TransDEM Forum

Hello,

Two things I would love TransDEM to be able to do.

1. As it can create a gnd file from a DEM file, it would been great if it could have done the other way too. Take a Trainz gnd file and export back as a DEM or something else one could edit to change the forming of the land.
Would be very helpful for a freelanced route where one started with creating the land in Trainz and wanted to change it around.
Like I have several older maps, hand created using splines and smooth spline function, but there are sharp edges, holes and other nasty things I would have loved being able to get out of Trainz, into a program where I could smooth them out and then get them back again.
Kinda like the old HOG/MicroDEM way using a colored image I could manipulate.

2. Around the same subject, but a little different. I used to have a program by a Trainz member which I have lost - Bob Pearson I think his name was - which allowed me to get a dxf file out of a small part of the gnd file - with or without any splines as lines.
All I needed was to supply the XY info of the upper left and how big a area I needed.
If TransDEM had been able to be used to get that info out of Trainz I would have been very happy, as it helps to customize any special structures or land forms to a specific area.

2a. If I had a program who both could read out in a dxf form a part of the ground, but also created a texture file of the painted ground in a standard Trainz size, I would been in heaven, anyone know if it is possible to read out the texture info from a gnd file and generate a texture from it?

Thanks Roland for a fantastic program as it is, the recent adding of the old map format was great!

Linda

Meanwhile I have looked into this. It would be some sort of a challenge, particularly as the current workflow does not allow to modify baseboard vertex elevation once they have been created. I have some ideas here. At least, it's on the wish list now but I can't make promises when it can be implemented and to what extent.

Thanks Roland for thinking over it.

I wish the Trainz Programmers could have made a smooth this area button inside of Surveyor, to clean up bumps there when using splines to create hills.

The export part of a gnd file, small as I know the file size can kill the computer rather fast otherwise, as a dxf option I been missing ever since TRS2006 came along end messed up the program I had to read the TRS2004 gnd file format.

Even a way to read out as numbers only the X, Y, Z info in meters per 5 or 10m gridpoint for a small defined area would be very helpful, as I could print it out, and create a mesh in a 3D program with those numbers and work from there.
That is the way I do it manually from Trainz now a days if I really have to custom make a model to a location, like a tunnel front for instance.

Anyway, maybe all this will be a thing of the past in 1,3 years time when the new, modern, Trainz arrive.
Till we know for sure then, I am happy with TransDEM and what it already can do, way better then the old HOG/MicroDEM ways of creating a map!

Best Regards from a rainy day in Norway!

Linda

Linda, one of the problems is the possible size of the DEM or the dxf file. Since the baseboards have 10 or 5 m raster width, DEMs derived from this may become huge. We probably need to restrict the export to a subrange. It's even worse for text based dxf. dxf has other obstacles, too. My exporter won't be able to create proper meshes. All it can do is simple 3D polygons.

Hi Roland,

Size can often be a problem yes.

The first part of my question is defiantly a place where size can be a problem, and the export of a dxf file, I have a understanding will become a huge problem even if trying one baseboard size.

What I did use the old program I lost sadly for was to get a piece of the land, for instance a area of 30 by 50 meter of a very mountainous piece where I needed to subdivide the ground into something Trainz can not give me, cuts and tunnels where I had a small mining set up with structures, holes, railroad cuts and so on in a tight spot, and the 5m grid was still to big to be useful for me.

Reading out the grid points into a text file would beat the job of doing it manually inside of Surveyor, no need to be a dxf file even if that is the simple way for me as a end user to use.

Of course, I have no idea how to accomplish anything of this as programming is way over my understanding of the world, I just mention the X, Y, Z info as a text info in case that was a easier way to just get the info out of a gnd file.
Thought since you was able to write such a file, you might be able to read it too.

Just Wish the Trainz Programmers had long time ago made such a utility them self, read the gnd file, send it to a xml or what ever and let people have a option to play with that and send it back to the same program to get it back into Trainz.
That way all you needed to do with TransDEM was to write to such a standard format, but, alas, so far Trainz seems stuck in not let people get scenery in/out of the program in a easy way.

Anyway, thanks for the discussion. I wish I still had the old program so I could have sent you a view if you had been interested, but alas.
I remember it created the simple mesh thing, that I saw in gmax was named plane I think, a simple one side flat square of two triangles per 10m grid.

Best wishes from still rainy Norway