Railworks America

Hi Everyone,

I hope you all had the best of holidays!

A conversation between jpetersjr and I began on my route announcement thread about creating some custom buildings for the route. I thought it would be better to bring the conversation over to this forum to discus further.

Before we go any further, I am using Blender 3.0 and Sketchup Pro 2021. Also Photoshop for any texture edits.

Link to original thread: http://railworksamerica.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=23734

It had been a bit of an ambition of mine to try my hand at modeling some of my own custom assets for the route. The area I am trying to recreate is very urban and cramped and some of the buildings I have been trying to use from existing assets just don't quite fit where they need to. Here is the building I am starting with:

Google Maps: https://goo.gl/maps/w2sZMAC2bYTTrpj5A




This is probably one of the more complex and iconic buildings on the route and one that I think really needs a custom model. I recently downloaded Blender. Despite the endless amounts of tutorials out there, I just cannot seem to get my mind around it. However, Sketchup is where I want to be modeling. It's quick, easy and intuitive. Something that Blender is not, at least as far as my time constraints and patience are limited to.

This past weekend, I have done a lot of digging and learning modeling, and, as far as I have researched, it might be a difficult endeavor to get a Sketchup model, with textures, into the sim. I did manage to build and export a VERY basic model with basic textures from Sketchup to Blender, but I am a bit lost on where to go from here. I have found tutorials to be a bit all over the place as far as instructions go.

Some Screens:



So this is where I am so far. I exported from Sketchup to Blender with a .dae/COLLADA file and everything looks good in Blender. All the textures are on the model and looks like I might be able to work with it. I know that I have much to learn. I would like to get some feedback and tips on how to proceed from here.

I think you have done very well. It looks great and you can certainly recognize it as being the building in the photos.

mindenjohn wrote:I think you have done very well. It looks great and you can certainly recognize it as being the building in the photos.

Thank you. I am trying to keep it fairly basic for now so I can learn the process of getting it into the sim. I plan on doing some better detailing and texturing in the future.

Looks like a good start, of course, you will want to make certain that your dimensions are correct so that it will fit properly.

When you’re making buildings like this with close clearances to the track, it might help to export the rail and road networks you’ve built on the route so everything fits nicely. The dev docs are surprisingly helpful in documenting this feature: https://sites.google.com/a/railsimdev.c ... k-Geometry
As far as I’m aware, it works with any lofted objects although some are more useful than others to export.

jpetersjr wrote:Looks like a good start, of course, you will want to make certain that your dimensions are correct so that it will fit properly.

Railfan722 wrote:When you’re making buildings like this with close clearances to the track, it might help to export the rail and road networks you’ve built on the route so everything fits nicely. The dev docs are surprisingly helpful in documenting this feature: https://sites.google.com/a/railsimdev.c ... k-Geometry
As far as I’m aware, it works with any lofted objects although some are more useful than others to export.

Thank you both for the tip! Railfan722, I took your advice and managed to export the lofts in the area to check the scale. WOW this is such a cool feature! Once again, I was having trouble working with it in Blender so I exported to bring it on into Sketchup. See Screenshot:


Originally, I used the Google Earth measurement tool to get a fairly accurate feel for the dimensions of the building, you can see that the Ogden Ave viaduct cuts into the model. The Ogden viaduct was demolished decades ago and I had to use an educated guess as to where it ran exactly across the area when I originally placed it on the route. I've decided that it would be more trouble to move the viaduct on the route because it would cause me to move lots of other objects in the area. In that case, I think it would be easier to trim down the model in a few places which is something I will probably have to work on this week or upcoming weekend.

In the meantime, I am having the hardest time trying to figure out how to unwrap the textures on this model in Blender. The model is extremely low poly and I would think it would be pretty straight forward! Also, I have been having trouble getting the exporter, Briage, to install into the program. I think it may be a compatibility issue because I am using Blender 3.0 (the latest version). However, I really don't know. Does anyone have any tips, advice or ideas on how to proceed? I can provide extra details and screenshots.

Briage is only set up for 2.93 and below at the moment. If you've got Discord, it might be worth chasing down Juju (the guy who makes it) in the TS Modding server and asking him about 3.0+ compatibility.