The TsTools Manual

Version 2.00

Copyright TsTools © 2002

TsTools Help

Copyright TsTools © 2002

All rights reserved. No parts of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means - graphic, electronic, or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems - without the
written permission of the publisher.

Products that are referred to in this document may be either trademarks and/or registered trademarks of the
respective owners. The publisher and the author make no claim to these trademarks.

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this document, the publisher and the author assume no
responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of information contained in this
document or from the use of programs and source code that may accompany it. In no event shall the publisher and
the author be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage caused or alleged to have been caused
directly or indirectly by this document.

Printed: April 2002

 Contents 1

Table of Contents
1 Introduction 4
1 About This...................................................................................................................................
Help File 4
2 Welcome ................................................................................................................................... 4
3 Why TsTools?
................................................................................................................................... 4
4 Additional...................................................................................................................................
Support 4

2 Overview 5
1 Features ................................................................................................................................... 5
2 What's New
................................................................................................................................... 5
3 Limitations...................................................................................................................................
Of Free Version 6
4 What It Does
................................................................................................................................... 6
5 Quick Start...................................................................................................................................
Guide 7

3 How Do I? 8
1 Add New tiles
...................................................................................................................................
to a Route 8
2 Adjust Tile...................................................................................................................................
Properties 9
3 Change The
...................................................................................................................................
Sampling Area 9
4 Change What
...................................................................................................................................
I See 10
5 Create a Marker
...................................................................................................................................
File 11
6 Create A Route
................................................................................................................................... 11
7 Create A Series
...................................................................................................................................
of Similar Marker Posts 12
8 Deal with...................................................................................................................................
a break in a Gradient 13
9 Delete a Contour
................................................................................................................................... 14
10 Delete A Map
................................................................................................................................... 14
11 Delete a Marker
...................................................................................................................................
Post 14
12 Draw a Contour
................................................................................................................................... 14
13 Draw a Line
................................................................................................................................... 14
14 Edit a Contour
................................................................................................................................... 15
15 Edit a Marker
...................................................................................................................................
Post 15
16 Finish Drawing
...................................................................................................................................
a Contour 15
17 Import a DEM
...................................................................................................................................
File 16
18 Keyboard...................................................................................................................................
Shortcuts 17
19 Learn More
...................................................................................................................................
About a Subject 18
20 Load A Map
................................................................................................................................... 18
21 Load A Map
...................................................................................................................................
Using Free Placement 19
22 Load a Map
...................................................................................................................................
Using Height & Width 19
23 Load a Map
...................................................................................................................................
Using Metres / Pixel 20
24 Load A Route
................................................................................................................................... 21
25 Place a Marker
...................................................................................................................................
Post 22
26 Prepare A...................................................................................................................................
Map 22

Copyright TsTools © 2002

I
2 TsTools Help

27 Read Grid...................................................................................................................................
References 22
28 Save a Route
................................................................................................................................... 23
29 Scale A Map
...................................................................................................................................
Using Free Scaling 24
30 Select a Contour
................................................................................................................................... 24
31 Select A Map
................................................................................................................................... 24
32 Select a Marker
...................................................................................................................................
Post 25
33 Terraform...................................................................................................................................
Selected Tiles 25
34 Zoom In &
...................................................................................................................................
Out 27
35 Use the Track
...................................................................................................................................
Profiler 27
Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................... 27
When To Use .......................................................................................................................................................... 29
Using The Track Profiler
.......................................................................................................................................................... 29
Working with Track..........................................................................................................................................................
Profiler 29
Crafting The Landscape
.......................................................................................................................................................... 31
Laying Track .......................................................................................................................................................... 32

4 Tutorial 32
1 Introduction
................................................................................................................................... 32
Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................... 32
What You Will Need
.......................................................................................................................................................... 32
How To Prepare A Map
.......................................................................................................................................................... 33
2 Route Geography
...................................................................................................................................
Extractor 33
Route Geography Extractor
.......................................................................................................................................................... 33
Opening .......................................................................................................................................................... 33
Create New Route .......................................................................................................................................................... 34
Selecting Area .......................................................................................................................................................... 35
Finding The Right tiles
.......................................................................................................................................................... 35
Minimise Quad Tree .......................................................................................................................................................... 37
Set Route Start Tile.......................................................................................................................................................... 37
Generate Tiles .......................................................................................................................................................... 38
Route Editor .......................................................................................................................................................... 38
3 TsTools ................................................................................................................................... 39
Starting .......................................................................................................................................................... 39
The Main Window .......................................................................................................................................................... 40
Opening Route .......................................................................................................................................................... 41
Zooming In and Out.......................................................................................................................................................... 42
Setting The Sample..........................................................................................................................................................
Area 43
Loading The Map .......................................................................................................................................................... 46
Registering The Map
.......................................................................................................................................................... 46
Setting The Global..........................................................................................................................................................
Defaults For Markers 48
Entering The Marker
..........................................................................................................................................................
Points 48
Tracing The Contours
.......................................................................................................................................................... 49
Generating a DEM ..........................................................................................................................................................
File 51
Terraforming the Route
.......................................................................................................................................................... 52
Over To You .......................................................................................................................................................... 53

5 Glossary 53
1 Back-Up Route
...................................................................................................................................
Files 53
2 DEM Files................................................................................................................................... 54
3 Dialog Box
................................................................................................................................... 54
4 Projection................................................................................................................................... 54

Copyright TsTools © 2002

 Contents 3

5 Quad Trees
................................................................................................................................... 54
6 Registering
...................................................................................................................................
A Map 54
7 Route Editor
................................................................................................................................... 54
8 Route Geography
...................................................................................................................................
Extractor 55
9 Track TsT...................................................................................................................................
Changes 55

6 Technical Library 55
1 Contours................................................................................................................................... 55
2 Co-Ordinates
................................................................................................................................... 56
3 Creating Topography
...................................................................................................................................
in Tiles 56
4 Generating
...................................................................................................................................
the TsTools DEM 57
5 Creating Tile
...................................................................................................................................
Altitude Data Output 60
6 Differences
...................................................................................................................................
Between a Map and a Route 62
7 Grids ................................................................................................................................... 62
8 Projections
................................................................................................................................... 63
9 Sampling...................................................................................................................................
Area 65
10 Setting Map
...................................................................................................................................
Properties 67
11 Specifying
...................................................................................................................................
Contour Sampling Parameters 72
12 Terraforming
................................................................................................................................... 73
13 Tile Properties
................................................................................................................................... 74
14 Topographical
...................................................................................................................................
Data Formats 75

7 Acknowledgements 76
1 Acknowledgements
................................................................................................................................... 76

Index 77

Copyright TsTools © 2002

III
 4 TsTools Help

1 Introduction

1.1 About This Help File

Help File Version 1.25

This help file has been designed to try and cater for the needs of both the novices and the
experienced route builders. There are now three sections as follows:-

1. How Do I - provides quick access to help you get on with what you are trying to do. It
does not go into great detail, although there will be links to articles from other sections that
will give you more detail should you require it, or just get side-tracked.
2. Tutorial - this section will hold your hand whilst taking you through the creation of your
first route. It includes a section on how to use the MS Route Geometry Extractor.
3. Technical Library - this section is for those of you who really want to get into the nitty-
gritty of what is going on and explains in concise details the various aspects of TsTools.

1.2 Welcome
Thank you for choosing TsTools as your route terraforming program. Using this program, it is hoped,
will turn your route building experience into a pleasant one. TsTools is constantly under development
as the author responds to new requests from users, so please remember to check the UK TrainSim
forums and the TsTools website for new upgrades.

Please note that any references to Ordnance Survey (OS) Maps are purely for clarity and
assume that the user is referring to OS maps that are more than fifty years old and therefore
out of copyright.

1.3 Why TsTools?

TsTools began life as a collection of small tools that the author had built in order to overcome some
of the inadequacies of the MSTS Editors. One day a marker placement tool would be created and on
another day it might be a tool for viewing route tiles more easily. After a few months, with tools
littered all over the place the TsTools team decided to bring them all together into one package, and
hence, TsTools was born.

The philosophy driving the development of TsTools is that it should make it easy for anyone to
produce or modify a route. Route builders should not have to concern themselves with the mechanics
of shifting and bending the landscapes of their routes. Instead they should be able to concentrate on
the artistic side of their work.

It is the aim of the TsTools developers to provide a swift response to users needs. Most problems
can be solved within 24 hours either through the forums, email support or even writing a modification
to the code.

TsTools is constantly under revision and development as new tools are added in response to users
requests. It is the feedback from the users that helps provide the new ideas of what to include in the
program. If you are a registered user and would like to see a new function included in future versions
of TsTools, then please email [email protected] with your suggestions.

1.4 Additional Support

If you are unable to find the answers to your questions, additional support can be obtained in any one
of the following options:-

· The TsTools Forum at UKTrainSim

· The TsTools Users Forum at the TsTools Website

Copyright TsTools © 2002

 Introduction 5

· The Frequently Asked Questions on the TsTools Website

· By emailing the support staff at [email protected]

2 Overview

2.1 Features
The list of features continues to grow with each new release of TsTools. With the release of Version
1.25 the Pro Edition features are as follows:-

· Route Development in a map style overhead view

· Generation of terrain from User-Drawn contours
· Allows the drawing of an unlimited number of contours (restrictions apply to Free and
Standard Editions)
· Generation of terrain from imported and TsTools DEM data
· Projection of Route Map in National Grid, Lat/Lon and MSTS Formats
· Supports the import of background images and maps during design
· Supports the use of multiple maps
· Registering of maps using Grid References, Lat/Lon or free placement and scaling
· Automatic placement of Gradient Posts
· Ability to view and place Milepost markers
· Allows entry of gradient profiles to create trackbeds, rivers and roads
· Automatic creation of cuttings and embankments
· Easy access to tile properties
· Automatic backup of MSTS Routes
· Reads Route information from MSTS Route folders
· Ability to create, modify and read Marker files
· Unlimited number of Markers permitted (restrictions apply to Free and Standard Editions)
· Displays Track already present in the route
· Supports short and incomplete contours for creating ridges and valleys
· Merges contour and DEM data into one terrain
· Modifies route tiles using elevation data - Terraforming
· Trackbed Profiler Tool allows creation of Trackbeds based on Gradient Profile information

2.2 What's New

Functions added since Version 1.1

· Track Profiler - Generates a narrow strip of land at the correct elevation for tracks, road, rivers
and cliffs etc.
· Free Placement of Maps
· Free Scaling of Maps

Bugs Fixed since Version 1.1

· Windows XP wouldn't recognise Help File

· Loaded Background Bitmaps were off-centre when first loaded
· Save Button not working
· Improved Map Zooming

Known Bugs

Copyright TsTools © 2002

 6 TsTools Help

· When viewing the DEM Image as a background, contours and background become un-
synchronised at zoom factors higher than 2 .5 metres per pixel. This does not affect the route in
any way and zooming out resets the contours and background image correctly.

2.3 Limitations Of Free Version

TsTools is NOT Shareware. Whilst there are a lot of very good tools and add-ons available in the
freeware and shareware market, the amount of work and time that the programmers have put into
building TsTools has left them with little option but to try to recoup some of the costs by charging for
the product. At the end of the day, it's your choice – if you like the product, then perhaps you'll invest
in it. All of the proceeds from sales of TsTools will be used to recoup the costs already incurred during
development and to help finance future enhancements – and there is a long list of things to be
included in future releases.

For those reasons, we hope that you will enjoy using TsTools and consider it worthwhile investing in
the full licenced version.

The FREE version allows you all the functionality of the full version but limits the amount of work you
can do. For example, you can create contours, generate height data and apply this to terraform up to
eight tiles in your route. This will give you a realistic feel of what TsTools can do for you.

Purchase of the full version guarantees you access to all the new features and updates as they are
released, free of charge and substantial discounts on future major releases of TsTools.

For information about availability and pricing of the Full Version of TsTools, please see our
TsTools Website or email us at [email protected] .
Upgrading from the Free to the Pro version to receive the full functionality costs just US$29.95 (as at
April 2002 – but please check with us for the latest information). See the details at our website.

Registered users of the full version will also receive periodic status reports on further development
and good value upgrade prices to any new versions as they become available.

Thanks for your support.

Dave Charles

2.4 What It Does

TsTools is not intended as a replacement for the Editors and Tools supplied with MSTS, but rather as
an enhancement to make it easier to perform some of the tasks which are not possible, or can be
complex to carry out in the Route Editor.

As such, there are a number of tasks which are still best carried out in the Route Editor, and these are
not duplicated in TsTools. Before jumping into route editing with TsTools, it is best to familiarise
yourself with which tasks are best carried out with which tool. The following table lists a number of
tasks which you might want to perform and the best approach to achieving them. The section
Steps to Route Creation, discusses each of these processes in detail in the form of a recommended
procedure for creating a route from scratch.

Copyright TsTools © 2002

 Overview 7

2.5 Quick Start Guide

Quick Start Guide

1. o Open MS Route Geometry Extractor

2. o Click File - New (or Open)
3. o Click - File - New Quad Tree (or Load Quad Tree)
4. o Right-click on area of your route and select Zoom Region in
twice
5. o Right-click on area of your route and select Zoom Window in
three times
6. o Drag out area to cover your route and right-click and
select Add Selected Tiles

Copyright TsTools © 2002

 8 TsTools Help

7. o Right-click again and select Toggle Populated State

8. o Manually remove any tiles you do not require
9. o Click on a square you want as your start tile and right-
click to select Select Route Start Tile
10. o Click Edit - Minimise Quad Tree
11. o Click file - Save
12. o Click Edit - Generate Flagged Tiles
13. o Click File - Save
14. o Click File - Exit
15. o Open TsTools
16. o Click File - Open MSTS Route
17. o Select the route you have just created (Opened)
18. o Click Map - Background Bitmap and load your map image
19. o Click the Contour button and trace out your contours
20. o Click the Marker button and plot out your railway line
21. o Click Terraform - Contour Sampling Parameters and set the
sampling area to just cover your contoured map
22. o Click File - Save
23. o Click Terraform - Generate Altitude Data
24. o Click Terraform - Terraform
25. o Press F4 to clear the World Tiles Display
26. o Reload your map image if it is not visible
27. o Zoom in so that you can see that start of your Railway Line

28. o Click the Lay trackbed button and plot out the line of
the railway track

29. o Click the Select Trackbed button and click near one of
the blue dots on your trackbed line
30. o Right-click anywhere to go to the Track Profiler window
31. o Right-click to enter as many Gradient Posts as you need to
enter the Gradient Profile for this track
32. o Right-click and select Cut Trackbed
33. o Close the Track Profiler Window
34. o Click file - Save
35. o Click File - Exit
36. o Open MS Route Editor and complete your route:)

3 How Do I?

3.1 Add New tiles to a Route

Add New Tiles to a Route

Copyright TsTools © 2002

 How Do I? 9

You can add new tiles to your route by using the MS Route Geometry Extractor. Once you completed
adding your new tiles,

Click File - Open MSTS Route or Click the Open MSTS Route button making sure that Track
TsT Changes is checked. This will make sure that you keep all your existing setting for the route,
contours etc. as well as bringing in the new tiles.

3.2 Adjust Tile Properties

Adjust tile Properties

TsTools provides easier access to the Route Tile properties. To adjust any of the tile properties first...

Click on the Select tile button .

Click on the tile you wish to alter. The outline of the tile will turn green to indicate that it has
been selected.
Right-click anywhere to access the Tile Properties dialog Box

Then select one of the following links for more detail of each property you can adjust.

Tile Name Row and Column

Water Levels
Altitudes
Floor Ceiling Resolutions

3.3 Change The Sampling Area

To Change the Sample Area

Click Terraform - Contour Sampling Parameters

Copyright TsTools © 2002

 10 TsTools Help

This dialog box is divided into three sections. To change the value in any section,
Click the Edit button in that section. Once you have entered the value you require, click Re-Calculate.
Values in the other boxes may change to reflect the effect of the new values.

When you have finished, click Accept

See Also - Sampling Area

3.4 Change What I See

TsTools Map Layers

Click Map - View

The TsTools Map is divided into layers, each of which can be enabled or disabled, so that you can
choose to display only the features that you need to see at any given time. Layers are drawn in the
following order (later layers being drawn over the top of previous ones).

You can change the layers view from the Menu Bar by clicking Map - View and choosing one or more
of the following layers.

1. Background : (F1) the currently loaded background*.

2. Lat/Lon Grid: (F2) the Lat/Lon Grid
3. Projected Grid: (F3) the projected grid
4. Tiles: (F4) the world tiles in this route
5. Track: (F5) a representation of the track as stored in the route
files.
6. Guide Drawings: (F6) the lines and polygons drawn by the user.
7. Contours (F7) the contours drawn by the user
8. Markers: (F8) all Markers which will be written to the mkr file when
the map is saved.
9. Sample Area: (F9) the boundary of the currently defined contour sample
area and any loaded DEM data

Copyright TsTools © 2002

 How Do I? 11

* This is always displayed as a bitmap image, regardless of whether it was loaded from a bitmap or
topographical data. Note that bitmaps are not displayed in the default projection.

3.5 Create a Marker File

Creating Marker Files

A Marker file is automatically created in your route folder once you have placed at least one marker
post and saved your work in TsTools.

3.6 Create A Route

Create a new Route

Use the MS Route Geometry Extractor Tool to generate the directory structure and initial files for the
new route.

Create/Amend Route Topography

It is a good idea to create the topography for each section of a route before adding any track or other
objects - for the simple reason that you will need to adjust the objects to sit correctly on the ground if
the topography changes after placing them. This does not necessarily mean that you need to create
the topography for the whole route before proceeding – you might decide to begin with a few tiles and
then later move onto the next section.

The TsTools Terraform functions can be used to generate topography in the MSTS tiles from a
number of sources including DEM data files or contours which you can draw on the map yourself.

Amend Individual Tile Features (water level, etc.)

This can be done either in the Route Editor or in TsTools. Water levels are set at sea level by
TsTools for each tile when it is terraformed, but this and other tile properties can be amended for all
tiles at a global default level, and overridden at individual tile level.

Update Lighting Normals and Geometry Error Thresholds

Lighting normals and Geometry Error data need to be updated if the topography changes. TsTools
does not update these data automatically, but when a tile is updated TsTools removes the existing
Normal and Error data for that tile. This causes MSTS to rebuild this data when the route is next
loaded either in the Route Editor or in the game itself.

Plan Route / Layout Guide Drawings

TsTools provides a number of powerful features to enable you to visualise exactly where each feature
of your route needs to be placed. After creating the topography, you may choose to display the map
in a different projection to help you more accurately plan out the location of the various features you
want to add.
When you load a route into TsTools, you have the option to display it exactly as it would appear in a
Transverse Mercator projection, and you also have the option to input the parameters for the
projection, giving you the possibility to display it exactly as it appears in published maps of the area.

By default, the custom projection parameters in TsTools are set to the values defined by the UK
National Grid, so with no work at all you can display your map with the grid co-ordinates and overlay
found on many maps of the UK.
It is also possible to import bitmap files as a background, and position these exactly based on grid or
lat/lon co-ordinates.

You can also choose to import DEM data and convert that into a bitmap background to help you

Copyright TsTools © 2002

 12 TsTools Help

visualise the topography of the area while you are planning out the features.

Whether or not you choose to use these visual aids, TsTools provides drawing tools with which you
can draft out the position of track, roads and other features

Extend Route/Add Tiles

You may discover, after drafting out some of the route features, that you need to add some more tiles
to your route. If so, simply reload the route into the Route Geometry Extractor and add the tiles as
normal. When you next open the route in TsTools, these new tiles will be shown as not yet
terraformed.

Add/Remove Markers

Once your terrain is terraformed and you have planned out in TsTools the guides for positioning the
features, you can place markers at strategic points of your design, so that you can see at a glance in
the Route Editor, where your features need to be placed.
Marker files for the Route editor are regenerated every time you save the TsTools map for the route,
so you can create some markers, save the map, work with the markers in the route Editor, reload into
TsTools, delete the markers, place some new ones for another set of features and so on.

Add/Remove Track or other objects

The Route Editor already contains an excellent set of tools for placing and editing track, roads and
other features. Once you have planned the route in TsTools and laid down some markers, open the
route in the Route Editor and use the markers as a guide for placing your features.

Examine Object properties

This can be done in the Route Editor. TsTools will add the functionality to view and place 3D objects
in release 2.

The above steps provide the basis for creating and developing a route using TsTools alongside the
provided tools, as you work with TsTools you should get a feel for the best way of achieving the result
you want.

Note: It is always a good idea to back up the route files before editing – either with TsTools or the
route editor. That way you can always get your route back, if the editing operations didn't do quite
what you were expecting.

3.7 Create A Series of Similar Marker Posts

Setting Default Text for Marker Files

Click Map - Preferences - Objects

Copyright TsTools © 2002

 How Do I? 13

Here you can set both the text and the type of markers placed. Use this dialog if you wish to lay out
your main line then come back and change the values to start another branch line with different text
or type of marker posts.

3.8 Deal with a break in a Gradient

Dealing with breaks in Gradient Profiles

Many Gradient Profiles cover routes that are longer than will fit continuously on one page so you end
up with something like the picture below where the gradient is split into two lines.

Where this occurs, as in this example, you can either;

1. Insert a gradient post at 214 miles with a gradient of -78 and another at 213.5 miles also with
a gradient of -78, or
2. Forget about the gradient post at 214 miles and just insert one at 213.5 with a gradient of -78

Copyright TsTools © 2002

 14 TsTools Help

This is because the program is using gradients rather than actual height in this case, therefore it will
calculate the correct height given only the correct overall distance and the gradient for that section.

3.9 Delete a Contour

Deleting a contour

Providing that a contour has been selected, i.e. it is highlighted in green, you may delete it using the
DEL key.

See Also Select a Contour, Draw a Contour

3.10 Delete A Map

Delete a Map

If you have not already selected the image you wish to delete,

Click the Select Free Image button

A purple line will surround the image that your mouse cursor is placed over. When you have the
correct map/image highlighted in this manner, a left click will select it and the outline will
turn green to indicate that it is the current selection.

To delete the image, click the Delete Image button

3.11 Delete a Marker Post

Deleting a Marker Post

Click the button then click on the marker post you want to change. Once selected it will turn
green.

Pressing the DEL key will delete the selected marker post.

See Also Select a Marker Post, Edit a Marker Post

3.12 Draw a Contour

To Draw a Contour

Click the button

Click at the start of a contour to place the first point. A line will now be connected to the cursor to
show the line of the contour. Clicking again will anchor the next point and so on until you have
reached the end of the contour.

See Also Finish A Contour, Zooming & Scrolling

3.13 Draw a Line

Drawing Tool

Select the drawing tool and then left click at each point you want to place a vertex. Once you have
placed all the points for the line, right click and the line is added to the map.

Copyright TsTools © 2002

 How Do I? 15

The guide drawings can be used to give a better visual reference for placing, for instance, Markers
which can be used to aid object positioning in the Route Editor.

3.14 Edit a Contour

To Change the value of a Contour

Click the button and click on the contour

Once a contour has been selected, it will turn green
Press the DEL key to delete the contour or right-click to bring up the option dialog to change the
height of the contour

See Also Sampling Area

3.15 Edit a Marker Post

To Edit a Marker Post

Click the button then click on the marker post you want to change. Once selected it will turn
green.

To Delete, press the DEL key

To alter the Text or Type, right-click to bring up the options dialog box.

Here you can set both the text and the type of the selected marker post.

3.16 Finish Drawing a Contour

To Finish a Contour Line

Right-click for a dialog box requesting the height of the contour just drawn. If it is a continuous
contour you can click on the check box to indicate this.

If you have finished drawing all the contours you want, then click on any other button to de-select the
contour drawing mode.

See Also Select a Contour, Draw a Contour

Copyright TsTools © 2002

 16 TsTools Help

3.17 Import a DEM File

Importing Topographic Data Files

Click Terraform - Import Data

To import a topographic data file into your TsTools map, select Import Data from the Terraform
menu.

A file selector is displayed. You can use the file types box to select the type of data that you want to
import - see Topographical Data Formats for information on the various data types which are
currently supported, and how to prepare and use them.

Once you have selected your data source and clicked OK, a dialog will appear to show you the
progress as the data is imported. If the data is successfully imported, a box will pop up showing the
details of the imported file. Click OK and a DEM area will be drawn on your map to indicate the
coverage.

Copyright TsTools © 2002

 How Do I? 17

You can repeat this process for as many data sources as you wish to add to the map.
Once data has been imported it is stored in the TsTools map ready to be used in step 2 of the
terraforming process. If the map is saved, the data will be saved with it, so you will not need to import
it again.

See Also Obtaining Raw Data, Generating a TsTools DEM File

3.18 Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key(s) Action
F1 Toggle display of Background Image
F2 Toggle display of Latitude / Longitude Grid
F3 Toggle display of Projected Grid
F4 Toggle display of World Tiles
F5 Toggle display of track already laid in route
F6 Toggle display of User Drawings
F7 Toggle display of user drawn contours
F8 Toggle display of markers
F9 Toggle display of Sample Area
F10
F11 Zoom Out in Map view
F12 Zoom In in Map view

Copyright TsTools © 2002

 18 TsTools Help

3.19 Learn More About a Subject

If you want to learn more about the various functions and facilities that TsTools offers, you should
have a look at the Technical Library Section, or click on one of the links below.

Co-Ordinates
Projections
Sampling Area
Terraforming
Setting Map Properties
Generating DEM Files
Creating Altitude Data
Specifying Contours
Contours
Topographical Data

3.20 Load A Map

To Load a Map

Click Map - Background Bitmap - From Image

Click the Ellipsis button to browse to locate the map image. Then enter the grid line
values that you previously noted down.
Click Load

The TsTools default setting for the Map Parameters is for locations based in the United Kingdom and
for maps using the UK National Grid system. This places the Prime Meridian at -2 degrees to give a
reasonably accurate projection across the United Kingdom. Users from other parts of the world
should change the Map Parameters to suit the map/area they are working in.

Note: If your map does not appear immediately, Click Map - Projection - User Default

Copyright TsTools © 2002

 How Do I? 19

See Also Projections, Co-Ordinates, Setting Map Properties, Read Grid References

3.21 Load A Map Using Free Placement

Load a Map Using Free Placement

Click Map - Background Bitmap - Free Placement

Click on the Ellipsis button to browse to the location of the map image you require.
Selecting to Scale Manually after Import removes the text boxes.

Click the Load button to bring the map image into TsTools.

The TsTools default setting for the Map Parameters is for locations based in the United Kingdom and
for maps using the UK National Grid system. This places the Prime Meridian at -2 degrees to give a
reasonably accurate projection across the United Kingdom. Users from other parts of the world
should change the Map Parameters to suit the map/area they are working in.

See Also Scale A Map Using Free Scaling

3.22 Load a Map Using Height & Width

Load a Map Using Height & Width

Click Map - Background Bitmap - Free Placement

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Click on the Ellipsis button to browse to the location of the map image you require.
Selecting to Scale Manually after Import removes the text boxes.

Enter the Height in metres and the width in metres that your map image represents in the real world,
e.g. if your map has 1 km grid squares and has 4 squares across and two squares vertically, you
would need to enter a Height of 4000.0 and a Width of 2000.0

Click the Load button to bring the map image into TsTools.

The TsTools default setting for the Map Parameters is for locations based in the United Kingdom and
for maps using the UK National Grid system. This places the Prime Meridian at -2 degrees to give a
reasonably accurate projection across the United Kingdom. Users from other parts of the world
should change the Map Parameters to suit the map/area they are working in.

See Also Scale A Map Using Free Scaling , Load a Map Using Metres / Pixel

3.23 Load a Map Using Metres / Pixel

Load a Map Using Metres/Pixel

Click Map - Background Bitmap - Free Placement

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Click on the Ellipsis button to browse to the location of the map image you require.
Selecting to Scale Manually after Import removes the text boxes.

Enter the value in real world metres that each pixel on your map image represents.

Click the Load button to bring the map image into TsTools.

The TsTools default setting for the Map Parameters is for locations based in the United Kingdom and
for maps using the UK National Grid system. This places the Prime Meridian at -2 degrees to give a
reasonably accurate projection across the United Kingdom. Users from other parts of the world
should change the Map Parameters to suit the map/area they are working in.

See Also Scale A Map Using Free Scaling , Load a Map Using Height & Width

3.24 Load A Route

Loading a Route

Click File - Open MSTS Route

To load an existing route, select Load MSTS Route from the file menu and select the route which you
wish to work on.

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By default, the checkbox "Track TsT Changes" is checked. If you want to treat the route as new to
TsTools, regardless of any work you have already done on it, then uncheck this box.

When you work on a route in TsTools and save it, a record is kept of changes that
have been made. For instance, which tiles have already been terraformed by
TsTools. This information is useful if, for instance you have already terraformed a
number of tiles and only want to process in this session those that have not already
been marked as complete. By checking the box "Track TsT Changes" when the route
is opened, this information is imported and, using the above example, tiles which
have already been terraformed by TsTools are shown as such in the Map Window.
Any changes made to the route outside of TsTools (for example, additional tiles
added in the RGE, or track changes in the RE) are still imported and the TsTools
map information is updated accordingly.
If you prefer to simply read the route as a new TsTools map, then uncheck the box.

The checkbox "Back-up Existing Tiles" is also selected by default. This will cause TsTools to make a
backup of the Tiles directory for this route before loading it. You might want to uncheck this box if you
already have a backup of the route and have not yet tested any recent changes you have made.
TsTools will only keep one backup of any route, so each time you load a route with this option
selected, any existing TsTools backup of this route will be overwritten.

Click OK.

If the route is fresh from the Route Geometry Extractor, TsTools needs to add some extra information
to the files which would normally be added on a tile by tile basis when saving from the Route Editor. It
will, therefore, take a bit longer to open the route the first time it is opened than on subsequent loads.

3.25 Place a Marker Post

To Place a Marker Post

Click the Marker button

Each time you click on the map you will create a marker post

See Also Select a Marker Post, Delete a Marker Post, Edit a Marker Post, Zooming In & Out

3.26 Prepare A Map

Preparing a Map

Before you can use a map in TsTools it needs to be in a format that TsTools recognises, i.e. BMP,
JPG or GIF. Your map image must have sides that run parallel to the grid lines for the projection you
wish to use. remember to note down the Top, Bottom, Left and Right grid line values or the Top Left
and Bottom Right Latitude and Longitude values. It is recommended that you crop or trim your image
to the grid lines to permit easier registration later.

See Also Projections, Co-Ordinates, Setting Map Properties, Read Grid References

3.27 Read Grid References

Read Grid References

Grid References are large numbers representing the number of metres from one point on the earth's
circumference. Modern UK maps have grid lines at every 1km or 1,000 metres.

Partial Grid References are repeated across the map usually on the round number grid lines. See the

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picture below, which shows an extract from an old map.

On this picture, we will assume that the blue square is the piece of map that you want to load into
TsTools and register. Notice that there are two sets of figures, one running upwards from 63 to 69 and
increasing as you go northwards, the other going eastwards from 48 to 53 and increasing as you
move eastwards.

To register the small map in TsTools we need to read off the Top, Bottom, Left and Right Grid
References for the box outlined in blue. The top line is in line with the number 66 on the left-hand side
of the map. The full six-figure Grid Reference for this line is 266000. The extra "2" is picked up from
the bottom-left corner of the map and you must always check what the first figure is. It is usually
printed in small characters in this part of a map.

The same applies for the figures running eastwards. There is a small "2" in front of the first number
shown. Therefore the Grid Reference for the left-hand line of the small map is 250000.

If you are using a map that is not trimmed to the grid lines you will need to estimate the Grid
References bearing in mind that there are 1,000 possible divisions in a 1 km line.

The values you would place in the boxes for TsTools are:

Top 266000
Bottom 264000
Left 250000
Right 252000

3.28 Save a Route

Saving a Route

A MSTS Route consists of many files, spread across a number of folders and a number of these are
written during execution by specific TsTools tasks. For instance, a terraforming operation in TsTools
will cause the files for the generated tiles to be written to disk as they are calculated so, theoretically,
no save is necessary. However, the TsTools map itself will only be saved if you specifically select
Save, or Save As from the File Menu. You will need to save the TsTools map in order to save your
user drawings etc. and also to keep track of which tiles have already been terraformed by TsTools.
You will also need to save the map in order to generate the marker file.

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Note: Tiles and Marker Files are written directly to the original MSTS route directories, so that the
route is ready to use in MSTS or to load into the Route Editor immediately after working with it in
TsTools. To prevent files from being overwritten which you may have wanted to keep, a complete
back up of the Tiles directory from the MSTS route is made when the route is loaded if you select
'Backup Existing Tiles' from the select route dialog.

If you select Save As ... and save the map with a filename other than the folder name
of the MSTS route, or if you save it in a different directory from the TsTools default
map location, it will not be automatically loaded when you load the route. The
resulting map can still be loaded using the Load Map selection from the File menu,
but it will no longer have any association to an MSTS route. This procedure is useful
if you want simply to use a route to create a map for laying out plans or
experimenting with the tools, or to create a backup of a map. To allow such a map to
be associated with the route again, it must be renamed to reflect the route folder
name and saved in the TsTools default map location

See Also Load A Route

3.29 Scale A Map Using Free Scaling

Scale a Map Using Free Scaling

Click the Select Map button

Select the map image that you wish to scale. Once selected the map image will have a green border.
You will need to be able to see the bottom-right corner of your map image if you wish to use Scale by
Dragging. If you are not able to see the bottom-right corner because the image fills the window, click

the Move Image button to shift the image till you can see the bottom-right corner.

In order to scale the map, you have two options, either

1. Click the Scale by Points button. If you are using a map with 1 km grid lines, click first
on one grid line, then a second click on an adjacent grid line. Enter 1000.0 in the dialog box
that pops up.

2. Click the Scale by Dragging button. Move your cursor over the bottom-right corner of
the green outline and the cursor will change to sizing arrow. Click and drag the corner in to
scale the image as much as you need. You may need to reposition the map using the Move

Map button. Tip: You may find it easier to position the top-left corner in the correct
position first.

3.30 Select a Contour

To Select a Contour

Click the Select Object button

Click anywhere along the line of the contour. You may need to try a few places along the line of the
contour to find a recognised point on the contour. Once selected the contour line will turn green
indicating that it has been selected.

Seel Also Draw a Contour, Edit a Contour, Delete a Contour

3.31 Select A Map

Select a Map

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Click the Select Free Image button

A purple line will surround the image that your mouse cursor is placed over. When you have the
correct map/image highlighted in this manner, a left click will select it and the outline will
turn green to indicate that it is the current selection.

See Also Load a Map, Delete a Map

3.32 Select a Marker Post

To Select a Marker Post

Click the button then click on the marker post you want to change. Once selected it will turn
green.

See Also Place a Marker Post, Delete a Marker Post, Edit a Marker Post

3.33 Terraform Selected Tiles

Terraform Selected Tiles

Before you can select individual tiles to re-terraform, you must have terraformed the route first. If you
then wish to add some contours or modify some heights, you can select individual tiles to terraform
without affecting any other previously terraformed tiles.

Make sure that you can see the route tiles by pressing F4

Tiles outside the Sampling Area cannot be selected for terraforming. See the section on
Setting the Sampling Area for details on how to change the sampling area.

Click the Select Tile button and click on the tile you wish to re-terraform.

Once the correct tile is selected, Press the DEL key

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Click OK to confirm

Click on the tile again to reselect

Click Terraform - Terraform

Click the Selected Tiles Option before clicking OK

If the Selected Tile option is greyed out like so...

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You have forgotten to select your tile. Click Cancel and re-select your tile.

Click OK to terraform your tile.

3.34 Zoom In & Out

Zooming and Scrolling

To zoom in on a particular part of the map, select the zoom tool and click with the left mouse button
on the area you would like to centre the zoomed view on. To zoom out use the right mouse button.

The Zoom button will only work during the Trackbed Plotting operation. You may, however, still
use the F11 and F12 keys to zoom out and in respectively whilst working on other operations. When
working with contours though, the map is more difficult to centre on the area you are working on if you
are working at the lower zoom factors.

It is not possible to zoom in infinitely without limiting the area of the map around which you may
scroll. The larger your map, the sooner the bounds of the map will have to be trimmed to zoom
further in. Depending upon how large the physical map display has become, you may find that a
zoom operation brings up a brief dialog explaining that the map bounds are being trimmed. After this
you will be able to zoom in further until the map once again becomes too large and the same thing
will happen again.

Once the map has been trimmed through zooming, using the Zoom Out tool (right click of the mouse
in zoom mode, or F11) will always return you to exactly the zoom and position from immediately
before the first trim.
Note that only the map Display is trimmed. The route itself is still intact and no information is lost, it is
simply not displayed on the screen.
We have taken this approach in order to allow you to zoom in as close as you want on any specific
feature.

3.35 Use the Track Profiler

3.35.1 Introduction
The Track Profiler is a new tool added from Version 1.25 onwards. It is designed to solve some of the
problems encountered when trying to set the elevations for the track bed in a route. In designing this
tool the author found that it was necessary to accurately calculate the distances between the various
points on the Gradient Profiles that are available for the various routes. Therefore, one of the many
benefits of this tool is the ability to place milepost markers and to give you, the user, a much clearer
idea of the scales in the route.

The Track Profiler works by allowing you to plot out the path of the track. It then measures the linear
distance along the track path to insert the milepost points. The mileposts can be set to Statute Miles,
American Miles or Kilometres. Once this has been accomplished the program then calculates the
height of the landscape underneath the path you have chosen for the track, road or river.

You are now able to select the track and move to a new window in which you can "build" the route's

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gradient profile. The final part of the operation will allow you to set the width of the track/river bed ,
the angle for embankments and cuttings and then go on to "cut" the track or river bed into the
landscape.

What Effect Should You Expect

Different people have different expectations, so, if you don't get what you were expecting, then this is
a section to read through. The Track Profiler tool has to work within the resolution provided by
Microsoft. The MSTS Landscape is divided up into squares called tiles. Each tile is measures 2048
metres square and is further divided up in 256 cells. Each cell is therefore 8m square and has a
centre point that can be raised of lowered.

In creating this tool the author had to make a compromise between quickly creating an accurate bed
for a track and raising so much land on either side of the track that the route builder would need to
spend a long time on re-sculpturing. The picture below illustrates this point.

The green line is a track drawn across a part of a tile. The pale blue squares are the cells that are
directly touched by the green line. The purple squares are the cells that TsTools includes in its
calculations to produce a broader trackbed. Each cell can only be raised or lowered at one point and
that is represented in this picture by the red dot in the middle of each square. If one red dot is raised,
it has no effect on the surrounding red dots and this produces a rather rough hewn look. Increasing
the number of dots that are adjusted will not make the edges any smoother, it would only make the
trackbed wider.

What you will get from using this tool is a "pathway" for you to lay the track upon that will be at the
correct altitude along its length. You will find that MSTS will smooth the embankment sides once you

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have placed the track and used the "Y" key to adjust the land under the piece of track. See
Laying Track

3.35.2 When To Use

The Track Profiler tool can be used at any time during the route building project. Please bear in mind
though that you won't be able to "Undo" the Track Profiler operations.

You use this tool when you want to....

1. Prepare a strip of land with the correct elevation to lay the track on.
2. Trace out the course of rivers and streams through the landscape.
3. Carve out motorways, roads and lanes through the landscape
4. Calculate and place Milepost Markers.
5. Calculate and place Gradient Marker posts
6. Create a cliff

3.35.3 Using The Track Profiler

Laying The Trackbed
You should have completed the basic terraforming of the landscape before using the Track Profiler
tool.

When you are ready to start, click on the Lay Trackbed button.

Using the left mouse button you can now mark out the path of the track or road, etc. If you have a
tunnel in the route, stop marking out the track at the entrance to the tunnel. You can then continue
with a new piece of track marking at the exit of the tunnel.

When you have finished a piece of track marking, simply right-click anywhere on the screen and this
will bring up the Distance Units dialog box. Using this dialog you can select British Statute Miles,
American Miles or Kilometres for the milepost/distance markers.

Click the OK button to continue.

the newly marked track line will still be visible but now it has a number of blue dots along its length.
These blue dots represent the number of miles or kilometres from the beginning of the track piece.
Note that the final blue marker may not be a complete unit of measurement.

Selecting The Trackbed

Before you move on to the next step of entering the gradient details, you need to select the track line

that you want to work with. You do this by clicking on the Select Trackbed button.

Click on one of the blue dots along the line of the track you wish to edit, once selected a track will turn
bright green to indicate that it has been selected.

3.35.4 Working with Track Profiler

Make sure that the selected track is highlighted in green before trying to edit the profile.

When a track has been selected and appears green, right-click anywhere on the screen to bring up
the Gradient Profile window, which will look similar to the one shown below.

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The Lines
The horizontal dashed grey lines represent heights at 50 metre intervals, the one shown here
represents -50 metres.
The blue dashed line represents zero metres in height.

The horizontal solid line at the bottom shows the distance units that you have chosen, i.e. Miles or
Kilometres. The intervening tick marks are tenths of units.

The horizontal solid red line shows the gradient along the track which can be modified by adding and
removing gradient markers.
The horizontal solid green line show the shape of the landscape under the track line.

The vertical solid red lines are the gradient markers. The first and last have been added for you and
should not be removed. They can be edited though to alter the starting and ending heights of the
track.

Zooming
Use the plus "+" and Minus "-" keys to zoom in and out.

Magnify Vertical Scale

Use the PageUp and PageDown keys to increase or decrease the vertical scaling respectively.

Inserting A Gradient Post

Right click anywhere in the Track Profiler Window to bring up the options to Insert a Gradient Post,
Edit a Gradient Post or Delete. Choosing Insert a Gradient Post brings up a dialog box for you to
enter the relevant details for the new gradient post.

Enter the distance in mile/kilometres measured from the left-hand side of the gradient profile.

You can enter the gradient using either the ratio type of gradient as used on Gradient Profiles or, by
entering the exact height in metres.

Also at this time you may use the checkboxes to indicate if you require a Gradient Marker Post to be

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placed in the route. This post will be a normal marker containing the text to indicate the actual
gradients changing at that point.

Click the OK button when the have finished with this marker post.

Level Sections Of Track

To enter a level section of track just accept the default entry of 0.0 for the gradient.

Uphill Sections Of Track

To enter a section of track rising from the left, enter the gradient preceded with a minus sign, i.e. "-78"

Downhill Sections Of Track

To enter a section of track going downhill, simply enter the gradient as a positive number, i.e. "78"

Editing Gradient Posts

Clicking with the left mouse button on any Gradient Marker Post will select it and enable you to make
changes to its values. Right-click to bring up the above dialog so that you can make the changes. Any
changes you do make will update all the other gradient posts down the line.

Creating An Embankment
An embankment is created when the red horizontal line appears above the green landscape line.

Creating A Cutting
A cutting is made through the landscape wherever the red horizontal line appears below the green
landscape line.

3.35.5 Crafting The Landscape

Once you are happy with the placement of the track/river/road and the placement of the cuttings and
embankments, you are ready to apply these changes to the landscape.

Cutting the Track

Right-click anywhere on the Track Profiler screen to bring up the Options menu and choose the Cut
Trackbed option. You will get the warning dialog below to confirm that this is really what you want to
do, click OK to continue, or Cancel if you can't take the strain:)

After Clicking OK you will get an informative Message charting the progress of the Cutting operation.

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3.35.6 Laying Track

Begin by laying a piece of track on a level stretch of the route. You can press "H" to seat the track
piece firmly on the ground. the next piece of track can be laid as normal by placing it near the end of
the first piece so that it "snaps" onto the first. You can now use the Route Editor rotate button to
adjust the other end of the newly laid piece to make sure that it is just level with the top of the ground
at the far end. Continue in this manner until you reach the end of the track line. Then go back to the
beginning and, using the selection tool in Route Editor, select each piece of track and press the "Y"
key to adjust the land under each track piece to smooth out the bumps and dips.

4 Tutorial

4.1 Introduction
4.1.1 Introduction
Introduction

The aim of this tutorial is to guide you through the process of terraforming your MS
Train Simulator routes, using TsTools by DCM. To complete this tutorial; you will need
the following items. TsTools comes in three versions, Free, Standard and Pro. Although
all three versions are fully functional there are limitations in the free version that you
must take into account when working on your own routes. This symbol will be
included in this tutorial to indicate where care should be taken.

4.1.2 What You Will Need

What You Will Need

MS Train Simulator installed on your system

At least the Free version of TsTools
A little patience and a good sense of humour.

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4.1.3 How To Prepare A Map

How to prepare a map

In this tutorial the map has already been prepared for you.

If you do not have, or cannot find, this map, it can be freely downloaded by Clicking Here

Whatever map you use it needs to be large enough to cover a reasonable area of your
route, but probably not all of it, and preferably not contain too much in the way of
surplus information. I have found it easiest to prepare the map in a paint program like
PaintShop Pro by highlightingthe contours using different colours for each height,
thickening the railway lines and removing some of the minor roads, villages etc. This
preparation makes it much easier to see what you are doing.

One important consideration when preparing your map is how you are going to register
it within TsTools.

You should save your map as a .jpg image, to save on disk space.

4.2 Route Geography Extractor

4.2.1 Route Geography Extractor
Route Geometry Extractor

The Route Geometry Extractor (RGE) is a tool provided by Microsoft® that allows us
to begin creating a new route. Before we can lay any track we need to specify which
world tiles our track is going to be sitting on.

4.2.2 Opening
Opening

Double click the Train simulator Editors & Tools icon on your desktop to bring up the
Main Menu. Now select the bottom option, Route Geometry Extractor. Once it has
loaded, maximise all the windows so that you can see the whole world including our little
bit in the UK.

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4.2.3 Create New Route

Create New Route

Click File – New Route and enter the Route name as TsTools in both boxes.

When you click OK there will be a short pause while the RGE creates the necessary

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directory structure for you within Train Simulator. Eventually you should get a message
to say that the route has been created and where the folder is on your system.

4.2.4 Selecting Area

Selecting Area

You now need to select the area you want to place the route. Right click on the UK and
select Zoom Region. Right click again, on the southern part of the UK and again select
Zoom Region. Now right click on the image and choose Zoom Window In, and again
right click on the area indicated circled in yellow and select Zoom Window In.

You have now reached the maximum level of zoom that the RGE can achieve. We now
need to let the program know exactly which bits of this map we really need.

4.2.5 Finding The Right tiles

Finding the right tiles

Train Simulator divides the world up into squares of ever decreasing size, so the first
thing we need to do is to open a file to hold the information we are about to supply.
This is called a Quad Tree.

Click File – New Quad Tree

Use your mouse to drag out a selection rectangle similar to the one shown below. At this
point it does not have to be too exact as long as it covers the same central area as that
shown.

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Right Click within this rectangle and select Add All Selection tiles so it should now look
like this….

Now we'll test your hand eye co-ordination! On the status bar at the bottom of your
window you will see a string of information that changes as you move your mouse
around the screen. The information is as follows:

The name of your Route, in this case, TsTools

The type of terrain, in this case, Normal
The Longitude and Latitude of the relative position of your mouse pointer displayed in
decimal degrees.
The Zoom factor in this case, 20
The World Tile that your mouse is over, this changes as you move your mouse to a new
square.
The name of the file relating to the area under your mouse. ( Notice that, outside of the
area indicated by the Quad Tree, all tiles have the same name.)

Using your mouse, move it over World tile number -6252 14884. When you have the
correct tile, right click and select Toggle Populated State. If you got it right then a little
blue cross should appear in the small square. Repeat this process, selecting the following

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World Tiles, and toggling their populated states.

-6251 14884
-6250 14884
-6252 14883
-6251 14883
-6250 14883

You should now have a picture similar to that shown above.

4.2.6 Minimise Quad Tree

Minimise Quad Tree

The program now knows which tiles our route is going to cover, but the Quad Tree has
many more tiles than are needed, so we need to trim them away. RGE provides a simple
way to do this – thankfully.
Click Edit – Minimise Quad Tree.
This will give you a picture like the one below.

This is the least number of tiles that we need to generate in order to display our route
inside the Route Editor.

4.2.7 Set Route Start Tile

Set Start Tile

All routes have what is called a Start Tile. This is the tile that tells the Route Editor
where you want to begin viewing your route. If it is not specified here your route will
appear in the Route Editor but the landscape will be white and featureless.

Move your mouse over to World Tile number –6252 14884, right click and select Route
Editor Start Tile

Click File – Save Quad Tree

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4.2.8 Generate Tiles

Generate Tiles

All that now remains is to register our selected tiles in Train Simulator so that the Route
Editor has something to work with.

Click Edit – Generate Flagged Tiles

And, just to be sure
Click the Disk icon on the menu bar to save your work.
Click the X in the top right-hand corner to close the program.

Although you could close the program using File – Exit. You would return to the Main
Menu but you route would not be available in the Route Editor until you had exited and
restarted the Train Simulator Editors & Tools program.

4.2.9 Route Editor

Route Editor

[Optional] If you would like to see what you have created so far then you will need to
re-start the Train Simulator Editors & Tools program. Choose the first option from the
Main Menu, Route Editor. Click on the drop-down arrow to select the TsTools route
and click the OK button.

You should now find yourself I the midst of a flat green landscape and facing north.
Near the top of the window you will see a compass scale indicting which direction you
are looking. Underneath this is a readout of the latitude and longitude of your position in
decimal degrees.

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You can move freely around this landscape. Use the arrow keys to move forwards,
backwards, left and right. Pressing the shift key at the same time will increase the speed
of your movement in any direction. Pressing the control with and up or down arrow key
will raise or lower your viewpoint. You can turn round by right clicking anywhere on the
picture and moving your mouse in the appropriate direction.

Notice as you move around how the compass scale, latitude and longitude change in
relation to your position.

You can see the "edge" of your little world by simply pressing the up arrow key to move
northwards till you come to the edge of that tile. You'll know it's the edge because
everything beyond is white.

Exit the Route Editor when you have finished viewing your landscape.

4.3 TsTools
4.3.1 Starting
Starting

If you have installed TsTools correctly, you should have an icon similar to the one on the
left. Double click it now to start the TsTools program.

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 40 TsTools Help

I have used the free version of TsTools to create this tutorial, but if you have already
purchased either the Standard or the Pro versions you will find the instructions in this
tutorial exactly the same.

Whatever version you have, click on the Start TsTools Button

4.3.2 The Main Window

The Main Screen

Open MSTS Route

Save TsTools Map

Select Tile Button

Select object Button

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 Tutorial 41

Zoom Button

Draw button

Marker Button

Contour Button

Lay Trackbed button

Select Trackbed Button

Select map Button

Move Map button

Scale by Dragging Buttton

Scale by Points button

Delete Map Button

4.3.3 Opening Route

Opening Route
Click on File – Open MSTS Route and the following dialog box will open

Click on the drop-down arrow to select the TsTools route. This will bring up the
following dialog box

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 42 TsTools Help

Accept these defaults and Click Open

See Also Track TsT Changes Back-Up Route Files

4.3.4 Zooming In and Out

Zooming In & Out
Now is a good time to maximise both the main program window and the map window.

You should now have a window that looks something like the one below.

Click anywhere on the map with the left mouse button to centre the map in the displayed
area and to zoom in a little, so it looks like this. Right clicking will zoom out.

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I'll just take a moment to run through what it is that you are looking at. There are three
ways of looking at the route in TsTools, these ways are called projections. Currently
you are viewing the TsTools tutorial route in the default projection.

You can see the effect the different projections have on the way you see your route by
clicking Map – Projection and selecting one of the three options. Return to the top
option when you have finished.

As you can see there is a blue grid of squares shown, in this default projection the blue
grid represents 16 (4 x 4) of the MSTS Route tiles. In the User Default projection it is a
representation of the National grid found on most maps.

Aligned with the blue grid is a green grid of squares. This is the representation of the
route tiles extracted from your MSTS Route.

You should also be able to see a couple of purple lines slanting to the right. These
represent a part of a grid called the Sample Area. Any terraforming that you do is spread
out across the area covered by the purple grid.

4.3.5 Setting The Sample Area

Setting The Sample Area

To save frustration and loss of hair, it is a good idea to set the Sample Area to the

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correct dimensions before we go any further. We want to achieve a map looking like the
one below.

Click Terraform – Contour Sampling Parameters to bring up the following dialog box

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The Sampling Parameters dialog box has three interactive areas, i.e. changing the values
in one will alter the values in the other two if necessary. Notice that all values are greyed
out to prevent accidental spillage of tea, coffee and fingers.

Click the Edit button in the Sample Area frame and enter the following values, exactly.

Top Lat = 50.6959

Bottom Lat = 50.6555
Left Lon = -4.5456
Right Lon = -4.44

Notice the minus sign in front of the longitude setting, any longitude West of Greenwich
is preceded by a minus sign.

Click on the Recalculate button

If your Resolution figures do not look the same as shown above, then

Click on the Edit button in the Resolution frame and enter the following values, exactly.

Lat = 0.0001
Lon = 0.0001

Click the Recalculate button

Click the Accept button
You should now have a map looking like the one at the top of the previous page. There
is a purple box closely surrounding the green grid squares.

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4.3.6 Loading The Map

Loading The Map

Before proceeding, make sure you know where the map is that come with this tutorial.
The file is called, "TSTtutorialMap1.jpg". It looks like this…

It doesn't look exactly like the maps you might be used to, but that is because this one is
fictional and only includes the information we require for this tutorial.. This maps shows
the railway track in black, a river in light blue and a main road in a thick red line. The
other important information is contained in the contour lines which are coloured
differently to the normal pale brown. These lines are colour coded to make it easier for
to work with when tracing the contours.

4.3.7 Registering The Map

Registering The Map

Now let's get the map into TsTools.

The Free version only allows terraforming of 9 MSTS tiles

and restricts the number of contours you can enter to 50.

Click on Map – Background – From Image a dialog box should appear allowing you to
select the map file and enter some parameters that we'll come to in a moment.
Click on the ellipsis to browse to the location where you stored the map on your hard
drive
Select the TSTtutorialMap1.jpg file and click Open

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Continue to enter the value shown in the boxes above for Top, Bottom, Left and Right.
These value are the Grid References taken from my imaginary map. I have chosen to
crop the map along the grid lines to make it easier to register. Grid lines are easier since
they tend to run squarely across the map area.

Once you have entered all these values, click Load nothing will appear to have happened
– but it has!

Click Map – Projection – User Default

Now your map is visible. To see it more clearly, you may need to zoom in depending on
your screen resolution.

Your screen should now look like this…

Notice that changing the projection has changed a number of other things as well. The
green route grid is no longer square, the purple sample area is a little more upright.
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You can turn on or off the various elements of what you can see using the function keys
on your keyboard or by clicking Map – View and making your selection from the list
available.

So far, we have created a route and read some of the route details into TsTools, but we
have not changed anything in the route itself. This is about to change as we'll start doing
some real work.

4.3.8 Setting The Global Defaults For Markers

Setting the Global Defaults For Markers

Click Map – Map Preferences – Objects

Enter the details as above and Click OK

4.3.9 Entering The Marker Points

Entering The Marker Points

Zoom in on the map till it is large enough to fill you screen and you can clearly see the
black railway line shown on the map.

The Free version only allows the entry of 30 marker points.

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Click the Marker button and, starting on the left side of the map, click once, slightly
under the black line, to place a marker point on the line.

Continue working along the line to place the rest of the markers. In the Free version you
are only allowed 30 markers so try to keep below that figure.

If you make a mistake, or are not happy with where the marker point is, you can click on
the Select Object button , click on the offending marker point and press the DEL
key on your keyboard. You will then get the option to delete that marker from your file.

When you have something looking like this…

Click File – Save

This is the only way you should use to save a modified Marker file in your route.
Exporting marker files in any other way will or is likely to replace your existing marker
file.

Checking the markers in Route Editor You can check to see your progress now
by closing TsTools and starting the Route Editor. This time when you turn to the left
and go forward a little way you should pick up the line of markers marching proudly off
into the distance.

4.3.10 Tracing The Contours

Tracing The Contours

Return to TsTools and click File – Open MSTS Route

Now comes your hard work – I've already done my bit and I'm nearly finished. You've
still got the contours to trace but, believe me, it's worth it.

Click on the Contour button

Use this colour guide below to identify the contours to help you

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In the section about Setting the Global defaults we set the contour to 122 metres.
Therefore, find one of the contours that is closest in colour to the red, it might appear as
brown on your screen. Find one end and click once on the line. As you move the mouse
away from the point just clicked you'll see a small line attached to your mouse pointer.
Align that small line with the contour and click again to fix the point. Continue doing
this till you get to the end of the line. The smaller the gap between your points the better
your landscape will look in the finished item.

When you get to the end of one contour, right click and a dialog box will pop up asking
you to confirm the height of that contour and indicate whether it is a continuous contour
or not.

Work your way through the map tracing all the red/brown contours. When they are all
done you can either continue with the other height contours changing the height at the
end of each one, or you can click Map – Map Preferences – Objects and change the
global setting to the next height you will be working on.

To check which contours you have done, Press F7 to turn them on or off. It helps when
you get lost.

When all the contours have been traced out you should be able to Press F1 and still see
the contours like this

When you are sure that you have all the contours traced in, save your work.

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4.3.11 Generating a DEM File

Generating a DEM File

Click Terraform – Generate Altitude Data

Click Map Contours to place a checkmark in the box and click OK

This process may take a little time depending on the speed of your computer, so now is a
good time for a cuppa tea.
During this operation your map will be scanned line by line to read the height contours
and interpolate the height of the landscape between the points you've entered.

During the operation you can see the DEM file data being built up as the scan moves
across the screen. At the end you will get another dialog box

Make sure that both boxes are checked and click OK

Click Map – Projection and select User Default

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Now you see a birds eye view of what your landscape will look like in Route Editor. On
this map the lighter the shade of green the higher the land. On either side of this map you
can see areas of coloured banding, this occurs when there is no underlying data to
translate into heights, so the program just carries on until it reaches the end of the
sampling area.

4.3.12 Terraforming the Route

Terraforming The Route

Hopefully it has not been to difficult for you to reach this part – the final episode where
you transfer you efforts onto the world tiles within Train Simulator.

Click Terraform – Terraform and you get

You can accept the defaults for this time, but I generally find it best to make sure that the
whole map is terraformed and not to skip previously terraformed tiles. If I've been
working on a tile, say adding a cutting, I don't want to miss it when re-terraforming my
route.

If you now have this on your screen

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You got it right – congratulations, you've terraformed a little tiny piece of the MSTS
world.

4.3.13 Over To You

Over To You

Save your work and exit TsTools

You can now restart the Route Editor and begin laying the track in your hilly landscape
– well, I never said that part would be easy.

Tweaking the Landscape

If you look closely at the DEM image on the previous page. Reading the marker points
from left to right , between marker 4 and marker 5 we could add a small contour at a
lower height to improve the contouring in that spot.

I'll leave it to you to experiment, but all you need is a straight line contour between M4
and M5 and then regenerate the altitude data.

5 Glossary

5.1 Back-Up Route Files

A check mark in this box means that TsTools will create a copy of the essential files in its own
installation folder in a folder named the same as the route.

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5.2 DEM Files

DEM Files

A Digital Elevation Model (DEM) file is simply a list of co-ordinates and related heights.

Below is a list taken from an extracted DEM file and converted into a text XYZ file

381700.0 5593070.0 116

381700.0 5593120.0 132
381700.0 5593170.0 150
381700.0 5593220.0 159
381700.0 5593270.0 165
381700.0 5593320.0 169
381700.0 5593370.0 172
381700.0 5593420.0 175
381700.0 5593470.0 178
381700.0 5593520.0 180
381700.0 5593570.0 181

TsTools takes this information, works out where each points is on your map and assigns a colour
value based on the height for that point. Gaps between the points listed in the DEM file are "guessed"
and intermediate colours assigned so that when you view the output from a DEM file you see smooth
contoured landscapes.

5.3 Dialog Box

A dialog Box is a pop-up type panel that appears over your work area and usually demands some
response from the user in the form of a Yes, No or the entry of some values.

5.4 Projection
Projection is the term used to describe the way the a map appears. Different projections are simply
different ways that map makers have found of trying to represent a round globe on a flat piece of
paper.

See Also Projections

5.5 Quad Trees

Your Quad Tree file is saved with the Route information so if you are working on an existing route you
would Open - Quad Tree

5.6 Registering A Map

A map is a picture and does not contain any information about where it is in the world. In TsTools the
map image is used as a background but the program needs to know the boundaries of the area
covered. This is achieved by registering the map. TsTools currently support three methods of
registering maps, Latitude/Longitude, Grid References and Free Positioning and Scaling.

5.7 Route Editor

One of the MS Train Simulator Editing tools that allows the design and modification of routes for use
within MS Train Simulator

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5.8 Route Geography Extractor

One of the MS Train Simulator Editing tools that allows the creation and modification of route tiles for
use within MS Train Simulator

5.9 Track TsT Changes

A Check mark in this box means that any saved TsTools map saved with this route will also be
loaded. If you uncheck this box then TsTools will treat your route as a completely new and none of
your previous work will be applied to it.

6 Technical Library

6.1 Contours

Contours

A powerful feature of TsTools is the ability to interpolate altitude data from user-drawn contour lines.
This forms part of the terraforming process as described in Creating Topography in the Tiles This
section discusses how to actually draw the contours on the map.

There is actually an additional task which should be performed before generating the contour data,
and that is specifying the sampling parameters. This is not absolutely necessary because the map has
a default set of sampling parameters built in - however, in order to generate data for the part of the
map that you want and at the resolution you want, you will probably want to specify your own
parameters.

See Specifying Contour Sampling Parameters for details.

To draw a contour, select the Contour Line Tool from the toolbar and left click with the mouse to
begin the line. You can add as many points along the line as you wish by left clicking at the various
points you want this contour to pass through (note, a contour must have at least two points). after you
have placed the last point, click the right button and if you have selected.

Checking the Always Prompt checkbox in the Contours section of the Map Properties dialog the
Contours Properties dialog will be displayed, otherwise the default values will be used for this contour.

For best results when generating contour data, it is a good idea to select a sampling area smaller than
the whole map and draw most of the contour lines so that they either form continuous lines or end
outside of the sampling area so that there are no "loose-ends" hanging around inside the sampling
area. Once you have done this, you can if you wish add small contour lines with maybe just two or
three points to mark peaks or troughs, or to effectively create localised altitude "points" - note that you
cannot at the moment create spot heights or contours with less than two points. For details of
selecting sampling areas, see Specifying Contour Sampling Parameters

You may need to experiment to get the best results. If you have an area between two contours of the
same altitude it can be difficult to calculate how the terrain should be terraformed here. You can
always add more contours or stretches of contour to fix a particular part of the map at a particular
altitude.

To see the data generated from your contours you will need to run step two of the Terraforming
process (selecting just the contours as a data source) and choose to display the data as a background
image. This is done by selecting Generate Altitude Data from the Terraform menu and is described in
full in Creating Topography in Tiles

Contour Properties dialog

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Enter the altitude (in metres) and if you wish the contour to form a continuous line (i.e. become a
closed loop) select the Continuous check box.

6.2 Co-Ordinates
Co-Ordinates

Whenever the mouse cursor is over the Map Window, the co-ordinates of its current location are
displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the main TsTools window. Depending on the projection,
there may be between one and three sets of co-ordinates displayed.

The Latitude and Longitude of the current location are always displayed in the first two panels,
regardless of the projection.

If the map is displayed in the default projection, the co-ordinates of the Train Simulator world tile are
shown in the next two panels, and the x and z position within that tile in the final pair of panels.

·
If the map is displayed in TM projection, the X and Y grid co-ordinates (in metres from the grid origin)
are displayed in the second pair of panels.

The Meters/Pixel panel displays the Zoom factor currently selected.

6.3 Creating Topography in Tiles

Creating Topography in the Tiles

This is the process of generating the altitude data which is stored in each world tile file in the route.
The whole process of creating and rendering the terrain has become known in the user community as
Terraforming - and we will use that term in TsTools to describe everything from acquiring the altitude
data to the point at which we apply it to the MSTS Tiles. We suggest that before attempting any
terraforming operations with TsTools, that you familiarise yourself with the details contained in this
section and also work through the Tutorial. It is also good practice to back up your route files, since
the terraforming process in TsTools writes directly to the route directories and so any problems or
errors in the data will be placed directly in the tiles.

The terraforming process in TsTools consists of three separate stages, the first stage involves
collecting raw data from contours or external Topographic data files and storing it in the TsTools map.
Once altitude data is stored in the map, it can be used to generate a merged TsTools DEM file
containing all of the required data. This file can then be read and used to create output data in the
MSTS world tiles, and to generate background images in the TsTools map.

This Diagram illustrates the three stages of the Terraform process and also shows how background
images can be imported from DEM files.- the boxes on the left of the diagram are files stored
externally and the Green boxes in the centre represent tasks that can be performed in TsTools.

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SDTS DEM Obtain Raw Data TsTools Map

Datasets
Import DEM Draw Contours
Internal
External Raw
DEM Files Data
Import Background Image
Store
Back-
From DEM ground
External
image Files From Image

Generate TsTools DEM

TsTools
Composite Generate Altitude Data
DEM

Create Tile Altitude Data

Tile
MSTS Tiles Terraform Information

The following topics describe these three stages.

Generating the TsTools DEM

Obtaining Raw Data
Creating Tile Altitude Data

6.4 Generating the TsTools DEM

Generating the TsTools DEM

Once altitude data is stored in the TsTools map - as described in Obtaining Raw Data, it can be used
to generate a merged TsTools DEM file containing all of the required data

Import Background Image TsTools Map

From DEM Back- Internal

ground Raw
Data
Store

Generate TsTools DEM

TsTools
Composite Generate Altitude Data
DEM

TsTools needs to convert all raw altitude data into a common format in order to merge it together and
resample it to a fixed resolution. In this stage of the terraforming process you can select which data
sources (imported files and/or contours) you want to include in the generated terrain, TsTools then
performs a process of standardising and merging this data into a complete landscape which is saved
as a composite DEM file. When this step is completed, you can choose to have the generated data
displayed as a background image in your map and it can be used to as input to step 3 of the

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terraforming process.

Select Generate Altitude Data from the Terraform Menu (note that you will not be able to select this
item if there is no raw data stored in the map).

The Data Source dialog will appear:

Select all of the data that you want to include in the final composite DEM.

The process of generating the final data can take quite a long time depending upon the speed of your
system and the resolution of the data. In order to conserve memory during this process, TsTools by
default stores its working data in a file in the TsTools directory. The process will run a lot faster if all
of the working data is stored in memory rather than on disk, but if the system runs low on memory
during this process, the output DEM will not be created. If you want to store the data in memory rather
than on disk, click on the Advanced button and select Perform Storage in Memory.

Due to the vast differences in the resolution and amount of data that you may be
using, it is impossible for us to give any guidelines about when to use Memory
storage and when to use file storage. all we can suggest is that if you have a lot of
memory in your system and/or low resolution or very little data, then experiment
with using Memory storage for faster results.
In later releases of TsTools it is planned to analyse the amount of data and suggest
the best approach for each situation.

When you have selected the required data sources and storage options, click OK and the process will
begin. A dialog will appear to report on the status of the data generation. Once the data generation is
complete, a dialog box will appear to ask if you want to view the data as a background image.

If you select any projections and click OK, the generated data is converted into an image file and
displayed as a background to the map in the selected projections.

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This is a useful way to decide whether you are satisfied with the look of your data. If you are not,
there are a number of ways that you can enhance the data - for instance by adding your own contours
and then repeating this step of the process and including the contours.

If you are happy with the generated data, you can reduce the size of the TsTools map file by deleting
the raw data sources from the map. To do this, select Delete Internal Data from the Terraform menu.
Note, if you delete the data, you will need to begin again from step 1 if you want to run step 2 again -
however you do not need the internal data in order to run step 3 - only the TsTools DEM file output
from this step is required.

Once this step is complete a TsTools DEM file and header are written to the Directory maintained for
this route within the TsTools directory structure. This DEM file has the same structure as a GLOBE
data file (see Topographical Data Formats for further details) and can also be used later as a
separate raw data source or for generating a background image.

See Also Creating Tile Altitude Data

Obtaining Raw Data

Data Sources Dialog

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6.5 Creating Tile Altitude Data Output

Creating Tile Altitude Data Output

Once the Map Data has been generated it is stored in a special file from where TsTools can read it to
create MSTS Tile output. The Terraform function performs this final stage of the process.

TsTools
Composite TsTools Map
DEM

Create Tile Altitude Data

Tile
MSTS Tiles Terraform Information

You now need to decide whether you want to generate tile data for the whole route (overwriting any
existing altitude data in all tiles), or just for a selection of tiles.

If you have already terraformed any tiles in the route with TsTools (either in this session or in a
previous session which you have saved and then loaded with the "Track TsT Changes" box checked),
these tiles will appear filled in the colour selected in the Map Properties for terraformed tiles. These
tiles can be excluded from further terraforming processes by checking the "skip previously
terraformed tiles" box as described below.

If you want to generate altitude data for all tiles in the map, or just the tiles that have not been
previously terraformed, then select Terraform from the Terraform menu, otherwise select the tiles that
you wish to terraform and then select Terraform from the Map menu.

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You are now presented with the Terraform dialog

Make your selections and Press OK to proceed with terraforming. The terraforming data will be taken
from the TsTools composite DEM file created in step 2 of the terraform process.

Once the above steps have been completed, TsTools will work through each tile selected for
terraforming and create the required output files for the route. a status dialog will be displayed during
this process which indicates which tile of how many in total is currently being worked on, and which
stage of terraforming that tile is currently at.

As each tile is completed, the map is updated to show the status of the tile. If the tile was successfully
terraformed it is filled with the terraformed colour, if there was no data found in the source to cover
the tile, it is filled with the No Data colour.

You can interrupt the terraforming process at any time by pressing the Esc key. The process will then
stop after the current tile is complete.
Once a tile has been successfully terraformed, it is available immediately in MSTS or in the Route
Editor.

Terraform dialog

Whole Map/Selected Tiles: if no tiles are selected in the map, it is only possible to select Whole Map
here, otherwise choose Selected Tiles if you only wish to generate new data for the tiles you have
selected

Skip Previously Terraformed Tiles: Any tiles that have already been terraformed by TsTools will be
shown in green on the Map. If you want to generate new data for these tiles (overwriting the existing
altitude data) then uncheck this box, otherwise leave it checked and the tiles will be skipped during
this terraforming process.

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6.6 Differences Between a Map and a Route

The difference between a Map and a Route

It is useful to understand the difference between a TsTools map and an MSTS route.

The MSTS route is a collection of files stored in a hierarchy of directories containing information
about things which will appear in the Simulation, or (in the case of Markers) only in the Route Editor.

The TsTools map is stored as a single .tse file and contains information about the currently loaded
background, the map display properties, which tiles have been terraformed and all of the user
drawings. It does not store any information about the actual contents of the route files.

When you are working with TsTools, you will usually just need to load an MSTS route. If a TsTools
map already exists for this route it will be automatically loaded and all of your drawings will be
overlaid. If no map already exists, a new one will be created and used to store all of your drawing and
terraforming information etc.

Remember that no information is stored in the TsTools map about markers, Tile altitude data, track or
other objects - this information is read from the actual route files when the route is loaded and, where
appropriate (for instance when adding markers, or terraforming) is written back (only) to the relevant
route files.

We could have chosen to keep things simple and not bother you with the existence of Maps as a
separate thing from routes, but we decided to keep it up front for two reasons:

Knowing the above should give a better understanding of why TsTools behaves the way that it does -
for instance, why you may have added some markers to a map but they are not there when you
reload it (could be caused by the marker file being deleted from the route directory).

Understanding that the maps do not need to have route dependency allows us to give you the ability
to create empty maps that you can just use for the fun of creating and drawing maps. Maybe not
important to many, but we like maps!

It's worth mentioning here as well a couple of points about what data is saved at what point.

When you save a Map in TsTools, you are saving the information that is stored in the map file (as
above, guide drawings, display options, background, which tiles have already been terraformed) and
you are also saving the Marker file - if you already have a marker file for this route it will be
overwritten with whatever marker data is currently shown in the map when it is saved.

Tile data is saved only when the specific operations to generate it are performed. (such as
terraforming operations or amendments to the tile properties).

Other files, such as user-generated DEM's etc. are saved during the operations that create them.

Note :In the demo version, tile data files are not saved - only the TsTools map, marker and DEM files
etc.

6.7 Grids
Grids

Two grid overlays are available within the Map window. The Lat/Lon grid and the Projected Grid.
Depending upon the current Projection, the Projected grid will represent different things.

In Lat/Lon projection, there is no projected grid available.

In default projection, the projected grid represents the Train Simulator world-tile grid and is drawn at a

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resolution of one grid square per 16 (4x4) world tiles.

In TM projection, the grid spacing is customisable. By default its resolution is 10 km.

See Also Setting Map Properties for more details on changing grid spacing.

6.8 Projections
Projections
A Projection is simply the way that an area from a curved surface (in this case the surface of the earth) can be
represented when drawn on a flat surface.

Imagine the earth as a gigantic lamp shade with a pattern on it - if you wrap a sheet of paper around it and turn
on the light, the patterns will be projected onto the paper - if they can then be traced there and the paper
unfolded you will have a 2 dimensional version of the pattern. This is the basic concept of Map projection.

There are many different algorithms available for projecting maps onto flat surfaces, each has its own particular
advantages and disadvantages. You can think of the algorithms as representing different ways in which the
paper can be wrapped around the lamp shade. Depending upon the purpose of a particular map, it may be more
important to preserve the relationship between distances across a map, or to more accurately represent shapes
and angles. Cartographers will choose a projection to fit the purpose of the map they are drawing.

To extend the metaphor, Transverse Mercator (TM) Projection, as used in TsTools, wraps the paper into a

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cylinder which lies "horizontally" with the earth inside it. It touches the earth along a line of longitude known as
the Prime Meridian of Projection, and along this line true north is equal to grid north, and all distances on the
ground are the same as those on the map. As you move further east or west, the earth curves away from the
cylinder so things become gradually more distorted in the projection.

Effectively, defining the projection parameters involves simply defining the size of the cylinder and the lines at
which it touches the earth. The finishing touch to a projection involves moving the grid origin away from the
actual projection origin in order to do away with any grid values less than zero in the area being mapped. The
parameters defining this movement are the False Easting and False Northing - they have no effect on the actual
projection, only the numbers used on the grid.

The Map in TsTools can be displayed in any of three different projections.

By default, TsTools displays the map in the same projection as used within Train Simulator. In this
projection, all of the train simulator terrain tiles will appear square.

The TsTools map may also be displayed in a Transverse Mercator Projection. Transverse Mercator
(TM) uses a specific longitude as a reference line and draws all features on the map to the scale
found at this line. This means that at this longitude true north and grid north are identical, but the
further west or east of the line you move, the greater the distortion becomes. Transverse Mercator is
often used to project areas which are generally longer in the N-S direction than the W-E direction, and
the distortion experienced over several degrees of longitude is remarkably small, so that shapes,
angles and distances are very well maintained across the map. TM in TsTools is calculated based on
parameters input by the user and, by default, uses the parameters of the UK National Grid, so
producing the same projection and XY grid references that are found on many maps of the UK. These
default parameters centre the projection at longitude 2 degrees west, so be aware that if your map is
a considerable distance from this longitude, it is likely to appear very distorted if you use the TM
projection without amending the parameters.

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See the tips for setting projection parameters in the section Setting Map Properties.
The final Projection is not really a projection at all, but simply plots the map in Latitude Longitude co-
ordinates. The further from the equator your map is, the more compressed this will look in the N-S
direction, but this projection is sometimes useful to help place features by hand at a specific Lat/Lon
co-ordinate, or to get a better overview of a map which stretches a great distance in the N-S direction.

6.9 Sampling Area

Sampling Area
The map has a set of parameters which will be used for contour sampling operations.

There is only one set of sampling parameters active in the map at any one time and when an altitude
data generation operation is carried out using contours, the currently active parameters will be used.

The sampling parameters consist of the following:

· Sample Area (top lat, bottom lat, left lon, right lon)

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· Resolution (lat resolution, lon resolution)

· Sample Lines (num of lat lines, num of lon lines)

You are able to modify the values of any of these variables although, of course, changing the value of
one set will affect the values of the others. For this reason, TsTools specifies the following:

· If you modify the Sample area, TsTools will keep the value of resolution the same and find the
closest whole number values for Sample Lines (all rounding will be upwards). The values in
Sample area will then be recalculated to the new Sample Lines values.

· If you modify the Resolution, TsTools will find the closest value to the existing Sample area
that uses a whole number of sample lines and update sample lines and sample area
accordingly.

· If you modify sample lines, TsTools will keep the existing resolution and modify the value of
Sample Area accordingly. This can be useful for, for example, increasing or decreasing the
size of the area

When a map is created it has a default set of Sampling Parameters. The Sampling area is the whole
map, the resolution is 0.0083333 (30 arcsecs, or approx 1 km). The higher the sampling value the
faster the sampling operation but the lower the resolution of the finished landscape. For a good
resolution enter the values of 0.0001 in BOTH boxes.

Another set of values related to the sampling parameters are the Corner Altitude values. These are
the user-entered values for the altitudes at each corner of the sampling area and form the minimum
data required for altitude data generation from contours.

You can amend the sampling parameters by selecting Sampling Parameters from the Terraform
menu and editing the values in the Sampling Parameters dialog box. This dialog also gives access to
the Corner Altitude values via the Update Corner Altitudes button.

Note: The sampling area will always be calculated as a rectangle in terms of Lat/Lon co-
ordinates and will snap to a whole number of sample points.

Only tiles which are completely covered by an altitude data source will be terraformed. Make sure,
therefore, when you are defining a sampling area that it completely includes all of the tiles that you
wish to terraform from it.

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Click on an edit button to edit the relevant set of fields. When you have entered the values, click
recalculate and all fields will be recalculated to the nearest possible values to match your input.

6.10 Setting Map Properties

There are a number of options available from the Map Menu to help you control how the map is
displayed.

To Change Display Projection

select Projection from the Map Menu and then select the required Projection from the sub-menu.

To Switch Map Layers on or Off

select view from the Map menu and toggle the required layer from the sub-menu, or use the function
keys as listed in the sub-menu to quickly toggle the views on or off.

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Note that there are also keyboard shortcuts to the different projection displays and layer toggles.
These are shown next to the items in the menu.
In addition to the display options noted above there are many properties which can be changed for
the map. The Map Properties dialog Boxes can be accessed globally by selecting Properties from the
File menu at any time. This will set the default properties with which any new map will be created, but
will not affect any maps which already exist. To override these defaults on a map for map basis,
select Properties from the Map menu while the map is open.

The Map Properties dialog Boxes

The Map Properties dialog contains a number of tabs allowing access to all of the map properties.

Setting Colours

The Colours tab allows you to set the colours which are used to display certain elements in the Map.

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Projection Parameters

The Projection Parameters tab allows you to modify the parameters used to project the map in the
TM projection. The default values as shown in the picture are the parameters defined for the UK
National Grid and will produce a very accurate spatial representation of any data within a few degrees
either side of 2 degrees West. You can amend any of these parameters to suit the specific area which
you are mapping.

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If you keep the default parameters and are displaying a map which is a considerable
distance from 2 degrees west, the shapes on the map may appear very distorted in
TM projection. If you do not have any experience with TM projection parameters, but
would still like to display your map in TM, you can achieve a good projection by
simply changing the value of the Prime Meridian of Projection to a longitude which
is close to the centre of your map area. You can also adjust the False Easting and
False Northing values to bring your grid coordinates into a suitable range. See
Projections for more discussion on this subject.

Grid Settings

The Grid Settings tab allows you to specify the interval between grid lines on the map. Note that the
Annotate settings are not available in this release of TsTools.

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The Objects Tab allows you to set default behaviours for contour and Marker placement.

Checking the Always Prompt box will cause the properties box to appear each time an instance of the

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relevant object is placed. Otherwise the default values are automatically used.

6.11 Specifying Contour Sampling Parameters

Specifying Contour Sampling Parameters

The map has a set of parameters which will be used for contour sampling operations.
There is only one set of sampling parameters active in the map at any one time and when an altitude
data generation operation is carried out using contours, the currently active parameters will be used.
The sampling parameters consist of the following:

· Sample Area (top lat, bottom lat, left lon, right lon)
· Resolution (lat resolution, lon resolution)
· Sample Lines (num of lat lines, num of lon lines)

You are able to modify the values of any of these variables although, of course, changing the value of
one set will affect the values of the others. For this reason, TsTools specifies the following:

· If you modify the Sample area, TsTools will keep the value of resolution the same and find the
closest whole number values for Sample Lines (all rounding will be upwards). The values in
Sample area will then be recalculated to the new Sample Lines values.
· If you modify the Resolution, TsTools will find the closest value to the existing Sample area
that uses a whole number of sample lines and update sample lines and sample area
accordingly.
· If you modify sample lines, TsTools will keep the existing resolution and modify the value of
Sample Area accordingly. This can be useful for, for example, increasing or decreasing the
size of the area

When a map is created it has a default set of Sampling Parameters. The Sampling area is the whole
map, the resolution is 0.0083333 (30 arcsecs, or approx 1 km).

Another set of values related to the sampling parameters are the Corner Altitude values. These are
the user-entered values for the altitudes at each corner of the sampling area and form the minimum
data required for altitude data generation from contours.

You can amend the sampling parameters by selecting Sampling Parameters from the map menu and
editing the values in the Sampling Parameters dialog Box . This dialog also gives access to the
Corner Altitude values via the Update Corner Altitudes button.
Note: The sampling area will always be calculated as a rectangle in terms of Lat/Lon co-ordinates and
will snap to a whole number of sample points.

Only tiles which are completely covered by an altitude data source will be terraformed. Make sure,
therefore, when you are defining a sampling area that it completely includes all of the tiles that you
wish to terraform from it.

Sampling Parameters Dialog

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Click on an edit button to edit the relevant set of fields. When you have entered the values, click
recalculate and all fields will be recalculated to the nearest possible values to match your input.

6.12 Terraforming

Obtaining the Raw Data

Raw Altitude Data for TsTools can be acquired from two different sources - Contours or
Topographical Data Files.

SDTS DEM Obtain Raw Data TsTools Map

Datasets
Import DEM Draw Contours
Internal
External Raw
DEM Files Data
Store

The Topographic Data files tend to be generically referred to as DEM (Digital Elevation Model) data,
although in reality DEM actually refers to a specific standard. TsTools currently supports topographic
data in the following formats: GLOBE, GRD and SDTS DEM.

See Also Topographical Data Formats

Any number of raw data sources can be imported into the TsTools map and it does not matter

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whether these data overlap with each other. Before you can go any further with the terraforming
process, you must have imported at least one topographic file, or drawn at least one contour line.
Once the raw data has been imported, it is stored in the TsTools map ready to be used in step 2 of
the terraforming process. If the map is saved, the data will be saved with it, so you will not need to
import it again.

See Also Drawing Contours, Importing DEM Files , Generating DEM Files

6.13 Tile Properties

Tile Properties

Click the Select Tile button .

Click on a tile to select it. A green outline will appear round the selected tile.
Right-click anywhere to open the Tile Properties dialog box.

Tile Name/Tile Row/Tile Column

these fields are not editable and are only displayed if you are viewing the properties for a single tile.
They are displayed for information only.

Water Levels
Only displayed if you are viewing the properties for a single tile. The level (in meters) set for the
display of water at each corner of the tile. You may edit these fields, however, if you are viewing the
properties for more than one tile, the values will be changed in all the tiles you are viewing, and this
will result in the Water flags being reset where necessary. See Water Flags below for more details.

Minimum/Maximum Altitude
These fields are not editable - they report the actual minimum and maximum altitude values in the
current terrain for the tile or tiles. Note, however, that these fields only report valid values if the tile(s)
have been terraformed by TsTools, since altitude values are not read directly from the Route files (in

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order to save time and memory) but stored in the TsTools map when a tile is terraformed.

Median Altitude
This relates to a specially calculated value which is stored in each of the 256 subtiles in each tile. It is
not strictly speaking a median or average value but the result of a special calculation used to ensure
that textures are placed correctly. It is calculated automatically when a tile is terraformed. It will not by
default be displayed in the dialog since there are 256 separate values for each tile. In the full release
version of TsTools, it will be possible to set this field to a specific value which will be applied to every
instance within the scope of the tiles currently being viewed. This, however, is NOT recommended
except for advanced users who are absolutely certain that this is what they want to do. You have been
warned. This functionality is not available in the Beta Release and the field is therefore currently
redundant.

Water Flags
These are the flags which determine whether water is displayed or not. A separate flag is maintained
for each of the 256 subtiles in each tile and for this reason the value is not displayed by default. When
TsTools is used to terraform a tile, it will set the water flag on automatically for each subtile which has
any altitudes at or below the water level for this tile. These can at this time only be manually
amended by using the Route editor. You can, however, edit this field to apply a value to every
instance of the water flag within the scope of the tiles currently being viewed. Note that if you change
the water levels using the fields in this dialog, the water flags will automatically be updated so that
they are set on for each subtile having altitude below or equal to the water level - this action will be
overridden by any entry made in this (the Water Flags) field.

Floor/Ceiling/Resolution
Only reported if viewing the properties for a single tile. Resolution cannot be edited, it is calculated as
(Ceiling-Floor)/65536 . Floor and Ceiling represent the minimum and maximum altitude values that
are allowed in the tile - they are set automatically by TsTools when a tile is terraformed. In this
release of TsTools, none of these fields can be edited.

Re-Calculate into difficulties - for instance the accidental applying of a disastrous median altitude
across your route. You can hit this button to recalculate all of the re-calculateable(!) fields in the tiles
you are currently viewing. This does not recalculate the Water Level fields.

6.14 Topographical Data Formats

Topographical Data Formats

The Following Topographical data formats are currently supported in TsTools.

· SDTS DEM data

This high resolution data is available free for the whole of the USA. A good source for the
datasets is http://www.mapmart.com/dem_24main.htm

Extract all of the files from the SDTS download into a single directory before using with TsTools.
In order to use SDTS data for background images, you will need to first convert it to TsTools DEM
format by following the first two steps outlined in the Terraforming process section of this Guide.

· GLOBE DATA
GLOBE data is low resolution (30 arcseconds) but is available free for the whole world from >
http://ngdc.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/seg/ff/nph-newform.pl/seg/topo/customdatacd

From this page you should select the area that you wish to cover, and then select the format of
the data. The important fields in the data selection are:

- Data Type: set this to int16

- File Format: pc binary

Once your data have been downloaded, you will have three files. The *.bin file is the actual data

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file, the other important file is the *.hdr file which contains the header information. Make sure that
you save both of these files to the same directory before using them with TsTools.

The resolution of the GLOBE data is really too low to give good results when terraforming in
TsTools - however, you may find it useful to import this data as a background image and use it as
a basis for drawing contours to use in the Terraforming process.

· GRD DATA

We will be happy to support other data formats. Please email [email protected] with details and
sources for the formats you would like to use and we will do our best to incorporate them into
upgrade releases.

7 Acknowledgements

7.1 Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank:

John Yelland for applying his technical editing skills to this help file.
Tim Bridge for help in providing a map scan.

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 Index 77

Index Extend a Route 8

-F-
-A- Features 5
forums 4
Add New Tiles to a Route 8 Free 6
Additional Support 4 Free Placement 20
American Miles 29 FREE version 6
Further Details 18

-B- -G-
Background 10
Background Bitmap 20 GLOBE 73
Back-up 53 Gradient 27
Back-up Existing Tiles 21 Gradient Post 29
British Miles 29 Gradient Profile 27
Bugs Fixed 5 GRD 73
Grid References 22

-C- Grids 27
Guide Drawings 10

Cells 27
Change Display 10 -H-
Change What I See 10
Cliffs 27, 29 Help 4
Contour Sampling Area 9 Help File Version 1.25 4
Contour Sampling Parameters 9 How do I 4
Contours 9, 10, 73
Delete 14
Drawing 14
-I-
Editing 15 Import DEM File 16
Ending 15 Importing 16
Finished 15 individual tiles 25
Selecting 24 Internet 4
Cuttings 29

-D- -K-
Keyboard Shortcuts 17
DEM 54, 73 Kilometers 29
DEM File 54 Known Bugs 5
Import 16
Dialog Box 54
Dialogue Box 54 -L-
Digital Elevation Model 54, 73
Lat/Lon Grid 10
Learn More 18
-E- Learning 18
Limitations 6
Effects 27 Load a Map Using Height & Width 19
email support 4 Load a Map Using Metres/Pixel 20
Embanksments 29
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Load Map 18 Projected Grid 10

Loading a Map 18 Projection 63
-Difficulties 63

-M- -Earth 63
-Easting 63
-Explanation 63
Magnify Vertical Scale 29
-Grid Lines 63
Map 10, 20
-Mercator 63
Map Layers 10
-MSTS 63
Map Parameters 18
-National Grid 63
Maps 24
-Northing 63
Contours 24
-OS Grid 63
Delete 14
-Prime Meridian 63
Free Placement 19
-Transverse Mercator 63
Free Scaling 24
Loading 18, 19
Preparing 22, 33
Selecting 24
-Q-
Marker File 11 Quad Tree 35, 37, 54
Create 11 questions 4
Global Settings 12 Quick Start Guide 7
Marker Posts 14
Delete 14
Editing 15 -R-
Placing 22 Raw Altitude data 73
Selecting 25
RE 54
Markers 10
Read Grid References 22
Measurement 29 Register 54
Menu 21 Register a map 54
Loading a Route 21
Resolution 9
Saving a Route 23
Restriction 6
Milepost 29 re-terraform 25
Mileposts 29 RGE 33, 55
MSTS Editors 38 Rivers 27, 29
Roads 27, 29
-O- Route 23
Saving 23
older maps 22 Route Editor 38, 54
Online 4 Route Geometry Extractor 33, 55
Online Support 4 Create New Route 34
Open MSTS Route 21 Generate Tiles 38
Ordnance Survey 4 Minimise Quad Tree 37
Ordnance Survey maps 4 Opening 33
OS 4 Selecting Area 35
OS Maps 4, 6 Set Start Tile 37
Other Help 4 Routes 6
Creating 11

-P- Loading 21

Place Marker Post 22

Prepare a map 22
-S-
Prime Meridian 18 Sample Area 10
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 Index 79

Sampling Area 9, 25 Setting The Sample Area 43

Scaling 24 Starting TsTools 39
Maps 24 Terraforming The Route 52
SDTS 73 The Main Window 40
Sections 29 Tracing The contours 49
Downhill 29 What You Will Need 32
Level 29 Zooming In & Out 42
Uphill 29
Select Contour 24
Selecting 24 -U-
Maps 24
UK National Grid 18
Marker Posts 25
UKTrainSim 4
Statute Miles 29 United Kingdom 18
Steps to Route Creation 11 Upgrading 6
Switch Off/On Layers 10

-T- -V-
Version 4
Technical Heaven 4, 18 View 10
Technical Library 18
Terraform 9
Terraform Selected Tiles 25 -W-
Tile Properties Dialogue Box 9
Tiles 10 Web 4
Topographic Data Files 73 Website 4
Track 10 Welcome 4
Track Profiler 27 What it does 6
Track TsT Changes 21, 55 What to expect 27
Trackbed 27, 29 What's New 5
Transverse Mercator 6
TsTools 4
Tutorial 4
Create New Route 34
Entering The Marker Posts 48
Finding the Right Tiles 35
Generate Tiles 38
Generating a DEM File 51
How to prepare a map 33
Introduction 32
Loading The Map 46
Minimise Quad Tree 37
Opening 33
Opening a Route 41
Over To You 53
Registering A Map 46
RGE 33
Route Editor 38
Route Geometry Extractor 33
Selecting Area 35
Set Start Tile 37
Setting Global Defaults 48

Copyright TsTools © 2002