Anyone interested in doing a quick DEM build?

Hi, all.
I picked up T:ANE at the holidays, and am getting acquainted with it. I would like to start a 20-mile portion of the old Reading RR Bethehem Branch. But trying to master TransDEM is giving me migrains. I will do MUCH better with filling in the scenery; and will probably try my hand at some custom buildings since I have a 3D modeling background.
I can give you the area in question, and even the TransDEM files that I have so far.
Anyone love doing this part of route creation? (Especially now, during "lockdown".) Thanks in advance!
Ron

Okay...so, a second question...
For those of you who have worked on a prototypical route, how do you do it accurately? Do you use the Google Earth / basemap method? I am open to ideas. Thanks again.
Ron

Transdem is the way to go as it saves months of work. It may be hard to learn initially but once you do learn it is very quick to do.

TransDem and Google Earth application, and maps.google.com

The GE application allows you to measure heights and you can use those to get the height adjusted in Trainz, which is off only a couple of meters in some cases so it's not worth it. The online maps allows you to field check the area to get an idea of the texturing and terrain.

As far as the actual images go in TransDEM to work with, I use the USGS national map download server TNS server. This server provides the underlying DEM data files and also access to the map tiles through TransDEM.

The actual process is not difficult, it just takes time and planning.

Thank you, John.
Can you provide a few more details about you do it? I like the idea of GE, because of all the visual information.

JCitron said:

The GE application allows you to measure heights and you can use those to get the height adjusted in Trainz, which is off only a couple of meters in some cases so it's not worth it.

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I don't know to which DEM data source GE currently refers, but I guess using hi-res USGS DEMs directly would give you more accurate readings. If you happen to find 1 meter LIDAR-DEMs for the route, nothing can beat those.

geophil said:

I don't know to which DEM data source GE currently refers, but I guess using hi-res USGS DEMs directly would give you more accurate readings. If you happen to find 1 meter LIDAR-DEMs for the route, nothing can beat those.

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I don't know either which ones GE refers to, but my spot checking has shown both to be quite close when comparing my 1/3 arcsecond resolution data to whatever they use. This is close enough for government as they say and there are occasionally squirrelly locations that need investigating and fudging due to close bridges, roads, and hills interfering with a cut or two. I found a few LIDAR-DEMs but they are far and few between for my area. We live in the forgotten part of the US it seems for a lot of things and this is one of them.