Markers/for New Route

How do I get the markers to work in a new route , what do I open up to put the markers in place in my route???Also I heard that the marker file has to be in a unicode format , where do I check to see that I have my file in my hardrive???I am using MakeMarker V4.0 to do my markers , but I don't know if my route has the file ???
Pkman
MP 777.0

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RE: Markers/for New Route, griffinmt, Sep-18-03, 09:58 PM, (1) RE: Markers/for New Route, Pkman, Sep-18-03, 10:54 PM, (2) RE: Markers/for New Route, geoffmayo, Sep-19-03, 03:54 AM, (3) RE: Markers/for New Route, steam4me, Sep-19-03, 09:00 AM, (4) RE: Markers/for New Route, Pkman, Sep-19-03, 11:36 AM, (5) RE: Markers/for New Route, LoneWolf, Sep-19-03, 11:57 AM, (6) RE: Markers/for New Route, Pkman, Sep-19-03, 01:28 PM, (8) RE: Markers/for New Route, griffinmt, Sep-19-03, 04:43 PM, (9) RE: Markers/for New Route, LoneWolf, Sep-19-03, 04:53 PM, (11) RE: Markers/for New Route, LoneWolf, Sep-19-03, 04:51 PM, (10) RE: Markers/for New Route, griffinmt, Sep-19-03, 01:08 PM, (7) RE: Markers/for New Route, geoffmayo, Sep-19-03, 05:46 PM, (12) RE: Markers/for New Route, Pkman, Sep-19-03, 06:39 PM, (13) RE: Markers/for New Route, lenglel, Sep-20-03, 08:04 PM, (14) RE: Markers/for New Route, LoneWolf, Sep-21-03, 01:10 AM, (15) RE: Markers/for New Route, lenglel, Sep-21-03, 07:28 AM, (16) RE: Markers/for New Route, LoneWolf, Sep-22-03, 01:46 AM, (17) RE: Markers/for New Route, lenglel, Sep-22-03, 04:40 PM, (18) RE: Markers/for New Route, LoneWolf, Sep-22-03, 07:58 PM, (19) RE: Markers/for New Route, lenglel, Sep-22-03, 08:49 PM, (20) RE: Markers/for New Route, LoneWolf, Sep-23-03, 01:35 AM, (21)

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Basics1) The marker file is a unicode text file, just like all the other text files for MSTS
2) each route is known by two names- a) its folder name and b) its routename defined in its .trk file (another unicode file).
3) the marker file filename is made from the routename in the .trk file, but with a .mkr extension
4) see the .mkr file in the USA2 folder as an exampleMartyn T. Griffin
griffinmt@mindspring.com
http://www.geocities.com/tcmrrc/

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I found mrk file in my route , now how do I use it ???do I put in text ( Lat and Lon )with notepad , of where I want to put a marker ??or do I do it in the route editer ???I am new here , so please help . I need step by step help with markers if someone can help me .
PKMan

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IMHO the best programs to use are USAPhotoMaps (www.jdmcox.com) and waypoints.exe (look in the file library on this site). The former shows you maps of the USA and allows you to place markers. The latter will convert the file that USAPhotoMaps produces into an MSTS Marker file.If you do a search on the forum, you'll find plenty of threads about how to do make markers manually. There was one not more than a week or two ago.Geoff M.

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Try
http://www.railpage.org.au/steam4me/trainsim/tutorials/markers.htmlRegardsYuri.
(steam4me)
-------------------------------------
Webmaster
Australian MSTS Add-ons Page
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Guys, I know you are trying to help me , but I am getting more confuse with what people have respond with to help me . I just need to know how to bring up the submenu in the route editer for the marker menu. I am building a route from Scratch that I download. The route is Stony River area in Minn and I just need to know what keys on my keyboard I press to bring up my marker menu. as you can see there is no marker on this route I just need to know if I can do the track markers in Route Editer . I am new to route building , and everyone start out at the same place , we all need a little bit of help . PKMAN MP 777.0

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You don't actually DO anything with the marker file within RE. It's loaded automatically if there's nothing wrong with the file. If the markers are not displayed after having loaded then make sure "Display Markers" is checked in one of the drop down menus in RE (can't recall which menu at the moment - I'm at work).You say you're building a route from scratch and yet you say you downloaded it? Which is it? Either you're trying to work with someone elses creation or you're scratch building. It can't be both.The bottom line is you do not create marker files within RE. You have to actually do a little work to create them yourself if one doesn't already accompany the route you downloaded.I suggest you do a little reading. There's plenty of relevant info in this forum if you're willing to do a little digging. Help yourself first and you'll find that the suggestions you've already been given will make sense.

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Guys, I am in my USA2 (Marias route ) and I see the Markers. someoe please tell me how to get marker menu to open . WHAT KEYS ON MY KEYBOARD , WILL OPEN THE MENU???Plus can you remove markers , once they are in place ??Hey , maybe it would be easier if someone can walk me though it by phone , is there any route designers , would like to help me ???
Pkman MP777

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LAST EDITED ON Sep-19-03 AT 04:44 PM (EDT)

Are you blind, lazy, or a complete moron?Try READING all the messages posted to you so far!!Edit: My complete appology to all the OTHER members of the forum that think this msg was a bit strong!Martyn T. Griffin
griffinmt@mindspring.com
http://www.geocities.com/tcmrrc/

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ROTFLMAO!!!

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I am going to assume that by your saying you're in your USA2 you mean that you're viewing it in the Route Editor and that you also see the markers displayed.Now then, and once more in the hope that you'll actually read this this time, there IS NO MEANS AVAILABLE FROM WITHIN ROUTE EDITOR to manipulate the marker file. Nor does MSTS offer this ability anywhere else in it's various modules.MARKER FILE CREATION AND EDITING IS PERFORMED COMPLETELY OUTSIDE OF AND INDEPENDENTLY OF MICROSOFT TRAIN SIMULATOR.If you want to edit or otherwise manipulate a route's marker file you must first locate it, usually with Windows Explorer, and then right click on it to "Open with...". Open it with Wordpad. Except for the very first line and the blank line following it, each line defines the location of one marker flag and it's name and type.You can add points. You can delete points. You can change points. This is done solely through the use of Wordpad, or some other such text editor capable of saving the modified file back as Unicode text.I trust this is now abundantly clear to you.

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Lets try this again!Load up the route into RE.
Select the View menu item. There should be two submenus shown: 1) "Markers" and 2) "Track DB Lines"If either has a checkmark beside it, then that option is enabled, so click the Markers option if needed to enable it.If necessary, via the camera window, jump to a location that you expect to find any markers. If none can be seen and you know you have a marker file with the extension .mkr, then their is a fault with that file that needs fixing.Make sure that the filename of the marker file is EXACTLY the same as the routename as defined in the .trk file.
Make sure that the text file is saved in Unicode format. On WXP and W2K, Notepad can do that, else use Wordpad.
Make sure that the first line is written EXACTLY the same as:SIMISA@@@@@@@@@@JINX0I0t______That should be 30 character long, with six (6) underscores at the end. And it is a lowercase t just before that.Each marker entry begins on a new line in the first position with the word Marker, for example:Marker ( -105.276031 36.455420 "500 meter straight section" 2 )There are four parameters inside the parens.
1) Longitude with 5-6 decimal places
2) Latitude with 5-6 decimal places
3) A description of the marker location, surrounded by double quote marks
4) The type of marker desired as 0, 1 or 2A single space seperates ALL entities, as can be seen in the example.There is NO magical way to create marker files by using any features of the MSTS system. This MUST be done externally, by either manual editting of the correct file, or by using a third party utility to accomplish this for you, as mentioned in previous posts.Martyn T. Griffin
griffinmt@mindspring.com
http://www.geocities.com/tcmrrc/

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Just in case - "I just need to know if I can do the track markers in Route Editer" - NO!Geoff M.

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Guys, I found the problem , why I couldn't put down markers, I reload the route and made sure the name in the trk and Mrk files were the same, then I was able to lay down a marker . also , it may not have work because I had track down!!
Thanks for all your help !!!!! PkMan MP 777.0

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Should I tell him having track down doesn't have anything to
do with markers, or would that just add to the confusion? I
get the feeling he's satisfied, and will forget all about this
thread, so...please, don't anyone tell this guy about tiger2marker, PLEASE!!
I am getting weak in the knees at the thought of having to
explain basemapping to this guy. Apparently I'm the only
one who can get it to work.Hey, maybe I can charge a nominal fee per tile to spray paint
road maps on people's terrain?Lloyd

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Hey that's cool! That Tiger2marker actually allows you to overlay a topo map on the terrain in RE?

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Only 1:24000 digital raster graphics, the kind with
the location coded into the filename, such as O34078a1.tif,
and they have to be converted to .bmp format first, which
makes the file about 33 megabytes in size. Not at all the
stand-alone pushbutton any-map-will-do solution we would
like, is it?
I'll spare us both the explanation of why the .tif file
has to be converted to .bmp, briefly it is a memory issue.
(ya, I can hear it now... "yours or the computer's?")Here, have another tantalizing pic...Lloyd

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Yeah I figured it would involve a data format for which the data for my area of interest doesn't exist. Which would be anywhere above the 49th parallel.Fortunately though I've found a way to digitize the freely available 1:50,000 Canadian topo maps in AutoCAD to obtain correctly georeferenced marker data to plug into RE. Not quite as convenient as having the map loaded straight into RE but at least I can now accurately locate the shorelines of lakes and streams by digitizing their boundaries, as well as the rail and road ways.

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Where can I find one of those? I could probably resize it
with irfanview and work out what to put in the .tfw file so
you'd be able to use it. Also, what are you using for dem
data? I'd need that for a test route to make sure things
are lining up correctly.
Lloyd

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Toporama is accessed at http://toporama.cits.rncan.gc.ca/topoin.html .You want to see the NTDB map sheets at 1:50,000. Click on that and it'll bring up the 1:250,000 map sheet divided into the 16 individual 1:50,000 map sheets. Select the map you want to view ( or in this case download ) and when it loads you'll see a message at the top of the pic that says "See entire NTDB sheet 0NNANN(082G11 for example) (WARNING could take a long time to display : up to 1 megabyte in size)" . Right click on that link to download the pic instead viewing it.The DEM data I'm using is the SRTM 3 arcsec 90m data from ftp://edcsgs9.cr.usgs.gov/pub/data/srtm/North_America_3arcsec/3arcsec/ .The combination of 8 of the 16 1:50,000 map sheets to create 2 maps as an east half and west half for overlaying the SRTM data in Dem-ex works quite well, as long as they're converted to targa bitmaps first. Otherwise the GIF format breaks down too much for my liking.Resizing the overhead view of the SRTM heightfield data in Dem-ex to the max 6000 pixels and then applying the targas resized to 6000 x 6000 produces a very nice shaded relief map which I then save back out as a picture in targa bitmap format.I also do some resizing and cropping to eliminate the additional data overage in the SRTM data so that the map overlay is precise. At 6000 pixels width there's a 5 pixel margin at the top and right side of the SRTM DEM so I allow for that when I preprocess the topo overlay.If that sounds like a whole pile of work, you're right. It is. Have fun with it!

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Hmmm... The wolf is at the door "The deformation of Toporama GIF images varies according to
the location (latitude) of its source data."
Hopefully this deformation matches that of the drg's the
program is designed for. As it happens, several of the
group of routes I'm working on are along the canadian
border, so this is just the kick in the butt I needed
to fill in the blank spots on the yonder side of the
river. Just out of curiosity, would you care to post a screenshot
of your quadtree? As long as I'm experimenting with this
data, I may as well use a sample that may actually be of
use to you at some point, though it'll take a few days.Lloyd

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Sure, no problem. Although it is rather large. I've split it into west and east pics as the whole exceeds the file size limit.The geographic coordinates are from 48.96° N Latitude and -112.74° W Longitude to 50.05° N Latitude and -118.29° W Longitude. The Canadian NTDB map references are 082F, 082G, & 082H.The topo maps are ortho-corrected so of course there is a considerable amount of distortion from their true appearance. However, since the SRTM data is also ortho-corrected the topos fit like a glove, after I've made the necessary corrections for extraneous margin data. That was quite a stroke of luck I thought.

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