TransDEM Forum

Hi
I successfully managed to work through the Trans Dem Muengsten Tutorials and everything seemed to work fine.
However when I try to use my own Dems, Maps and routes I have the following problem :

I can export and create dems and ground textures and routes successfully to Trainz but any 3d UTM tiles won't show up at all.
In surveyor, the UTM tiles show up in the "Add object" flyout menu but strangely enough the small animation (in the window underneath the selected item- used to show a rotating zoomable 3d image of the selected object), just shows a long, elongated, almost tower shaped object rather than the 3d shape of the tile as per the meungsten tutorial.
Any help very much appreciated

S Finlay,

My first thought would be that the UTM tile is very steep, like the side of a mountain or deep valley. Within that "Object Viewer" window in Surveyor, you can use your mouse to do these things (with your cursor inside that window):

1) mouse wheel (or hold down right mouse button and drag) - zoom in and out on the object.
2) click left mouse button - stop and start rotation of the object.
3) hold down left mouse button and drag - manually rotate the object horizontally or vertically.

I hope that by doing this, you'll find that the UTM tile is there and is fine, but just distorted by the shape and difference in elevation of the tile.

If they aren't being placed where they should be on your route, check that they aren't "underground". Hit "F9" to make the ground transparent and check that the UTM tiles aren't buried. Likewise, they might be floating way above the ground up in the sky somewhere. In those cases, use the object "Adjust Height" to put them (up or down) where they should be.

Andrew

Hi Andrew
Non of the tiles would be particularly steep. (entire map ranges from sea level to gentle sloping hillside)
Tried all the "movements" you suggest but each tile still looked the same. (basically, when zoomed in completely, like a tall fence post white on two sides and black on the others) The meungsten tiles look as they should.
Searched all over map, high and low but no sign of them on the map.

I then deleted everything from CMP and the shared directory etc and started from scratch. This time, two of the tiles worked alright while the other two were as above.
The only thing I might have done differently this time is use a larger selection area with the selection tool. Could this be behind the problem ? If so, I was under the impression that any 1000m tiles not entirely selected were simply ignored ? rather than give a strange looking tile ? Any thoughts ?
Incidently, there are never any warnings when importing dems, route vectors or UTM tiles themselves.
Sam

S Finlay wrote:The only thing I might have done differently this time is use a larger selection area with the selection tool. Could this be behind the problem ?

Now that you mention it, Sam, yes. It's been a while since I created a big route with TransDEM, but if I remember correctly, you should make sure your raster image (topo map, ortho image, etc.) extends well beyond the baseboard tiles you will be selecting for your route. Then in addition to that, make sure your DEM data extends well beyond the raster image. This ensures that TransDEM has something to work with if its own internal calculation of 500m/1000m tiles fall beyond the baseboards you are selecting. And, as you noticed with your larger selection area, you got more UTM tiles.

Seems to me that when I extended my area of selection for UTM tiles, if I used the next larger "purple" UTM boundary grid lines, that I got all the UTM tiles that I needed.

S Finlay wrote:If so, I was under the impression that any 1000m tiles not entirely selected were simply ignored ? rather than give a strange looking tile ?

I believe that is correct. Maybe geophil can confirm that for us. At the risk of creating 4x as many UTM tiles, I'd say that if your baseboards approach an edge of a raster image or DEM section, creating 500m tiles might give you more coverage than a 1000m selection.

Andrew

S Finlay wrote:Hi
I successfully managed to work through the Trans Dem Muengsten Tutorials and everything seemed to work fine.
However when I try to use my own Dems, Maps and routes I have the following problem :

I can export and create dems and ground textures and routes successfully to Trainz but any 3d UTM tiles won't show up at all.
In surveyor, the UTM tiles show up in the "Add object" flyout menu but strangely enough the small animation (in the window underneath the selected item- used to show a rotating zoomable 3d image of the selected object), just shows a long, elongated, almost tower shaped object rather than the 3d shape of the tile as per the meungsten tutorial.
Any help very much appreciated

I have no clue yet. There may be two different and possibly independent issues here. TransDEM UTM tiles are ordinary Trainz scenery objects. Apparently, you have imported them with Trainz Content Manager. Otherwise they would not show up in the asset list in Surveyor, irrespective of their shape, whatever may have gone wrong there. But the tiles should also have become anchored in your route, automatically, as TransDEM should have placed them. Did you check Surveyor wire-frame mode?

When you imported the TransDEM generated route with Trainz Content Manager, had you already added the UTM tiles in TransDEM?

Can you post a few screenshots? There's also the 3rd party Trainz Mesh Viewer which should be able to render the 3D UTM tiles independent of Surveyor.

Thanks guys
Success !
I'm writing this as it may help someone else with the same problem :

The raster map was close to the bottom (South) edge of the Dem, so I loaded up the next Dem and merged the two. This left the raster map more or less in the middle of the two Dems. I selected a fairly large area and hey presto ! six tiles along the route, all looking good and showing up where they should.