Again: Baseboard Generator?

jcardana

Trainz Enthusiast
The search engine on this forum needs work, or it's operator error.

Is there a program which will create a multi baseboard route, in my case 70x104 that can then be used in Trainz?

Thank you for allowing me to waste your time,
 
Have you tried TransDem?
I was searching here using...

  • Multi-baseboard creation
  • baseboard layout
  • baseboard maker
  • layout maker
  • basegrids
  • etc.
I get results from everything that has any of those one words, I haven't figured out how to filter to "all search terms"
 
The search tool is useless! I mean seriously, I can search for Australian Screenshots and select title only. It finds nothing, even though that is the exact title and its 2000+ page post! As for Transdem, I'm 64 (cough) and managed to learn it, and it is extremely good. A learning curve yes, but you have nothing to loose and a lot to gain. It saves a massive time doing contours by hand.
 
Other than Transdem, there is not to my knowledge any tool for Trainz that can do what the OP wishes, built in or external. The only way to undertake such a project is to add the boards/tiles manually. Probably won't take as long as you think, just seriously boring to do!
 
To jcardana: Do you want to create just a bunch of flat baseboards so that you end up with a 70x104 baseboard totally flat route? If so, adding 1 by 1 is the only way I know of. But it might be better to start small with a few baseboards and as your route develops, add more as needed.

Or is the goal to have a route that size that has real terrain from somewhere in the world? Transdem is the solution. It is complex software but you don't need to learn every feature. Spend some time on youtube - there are videos on how to use Transdem.
 
To do searches, use Google Advanced Search tool and do a "site search" with the site being given as:
https://forums.auran.com/trainz/ (for the forums)
http://online.ts2009.com/mediaWiki/ (for the Wiki)

For example: Here's a search for Australian Screenshots in the forums using google site search.
Type the whole following line:

A site search on the forums works very well.

To implement more easily I made a Bookmark like this (type the whole complete following line):
Click the bookmark and then in the url path replace "TERM" with your search term
 
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The search engine on this forum needs work, or it's operator error.

Is there a program which will create a multi baseboard route, in my case 70x104 that can then be used in Trainz?

Thank you for allowing me to waste your time,

What are you expecting to see other than a rectangular array of 70x104 baseboards?

Do you want it terrained in any special way?
Do you want imagery placed to guide track laying and scenery placement?
Do you want vector data used to filter the route and/or added as track or scenery splines?

The following are stand alone programs that are used outside Surveyor (if suitable input files are available) to create the mapfiles and config for a route in Trainz
1) Transdem if you provide a suitable DEM. If you want DEM based terrain and imagery applied as route development aids this is the best option. It can work with vector data if you have it.

2) HOG will create any reasonable number of baseboards probably limited only by internal memory considerations like Transdem. You need a DEM file for input and another for filtering if you want that. But unlike Transdem it's easy to fake a DEM since it's just a special raster file. You can also easily create another raster file to filter the baseboards if you want that. It has limited imagery capability - it can "paint" baseboards using the special "HOG" textures but not the best solution unless general guidance is adequate. It does not create a config you have to replace the mapfiles in a "starter" route.

3) Basemapz is basically used to bring model rr designs into Trainz and limited to 200' internally which at the smallest scale it works with - Z scale - means only 18 x 18 baseboards max. Routes are not terrained (flat baseboards only) but imagery is applied as scenery tiles. While routes can be created in sections and merged in Trainz I'm unaware of anyone using it like this.

If you want to roll your own "route creation" program the mapfile formats for TRS04 are known and if you have some programming experience you can probably write one that just produces the gnd file. You could add .trk and .obj for track and some basic scenery and trackside asset placement. Using TRS04 mapfile formats isn't a limitation for just creating a starter route since any version of Trainz can read them. I don't know of any other programs that you could use other than those I listed above.

I've some programs I use (old WIPs) that can just create baseboards. At one time I made the cad to track conversion program, Cad2Trk, I wrote available as a free download but I no longer do that. It converts vector data to trk files and can read gnd files and read and write obj files but currently doesn't create baseboards just reads height data from existing gnd files (trs04). Auran/N3V after TRS06 stopped cooperating with 3rd party developers regarding changes to the mapfiles. Roland Zeigler - Transdem's creator - has hacked all the formats up thru TANE SP1. SP2 a few years back represented a drastic change and he hasn't come out with a version that reads and writes that version yet.

So that's what I see out there, pick your option.

Bob Pearson
 
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From Roland Ziegler’s TRANSDEM Web site.
“TransDEM Trainz Edition is a dedicated version of TransDEM, enhanced with specific export functionality for N3V (Auran) Trainz: A New Era (T:ANE), Trainz Simulator 12, Trainz Simulator 2010, Trainz Simulator 2009, Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006 and 2004. Trainz Railroad Simulator 2019 is also supported.”
Cheers
Bob
 
From Roland Ziegler’s TRANSDEM Web site.
“TransDEM Trainz Edition is a dedicated version of TransDEM, enhanced with specific export functionality for N3V (Auran) Trainz: A New Era (T:ANE), Trainz Simulator 12, Trainz Simulator 2010, Trainz Simulator 2009, Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006 and 2004. Trainz Railroad Simulator 2019 is also supported.”
Cheers
Bob
Yes Bob, totally agree, "supported" is the key word. Most of Transdem's features are supported. For TRS19 Transdem uses the TANE SP1 mapfile formats that TANE SP1 thru SP4 and TRS19 can read. But it can't modify an existing TRS19 mapfile like it can with TANE SP1 or any previous trainz version. Specifically any Transdem features that requires reading and writing of the TRS19 (or TANE SP2 thru SP4) route mapfiles are not supported by Transdem.

In that respect I could say that the old HOG program supports TRS19 since TRS19 will read the UTC version .gnd file that HOG creates. You just have to use the correct naming convention and replace the gnd file in a route created in TRS19 with the one created by HOG. There is really no comparision between the capabilities of Transdem and HOG and I'm not implying that here but hopefully you see what I'm getting at.

Bob Pearson

PS
Check these posts for some info on it (you need to be logged into the forum to access them).
https://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?125857-TransDEM-2-6-now-available&p=1683640#post1683640
https://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?125857-TransDEM-2-6-now-available&p=1792131#post1792131
 
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Bob, thanks for the information relating to TRS19 and the references to the other posts. Makes things much clearer now.
Cheers
Bob
 
Other than Transdem, there is not to my knowledge any tool for Trainz that can do what the OP wishes, built in or external. The only way to undertake such a project is to add the boards/tiles manually. Probably won't take as long as you think, just seriously boring to do!
In TRS2019, if I zoom out until the background is almost blue, I can see about 3 tiles high and 4 wide. It's a lot faster to add tiles than the 2004 way.
 
Do you really need all of the 7280 basebords (70x104)? Unless you have track everywhere, there will probably be large areas that don't need to be modelled and therefore not needing to be rendered either.
 
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