Atomic Systems

Hi,

Possible there is information about this somewhere, but I have tried to look on the forum and internet for documentation on how the functions in TS Tools is used.

I have installed TS Tools again, and I will try to build a route for MSTS.
I have tried to use the terrain data that is converted from DEM to xyz with Microdem in TS Tools, but without success. I have also tried to add a background image from lat / long coordinates, but do not fully understand how the coordinates should be entered in the fields: Top, Bottom, Left and Right. I have tried to use the lat / long coordinates in each field, but only get error messages. I'm using decimal degrees.

Does anyone have suggestions for how to do this?

Kind regards,
Oystein

Hi there,
'TStools' was never fully developed to it's true potential, and is not so useful with the background map, mainly because it is difficult to navigate to and the other reason is that the method of terrain representation in MSTS introduces a trapezoidal distortion. Personally, I dont use the background map in TStools because it is not convenient to work with. It's easy to test for the trapezoidal distortion by say taking a 500 metre square segment from Google Earth, mount it on a flat 'biscuit' (using TSM or even sketchup), and then inserting the four corner coordinates as markers. You will notice the distortion particularly of you have a long North-South section, say 30km. The ideal process is a matter of producing markers (it's easy to do this in Google Earth) and having a look at how they appear in the TSTools view.

Regards

Yes, I understand the issue in this. This was actually the reason why I cut out to build real-routes for MSTS many years ago. The lack of detailed maps in Google Earth makes that the only way is to retrieve a map and use this as a background in TSTools to make markers (is there any other programs that can do this?)

The other way to get markers is to click on a point in a map, copy the lat / long manually into mrk file. As you may know, this takes a very long time!

Can TS Terraform be an option for me?

Regards,
Oystein

Hi

I found a solution that works well for me, it is to take images from a map and use the image overlay feature in Google Earth, in this way I can easily create markers with Google Earth, which can also be used in Rail Works.

When I last fired up TS Tools (sometime last year), under Vista I found none of the DEM systems would work - whether importing or contour tracing - it just fell over with an error message, no matter what resolution I tried to export the data at. Demex still works but you need to visit a backdoor link to find the file and with support discontinued I was not going to chance paying the registration fee (full version needed for Distant Mountains) but that's another story.

However I was able to get the mapping system to work, once my hazy memory (it was 5 years since last using the programme) had recalled the correct projection method for OS Map images and was able to export some fairly accurate marker files.

Shame the route came to nothing but the RE seemed just too archaic compared to other/newer sims.

It's a shame the TS Tools and Demex authors couldn't do a one off update to these once excellent utilities or maybe even consider releasing versions that would work with RW.