Help laying straight track on a prototype

[MattW]

I decided to take a poke at the route editor again in TS2014 and it's definitely far improved over the first time I attempted a route. Namely, I can actually get into the route. I'm trying to recreate CSX's Georgia Subdivision near Atlanta, specifically the segment between Lithonia and Conyers as a starting point. I'm having some problems reconciling the track layout with the Google Imagery. In Google Earth itself, there's one section next to a yard where the track is ramrod-straight. I originally laid the track simply clicking in the middle of the "track" (of all things, a train is in the way on the imagery) but that left me a pretty squiggly line. So with the advice in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1947 I tried just laying straight sections (box turns yellow) but I can't ever get the track direction to be exactly right. It's always off just slightly, but over a quarter mile, it becomes a huge difference, big enough that it would be well into the parallel track. What do I need to do to lay the track more exactly? Is there a key that I can press to have finer control over the starting angle of the track?
Thanks for any help!
Matt

[jonmorrie]

http://railworksamerica.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=10987

This explains it.

[MattW]

Thanks for the topic link! Definitely looks like some very useful information.
Now I have another question. I was on my way to edit my topic to add it, but saw the reply. Is there any way of adjusting the offset distance when using the offset tool?
Thanks again!

[jonmorrie]

Maybe someone from that thread could explain better. I wish I could comprehend what some of that information even means!

[MattW]

Sorry to be spamming my own topic, but I found the answer. For anyone else who needs this, look in the pull out window in the lower left of the screen. When offset is selected, you should see a number. Change that to change the distance.

[hertsbob]

but I can't ever get the track direction to be exactly right. It's always off just slightly, but over a quarter mile, it becomes a huge difference

You could try holding down Shift when you're adjusting the direction of the yellow arrow before you start laying the first piece of track. Quite a bit of trial and error, and you may find that zooming in helps you here. I can't describe exactly how to do this without sitting in front of the right PC, but the you'll find you can get the arrow to remember it's orientation, so you should be able to adjust it by a small amount to get your direction spot on.

Try laying a short section to begin with, maybe 50m or less, which you can then extend to find out whether your direction is OK. (I occasionally have to do this step after the first one mentioned above)

If it's not....

- Delete your long section of track so you've only got the short one left
- Zoom in close to your remaining short section and select it
- Holding down the Shift key try and nudge it round a little bit (I'm sure you can use some kind of key press for this, but I've no idea what it is as I always use the mouse for everything)

Hopefully that will help. If you still can't get the track heading in the right direction there's another way of doing it that I won't go into just yet.

[buzz456]

If you highlight the section of track so the gizmo is showing hitting the f or g key will turn it ever so slightly. Just tap the key.