Can someone give me a simple step by step guide to starting?

[seagulls2000]

I am trying to create a short route in RS but am falling over at the first hurdle.

I want to set the starting location to -0.14129 and 50.82910 but every time I try to set it it resets to 0,0. I have downloaded the dem data for the area, done a basic track plan by overlaying on google earth and saving as a CSV file, created the dev directory with the correct structure, checked it exists in the blueprint editor but as im stuck at 0,0 for the location I cant do much more.

Can anyone help in simple terms what I need to do to go the next step and set my default location to -0.14129 and 50.82910? I have done it before by using one of the default routes as a starting point but I want to do something stand alone

Thanks
Gary

[AdamsRadial]

You have to enter the start Lat and Long figures in the route blueprint. Make sure you get the lat and long the right way round, otherwise you won't get anywhere useful. Open the blueprint file in the blueprint editor, make the changes and save them, and then export the blueprint again.

[seagulls2000]

I must be being thick here but I have the blueprint editor open, I can see my folder called Gary and the sub folder called Kemptown with the folders inside that but no where can I see the blueprint file that needs editing

[AdamsRadial]

I suspect that you did as I did and didn't create a route template first of all. My first attempts followed the guidelines (as I understood them then) in the user guide, where you click on routes, create a route, choose a suitable template, and dive straight in. I understood that you could pick one of the default routes as a safe choice for a template. The suitable template really needs to be created first of all, and I ended up using RS_Tools_TMB to create mine after a couple of dismal attempts on my own.

I did have a couple of goes at pushing a template I had created towards a route folder I had already created, but it didn't seem to get me anywhere, so I started again from scratch, and it's all going well now.

[seagulls2000]

Ok thanks for that, when you save it with the rs_tools_tmb it asks for a suitable directory to save the default template, I tried the rail simulator/source and rail simulator/source/gary/KempTown and neither show up when I create route as available templates.

The annoying thing is once this stage is out the way it does look easier than MSTS but this stage is really annoying me lol

Gary

[karma99]

The key to all this is that the Source folders are not the Asset folders.
I've not found it explained anywhere very well in the docs, but imagine the Source folders as your working area. Here you fiddle with things in XML and CSV's etc and all the basic file formats.
Once you have those ready, fire up the RS Asset Editor and you will see the Source folder layout. Navigate to your working folder eg /karma99/HereToThere and then inside the specific folders TemplateRoutes etc you will see your blueprints. Double click on one and it will load into the Asset Editor. You can change any settings in it at this time, then (and this is the bit that makes it all make sense!) at the top you click the Export button.
This turns the plain file formats into RS edible bin files and all kinds of magical wonder.
Now when you start RS (having closed down the Asset Editor) you will have all the blueprints, markers and such available to you.

Hope that makes sense and helps?

PS And you're right, the world editor is awesomely flexible and easy to create some great stuff imo.. but the first time you learn to do this setup is a pain in the back side!

[seagulls2000]

many thanks for your help Karma99 and AdamsRadial but its still beyond me. I have tried exactly as has been said yet im still not getting the template showing up when I try to create the route.

I guess if I cant even get the first step done what chance have I of getting a working route going

Will stick it on the back burner for now. But I must say how impressed I am with the image overlay on google maps, 1929 OS maps give perfect locations to long lost tracks when laid over the current images

Gary

[AdamsRadial]

Like a couple of other people have said, there's a moment when it all suddenly makes sense to you, but you will have to go through the pain barrier to get there. It is worth persevering.

Here's a short list to get you started, based on using RS_Tools_TMB

1. In TMB, check it can see your developer folder structure. (If it can't, try using it to create the structure for you.)
2. Use the easy blueprints option create a route template, saving it in the RouteTemplates folder in your source/<myname>/<myproject> folder. NOTE: Do not use spaces in your folder names, RS isn't so forgiving/stupid as Windows
3. Possibly using TBM, copy your google earth KML files into the RouteMarkers folder of your source folder, and convert the to CSV, then use easy blueprints to create named and/or series blueprints for them
4. Copy any DEM data you want into a /Rail Simulator/ DEM/SRTM folder, (note that this data is global to all RS routes, not just your own route).
5. Using the blueprint editor (the exe lives under rail simulator), locate and export your route template, and any marker files. The editor will look for them in your source/folder and you will have to steer it down through <name>/<project> to the correct folders. Watch the report messages to see success or failure messages.
6. Open RS Editor, got to routes, choose create a route, and your route template should be in the list. Once created and inside, click on the world editor symbol. From here on, there are other threads that should help you use the object filtering to see both your assets and the Kuju ones, and don't forget to turn on the world markers in the bottom left flyout.

Good luck.

(PS to all, my name isn't Adam, it's Adrian. The AdamsRadial was a certain venerable Victorian tank engine, one of which lazed around the East Kent Railway for years doing nothing more exciting than colliding with a brewery lorry, but then was sent to the Lyme Regis branch for a while, and is now preserved on the Bluebell Railway, although in almost the same semi-dismantled state in which it seemed to spend much of its time on the EKLR. Life's like that, mostly circular, and often "Oh no, not again")

[seagulls2000]

Got it
It was the lack of the template being in the routetemplate folder that was messing things up.

I ended up with the blue sky problem and set the assets, reloaded and and was fine until I hit T to import the dem data. Then I realised the marker is set to sea level and the station is at the top of a hill lol

On to track laying and the rest

Thanks for your help

Gary

[karma99]

Good news

Looking forward to seeing your route mate. I have to say, the more I play with the editor the more I love it.