TransDEM Forum

I have created the DEM and map with a number of routes for my chosen area in Mid Wales with standard gauge, narrow gauge plus roads, I have exported the DEM and ground textures and I have exported one Vector route to Trainz and successfully viewed the results in Surveyor. What do I have to do to export the other vector routes? If I simply export another route vector it appears in Surveyor, but only part of the DEM and ground textures appear. Looking at the size of the .gnd file after the second route has been exported shows that it is about a third of the original size. If I export the DEM and ground textures before exporting the route then there is a warning that the file already exists and will be overwritten. What am I to do?

The important thing is that you export further vector data to the same route as before, i.e. the one you already viewed and edited in Surveyor, not the original one created by TransDEM. In Trainz Content Manager (CM), open your route for editing. In TransDEM, export the new vectors to this very route, just exported by CM. Then, finally commit the changes to the route in Content Manager.

Important: There is a catch. Before opening any route for editing in Trainz CM, check the common folder "...\UserData\editing" and remove any previous route folder with the same name, usually the one created by TransDEM in the first place. If you do not clean up the folder prior to opening the route for edit in CM, CM will find it and export the current route under a different and cryptic name, without telling you. The TransDEM Trainz manual has hints to this CM behaviour in several chapters.

Thanks Geophil. I have now managed to export additional tracks and roads. Another question. My route involves a rail track passing over a road. I find the terrain editor in Surveyor difficult to use for precise changes of elevation, for example, creating an embankment either side of a bridge. The embankments formed in TransDEM appear to be much more precise. Is there a way of using TransDEM to create the embankment? I have been looking at Tutorial 9 - DEM Refinement - could this be used to create the embankments?

Yes, you can try that.
(If you are building a US route, you could use 1/3 or sometimes even 1/9 arc sec USGS NED DEMs which in many cases already have the embankments.)