Working With Invisible Rails

[NJCurmudgeon]

I'm thinking of adding an airport to a layout and have been playing around with the various airport components. I want something a little more than the "Industry Airport."

I understand that aircraft run along "invisible track," the chief characteristic of which is being, well, invisible! But that makes them awfully difficult to work with in Surveyor. Does anyone have any tips on working with them? Or is there a kind of invisible rail that its visible in Surveyor but not Driver?

Thanks!

 

[narrowgauge]

There are several invisible rails that behave as you want. In CM, search for 'invisible'.

Peter

 

[sniper297]

Biggest problem is there are several invisible tracks all labeled "Invisible" and most are invisible when trying to lay them. I use;

Invisible Track,<kuid2:31293:38003:1>

And have deleted or disabled all the others labeled "Invisible" so that one is the only one in the list in surveyor.

That one has dashed lines above it in surveyor, is invisible in driver, but even with that I found adding it to Ben Dorsey's bridges I had humps that couldn't be seen, along with misalignment problems. So the next trick is don't use invisible track, use visible track that has such an improbable color that you'll never actually use it in the route.

Got these weird snow tracks where the steamship path is, and laid on the bridges with track rails perfectly aligned with the static bridge rails.

Main menu, replace assets, drag the FMA track into the replace window, drag the invisible track into the replace with window, hit the button and all the white track is now invisible track.

 

[NJCurmudgeon]

Planz & Trainz

I found the invisible track that is visible in Surveyor but not Driver. It's okay - certainly better than the invisible invisible track! But still hard to work with. I like the idea of using a more visible track and then swapping out. I will give it a try. Many thanks guys!

 

[JCitron]

I found the invisible track that is visible in Surveyor but not Driver. It's okay - certainly better than the invisible invisible track! But still hard to work with. I like the idea of using a more visible track and then swapping out. I will give it a try. Many thanks guys!

There are some invisible tracks that are purple, blue, or even red. These show up this way in Surveyor and are easy to work with because you can see them.

I don't know the Kuid numbers offhand, but you can find out their names by placing one of the drawbridges by Ben Dorsey in the route, and then selecting the track to find the name of the asset.

You could also view the config.txt file in CMP if you want too, but since you'll be in Surveyor, the former method I think is faster.

John

 

[NJCurmudgeon]

Hi John,

I searched for invisible rails in CMP and discovered those colored rails you mention were already in the program. I just didn't know it. I still find them hard to work with for airplane paths since they're so narrow. Working with easier to see train rails and then swapping them as Sniper297 suggested may be better. It's hard to draw back far enough if you give the aircraft any altitude and then the colored lines are really tough to see at that distance. I do like the idea of using them to animate boats as he did, which is something I want to play with too. Now all I need is lots and lots of time!

Thanks!

 

[slabay]

bnsf50 has an invisible track that is a fat blue line that says BNSF50 on it in surveyor. I use it a lot- it is real easy to work with.

 

[NJCurmudgeon]

BNSF50's invisible track worked better. Thanks!

This may be a separate question from this thread, but how do I set the speed limit for the aircraft? Right now it makes a nice little loop at the default 40 mph! The landing gear goes up and down based on speed, so I need to be able to set the speeds on track that is in the air...

 

[cascaderailroad]

When you add the line in your trainzoptions file: -surveyorfov=55 (the numeral can be changed anywhere from =35 to =185) it gives you a distant fish eye view, that is handy when laying aerial flyways. I often change the numeral to -surveyorfov=125, and always look straight down when laying track.

 

[sniper297]

Using search words "speed invis" I came up with two that look likely;

Invisible Speed-Signal v2 (TRS2004 SP2),<kuid2:137715:23002:2>


Configurable Invisible Speedboard,<kuid2:60697:23000:1> 2.0

I tried the first one since it's built into TS2010, you have to select the trackmark section of the trackrule in surveyor, select the question mark icon, then click on the invisible speed signal to set it;

Set the speed for MPH (I haven't been in New Joisey fowah thoity yeeahs, but last I checked they still use real money instead of them heathen furriner kilometer things) and click the Add rule;

Where it says "The speed limit is disabled" click the "disabled" and type in the speed you want. Dunno if it works yet, gotta find a loco that will do 200mph first!

 

[ray_whiley]

Invisible track ie. 'Surveyor only' tag in config file - there is a good one on the DS by saxham market (used as part of his angled UK level crossing model) which is white with directional arrows and shows up very clearly in Surveyor but not in driver - look for KUID 209453.

Ray

 

[stagecoach]

Built in "track invisible" nice big thick red line.

 

[H222]

Or Vulcan's

'track blue invisible in driver'
'track green invisible in driver'
'track red invisible in driver'
and Spock2004's
'track purple invisible driver'

Jamie

 

[NJCurmudgeon]

Speed Limits

Well Sniper, I can tell you haven't been in New Jersey for a loooong time...as anyone from these parts knows, no one EVER said "Joisy" unless they are from the wrong side of the Hudson River. And I think you've got some New Englander mixed in there too!

So I found the speed limit settings like you indicated. But for some reason the plane starts out and speeds up and then slows down again. It keeps moving, but not fast enough to raise the landing gear!

Is there something about the plane itself that limits speed?

Thanks!

 

[NJCurmudgeon]

Just to explain further...I have an invisible track that carries the plane off the ground and into the air. I have a speed limit that I set to 300kmh (the landing gear retracts at 240). I tell the plane to navigate to a track mark at the end of the track (eventually I will link this to something else, like a landing runway). It gets up to 90 mph and then drops to 70. Is there something in the Boeing aircraft that has predetermined speeds?

 

[sniper297]

The one test I did was a generic helicopter, set the speed for 200mph, got 78mph which is apparently top end for that particular chopper. There's something in the config.txt for each "locomotive" (drivable boats and aircraft are classed locomotive) about a top speed, unfortunately it's in meters per second or French furlongs per fortnight instead of Christian measurements, and I always screw up the conversions somehow.

Anyway, doing a search in content mangler for "boeing" I get 199 hits from
Boeing B24 Bomber,<kuid2:60238:9533:1>
to Airbus Boeing A340-300 France Airlines,<kuid:524343:5879>
which is ludicrous because neither of those was made by Boeing. :hehe:

Got a KUID number for the one you're trying to use?

 

[NJCurmudgeon]

<kuid2:404575:100024:1>
<kuid:510748:1212>

I just pulled some Boeing planes at random. These are the two I was experimenting with.

By the way, where did you get the cool drawbridges? I was thinking of maybe placing one or two at some point. Right now I have a train line running from a city out into a marshland and over to the airport...vaguely after the Newark Airport area.

 

[sniper297]

Ben Dorsey's stuff.

Chicago Canal Bridge 1,<kuid2:210518:7631:1>
Chicago Canal Bridge 2,<kuid2:210518:7632:2>
Chicago Canal Bridge 3,<kuid2:210518:7633:2>
Chicago Canal Bridge 4,<kuid2:210518:7634:4>
Chicago Canal Bridge 5,<kuid2:210518:7641:3>

Route is;

Chicago Metro V1.1,<kuid2:522774:100027:1>

Session;

Chicago Metro V1 templ8,<kuid:522774:100061>

has the steamship cruising up and down the Chicago river, simply set for autopilot, so he just turns around at reverse loops at each end and cruises back and forth.

Which is the way I would do an animated airport, invisible track merely an oval, on the ground at the runway climbing into the air and circling around to land again. Set the plane on the runway, edit session rules driver commands to activate autopilot, assign a driver to the plane and give him Autopilot, activate. That part is simple, figuring out which planes have what speeds and what triggers animation is harder. Obviously having more than one plane moving would require separate tracks or invisible signals, and stuff like landing, taxiing to the gate and waiting, then taxiing to the runway and taking off again would require assorted other commands and track markers.

 

[NJCurmudgeon]

Thanks.

Yes, that's pretty much what I intend on doing, though perhaps a little more complex in that the aircraft will take off from one runway, loop around out of the line of sight of the trains, come back and land on another runway and go through a taxi, passenger pickup cycle before starting all over again. If I can get two or three planes moving, the effect would be pretty cool as seen from the trains coming in an out of what will look like a busy airport scenario. I want to ultimately have a couple rail stops - aside from the built-in passenger station, a general goods depot (maybe by a hangar for UPS planes), jet fuel tank drop offs, etc.

Thanks again for the help and the info for the drawbridge!