Hi Paul,
I have been trying on and off over the past few months to get the animation of my DM unit pantograph to work in Trainz 06. I have the animation operating perfectly in 3DC and have exported via your Trainz IM export plug-in
using option 3. 3DC exports the .im and anim.kin files O.K. and I have prepared the Trainz config.txt file without errors.However, the pantograph refuses to animate in the Trainz programme.I have attached a screen of the 3DC image with the hierarchy for you to please check.Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I am presently making do with a default Trainz panto which doesn't quite cut the mustard, so hopefully I can get this one to function.
Thanks, cheers, Fender.

Pantograph_1.jpg (72 Kb, 18 downloads)

I have a horrible feeling that TRS only supports .pm files for pantos.

I thought it had been fixed in 06.

I may need to look into exporting .pm files - they're similar to .im files.

Hi Paul,
I should have mentioned that this panto is a .dst import from TSM so the hierarchy is set up for MSTS. Also a quick check on the default panto I am using (Tro6) is a .pm file. I thought Tr06 was all .im files, but for pantographs they still use the older .pm file !
A mention is made of "bones" for pantographs in Trainz C.C.G. so this is an area of 3DC modelling I have yet to become familiar with.
I may have to include bones and convert the .im to .pm files to attain any sucess?
Cheers, Fender

Further to the above Paul, I have been over on the Trainz forums and found this subject not widely discussed, perhaps more to "uncommon" i.e. most modellers prefer steam or deisel , however one prominent modeller suggests C.C.G. have got it wrong and in fact it is O.K. to use .im files for pantographs. I am now leaning more towards the "bones" being absent from my model as to the cause of animation failure. I will do an exercise on placing a "skeleton" in the pantograph model and report back. I can see confusion approaching with the "b.r." naming in the hierarchy, but that's all part of the learning curve !
Cheers, Fender

What TRS calls bones is different to 3DC bones.

For TRS bones, all you need to do is to name the groups as b.r.xxxx etc

If you have my latest ShapeViewer program this can load most .im and .pm files and has a hierarchy viewer so you can examine other panto models.

I would be most interested to hear if it works.

http://www.trensim.com/lib/pafiledb.php?lib=msts&action=file&id=566

Hello again Paul,
Thank God I don't have to build that skeleton! I have downloaded your latest version 227 shapeviewer from trensim, thankyou , it works well. I have compared the default Trainz panto hierarchy (.pm file ) with my panto hierarchy (.im file ) - this is a handy feature of your new shapeviewer - and it appears that my panto is topsy turvey compared with the default. Your Trainz .im exporter has already placed the "b.r." prefix to my panto parts, so that is obviuosly not the fault. I will have a play around with the hierarchy and keep you posted.
Cheers, Fender

I am now happy to report that I have a working pantograph in Trainz 2006. The stumbling blocks were a bit of incorrect 3DC hierarchy and a minor mistake in the Trainz config.txt file.Just in case anyone else wants to build a panto for Trainz 06 using 3DC, here are my own findings:
1) The model must be built using metric measurements.
2) The hierachy must be correct (of course).
3) Despite what Trainz C.C.G. says, for Tr06 it must be an .im file.
4) The config.txt file must have a mesh file entry for the .im file and also a anim entry for the "anim.kin" file.

I am not at all sure about backwards compatability with Tr04, there are so many suttle differences between 04 and 06.

I have attached a pic of the correct 3DC hierarchy and correct Trainz config entries for this pantograph. Handy to note also, the same set up can be used to make an animated jib for a JCB digger for instance.
Cheeres, Fender

Pantograph_2.jpg (63 Kb, 9 downloads)

Many thanks - That just saved me a lot of work writing a .pm export