rwarren wrote:
And I'm still struggling. I can't seem to get the concept of it.
For the maps, there are two different approaches: Small to medium scale maps can be used for the ground texture. Large scale maps, track plans and aerial images can only used with UTM tiles. This is due to technical restrictions with the concept of ground textures in TransDEM.
As Jerker has pointed out, the USGS topo maps in 1:24,000 scale should be the first choice in combination with the Trainz 5m terrain grid (TS2009 and above). They represent the maximum legible scale for ground textures. Arguably, the easiest to use source for these maps is the WMS portal operated by Microsoft: MS Research Maps. Jerker has already named it. There is indeed a tutorial on this source, look for "Durango & Silverton" in the main manual, from page 113.
A map scale too large ( > 1:24,000) will cause too much blur, due to the limited resolution of ground textures rendering the map. A map scale too small (< 1:100,000) will also cause blur, this time because of the limited resolution of the original map and the limited viewing distance in Trainz Surveyor. Therefore, a suitable map scale is of essential importance.
rwarren wrote:
I had used the Muengsten tutorial, but the only problem with that is that it starts with pre-existing DEM, Georef.trf, str, and lgb files. I think my problem is gathering information for these files.
Did your result of the Muengsten tutorial in Trainz Surveyor look similar to the picture in the manual?
rwarren wrote:
although I have a file with about 70 folders in it called: UTM-175-494-3842, UTM-175-495-3841, etc. When I click on one of these folders is shows me about 4 files, one of which is a .tga file. I click this and it opens in PhotoShop with one of the maps of a portion of my route. It is perfectly sharp and clear.
This means, TransDEM has created UTM tiles for you.
For the UTM tiles to work they need to be imported into Trainz just like the route itself.
Each UTM tile is a separate Trainz object with its own KUID, automatically created by TransDEM. TransDEM places each object onto the route, at the exact location. To accomplish this, TransDEM modifies the route .obs file. For each UTM tile TransDEM creates an reference entry in the .obs file, with the individual KUID of the tile object and its horizontal and vertical position where it should appear.
Now, did you import the the UTM tiles into Trainz (everything in the scenery folder)? If yes and the tiles do not show, did you let TransDEM create the UTM tiles in the same session as for the DEM-based terrain? Or did you import the route into Trainz
before adding UTM tiles in TransDEM? In the latter case you have two versions of the route, the older one inside the Trainz data base without the UTM tiles and a newer one with the UTM tiles in the "edit" folder. This can be solved.
Note that using UTM tiles for smaller scale maps doesn't add much clarity and brings no benefit.