Problems Exporting Rolling Stock Models

I don’t know about the rest of you but sometimes when I’m having a problem that doesn’t work out right away I can get into a loop of sorts where I become blind to what the real problems may be. For some time now I’ve been exporting scenery objects, track, switches, switch stands and even a turntable without more than the usual amount of headaches. I thought that once I managed to do these sorts of things that when it came time to export Rolling Stock that it would only incur the usual amount of difficulty. Well, no such luck. Part of the problem is that I also just upgraded to 3DC 8 (I jumped in at 8.2 build 1506)so I’m also dealing with a short but steep learning curve for the modelling program.
Here is the model that I’m trying to export with the pertinent hierarchy displayed:

[img:1pti810h]http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h41/wmalder/3D%20Modelling/BoxcarModel.jpg[/img:1pti810h]

With this model and naming I get no display in RW2 at all. With an earlier model with slightly different naming I did get this:

[img:1pti810h]http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h41/wmalder/3D%20Modelling/BoxcarExport.jpg[/img:1pti810h]

So, I have a few questions. What should the naming convention be for Bogies in a model like this? Should the couplers be included in this model or should they be separate as I’ve done them? When I export using either exporter, I select the entire hierarchy yet I can only seem to export the one part. And I read in an earlier post that the blacked out display in the alternate exporter was a problem with Windows XP (Which I use)but the fix was forthcoming. That post was dated back in the spring and I can find no update any sooner – any idea when it’s coming or at least which selection does what if it will work in XP at all.

Finally, I have the hierarchy as it was when I could export the body of the model only for the purpose of documenting my progress.

[img:1pti810h]http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h41/wmalder/3D%20Modelling/BoxcarHierarchy.jpg[/img:1pti810h]

If I can get my mind around this part and I can export something then will be the time to work on the Blueprints.

When I encounter a problem like this where the main object is visible in the Asset Editor, but nothing else is, I have found that it can be caused by two things.

1 – objects with the same name; however it looks like all your objects have unique names.

2 – untextured faces; try this – select entire hierarchy and use plug inandgt;materialandgt;fill untextured.

But than again, it may just be a fluke with the current level of 8.2 and the exporter.

Very nice looking model by the way.

Thanks very much. But I tell ya, I’d really love to be able to get these into the sim. I believe that once I get one to work the rest will follow along and I have a lot of stuff that I want to get into RW2. I have a whole route with only the need for foliage…and Rolling Stock. I’ve even been able to get working Steam into MSTS but I could never get my mind around building routes. Now I’ve got a route but I can’t do the trains. Very frustrating.

I took another look at your hierarchy and did notice that you have two groups named ‘group’. This will prevent the model from exporting correctly. Either go through manually and make sure all of your groups and objects have different names, or select the hierarchy and use pluginandgt;create unique names.

Yes, actually I noticed that myself last night and changed it. Whatever it was that I did in addition to that, now I get nothing exported even though the .igs file is a fair size so it’s not exporting nothing, but it’s nothing that’s visible. This is the worst kind of problem because with nothing to go on there’s no clues as to what’s wrong.
I hate to ask this but is there anyone out there willing to take the file and see if they can make it work? I promise if they do they will get a credit in full measure.

Much thanks to dick8299 for his assistance. I must say some progress has been made. With his help I have managed to export the boxcar as a scenery object but I’m having no luck exporting it as a wagon. I’m now fairly sure that I’m not generating a useful or workable blueprint. At least I know that the model is fine, now I need to work on the blueprint. Has anyone given an example of a workable blueprint? On this, at least, I’m still chasing my tail.

Blueprints can be difficult to manage.
I had problems too to export a loco.

I restarted from blueprints given in the samples provided on railsimulator web site (there is an engine sample so I believe that there should be a wagon sample too).

And take a look here:
[img:2ktdkwe8]http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic.php?f=219andt=77375[/img:2ktdkwe8]
<!– m –><a class="postlink" href="http://forums.uktrainsim.com/v…ic.php?f=219andt=77375">http://forums.uktrainsim.com/v…ic.php?f=219andt=77375</a>&lt;!– m –>

When exporting, keep under Main only the groups necessary for specific wagon components (bogies for exemple). For this, each time I need to export, in order not to change the hierarchy, I save the model under a different name and then I move the components right under Main leaving only the groups for the specific components.
Bogies and wheels group names must be the same as those used in the blueprint.

I had a problen where I was exporting a wagon and had a set of wheels animated over a static set.
Basicly two models exported.
My problem was I selected the ‘hierarchy’ and should have selected the ‘group’ for export.
This may or may not help. <!– s;) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_wink.gif" alt="" title="Wink" /><!– s;) –>

Alex

Well, the adventure continues. Thanks to dick8299 the model I have is exportable but I do understand that it will be better if I can figure out for myself what I have to do for a blueprint. I’m showing here the blueprint that I’ve come up with from the sources I’ve looked at and I know for sure that I have something wrong because I keep getting an error message and the Asset Editor crashes. If you all could be so kind as to see if there’s something obviously wrong and point me in the right direction. Because I’m not working from a known good blueprint it’s a little hard to pinpoint the problem. Screenshots of the Asset Editor screens follow:

[img:c6dkfpyh]http&#58;//i61&#46;photobucket&#46;com/albums/h41/wmalder/3D%20Modelling/Bogie1Blueprint&#46;jpg[/img:c6dkfpyh]

[img:c6dkfpyh]http&#58;//i61&#46;photobucket&#46;com/albums/h41/wmalder/3D%20Modelling/Bogie2Blueprint&#46;jpg[/img:c6dkfpyh]

[img:c6dkfpyh]http&#58;//i61&#46;photobucket&#46;com/albums/h41/wmalder/3D%20Modelling/BoxcarBlueprint1&#46;jpg[/img:c6dkfpyh]

[img:c6dkfpyh]http&#58;//i61&#46;photobucket&#46;com/albums/h41/wmalder/3D%20Modelling/BoxcarBlueprint2&#46;jpg[/img:c6dkfpyh]

[img:c6dkfpyh]http&#58;//i61&#46;photobucket&#46;com/albums/h41/wmalder/3D%20Modelling/BoxcarBlueprint3&#46;jpg[/img:c6dkfpyh]

The above has generated the following error through about a dozen changes.

[img:c6dkfpyh]http&#58;//i61&#46;photobucket&#46;com/albums/h41/wmalder/3D%20Modelling/ErrorMessage&#46;jpg[/img:c6dkfpyh]

So what is it I have wrong?

In the bogie blueprints you have the wrong names for the bogies and the wheels.

Where you have Bogie1; change that to bo01
Where you have Wheels11; change that to bo01wh01
Where you have Wheels12; change that to bo01wh02

Where you have Bogie2; change that to bo02
Where you have Wheels21; change that to bo02wh01
Where you have Wheels22; change that to bo01wh02

Also, you do not have your collision height, collision width, or collision length entered, which are your basic model dimensions. One weird thing about the blue print is that for collision length ONLY, you must put an m after the number. for example it your length is 15 meters, you would enter 15m. All of the other entries for collision, and pivot points are just the number.

Good Luck

Hello

I think you can use any name for the bogies and wheels, as long as the are the same in your model and your blue print.

Here some things that are not correct or not filled in.

According to the wagon tutorial in the Wiki, the values in GǣTag s pivot offsetGǥ field in your bogie blue prints, should both be 0.

Provider en product not filled in in the coupling section of the wagon blue print.

As Dick8299 already mentioned, Front pivot x,y, Back pivot x,y, Collision centre x,y, Collision width and height are not filled in.

Geometry ID (your igs file) is not filled in.
Collision geometry ID is not filled in. ( Can be the same as your model igs file)

Here the link to the wagon tutorial in the Railsimulator.com Wiki.

[img:3g75d8zc]http&#58;//www&#46;railsimdownloads&#46;com/wiki/tiki-index&#46;php?page=Creating%20the%20Wagon%20Blueprintandstructure=Reference%20Manual[/img:3g75d8zc]
<!– m –><a class="postlink" href="http://www.railsimdownloads.co…e=Reference%20Manual">http://www.railsimdownloads.co…e=Reference%20Manual</a>&lt;!– m –>

Hope this helps

Regards
Gerrit

Okay, I’ve been going through the tutorials step by step and I’ve also gone through my model very carefully checking that I have the correct shaders in the correct slots with the correct values. Now I’ve exported with both exporters both the standard .igs exporter and the alternative exporter and the best I can get is this:

[img:1ek0qply]http&#58;//i61&#46;photobucket&#46;com/albums/h41/wmalder/3D%20Modelling/ExportStdVer8_2&#46;jpg[/img:1ek0qply]

I’ve also received the following error when trying to export from the Asset Editor though I think I have this one fixed by very carefully using the Material Plugin to chase down any improper instances of TexDiff.

[img:1ek0qply]http&#58;//i61&#46;photobucket&#46;com/albums/h41/wmalder/3D%20Modelling/ErrorMessageTexDiff&#46;jpg[/img:1ek0qply]

I can’t say that I’m making progress. One thing I am finding is that RailWorks is MUCH fussier about what it will work with.

Hello,

Did you take a look [img:sngp9itm]http&#58;//amabilis&#46;com/forumattachments/a/tpc/f/50410947331/m/72720649841[/img:sngp9itm]
here
(especially #?
My experience of missing parts is due to groups.
So using steps from #8 mentionned above, I would remove Ladder1, etc… groups.

And may be it won’t help your TexDiff problem, but you could replace it with TrainBasicObjectDiffuse.fx for a better look.
These shaders should have nothing in specular, bump or environment map slot.

Do you have excel? I can give you a file which will list all shapes with there texture file, railsim keyword and parent group. This excel file reads the file generated by the ‘scene details’ plugin. Or make your ‘scene details’ file downloadable here so that I might take a look.

[img:3nrrhayk]http&#58;//image1&#46;humyo&#46;com/I/9221995-2812072021/300/300/0/1/1290723696?a=fd_sqyQERbc[/img:3nrrhayk]