Making Smooth Curves (Video and Pictures)

Making Smooth Curves (Video and Pictures)

Text Tutorial


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If these angles are the kinds of things you're trying to avoid, then keep reading. It might take a few minutes to figure out exactly what's going on, but once you've done it once, it only takes a few moments to set up a really nice turn.

Before anything, make sure you know where you're going, and lay down a load of gravel grade beforehand if you're on a slope so you have space to work. This will all get deleted later, so don't worry about making it look nice; just make sure it roughly follows the bend, and if you're going up or down, make sure the gravel matches the grade too.

The first thing you're going to do is attach a 90 degree crossover to the end of your track. Then, turn around and place another one on the same snapping point so that it clips into the rail behind it. The point where these crossovers meet will be where your straight pieces end and your curve begins. To keep it visually distinct from the crossovers, I'm using the wooden deck for the standard track, but this works with regular 3ft segments too.

I'm going to refer to this pair as the anchor. There are 3 important snapping points on the anchor; to avoid confusion, I will refer to them as the trailing edge, the leading edge, and the middle snap points.

Once your track looks similar to the above, you'll want to delete some of the track behind it so you have some room to work.

Next, we're going to use the built-in curve tool to make a curve going *backwards* which we will use as another anchor point for the final curve. This will be a few steps in one.

First, create a new track segment and snap it to the leading edge of the anchor. Then, snap it to the middle point, and then press the Left Alt key to toggle the curve tool. (The curve tool is on by default when building trestles or the wooden deck rails.) Set the curve angle to HALF of what you want the final curve to be, and place the end of the track as far as it will go.

(*NOTE!* If you're turning left, then building the turn backwards means you need this section to turn right, and vice-versa. Use the pictures as a reference.)

Right click to finish the segment, and place another 90 degree crossover at the end. The final result should look like this:

Delete all of your track except for the crossovers, and then repeat the process on the other side.

Again, delete all of your track except for the crossovers. We are now ready to lay the track for the final curve.

Now, this may get a little wordy, but bear with me. Start a new rail segment from the leading edge of the rear-most crossover (not the one on the anchor), then snap it to the middle point of the anchor. Then, snap to the trailing edge of the foremost crossover. Press Left Alt, and set the curve radius to what you want your curve to be, and continue this segment as far as you want.

Finally, delete the crossovers, and delete the first section of the curve so that it points back at your main line, and you're ready to link them together.

And voila! A clean transition.

Hope this helps!

Video Tutorial (No Commentary)


https://youtu.be/6sacg-jU1_A

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2640163144					

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