heard that some say that they are no good at it at all, and that they are ready to give up, as surveyor is no fun, and is frustrating ... But only with tutorials, and many hours of practice can one master the skills mentioned above.
I have thought about webcam, pointed at the other persons Trainz screen (so that you could get "real time" view of what the other tracklayer is doing in surveyor) ... but that would mean the two people would have to run Trainz windowed ... or have 2 PC's going.
Anyone who wants to join in on the learning experience, and share their techniques with others, please post here.
I have also thought of people sending their routes as a CDP, and the other person edits the route, straightening yard ladders, fixing curves and gradients, for the other person, and returning the corrected route back to the original person.
Sound like a good idea ?

Hello cascaderailroad.

I think this is a great idea.
I have started by first route in the beginning of 2012 and my biggest issue up to now is the placement of pylons, catenaries in combination with the pantograph height on the trains. I have been looking and searching and trying to find a method to place the pylons, catenaries in a faster way. My present method is based on using some elements which I have found by reading some French tutorials. These tutorials are available on this site http://globuletrainz.free.fr .
The method can only be used on non-curved tracks.

Mainly due to this pylon ( etc .... ) placement problem, and the merging issue in TRS10 and TS12, I have also decided to start with a new route but now purely orientated for Diesel Trains. The route is already created using Transdem, I only have to visit the place, simply to get a better view on the situation. The visit of the railroute ( no longer an official route, but transformed to a touristic line, is scheduled in the period May-August 2013.

If you have some place for the pylons, catenary placement issue, I would appreciate it very much.

Best regards.

Kurt :wave:

 

[cascaderailroad]

Unfortunately, there is no quick method of placing splines, and all must be laid meticiously by hand, while zoomed in all the way, and looking exactly straight down exactly from above (not off to the side, or zoomed out).

You can however get a wider field of view, by setting your trainzoptions anywhere between: -surveyorfov=35 up to -surveyorfov=185 (I find that =85 to =120 works well).
In TRS2006 the defaults are:
-cabinfov=65
-driverfov=55
-surveyorfov=55

This wider field of view, allows you to more easily rough in the preliminary placement of splines, (although most will not click in, or will not adhere to the ground, unless you are zoomed in).

The combination of Hold Shift/Don't Hold Shift KB key is the most usefull tool as it makes splines not click together like magnets, and also makes a stuborn spline point adhere to the ground.

When I place tracks and splines, I look directly straight own from above, and slide the spline points, just so the outside edge of the spline point circle just gently touchs the RR tie end.
http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc339/cascaderailroad/Screen_003-15.jpg

I also wear my prescription glass's, and have a pair of Blue Blocker gold tinted lens sunglass's earpieces, scotch taped to, and in front of, my prescription glass's, and have an old coffee table gold glass top as a home made PC screen UV/darkening filter.

Surveyor can be tedious and hard on the eyes.

I am learning all the surveyor KB shortcut keys (like M makes a spline point moveable ... and L gets the curve radius, measured by gently touching the innermost spline point circle edge) I sometimes find that touching the center of the spline point circle sometimes displays an untrue measurement).
http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc339/cascaderailroad/Screen_007-18_zps3c869161.jpg

Textures: Forest_1 , and Forest1 ,make great wide cover textures, all but making millions of trees, unnecessary

 

[mjolnir]

So ... Who wants to know my tracklaying techniques ?

I am thinking of writing a short story, or a Blog, or a webpage, or some other format of sharing stuff with a large audience....<snippage>...

Or maybe via a page on the Trainz Wiki at http://online.ts2009.com/mediaWiki/index.php5/Main_Page.

ns

 

[Dermmy]

The issue with this sort of 'tutorial' be it forum thread, wiki or blog is that there are at least as many ways to lay track in Surveyor as there are route-builders. It's one of those things that is mastered by doing and is damned hard to 'teach'.

Whilst not in any way denying that Post #7 is a summary of track laying techniques that work brilliantly for Cascade, I just happen to disagree with just about every point made. In no way am I saying that post #7 is 'wrong', it isn't, it's just that Cascade's system works for Cascade and my system works for me. No guarantee at all that either system works for anyone else.....

How do you learn to lay track? Open surveyor and lay track. That's it. Nut it out. When you get genuinely 'stuck' ask a question, get an answer - or two, or three, and keep going....

 

[cascaderailroad]

That's right ... I learned from watching others, and measuring their route track curves ... And I experimented and developed my own way of tracklaying ... And when you examine my techniques, and you yourself develope your own brand new improved technique ... and I look at your super duper technique, and I say: "WoW, Now why dint' I think of that, that's a fabulous idear' !

Then I learnt' someting' new each day !

 

[Jananton]

A site I found very helpfull in the early days when I started with trs2006 is this one. For the beginner in tracklaying, signalling and a beginning in AI handling this is still very informative.

As for landscaping, I think I picked that up left and right in different threads, saidly I don't have links for those. The only thing further that I can say about that is, that as soon I got fed up by the little hills you can make with the buildin landscaping options of surveyor, I went for modelling bigger slopes and 'mountains' using tracksplines, the elevation settings for them and the smooth spline height tool to create those elevated parts. A lot of work, but very rewarding when done. Here's an example:

Greetings from nighttime Amsterdam,

Jan

 

[BobCass]

Empties goin to mine..

I too like to do mountain, rough land masses..I like too lay down a piece of track, like cascaderailroad., only I like to use it in with my mountain building..I use the height button on each end of track(circle) and type in the height I want..Usually about 1000m..then click on the track and surface will rise to that height..Use the track smoothing tool and work it down..

 

[gericat12]

I have some interesting old school techniques that I use. It has been a while since I messed around with thrains but I would be happy to share what I know as well.

 

[cascaderailroad]

I always had the "Fixed Vertex Height" ticked "ON".

Now I find that my gradients are too uniform, and the real prototype RR grades have much variation, with many leaps and dips.

I ticked: "Fixed Vertex Height" "OFF" an the track follows the bumpy ground.

Has anyone purposely ever made a realistic route, with bad trackage, that is warped, crooked, and heaved up and down (like Penn Central trackage) ?

It is harder to lay bad track ... than it is NEC Class V Trackage !

You have to place spline points @ 3 per each Trainz baseboard 10m grid ... very time consuming !

And your up and down track heights should only be @ 0.10m high leaps & dips, or it starts looking rediculous like a roller coaster.
http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc339/cascaderailroad/Screen_001-47_zpsa08109c0.jpg
http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc339/cascaderailroad/Screen_002-37_zps95b08249.jpg

http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc339/cascaderailroad/TrainZoom.jpg
http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc339/cascaderailroad/SlopeSag.jpg

RedShark's rickity 750mm NG railroad track videos made me think of this:

Click for movie --> http://s525.beta.photobucket.com/user/cascaderailroad/media/Movie_0001_zps2c3e61f3.mp4.html