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Map Building How-to and what-for Rate Topic: -----

#1 User is offline   Rigo 

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Posted 01 May 2018 - 06:48 PM

I continue to be a big fan the Port Ogden & Northern route, and I'm hooked on version 11 despite Jim Ward's comment in a thread at TrainSim.com that he considered version 10 his best. I'm considering attempting to build a set of maps for the route, but I've never undertaken such a task in MSTS or ORTS. I know I can see the route in decent detail using the Track Viewer, but I'd like a separate map file to be open while driving my train.

Questions:
  • Is there a way to export the data from a route so that I could digitize the values into a CAD program?
  • Is there data in a file (*.tdb maybe) which I could extract and interpret in a CAD program?
  • Is there a place where I can find the details of the makeup of the data files which the Track Viewer is reading?
  • Or perhaps I should ask if there are already programs within the rail simulator community to help me make good maps of routes?

I'm new to the ORTS program, but if I could be given some understanding of track data, I might be able to figure something out myself.

One more question - Is anyone else interested in having good maps of the PO&N 11 route?

Rigo

#2 User is offline   Genma Saotome 

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Posted 01 May 2018 - 07:26 PM

Use the track viewer that comes with Open Rails. It's located in the "Tools" pull down on the initial page. You can specify display of terrtex if you want that too. If you do <alt><prnt scrn> you'll have an image you can immediately paste into photo / pixel editor software. You can use your photo / pixel editors to stitch them together but to go big (e.g., 15,000 pixels square) you'll need to be using 64 bit software and have plenty of RAM in your PC.

IIRC track viewer will also produce an elevation chart.

#3 User is offline   Hamza97 

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Posted 01 May 2018 - 08:51 PM

There is a utility called Mapper, available on trainsim which also does the same thing... :thumbup3:

#4 User is offline   ckawahara 

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Posted 02 May 2018 - 08:05 AM

If the goal is to create a track chart of the scheme used by actual railroads, ie linear style, there is no export/import/conversion software.

If you are into computer code, review how contributed.trackviewer extracts the data, then see if you can extend the code to create a file format that your CAD program can import. I would bet that the creation of the readable/importable cad file will be the greater challenge.

#5 User is offline   Rigo 

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Posted 02 May 2018 - 05:56 PM

Thanks for the replies.

Dave, I do use Track Viewer, but I was hoping to get better data than the bitmap I can capture from a screen grab. That's just pixels, and I want coordinates and vectors if possible.

Hamza97, do you mean that Mapper does the same things that Dave mentioned or that it does what I asked about (exporting of map data to coordinates)?

ckawahara, I'll look into the program if I can figure out how to view the code behind. I'm guessing I'd have to load a C# compiler? I'm a software analyst, not a coder, but I understand a lot of what I see. I'd like to dip my toes into helping the community, but I'm not sure what I can do or where my skills might fit in. I'm a technical writer as well, if that helps anyone to identify what contributions I might make.

#6 User is offline   JeroenP 

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Posted 13 May 2018 - 10:21 AM

Hi
Genma mentioned that TrackViewer can produce an elevation chart, and in fact a full track chart as intended, I think, by ckawahara (for clarity, this is created for a path, as coded in a .pat file and that can be edited by TrackViewer). This is documented in the TrackViewer manual. Unfortunately, the manual on the Openrails.org web-site is rather out-of-date. A much more recent version can be found in the source (under Documentation directory, in .odt format). The possibility to make a track chart has also been documented in the following post http://www.elvastowe...post__p__183745 (there are some pictures in that thread as well). There is even a not-so-well tested option to export in .json format and read this again in, say, a web-site (see the attachement in the referenced post for an example).

Regarding understanding the data structure that TrackViewer and ORTS read, I would suggest starting with MSTS tutorials on the .tdb file. See for instance http://msts.steam4me...torials/#routes, or http://msts-roundhouse.vnxglobal.com/, or just search for .tdb, MSTS, and perhaps tutorial.

Regarding

Quote

but I'd like a separate map file to be open while driving my train.
this is supported by ORTS itself. It is called Dispatcher Window and described in section 7.5 of the OpenRails-Testing-Manual.pdf available on the openrails.org web-site.

Best regards. Jeroen.

#7 User is offline   NZ_JOHN 

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Posted 04 September 2018 - 03:47 PM

How about downloading a Route in GPX format so we can use it in Google Maps Etc. Can this be donw?

#8 User is offline   Genma Saotome 

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Posted 06 September 2018 - 08:05 PM

View PostNZ_JOHN, on 04 September 2018 - 03:47 PM, said:

How about downloading a Route in GPX format so we can use it in Google Maps Etc. Can this be done?


Not very likely. The problem is the Goode-Homosoline* skew present in the tiles and markers, which means track and roads are also skewed away from their true location.


* Take a diamond shaped area of any location and skew it into a square. What was a right angles now isn't anymore. THAT is our KUJU method of projecting the world into tiles, soooo happy, f-u very much! AND it was done for locating markers too so NOTHING is really where it should be.

#9 User is offline   Goku 

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Posted 07 September 2018 - 05:13 AM

It can be done. Of course it will not fit perfectly the real world map.

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