Auto-gantry function?

To what extent (single tile, route-wide, etc.) does the auto-gantry feature work? I'm experimenting with auto-placement of telephone poles....JBD

Jim Duncan
Midwest Rail Group

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RE: Auto-gantry function?, mdeming, Oct-06-03, 11:09 PM, (1) RE: Auto-gantry function?, jdtrainman, Oct-06-03, 11:18 PM, (2) RE: Auto-gantry function?, tryagin, Oct-06-03, 11:53 PM, (3) RE: Auto-gantry function?, jdtrainman, Oct-06-03, 11:58 PM, (4) RE: Auto-gantry function?, tryagin, Oct-07-03, 01:28 AM, (5) RE: Auto-gantry function?, jdtrainman, Oct-07-03, 02:57 AM, (6) RE: Auto-gantry function?, chuckzeiler, Oct-07-03, 08:46 AM, (7) RE: Auto-gantry function?, mdeming, Oct-07-03, 11:02 AM, (8) RE: Auto-gantry function?, chuckzeiler, Oct-07-03, 11:31 AM, (9) RE: Auto-gantry function?, mdeming, Oct-07-03, 12:33 PM, (11) RE: Auto-gantry function?, tryagin, Oct-07-03, 12:24 PM, (10) RE: Auto-gantry function?, lenglel, Oct-07-03, 12:55 PM, (12) RE: Auto-gantry function?, tryagin, Oct-07-03, 02:12 PM, (13) RE: Auto-gantry function?, chuckzeiler, Oct-07-03, 03:43 PM, (14)

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Single block.
Mike

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I figured that out within the past hour, Mike... I see that there are two setting for pole placement..... 000001 is Overhead, 0000002 is gantry.... I get poles placed in the center of the track with setting 1 and TWO poles on either side of the track with 02....Have you tried this (or anyone, for that matter)?JD

Jim Duncan
Midwest Rail Group

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We've placed telephone poles in the Sumpter Valley route using these entries in the route's Gantry File:SIMISA@@@@@@@@@@JINX0g0t______Tr_GantryFile (
GantrySets ( 3
GantrySet(
Name ( "2wirePole" )
Style ( 00000002 )
Separation ( 40 )
GantryTable ( 1
GantryTableEntry (
Filename ( "2wirePole.s" )
Distance ( 11.373 )
)
)
)
GantrySet(
Name ( "ROW Wire Fences" )
Style ( 00000001 )
Separation ( 36.5 )
GantryTable ( 1
GantryTableEntry (
Filename ( "SRV_120X5ftBarbWireFence.s" )
Distance ( 20 )
)
)
)
GantrySet(
Name ( "pineline1" )
Style ( 00000001 )
Separation ( 150.5 )
GantryTable ( 1
GantryTableEntry (
Filename ( "pineline1.s" )
Distance ( 80 )
)
)
)
)
)
The "separation" line is meters between poles. As you can see from this, you can also use it for fences and trees, or what have you?Timtimmuir@wcn.net

Electric Railroad 3D Models
Sumpter Valley B&B Gang
Willamette Valley Route
(No timetable for release)

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Looks like what I've got in my gantry.dat file..... My poles with the 00000001 setting all end up placed right down the center of the tracks with the arms running parallel to the rail.... Is this what you experience?JBD

Jim Duncan
Midwest Rail Group

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Yes, at first, sort of. I forgot to mention that your poles have to have their pivot point set at the distance you want your poles from the track centerline.

The autoplacement places items according to their pivot points right on the track centerline, so you have to have poles with their centers offset the distance you desire from the track.Timtimmuir@wcn.net

Electric Railroad 3D Models
Sumpter Valley B&B Gang
Willamette Valley Route
(No timetable for release)

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How do you set that up? Is this user-definable in the shape file? (the .s file)JBD

Jim Duncan
Midwest Rail Group

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You could try re-defining the X axis in Shape File Manager. Place the telephone pole you want to modify in a temp folder (to keep from messing up the original shape), and offset the X axis a couple of meters, depending how far off the track center line you want the poles to appear. A brief description of modifiying the shape's center is here:
http://www.msts-online.com/dcforum//DCForumID19/12.html

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What does one do when sfm does not work? I cannot get that program to work on my computer. Is there another program that does the same thing?
Mike

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I am not aware of another program that can shift a shape in MSTS regardless of the authoring program. Also, SFM will reverse a shape, but it cannot rotate the shape 90 degrees.On occasion, I've had a warning about a slow script, and that MS Internet Explorer was upset. So perhaps SFM requires IE to be installed. I do not know this for a fact.You could send the author of SFM a message, inquiring about failure of the program to run on your machine.
decapod@highworth.freeuk.com

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LAST EDITED ON Oct-07-03 AT 12:33 PM (EDT)

I am using ie6.x or whatever the latest version is, and am running windows xp. SFM just locks up, no messages or anything. from what I can tell by looking at a shape file that each point must be modified in the direction you want to move the shape. There is point(x.xxx, y.yyy, z.zzz) also the vol_sphere vector has 3 numbers as does the uv_point,and the vectors. Writing a program that modifies these numbers is not all that hard, I just need to know what numbers to modify.
Mike

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Perhaps someone ought to upload a set of telegraph poles specifically for Auto-Placement, with their axis to track center. The distances would have to be worked out tho. I've found that I've had to create poles for both sides of the track, and it would be beneficial to make some at differing distances from the centerline, for different layout circumstances. I would do this, but I'm inundated with other projects. Timtimmuir@wcn.net

Electric Railroad 3D Models
Sumpter Valley B&B Gang
Willamette Valley Route
(No timetable for release)

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Wouldn't using this autoplacement tend to make for a
lot of telegraph poles in yards?Lloyd

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Yes. That is why the Auto-Placement isn't perfect. Try to keep the auto-placing away from the blue tiles where yards are present, and just hand-place those poles where you want them. The auto placement of telegraph/phone poles is only good for single-track, basically. The program plops 'em down where-ever there's track, no matter what. I usually have to go back and remove about half of them too. then there's the problem of dynamic shadows, (if you use them), they have to be manually turned-on in the properties box, unless there's a way to make the gantry file to read Dynamic Shadows. Reference File entries are ignored as far as shadows are concerned, when using Auto-Placement.Timtimmuir@wcn.net

Electric Railroad 3D Models
Sumpter Valley B&B Gang
Willamette Valley Route
(No timetable for release)

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For a chuckle, I took one of Tim's poles, and placed it on the Marias Route with the auto-gantry feature, at Shelby. Without modification, the poles were placed on the track centers, on the single tracks, and placed between the two tracks on double track. The auto-gantry feature does get confused at switches, and makes it's "best guess". However, each pole can be moved individually, so it's no problem to correct the bad guess.
After modifying the poles in SFM, shifting the X axis by a factor of 6 (meters?), they ended up placing OK on both single and double track, with the expected confusion at switches. One thing I cannot explain is why it jumped from one side of the tracks to the other. It may have to do with the way the track pieces are oriented, that is, are they placed with the north end of the piece facing north, or were they turned around.
Surprisingly, they placed pretty well in the yard at Shelby. I've had instances where they were placed on every other track in a yard.
I have no idea why SFM does not work on an XP machine. I have W2K Pro, and it works OK for me.

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