How to shape mountains and embankments

[magicpio]

Hi everyone!

First post and I am happy to join the community!

When I create slopes, Anyrail automatically creates embankments.
I have a very - lets say - crowded layout on 3 levels, with tunnels and bridges, and the automatic embankment feature does not reflect my layout at all. It is just a mess.

How can I edit existing embankments or create myself?
Same for mountains. I cannot find a tutorial how to place a simple volcano :-) on some empty space.
I had a look at user defined objects, but I would appreciate a simpler solution.

Thanks for pointing me into the right direction.
Jens

[David]

You cannot change the embankments that AnyRail generates.
You can however change things a bit by selecting 'Bridge' for certain stretches (on the TRACK tab, once the track is selected).

You can also add a surface, set its height, and tick 'Height contour' on the SURFACES tab. This will create a 'hill' in the 3D view. By creating concentric height contours, you can create something that looks a bit like a vulcano. Please note that this does not work (at the moment) to create valleys or holes.

[BadBanana]

I have attached an example and screen capture.  One trick that I use is to make the surfaces that are marked as contours almost transparent (select a contour then adjust colour in its properties).  I then clone that contour and adjust its shape and height to make the next contour.  In this way, as several contour layers overlap, you will have a graded effect, just like a nice contoured geographic map.  Note that valleys can be drawn if they are extending from a lower area - the impossible valleys that David mentions are those that would be like a rift surrounded by higher ground.

[David]

Nice example!


A quick way to scale a height contour is to hold SHIFT and move one of the control points.

[magicpio]

@ David
If I cannot change the embankments then I guess I need to disable them and follow yours and BadBananas "Surface Stacking" with "Height Contour" approach?

Regards
Jens

[David]

That's correct.

[railroads2005]

would it be possible to add a feature that we could create heights for each point (node) on a shape or contour? That way the slope from point to point would create the desired hills and valleys

[David]

It now works with height contours. You can nest these to get hills and valleys.

[railroads2005]

I will try that, thank you

[railroads2005]

I guess I don't know how to use it, I could not find a way to adjust height on individual points only the whole contour.