Creating DEM for a route?

[DescendingSadly]

Hi guys,

Where do I get DEM data and how do I implement it into a route for RS?


Cheers,
Luke.

[pgmetcalf]

FJHC does anyone know what a search button is for?

[godabyc]

Get the hgt files that cover your route from ftp://e0srp01u.ecs.nasa.gov/srtm/versio ... 3/Eurasia/, unzip into the ..\Rail Simulator\DEM\SRTM folder (you will have to create this), then read the sticky at the top of this forum

[DescendingSadly]

Thank you godabyc .

I have now got the .hgt files into the DEM/SRGT folder, I created the new route with the "addon template" however when I press t, nothing happens to the landscape.

[godabyc]

The folder is ..\DEM\SRTM\ not SRGT . . maybe a typo ? I've only used RS_Tools_The_Missing_Bits to create route templates then goto into the editor and hit t and the terrain appears.

Are you sure you have the right data files for the long/lat of your route ? It also sometimes happens that the terrain appears but it's height is above your current viewpoint and you have to zoom out & up to see it.

[DescendingSadly]

I stupidly did not enter the lat long of my desired position.

so I typed n 53.649491 in the latitude box

then i typed -1.78399 in the long box. clicked the go button, but nothing happened?

[godabyc]

Hmmm no idea what you're doing there but I can't recommend Mike Simpson's RS_Tools highly enough, download it from here :- http://www.uktrainsim.com/filelib-info. ... leid=18194, after installing goto Help->Contents->Easy Route Building and follow the instructions, it's worked perfectly several times for even a ham fisted noob like myself.

[AdamsRadial]

You have to create a specific template blueprint for your intended route, and enter the lat and long of the route start point, then export this blueprint so that when you go to the "Create Route" option, the template you exported is shown in the list of available templates. The other templates are unlikely to be of any use to you unless your route is very close to one of the existing routes.

The other source of errors is creating the template, but mixing up the lat and long when you enter them, which is exactly what I did on my first attempt

Have a look through other threads for what other entries you need to make when you create the blueprint for your route template, although changing most of them to Kuju/Railsimulator seems to be the best option,

[DescendingSadly]

Thank you both, you hve been extremely helpful, I have downloaded Mike's tutorial and hopefully that should kick things off and I can get the DEM imported.

[bigvern]

I also don't think the DEM import will work if you're in the terrain function of the editor, I found I needed to click on the Building icon (3D placement) then "t" worked fine.

One other tip - depending on the area you are using DEM you might want to process the hgt files through a little utility called 3Dem first. Specifically, patch any "holes" i.e. missing data which will avoid dimples or spikes in the terrain as processed by RS.

[Zoid99]

Get the hgt files that cover your route from ftp://e0srp01u.ecs.nasa.gov/srtm/versio ... 3/Eurasia/, unzip into the ..\Rail Simulator\DEM\SRTM folder (you will have to create this), then read the sticky at the top of this forum

How do i know which ones cover the area i would like to create?

Thanks
Tom

[t1metraveller]

Get the hgt files that cover your route from ftp://e0srp01u.ecs.nasa.gov/srtm/versio ... 3/Eurasia/, unzip into the ..\Rail Simulator\DEM\SRTM folder (you will have to create this), then read the sticky at the top of this forum

How do i know which ones cover the area i would like to create?

Thanks
Tom

Hi Tom,

On the DEM page link, ftp://e0srp01u.ecs.nasa.gov/srtm/versio ... 3/Eurasia/, click on the "ParentDirectory" twice to take you up 2 levels, and you will see some documentation on how it all works. It's a .pdf file. Basically, for the SRTM3 data, each file is one degree square. The file name is the lower left corner of that square.

Good luck.

Bill

From the .pdf----

QuickStart
Welcome. If you just can't wait to start playing with the SRTM data, or
just don't have the patience for reading tedious documentation, you'll need
to know at least the following. For more detail see SRTM_Topo.doc.
SRTM data are distributed in two levels: SRTM1 (for the U.S. and its territories
and possessions) with data sampled at one arc-second intervals in latitude and
longitude, and SRTM3 (for the world) sampled at three arc-seconds. Three
arc-second data are generated by three by three averaging of the one
arc-second samples.

Data are divided into one by one degree latitude and longitude tiles in
"geographic" projection, which is to say a raster presentation with equal
intervals of latitude and longitude in no projection at all but easy to manipulate
and mosaic.

File names refer to the latitude and longitude of the lower left corner of
the tile - e.g. N37W105 has its lower left corner at 37 degrees north
latitude and 105 degrees west longitude. To be more exact, these
coordinates refer to the geometric center of the lower left pixel, which in
the case of SRTM3 data will be about 90 meters in extent.

Height files have the extension .HGT and are signed two byte integers. The
bytes are in Motorola "big-endian" order with the most significant byte first,
directly readable by systems such as Sun SPARC, Silicon Graphics and Macintosh.
DEC Alpha and most PCs use Intel ("little-endian") order so some byte-swapping
may be necessary. Heights are in meters referenced to the WGS84/EGM96 geoid.
Data voids are assigned the value -32768.

SRTM3 files contain 1201 lines and 1201 samples. The rows at the north
and south edges as well as the columns at the east and west edges of each
cell overlap and are identical to the edge rows and columns in the adjacent
cell. SRTM1 files contain 3601 lines and 3601 samples, with similar overlap.

[Zoid99]

Hi,

Thanks for your help, i will give it a go later on today once i get home from college.

Tom

[Zoid99]

Hi,

just hit a problem. I've downloaded the RS_tools missing bits, installed it etc. However when i go to run it brings up and error box saying that the serz.exe cannont be found and so the program doesn't work properly. I know that i have the exe as i found it in my railsim folder. Does anyone have an idea of what the problem is?

Thanks
Tom

[AdamsRadial]

You also need to copy serz.exe to your windows/system folder, otherwise TMB cannot find it. This is in the setup instructions for TMB, I suggest you re-read them.