Making curved tracks and switches

I am now attempting to convert my ugly straight tracks into smooth curves. Currently all the tracks are in the ugly 25m sections with banks on the sides using the @wall command.
I like to ask if tracks are made into smooth curves, then any bank or wall applied to the sides of the track would also have to be curved. Is this correct? Can you use the smooth curve utility to create smooth switches as well.

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RE: Making curved tracks and switches., Martin Finken, Mar-01-05, 06:05 PM, (1) RE: Making curved tracks and switches., Simon_G, Mar-01-05, 07:50 PM, (2) RE: Making curved tracks and switches., eswnl, Mar-02-05, 07:56 AM, (3) RE: Making curved tracks and switches., mfonda, Mar-02-05, 09:38 AM, (4) RE: Making curved tracks and switches., smace, Mar-02-05, 01:25 PM, (5) RE: Making curved tracks and switches., eswnl, Mar-02-05, 04:22 PM, (6) RE: Making curved tracks and switches., smace, Mar-02-05, 09:09 PM, (7) RE: Making curved tracks and switches., eswnl, Mar-03-05, 03:32 PM, (8) RE: Making curved tracks and switches., smace, Mar-03-05, 07:08 PM, (9) RE: Making curved tracks and switches., eswnl, Mar-04-05, 07:33 PM, (10) RE: Making curved tracks and switches., eswnl, Mar-05-05, 12:06 PM, (11) RE: Making curved tracks and switches., ferrovipathe, Mar-05-05, 03:00 PM, (12) RE: Making curved tracks and switches., tof63, Mar-05-05, 04:58 PM, (13) RE: Making curved tracks and switches., eswnl, Mar-05-05, 05:06 PM, (14)

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LAST EDITED ON Mar-01-05 AT 06:05 PM (EST)

Thats correct, the wall also will becurved, but only in 25 m. If you make small curves, you will see that this is an 25 m object. In small curves, you must develope per hand this object for all 5 meters.Yes you can also built smooth curves. Switch from Rüdiger Hülsmann allows that.greatings
Martin Finken
http://BVE-Train.de
and the BVE 4 international Forum: http://www.foren.de/system/user_Martin_Finken.html

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HiIf you look at most routes you'll see that they use smoothly curved track, but straight walls, platforms and dikes. This looks ok so long as the curve isn't too sharp, or the wall/platform face too close to the track. Objects that are too close to the track can cut across the rails on tight curves (there shouldn't be anything closer than about 2.5m to the track centreline anyway).Apart from the difficulty of producing the objects a possible problem with using all curved objects is the number of faces that results, which could affect framerates. However, if you want to have a go, you might find these threads useful.To produce switches, crossings and slips, try Ruede Hulsmanns 'Switch' program. Go to home.t-online.de/home/r.hulsmann/ and select 'Downloads' then 'Programme und Weiteres'. The program has instructions in German and English.Hope this helps
Simon

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ThanksLooking at other routes I also found out that if you want to make a simple cross over to an adjacent track, you can use 2 curved segments(one Left and the other Right) one after the other. Using the @railtype.

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This will not give you a crossover, merely a connection without actual switches. Use Switch15 to make 25m switches. Don't forget to add the overhead wire if needed.

Martin

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I have two utilities on my downloads section that may help with cruved objects.
The Object maker: This has a section to produce a 2.5 meter curved cylinder for use in tunnels
The Curved object maker: This is derived from Luigi's curved rail maker. It takes a 2.5 meter section of an object, such as the above curved cylinder section, and repeats it 10 times, moving and turning it to gove a 10 section curved object.
Each works well with simple objects like platforms, walls and simple tunnel walls. A complex section like an underground/subway station would take more work, but the object maker would give you the basic frame work.http://home.cfl.rr.com/bvefl/download.html
look for:
BVE Curved object maker
Curved Bridge and Bridge track
and
BVE Object Creator
If you need help with these, email me and I will do what I can

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Smace,Can you use the curved object maker to curve tracks as well as tunnels then.

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LAST EDITED ON Mar-02-05 AT 09:09 PM (EST)

Yes, it is a general curved object maker, but Luigi Cartello's curve10 spread sheet is better for this. (The spread sheet was what I built the curved object maker from.) It makes tracks and has everything built in. Also from Japan,Curverail_Editer - program to build smoothed track elements by Advanceboy. Information on both can be found athttp://bve.altervista.org/utilities.htmlThe second utility can make curves with divisions as amall as every mm,( or maybe smaller, that was all the memory I had) although the resulting file for this curve is a little large. At a more resonable size, it produces a very nice curved rail.Minor point, the general curved object builder also has a vertical curve portion. This is rather experimental, but, at least in theory, you could build an object with a left-right curve and an up-down curve.

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I studied Luigis curve editor seemed to got the hang of it. I also have to add third rail and this is done by another tool called "Power rail editor", if I remember correctly. It has a field called "turn angle". What is this for?

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I will have to pass on that question. Have not used that program yet.

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What is the minimum curve radius where I don't have to apply smooth curves. I think its about 3000m.

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When I use Luigis smooth curve editor, the B3d files I get seem to be quite large about 21KB for a curve segment. When I look at other peoples routes theirs is only about 9KB.

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>What is the minimum curve radius where I don't have to apply
>smooth curves. I think its about 3000m. Theoretical computes give us:No segmentation for radius > 5000 m
Segmentation 3 for radius between 5000 m and 1200 m
Segmentation 5 for radius between 1200 m and 200 m
Segmentation 10 for radius < 200 m
If you need more, look at
http://ferrovipathe.free.fr/Docs/Loop_making_of_Eng.pdf.All the best.

http://ferrovipathe.free.fr

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LAST EDITED ON Mar-05-05 AT 04:59 PM (EST)

The Curverail Editer utility by Advanceboy is much more powerful then my spreadsheet:You can download it at http://tokyo.cool.ne.jp/advanceboy/This could be a complete set of curved rail objects for general pourposes made using it:

Divisions
(segments)Radius of
the objectFor curves
from radiusTo radius2480042505400238003350425023000265033503240021002650319001675210031500133016754120010601330495084010604750665840560053566554804255356380335425630026533572402122657190168212815013216891201061321095841061275678414605467Cheers,
Luigi Cartello
http://bve.altervista.org/
http://web.tiscali.it/lcartello/

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I just found "switch for Windows 0.2". How many tools are there for making smooth curves?Suddenly my Power Rail editor seems to figure the turn angle automatically when I use this tool.

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