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I'm new to route building, but have got a good start going. I'm trying to build road crossings at other than 90 angles so I can't use a level crossing. At least I haven't found any level crossings at other than 90 degrees. I also have a need to build crossings on curves.My question is, how to do I get the road sections to sit up high enough to cover the ties, but not the rail. At least that's what I think I need to do. I've tried rotating and moving with F3 and F4 but don't seem to get the result I want. Either the road floats up high and covers the track or is buried in the terrain.Thanks Mike
Hi Mike,usually, raising the roads to the proper altitude should do the trick. Easiest way is to start laying the road by placing a short road section on the track, where the crossing is going to be. Use F3 to raise it until just the railheads show over the asphalt, and use F4 plus the <- and -> arrows on your numerical keypad to rotate the road piece until it points into the right direction. You certainly know that rotating the road sideways is only possible until you attached another piece to the very first section of a given portion of road.If you already started laying the road and approach the track, use short 10m sections near the track to gradually raise the road to the (relatively narrow band of) height in which it just covers the ballast. It is almost impossible to get to the right setting if you try it with a 100m straight section of road, due to simple trigonometry...One remark though: If you had the additional road shapes from the package with dynamic shadows installed (newrds.zip, if my memory doesn't let me down), you need to use specifically designed sections for the portion of road that covers the ballast. Due to the way how dynamic shadows work in MSTS, the ballast will always show through the road when you use those with dynamic shadows enabled. The track pieces in question are available for most types of roads, they're always 5 metre straights with their filename ending in the letters _NA.s If you have newroads.zip (i.e. the package without dynamic shadows), then I suggest you still use the _NA shapes for the portion of road crossing over the ballast, to the benefit of users that have the roads with dynamic shadows installed on their system...Lukas a.k.a Swissie
Thanks Lukas. I thought that was what I needed to do, use F3. My problem is just how high? If the track altitude = 0, how high should the road be? I tried using F3, but can't seem to find the right altitude, I keep buring the road or have it floating high above, which is great for traffic , but sucks for the route.Mike
What I like to do is hold down the 'End' key to make the object move more slowly into the position that I want and I also like to use the 'End' key to move the camera view more slowly to get into a postition close to the track without over shooting and haveing to turn back or what have you. One more thing. Using this way of making a crossing can with making the road bed cover the ballest and not the rail can sometimes get tricky if you are crossing a track section at 1.050% grade or more.Hope thats might help you some what --DriftonClinch Valley DistrictRails = 100% Landscaping = 65% Scenery = 40% All Together = 40%
Drifton,With regard to a road crossing when the track has a steeper grade, whether you are using a crossing object or just a road piece, you can give the item the same grade by:1. Make sure that terrain has been adjusted to the track by clicking Y.2. Add the crossing piece and use F4 to give it the desired direction, ignoring its height for now. 3. Hit the "n" key which will align the crossing piece to the slope of the ground.4. Use F3 and up/down arrows to adjust its height to the track.The only problem is that adjacent road pieces that you attach to it will not align well because they will not have a slope. The visual problem can be minimized by using a longer road piece on the track, centered on the track, after at least temporarily adjusting terrain to a greater than normal width, so "n" will work as desired.
