Great model placement trick

[ObeOne]

This is a very handy trick for placing objects on ground boxes, that a lot of people overlook.

Placing objects on ground boxes can be a real pain. especially if the terrain below the ground boxes varies in altitude. The hard way to do it, is to individually tinker with the height of the object, until you get it just right. If you have quite a few models to set, this can take a long time.

Here's the easy way:

SAVE BEFORE DOING THIS!!!

First, choose EDIT>COPY TERRAIN BITMAP

Now, go to where your ground boxes are, and raise all of the terrain below the ground boxes, to the altitude of the top of your ground box/es. So if the top of your ground box is set to 100, then the terrain should be up to 100 too. Don't worry about screwing up the terrain below the ground boxes.

Next, set the models on the ground, like you would normally. (If you set a mass to them, if any trucks drive beneath them, the will fall through the ground boxes, so it's a good idea to set the mass to 0).

Now that you have the models all set how you want them, choose EDIT>PASTE TERRAIN BITMAP

If everything goes well, you'll have your models set perfectly on the ground boxes, and your terrain will be back to normal.

Hope this makes things easier

-=ObeOne=-

[Malibu350]

good idea Obe, i wish i had thought of it before i did my covered bridge that was over a concave surface where i had to set about 18 models on them dern boxes

one other note: you may want to verify in mtm that all the models are aligned just how you want before you restore the terrain, because if you move them after which they will drop back again...

[ObeOne]

Good Point

[Phineus]

Great tip, Obe. Thanks for sharing that with us

[Wint]

That is a great tip Obeone, thank you, well done. <img src=http://mtm2.com/~forum/pages/icons/icon6.gif>

I hope you won't think me a liar, but I have used that trick myself. And no, I wasn't keeping secrets, I hate secrets. <img src=http://mtm2.com/~forum/pages/icons/icon7.gif>

To expand on it's use, I'll paste something here that I wrote to someone while testing their track:


<I>A smaller problem exists with course segment #9, specifically the end of it. It is'supposed' to be up on the groundboxes but since that is not normally possible it rests on the terrain a hundred feet below. You may have noticed the computer trucks really slow down an abnormal amount at this corner (on the suspended groundboxes).

The solution:

There is a trick that I have developed, though it's no doubt been done before, like everything else, hehe. In your case the trick is to click "copy terrain as bitmap" on the edit menu, this places the entire terrain with all altitude data as a BMP on the clipboard.

(if you didn't know, this BMP is a greyscale image that 256 pixels by 256 pixels, and is 256 colors [altitude/depth], this matches the size of the 'grid and the 256 increments of height)

Once you copy your terrain, grab the groundbox tool and click your groundbox 'road' to see what the top value of the GB is. Then switch to the terrain tools and select the plane tool, set it to the height of your groundboxes and click around on your terrain until its all filled in where the groundboxes are (don't worry ;-). Next switch to the course tool, and drag the end of your course segment up onto the terrain you just raised, placing it where is 'should' go (be sure to do all courses). Once the end of the course segment is in place, click "paste terrain bitmap" and your terrain will be restored. And your course segment will stay put.


This copying the terrain in order to restore it is a very valuable trick. I am making great use of it right now in the placement of models which hang in the air, end to end above rough terrain. This alignment would be impossible if I didn't first flatten the entire area, place the models on the flat ground, arrange them, raise them straight up, and THEN paste my terrain back in to restore it! For this kind of work I hold the bitmap image in a paint program so I don't lose it from the clipboard.</I>

[ObeOne]

Hey that's awesome Winterkill I never thought of that.

[Phineus]

If you're confident about the height of your ground boxes, a small time saving shortcut is to raise the terrain all in one go using the plain tool, place your objects, then use undo to restore the former elevation. I say confident because you only have one level of undo. But it is a very safe level because when you switch editing modes, traxx will hold it for you until you return to altitude mode for the undo. And, even if you do slip up, you can always close the track without saving and try again. I mention this because I don't usually trust windows memory so I open psp to store the open bitmap. Undo doesn't require the second program, saves a few mouse clicks, and, once you get the hang of it, it really is quick and easy.