New Surveyor

boleyd

Well-known member
I simply cannot grasp, without instructions, the New Surveyor. I looks like an extensive graphical design program with little relevance to the functions of the old surveyor. There is nothing in the Wiki that I can find. The transformation of selected assets to solid representations not helpful for me. I prefer the adjustment of the real thing. That is about as far as I got. If there are no instructions, with "old is now this" info I am sticking to the old way and awaiting instructions and a description of why the "new" is better than the "old". :eek:
 
We were asked to proof read the manual a couple of weeks ago in a thread. Ah, I see Christopher beat me to it.
 
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Today I tried it in a new interface, the brush is finally big, but practically everything is confusing, difficult to control, keyboard shortcuts do not work, I practically do not know where water is created. And I'm not talking about the icons of cdp files and their images, cloning or displaying the selected cdp file can not be seen. In my opinion, there is nothing new there, but it is all very complicated and confusing. :'(
 
Welcome to the wonderful world of alpha/beta testing. S20 is a WIP and it is what it is at the moment.
 
Today I tried it in a new interface, the brush is finally big, but practically everything is confusing, difficult to control, keyboard shortcuts do not work, I practically do not know where water is created. And I'm not talking about the icons of cdp files and their images, cloning or displaying the selected cdp file can not be seen. In my opinion, there is nothing new there, but it is all very complicated and confusing. :'(

That's why reading each and every post in the beta and s20 threads is important. Tony also asked testers to evaluate the online guide. So with new releases it's very important to read the forum posts.

Here's the S20 doc: https://docs.trainzsimulator.com/docs/surveyor20
 
Today I tried it in a new interface, the brush is finally big, but practically everything is confusing, difficult to control

I had very similar complaints when Microsoft introduced their ribbon into their Office products and, to a lesser extent, when GIMP introduced dockable panels/palletes. I cursed, I ranted, I ground my teeth in frustration, I looked (often unsuccessfully) through countless web sites for answers ... until eventually I worked it all out.

keyboard shortcuts do not work

Keyboard shortcuts have not yet been added, this is a beta test version and a work in progress.

I practically do not know where water is created.

As other have pointed out, read the documentation (which is also a work in progress).

In my opinion, there is nothing new there, but it is all very complicated and confusing. :'(

There is a great deal that is new, just read the documentation. The fact that all tools are on the screen and not divided up into little compartments (F1 for ground, F2 for textures, F3 for objects, etc) and they work on all assets is a significant change. Then there is the marquee and scrapbook. Anything that is new and different after 20 years of the "same old same old" will seem complicated and confusing.

And you can always drop back into Classic Surveyor while you are learning the new interface.

My thoughts.
 
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I will definitely solve it I know, I know it's a beta, but it's a big puzzle now, but if I omit the little things, the file images in the left column are too small and the file draws from the icon uploaded in the cdp file folder which is a shame because there are a lot of files that have one image for all the files.;)
 
I can see that a great deal of work has gone into the new Surveyor, but my first reaction on seeing S20 was utter bewilderment and maybe a little shock. I have cognitive problems due to narcolepsy which make learning anything new somewhat of a challenge and in some cases almost impossible, BUT I think if I'm patient I'll figure it all out eventually. Having a manual is definitely a good thing as is having the Classic Surveyor still available as well to provide a backup just in case.
 
just my two cents on the discussion: as object image could it be possible to have a little rendering of the object instead of the thumbnail image which is often just a nice logo?
 
just my two cents on the discussion: as object image could it be possible to have a little rendering of the object instead of the thumbnail image which is often just a nice logo?

There is an asset preview option. I can't remember where the button is, but it's the same preview we used to get in the small window in the old Surveyor and when you right-click on an asset in Content Manager and choose Open - > then Preview.

I find using list view a lot easier than the huge nearly useless thumbnails because the asset-name is visible. In the thumbnail view, all we get are pretty pictures with no description, and in some cases a pretty logo with no indication as to what the asset is. (This might be a bug, but I'm not so sure).
 
First of all thanks to JCitron for the help. I found another odd thing: there are two completly different way to create water as S2.0 create it using a specific layer while S1.0 use the add square of water. Problem is I can manage the two different waters only with the surveyor I used to create them. Adding to that the S2.0 layer is not easy workable as the S1.0 system. Here something I cannot explain: I set the water level at -2mt while the ground is 0mt. Well on the border of the board water doesn't change its height so now I have this:
water-troubles.jpg


how can I solve it?
 
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I found it!

Under the Tools when you are manipulating the water, set height to height-down and you can delete the water. By default, it's set to height-up to add the water.

The tools are similar to adding in any other kind of effects-layer including in Surveyor 1.0. The problem I have is smoothing the water out so I don't have "water mountains".
 
Use the option "set height" with a very large circle for the area, insert in the "height" the level of the water you need and just go with the left click of the mouse all over the water area.
 
Use the option "set height" with a very large circle for the area, insert in the "height" the level of the water you need and just go with the left click of the mouse all over the water area.

Yeah, I just discovered that too. The water needs work still, I think. I've been playing around with it and it's almost uncontrollable at this point. Maybe I need to get used to it, but I'm not pleased with this at this point.
 
Having created many routes based on DEM data, one of the banes has been removing unneeded baseboards. I could cull them in TransDEM but there it is a route wide process whereas I sometimes want to keep a wider area around certain spots for future expansion. Plus, I want to see what will be removed in case it is an interesting area.

Enter the multiple base board deletion tool in S2.0. This alone would be worth the price of admission. :cool:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
and best of all, the modified route, without all the extra base boards is backwards compatible with TRS19 platinum 114800! :mop:
 
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Youtuber Approach Medium has created a video on Youtube in which he explores Surveyor 2.0 as an experienced Trainz user learning 2.0 for the first time. It's not a tutorial but well worth watching if you are interested in what Surveyor 2.0 offers.

I have seen enough to decide that this will be my Christmas present to myself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RIdYfcdXfc&t=4915s
 
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Youtuber Approach Medium has created a video on Youtube in which he explores Surveyor 2.0 as an experienced Trainz user learning 2.0 for the first time. It's not a tutorial but well worth watching if you are interested in what Surveyor 2.0 offers.

I have seen enough to decide that this will be my Christmas present to myself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RIdYfcdXfc&t=4915s


thanks for this, I wont be buying for a long while yet, but it will be interesting to see it in action.
 
It's just a couple of days I'm "working" on S2.0 and while at the start my thought was just "WTF!!!" now I've to say I'm starting to like it. I think in a not so long time I'll love to work on it... :)
 
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