3D Canvas Textures

[TheKman]

I'm getting the point of trying to take one of my 3D models and import into Railworks as a asset.

The older tutorials 3D Canvas 7 & 8 say to make the texture files 32 bit bitmaps. However, I have 3D9. There are not many tutorials using 9. One says to use the 32 bmp. Another says to make .png images.

I have TS 2017. No plans to get into TSW at the moment.

For TS 2017, which format should be used? Bitmaps or PNG??

And also, does anyone know of any links for tutorials using 3DC9 to import into Railworks? I've found just two. Most are for 3DC7, a few using 8.

Thanks

[Bananarama]

For TS 2017, which format should be used? Bitmaps or PNG??

DDS is the preferred format.

Cheers!
Marc

[mrennie]

I use 3DC 9.2.2 and 9.3 (because 9.3 can do ambient occlusion using POVRay but crashes doing some things that 9.2.2. can do without crashing).

In 3DC, I use .tga files for the textures. TGA files allow you to have alpha channels (which some shaders need). However, you also have to save the same textures as .ace or .dds files (I always save them as .ace, using a plugin for Photoshop). 3DC doesn't recognise .ace files but it does recognise .tga files. The Railworks Asset Editor is the opposite - it recognises .ace files but not .tga files. That's why you have to save the textures in both formats.

Exporting in 3DC 9 is the same as always - go to File > Export > TrainWorks > .igs (you must first have enabled Trainworks Features, by going to Tools > Options > Misc).

I don't use .dds because I could never get my version of Photoshop to work properly with the dds plugin.

[TheKman]

OK, learning my way around 3D Canvas now.

When I first import a model in, what should the scale be set to?? I've read that if this is not done, when the model makes it's way into RW/TS, it's usually way too big, on occasion too small. This seems to be an area where one needs to play with settings... I've read stuff suggesting many different settings. I need some sort of base figure to begin with an adjust from there.

Thanks

[Bananarama]

When I first import a model in, what should the scale be set to??

1:1.

[TheKman]

Yes 1-1. Thanks Hack. The model was made 1-1 in Sketchup.

So now my issue is when I go to export the model from 3DC to the sim, I get error messages about there being un textured faces.....

In SU I DID texture all the faces. Both inside and out. I think I got all ones inside. I selected the whole model, reversed the faces, textured the inside then reversed the faces once more.

So within 3DC, how do I highlight the model to show the un textured faces??

[mrennie]

Yes 1-1. Thanks Hack. The model was made 1-1 in Sketchup.

So now my issue is when I go to export the model from 3DC to the sim, I get error messages about there being un textured faces.....

In SU I DID texture all the faces. Both inside and out. I think I got all ones inside. I selected the whole model, reversed the faces, textured the inside then reversed the faces once more.

So within 3DC, how do I highlight the model to show the un textured faces??

A common mistake when starting out is that you end up with faces comprised of only two points, i.e. faces that are actually lines and thus very hard to see (and even harder to texture). If you can't see any untextured faces, you've probably got some untextured lines.

One way to texture them easily, but crudely, is to use the Material Sampling Tool (looks like a pippet) to pick up an existing texture and then select a small, unused area of that texture, then go to Tools > Material > Fill Untextured.

There are ways of selecting the untextured faces (and lines) but it's a bit complicated to explain. But I'll try. Make a copy of the model. Use the pippet to select the material on a face that you know is textured. Use the Face Selection Tool to select that textured face. With the face selected (highlighted in yellow), right-click and do Select > By Material. It will highlight all faces that use that same material. Delete those faces. Keep doing that on other textured faces until you're left with the untextured faces. Once you know where they are, it's fairly easy to delete them from the original model.

[TheKman]

A common mistake when starting out is that you end up with faces comprised of only two points, i.e. faces that are actually lines and thus very hard to see (and even harder to texture). If you can't see any untextured faces, you've probably got some untextured lines.

One way to texture them easily, but crudely, is to use the Material Sampling Tool (looks like a pippet) to pick up an existing texture and then select a small, unused area of that texture, then go to Tools > Material > Fill Untextured.

There are ways of selecting the untextured faces (and lines) but it's a bit complicated to explain. But I'll try. Make a copy of the model. Use the pippet to select the material on a face that you know is textured. Use the Face Selection Tool to select that textured face. With the face selected (highlighted in yellow), right-click and do Select > By Material. It will highlight all faces that use that same material. Delete those faces. Keep doing that on other textured faces until you're left with the untextured faces. Once you know where they are, it's fairly easy to delete them from the original model.

OK, I'm not understanding this.... I can't do these on the model in 3DC. Nothing seems to happen.

Enclosed are 3 pics of the messages I got when the export to RW finished. Actually I got a total of 7 of these messages about stuff being un textured. 6 were shape "FrontColor" contains untextured faces and 1 saying shape "BackColor" contains untextured faces. It its even connected, there are 7 textures for the model.

[TheKman]

Well, I've figured out a lot of my problems. I forgot to mention I'm using the plugin for 3D Canvas 9 to export the model from 3DC-9 to the sim.

The error messages regarding items not textured:

I had to go back into SU. The inside was textured with a color I made. But the outside was the default material which is what I put my textures on. I painted the default material white which I made. That solved that problem.

Next was the textures were not properly sized. So width has to be a factor of two eh??? Got that fixed.

So here are the two items giving me problems at the moment.....

It's saying the RWAceTool.exe is not selected. How do I do that? And it appears I could do this manually as well. If I were to go this route,where do I put the .ACE files after RWace tool makes them??

Second. The dern thing is saying I don't have the right path leading to the Railworks installation folder.

I have the following path:

C:\Program Files (x86)\steam\steamapps\Common\Railworks

Is this the correct path and if so, why is it telling to go climb a wall???

Thanks

[mrennie]

It's saying the RWAceTool.exe is not selected. How do I do that? And it appears I could do this manually as well. If I were to go this route,where do I put the .ACE files after RWace tool makes them??

Put the .ace files into the Textures folder (which has to be a sub-folder below the folder that has the .igs files). For example, if your .igs files are in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\RailWorks\Source\MyDeveloper\MyProduct\MyScenery, then the .ace files go in Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\RailWorks\Source\MyDeveloper\MyProduct\MyScenery\Textures.

Second. The dern thing is saying I don't have the right path leading to the Railworks installation folder.

I have the following path:

C:\Program Files (x86)\steam\steamapps\Common\Railworks

Is this the correct path and if so, why is it telling to go climb a wall???

Thanks

That's the correct path, but just don't use the Wizard to do the export. Instead, select the parts you want to export (they must all be in the same hierarchy and you must make sure that all group names are unique - the entire object will be invisible if any group names are duplicated), then go straight to File > Export > TrainWorks > igs and choose the export folder when the dialogue box comes up.

By the way, I recommend moving from Canvas7 to Crafter Pro 9.2.2. The latter is much more powerful.

[TheKman]

And the saga continues..... Honestly it can't be this hard. I think as I'm getting older, my mind is becoming more dense....

So, I got the unique name thing figured out. Got the Ace thing figured out. Turns out that was not an error message. It was just saying it couldn't be pointed to the RWAce.exe and the ACE files would have to be made manually which I've done.

Drumroll: I actually got it to export but I don't know where it dropped it..... In my source folder under the name of the model is a folder called "Media" and a 3DC log. The media file has a components folder and a textures folder. The texture folder has my images and my ACE files. The component folder has 4 items. 3DCrafter.clo, Household.CLO, Skeleton.CLO, and Text.CLO

This is the only evidence I've found that something was exported. Nothing is in my assets developers folders for it.

And of course the model can't be found in the sim as of yet namely because I assume more has to be done.

So, really hate to sound clueless here, but what do I do next???

[TheKman]

Found some more reading and another tutorial that looks a bit promising.

I think I exported wrong cause I don't have ANY .IGS files for my model.

And it looks like after exporting correctly the next step is to fire of the Blueprint editor and work with my model further. This tutorial shows how to make your way around the Blueprint editor so time to take another plunge!!!

[TheKman]

LOVE THIS TUTORIAL I FOUND ON YOUTUBE!!!!!!

Boy was I ever doing things backwards.

I'm now down to figuring out the Blueprint editor.

Another experiment in terror begins.......

[TheKman]

More drama!!!

Prepped the model in the Blueprint editor.......

Got the following error messages. (pic enclosed) Says I have too many nodes. HELP!!!!

I have a hunch this can be fixed similar to problems with .S and .SD in MSTS(????)

But how do I find the error in question and then fix it???

Thanks

[Bananarama]

I'm not familiar with the workings of 3DC, but as a rule, you shouldn't be using the "&" sign in file or folder names. Consider replacing it with an underscore ("_") or remove it and make the name WPYTunnelPortal.