Elevation

My first station elevation is 416 meters and the second station is at 433 meters. Is there a way to set the elevation of the first baseboard to 416 meters ?
Thanks in advance
tupuluruk

Transdem will set elevations for earlier versions of trainz. Sometimes you can set the elevation, export to cdp, and them import into a higher version..

On the terrain tab theres a box where you can type in the elevation.

Use it to raise a section of the baseboard.

Then use the spanner (wrench) tab and copy/paste the elevation all over, if you get the camera at the right height you can select a whole baseboard at once and stamp the new elevation on other baseboards.

pitkin said:

Transdem will set elevations for earlier versions of trainz. Sometimes you can set the elevation, export to cdp, and them import into a higher version..

Click to expand...

Let me modify my question :

What I am doing at present is to set the elevation of the first baseboard in Edit environment > Location > Edit World Origin > Elevation (416).
Then lay the tracks and set the gradient to 0.57.
Get the next vertex (track) height say 425 and put it in to F1 > Get height.
Then use the Plateau tool and raise the baseboard to that height, Then use the Smooth spline height tool and adjust the track.
Is this the correct way ?
Using transdem seems to be laborious.
Thanks
tupuluruk

That sounds similar to the method that I use - although I have never set the altitude of the first baseboard using the Environment -> World Origin -> Altitude. I just set it using the terrain set height tool and then raise or lower the baseboard height to that level. I don't use the gradient to set the track spline heights, I just use the spline height value instead. But whatever works!

Once I have the track laid to the required heights I then adjust the terrain height of the surrounding areas in each baseboard. TransDEM will do all of this for you of course but where is the fun in taking shortcuts. I keep promising myself that I will master TransDEM one day (I have it installed) but when it comes to starting a new layout I always go with the old slow (and might I say quite therapeutic) ways.

I've been doing lots of it the last two days on my live streams. The set origin from what I can tell does not set the elevation but only where the marker will reside. I think the elevation populates once you raise it to that level as I was trying that method first.

Basically I moved up with the highest radius and sensitivity set to level tool and paint the board in. If you have a baseboard it will eventually show on the new level. While you move up from the base level you can use F9 to view the baseboard underneath (something I learned from Approach Medium from a recent video of his).

So far my project is going well if I can stop playing around with a staging hump and get to the good stuff.

Thanks

Sean

The reason that Transdem is valuable (or was) for elevation changes was that an entire route could be changed (keeping the relative heights, of course). This is extremely useful for merging routes without tinkering with pasting or whatever. To each his own.

Thanks lot every one for your guidance.

tupuluruk said:

Let me modify my question :

What I am doing at present is to set the elevation of the first baseboard in Edit environment > Location > Edit World Origin > Elevation (416).
Then lay the tracks and set the gradient to 0.57.
Get the next vertex (track) height say 425 and put it in to F1 > Get height.
Then use the Plateau tool and raise the baseboard to that height, Then use the Smooth spline height tool and adjust the track.
Is this the correct way ?
Using transdem seems to be laborious.
Thanks
tupuluruk

Click to expand...

Maybe I am not understanding the importance, so take this for what it is worth .. from my understanding and observation, "Elevation" is relative in nature, meaning, the original baseboard has a default value of 0 (zero) height "from sea-level" (again, relative, since this is all virtual). changing the Value of the elevation in the World Origin tab does not actually set the physical height of the baseboard 416 meters above the original zero meters elevation, it simply says you are at 416 meters height. 433-416=17meters, so the second base board is in reality set at 17 meters, but displays 433 meters, based on the input of a 416 meter origin. I see how this helps if working from a track-grade plan, or from Google Earth, as the math is easier, but I'm not sure how much it effects the end-result while driving the Route.

If not working from topographical terrain, ie, starting with a flat baseboard, and creating your own hills and valleys as you go, your method of manual input on the World Origin tab is probably the simplest solution.