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PostPosted: 05 Apr 2011 21:33 
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Joined: 05 Apr 2011 19:02
Posts: 14
Note (by geophil): Part 1, page 1: The correct address of Seamless Server is http://seamless.usgs.gov/, without "www".

I have started a series of tutorials aimed primarily at the novice TransDEM user. The tutorials are specific to USGS NED data and raster maps and will cover such areas as accessing data from the USGS Seamless Server, generating DEM maps, georeferencing USGS raster maps, and creating UTM objects from raster maps. The tutorials are in pdf format and can be easily downloaded for reference.
These tutorials are meant to parallel those tutorials already posted.
The tuorials may be viewed here:
TransDEM and the USGS Seamless Server
Creating DEM maps for a Route
Applying Raster Maps to a Route
I would like to express my thanks here, to Dr, Ziegler. His assistance in defining TransDEM terminology and functions to a novice geographer is well appreciated, as is his patience; tutoring me in the finer aspects of document editing and formatting in Open Office.

If there are any questions or comments, I may be reached at this forum or the Trainz forums.

Regards to all
Mike K.


Last edited by steamboateng on 14 Dec 2011 21:46, edited 3 times in total.

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PostPosted: 27 Apr 2011 09:33 
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Joined: 20 Apr 2011 22:07
Posts: 8
Thank you for posting these US versions... Looking forward to the next installments.


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PostPosted: 01 May 2011 22:56 
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Joined: 27 Apr 2011 02:38
Posts: 1
Steamboat,

Your first two tutorials are very good, and help reinforce what's in the product documentation. Do you know when the next couple tutorials will be coming out? Maybe it's age or just something missing in the grey matter, but I get the part of getting the data in .tif format, but for some reason I'm not grasping getting the map data and the DEM data to create their files.

I did read most of the TransDem documentation and went through the tutorials twice at the end. Then I read TrainzDem's doc and went through the exercises there three times. The basics are understandable including importing into Trainz 2010, but the process of getting the raw data, putting the map and other data together, and getting it ready for export. I once thought that Google Earth's data was pretty good, but it appears from other forums that it's not the best to use in this situation.

- Jim


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PostPosted: 01 Aug 2011 15:57 
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Joined: 19 May 2011 16:53
Posts: 14
Location: Greenville,CA
Just a small tweak......I really DO need the next tutorial.... :D :D

Dave


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PostPosted: 15 Dec 2011 09:58 
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Joined: 05 Apr 2011 19:02
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Please note I have added a new tutorial 'Applying Raster Maps to a Route' to the list in my post above. Left click on each tittle to bring up the tutorial. Each one is posted in PDF format for easy downloading.
The next tutorial, on applying a vector route to the georeferenced raster maps will be quite short and forthcoming soon (really).
I hope these tutes help you TransDEM newbs master the various elements of the program as well as give you some hints at route design. If I can be of any assistance, I can be contacted here or at the Trainz Forums.
Regard and..........
Happy Holidays to all
steamboat...


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PostPosted: 30 Dec 2013 14:24 
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Joined: 27 Dec 2013 11:04
Posts: 5
Hi Steamboat. I hope you are still interested in this thread. I see that the last entry was in 2011. I am a newby having just obtained TransDem and Trainz 2010 - TransDem is version 2.4.1. I have been through the on-line Manual for TransDem and have managed to import a raster map of the area of interest - a narrow gauge railway in Mid-Wales - together with a Dem of the area. I have added a vector line for a route and managed to export everything to Trainz, where I was able to view the area in Surveyor. But I have some questions - in the TransDem manual there is the following statement:-

"Before any TransDEM created route can be used in Trainz Surveyor, the TransDEM
ground textures, which represent cartographic map images, have to be made available to
Trainz."

What are the ground textures. The manual talks about Version 3 of a .cdp file. What is a .cdp file?, and what am I supposed to do with it. I notice in the Trainz Content Manager v3.2 under 'file' a reference to import cdp. Is this where the .cdp file is used? I assume that it is not intended to be part of TransDem, but rather a file that Trainz expects to see when loading data - although I still managed to get an image in Trainz without using the cdp file!!

Another question concerns the route created in TD. Should it be 2D or 3D? and if 3D what are the steps to be taken to create it? I notice that there is a button in TD 'Adopt DEM elevation for polylines'. Should this be depressed while creating the polyline, or depressed after the line has been created?

Having said that I was able to import a route into Trainz and it did appear to follow the contours, but I was surprised to see that it appeared to establish its own trackbed and in some places even appeared to form cuttings. Is this what you would expect? But the track was not continuous, and in places it was as if there should be a tunnel rather than a cutting. Very strange. I assume that it is something to do with the height information attached to the track and the height information in the DEM. Any ideas?

EddiePrice


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PostPosted: 30 Dec 2013 16:27 
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Joined: 05 Jan 2011 16:45
Posts: 1459
Eddie, you best open a new thread in the Support section to ask your questions. The authors of the original tutorials may not monitor the forum on a regular basis.

Regarding the TransDEM ground textures, did you have a look at page 11 in the TransDEM Trainz manual? There you'll find the chapter called "Installing the TransDEM Ground Textures". A cdp file is the off-line form of distributing content in Trainz. With Content Manager in TS12 and I think in TS2010 as well you can simply drag the cdp file onto the Trainz Content Manager window and it will install itself. You can also use the Content Manager menu, of course.

TransDEM assigns a texture KUID to each ground vertex, reflecting the colour that comes closest. Though without the TransDEM ground textures installed you will still see the standard grey terrain with the orange grid. You cannot actually paint the terrain in Trainz with a colour brush, you always need to assign a ground texture. The mini-map, on the other hand, is a plain raster image, and that can be drawn by TransDEM directly. The mini-map, hoverer, will be overwritten by Surveyor, once you start editing.

eddieprice wrote:
Another question concerns the route created in TD. Should it be 2D or 3D? and if 3D what are the steps to be taken to create it? I notice that there is a button in TD 'Adopt DEM elevation for polylines'. Should this be depressed while creating the polyline, or depressed after the line has been created?
3D for vector data usually makes sense if the data has a height component in the first place. If you adopt terrain elevations you will get some sort of a pseudo height component. But that's enough to trigger 3D processing. Depending on the spacing of your vector points, TransDEM will cut right through terrain from one point to the next, thus forming cuttings and embankments. They most probably won't be accurate.

The 2D version with terrain elevations checked is usually the option to choose for TS12. But you are free to experiment, of course.


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