Using Topographic Maps to Create Baseboard Maps

Hello all,

Years ago I used some complicated instructions utilizing topographical maps from different states, tiger lines, mapdems program, tiger lines, etc. to create two baseboards maps, one of Cajon Pa area, and Barstow, Mojave desert. The routes of roads and tracks laid out, but you had to create grades and such. It had the soaring mountains, even off in the distance. Realistic mileage, so forth.

I want to create a fictional route based on the original San Diego and Arizona, and need a base map of the San Diego and Tecate area. But many of the programs and such are outdated or unavailable.

I was wondering if anyone has a new method or procedure newer than 2008-era. Technologies have advanced so much.

Thanks,
Stewart

Look at TransDEM.

[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Tahoma,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]http://www.rolandziegler.de/StreckeUndLandschaft/startseiteTransDEMEngl.htm

The program is created by a fellow Trainz user GeoPhil. It costs about $33 USD or thereabouts.

There's a bit of a learning curve, but once you get through the basic tutorials, you can then get to what you want to do.

The program will allow you to import DEMs from the National Geologic Survey National Map server and place topographic maps right in place on them. Once everything is in place, you can then crop the map, and export a Trainz route ready for your modification and building.


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The following link shows TransDEM in use in a relatively recent YouTube video so you can get an idea of how it functions. I don't have TransDEM yet, but plan on purchasing it soon to create a route and eventually others. The video itself fascinates me, technology sure is a wonder.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Meeq_5_keYs

For me TransDEM is an absolute necessity for Trainz--at least if you're trying to model a real geographic area. The one danger (!) is that it's so tempting to create a route that's really just too big for Trainz (or for a human being to finish). The addition of the topographic map textures actually provides a kind of quick and dirty texturing as well, since forested areas are shown as dark green and waterways as blue on the original maps (at least on most USGS topo maps) providing a welcome alternative to vast areas of grey gridwork.

You do need a paypal account for payment (or at least I did at the time I purchased mine).

One possible pitfall, if you're using historical maps (I do a lot from the 1950s and 1960s): the DEM maps used to create the topography will be current but this may not match the topographic map textures, resulting in some unexpected large cuts and fills for superhighways, etc. in the middle of nowhere. I use the Trainz topography tools to smooth these out as best as possible.

--Lamont

Thank you all very much for responding.

Stewart

coble12 said:

The following link shows TransDEM in use in a relatively recent YouTube video so you can get an idea of how it functions. I don't have TransDEM yet, but plan on purchasing it soon to create a route and eventually others. The video itself fascinates me, technology sure is a wonder.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Meeq_5_keYs

Click to expand...

Thank you for the link,,,,,,,I was thinking of getting TransDem in the future too.....


And for
Stewartbf6
Trainz Spotter

https://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?125857-TransDEM-2-6-now-available

coble12 said:

The following link shows TransDEM in use in a relatively recent YouTube video so you can get an idea of how it functions. I don't have TransDEM yet, but plan on purchasing it soon to create a route and eventually others. The video itself fascinates me, technology sure is a wonder.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Meeq_5_keYs

Click to expand...

There are several ways with TransDEM to get from digital map resources to a Trainz route. JOSM, i.e. Open Streep Map vector data, as shown in this video, is one of them. But I wouldn't recommend this rather complex approach for a beginner. The Quick Start Guide in the TransDEM documentation suggests a recipe that's easier to follow: Small scale map > hand-drawn path for the route > large scale map and/or ortho-image along this path

geophil said:

There are several ways with TransDEM to get from digital map resources to a Trainz route. JOSM, i.e. Open Streep Map vector data, as shown in this video, is one of them. But I wouldn't recommend this rather complex approach for a beginner. The Quick Start Guide in the TransDEM documentation suggests a recipe that's easier to follow: Small scale map > hand-drawn path for the route > large scale map and/or ortho-image along this path

Click to expand...

The Trainz manual that came with my TransDEM is dated 2010 and doesn't contain a "Quick Start Guide".

The same manual that I have always got with TransDEM.

Found the video great because it was from the perspective of a user.

Solved all my problems, never could figure out the ortho image part.



Now I can redo my Interstate map with an image overlay.

Thanks for the great software.
Harold

hminky said:

The Trainz manual that came with my TransDEM is dated 2010 and doesn't contain a "Quick Start Guide".

Click to expand...

That Quick Start Guide refers to the Map Tile tutorial. Not sure whether that one already existed in the manual in 2010. But there isn't much to it:

• Locate the area of your route with a Map Tile service like Open Street Map. Zoom in to a reasonable scale, so that it shows the railways. Zoom level 12 should do.
• Download the maps at this zoom level, piece by piece, at 1536 or 2048 pixels, with manual selection. For smaller routes a single map clipping may suffice.
• Draw vector polylines along your route. Keep them simple. They will become the path filter.
• Zoom in to zoom level 14 or maybe 15. This is the level for ground textures. Use your path you created in the previous step to server as the download filter and let TransDEM do the download.
• If you need aerial images for much larger scale (TransDEM UTM tiles), you may want to refine your vector lines. Then switch to a map tile provider with ortho-imagery, Bing or Google Maps (API key may be required), zoom in to an even higher level and let TransDEM do another automatic download job along the vector path.

Extracting vectors from Open Street Map via JOSM, as in the video, is quite a lengthy task. You will often be quicker drawing vector lines simply by hand.

I wrote that JOSM tutorial (which the video refers to, IIRC) as a proof of concept and I used this method when processing some of my own GPS data and uploading extracts to OSM to verify the result.