Railworks America

I currently own 3DC 9.

With 10.2.7, does one still have to resize Sketchup models for the sim prior to doing the export for the shape or has that been addressed with this latest version?

I haven't used sketchup now for the longest time since I only use Crafter, it is worth dropping sketchup all together.

I find Sketchup to be the easiest program for me. The others are just too complex. I never could understand TSM. I tried for a month. Ditto for Blender and Gmax.

I figured out Sketchup pretty fast. Within a few days I had made my first building which was for MSTS.

The program may have many drawbacks in many peoples eyes, but it works for me.

Recently I came up with a "Sketchup Formula" for 3DC. Roughly 2.66 feet equals 1 foot for a SU model to be correctly sized in the sim after exporting from 3DC. From there I broke the 2.66 down to what 1 inch would equal and smaller. Some may say it's a lot of work but it really isn't. (at least not for me) So far this approach has worked. Rescaling in SU or within 3DC has been a mixed bag of results with a lot of being way off. And from what I've read, I don't think I'm doing anything wrong. Several people have outright said resizing within SU and or 3DC is hit and miss and will require further adjustments.

I was curious if the 10.2.7 version would require the same. I have a good solution so it's not a loss of the newer version still hates SU.

You do realize that Sketchup gives you the option to directly export in meters, right? No need to re-scale anything in 3DC.

TheKman wrote:I find Sketchup to be the easiest program for me. The others are just too complex. I never could understand TSM. I tried for a month. Ditto for Blender and Gmax.

TSM is probably about as easy as it can get with basic 3d modeling. There are various tutorials around the place for it. 3DC does have some good functions, but TSM generally does the job beforehand.

There are hot keys which make the task easier as well, and zoom functions. It is very easy to texture objects in this program as well.

SAR704 wrote:TSM is probably about as easy as it can get with basic 3d modeling.

Maybe, but ... I don't think there is a workflow to get TSM models into Railworks.

bnsfsubdivision wrote:You do realize that Sketchup gives you the option to directly export in meters, right? No need to re-scale anything in 3DC.

Well, that does not seem to be the case for me.... I do that on the export and it does not do a thing. Model is drawn in feet/inches in SU then changed to meters prior to exporting. Does a model have to be drawn in meters for it to export correctly?? Don't like that idea, I'm not a fan of the metric system.... Never learned in school. That's how old I am.

TheKman wrote:

bnsfsubdivision wrote: I'm not a fan of the metric system.... Never learned in school. .

Had you learned it in school you would have been a fan. It's a system that just makes sense.

wacampbell wrote:
Maybe, but ... I don't think there is a workflow to get TSM models into Railworks.

Well almost every 3d model model in the screenshots of that route I've been working on has been built in TSM, imported into 3DC, and exported into .igs format.

SAR704 wrote:Well almost every 3d model model in the screenshots of that route I've been working on has been built in TSM, imported into 3DC, and exported into .igs format.

Good to know.

So for us ignoramuses who don't always get all the acronyms what is TSM?

buzz456 wrote:So for us ignoramuses who don't always get all the acronyms what is TSM?

"Train Sim Modeler" is an early 3D CAD program developed specifically to make models for Microsoft Train Simulator. It became popular in the MSTS community as an easy program to learn and use. Its available for free at the author's web site:

http://www.rundiomusic.com/SimDownloads

wacampbell wrote:

SAR704 wrote:Well almost every 3d model model in the screenshots of that route I've been working on has been built in TSM, imported into 3DC, and exported into .igs format.

Good to know.

There's no point rebuilding hundreds of building/scenery objects in Blender for no real benefit

So here's a update. I had to reinstall 3DC.... It kept crashing my computer. This time around I left the whole thing on default settings. My buildings are now the correct size. Go figure......

3DC 10 hasn't even loaded successfully for me yet. I've only ran it once, and I'm not interested in obtaining a $70+ licence key for it.