[Plugin] Eneroth Railroad System (v 0.1.21)

eneroth3

Cool bridge!

have you created custom track types for street lights and bridge deck?

deaneau

@eneroth3 said:

Cool bridge!

have you created custom track types for street lights and bridge deck?

no not really.
this was a bridge for a simulator and i have try to combine this. i have this design by photos

http://structurae.de/structures/data/index.cfm?ID=s0005274

some parts of the bridge will be possible however the suspender cables ,the tower and pier will not possible.

i can send you the sketchup model and you can try what´s possible.

is a bridge possible with more than 2 "tracks"?

dean

eneroth3

I think everything but the cables could be drawn as a track type. if the cables were straight even those could be included but the bridge would be a lot less cool.

You can follow the instructions for double tracks in the docs and just make it wider to fit more tracks of the corresponding track type.

ppoublan

Hi Eneroth,

Thanks again for this amazing plugin and the add of custom code at each frame.
I’m playing like a kid with its new toy.

Here are some suggestions/ideas for improvements. Feel free to discard…

I created a custom track (Lego type) with small gauge (0.084m) and scale. Do not know if this is link to this scale but then I got sometime strange behavior when adding new tracks from webdialog:

Can’t create even straight tracks of less than a length (60cm) without getting ties drawn in the opposite direction of the rails.
For slips, tracks at each end are drawn over the slip, not externaly
Do you want a copy of tracks I made to test or this is something you already seen ?

Not sure you can do something with this, but when placing an object (track, train, …) , cant zoom with the mouse wheel until it is pressed one to activate orbit tool. This is not the case with other SU tools.

I replaced default signals. Will wait for the customization doc. One thing is I’m not sure why you need left and right template. Why not to place/rotate within the tool.

When working on complex models, it should be great to be able to change the type of multiple tracks at once. (select many and change the type) in place of doing this one by one.
Would like also a way to force reloading and redrawing tracks when template has been changed.

Regarding camera, maybe a fixed point but with eye following a train would be interesting.

Last, I played a lot with balises. This is the most interesting part. I added 3 instance variables to the balise class to be able to build with the balises a kind of auto-controlled circuit to avoid collisions and add more trains to the same circuit.
These I think may be useful :

Last train : to be able within a balise code to access to the previous train that passed the balise (and not only the current one)
Last run : time the balise was last activated. I use this to control spacing/speed between trains
Custom status : a variable to store a user state for each balise

Yours
Pascal

eneroth3

Hi Pascal

I've never tried making such small tracks but I can look into it. It'd be helpful to see the file. The mouse wheel doesn't work as long as the web dialog is focused and I don't think I can do much about it.

The signal system is quite old and will be replaced completely. Some signal types can show both left, straight and right will some only can show straight and turn so it's a bit complicated but the new system will contain one model only and the hidden property will be changed on the lights/arrows instead of replacing the component.

I have planned for some time to make the track properties dialog work on multiple tracks but haven't been sure how to do it. I'll keep working on this.

I've actually tested to follow with a fixed camera by changing the source code temporarily and it would be quite easy to implement technically but I'm not sure where to put the options in the UI. The Drive Train dialog wouldn't work when you follow a rolling stock without having the tool activated.

The Balise ideas are great! I'll defensively look into it.

Christina

ppoublan

Hi Christina,
Thanks for your answers. Take your time. I take the opportunity I'm on vacations to play !
Yours
Pascal

ppoublan

Here is the track that makes strange result with short tracks.
custom track directory
Yours
Pascal

eneroth3

Pascal: I've updated the Add Track Tool to avoid the problems with the control vector pointing the wrong way. The Lego tracks should work after you've replaced the file in the plugin with the one attached .

I've also been working on adding the new references in the balise code. last_run and last_train is really simple but I was wondering how you imagined the custom data. It's quite hard to save it between sessions if it contains other classes than what can be written as attributes (trains for instance). Is it enough to save the custom data within the session only?

Btw: I really love the idea of making Lego trains

Edit: The scale of the arrows in the switch tool and height of the coupling points in the coupling tool are still adapted for trains at the scale 1:1. However it now all should function even if not visually pleasing at other scales.

track_insert_tool.rb

ppoublan

@eneroth3 said:

I've also been working on adding the new references in the balise code. last_run and last_train is really simple but I was wondering how you imagined the custom data. It's quite hard to save it between sessions if it contains other classes than what can be written as attributes (trains for instance). Is it enough to save the custom data within the session only?

There is no problem for me if the balise states/variables are not saved from one session to the other. Maybe I would prefer if the code typed into advanced animation dialog could be saved, it would be great.
In fact I’m looking for the best way to prevent from collisions… I did not found yet the ideal way.
Maybe I missed another wish, a function or track property that will return if another train is already on the same track ? or a kind of special balise that can act as a signal based on where trains are.
I have used last_run and last_train to reduce speed of current train and accelerate the previous one if time between 2 trains is too small. This is already a cool way to regulate traffic, but It looks to be insufficient when two different tracks merge into one. If you have any idea.

tt_su

"This video is private"
/me wants LEGO!

ppoublan

@tt_su said:

"This video is private"

Oops, is it better now ?

tt_su

eneroth3

I can hardly believe my eyes when seeing the video. It's really cool!

I think I can add the settings for how to follow a rolling stock in the advanced animation settings. I don't want to clutter the context menu since it makes it a lot more time consuming to find in it when drawing.

By 'Translate camera', do you mean moving the camera relative to the train but without rotating and by 'Rotate around selection' the current behavior?

I can add a reference called session_data to the balises where user can store any data they like during a the Sketchup session.

Btw, custom signals have been added for the next version:).

ppoublan

Hi Christina,
Thanks for the fix for small tracks. It works great.
I played a little bit with the SU camera target and eye attributes and put the code to be executed between frames.
Here is a sample of what can be obtained with that :

Youtube Video

It’s very simple code, but hardcoded, and no idea of any user interface.
I will try at least to “package” some functions so they can be called easily from railroad at each frame call.
Basically I’m thinking of :

Follow selection
Rotate around selection
Zoom in / Zoom out
Translate camera
With any train that can be selected as any other object.
If others want to play and add more detailed/fun rolling stocks, here is the basic Lego pack used in this video to unzip in the Plugins directory (simple track + locomotive and freight):
ene_railroad.zip

Yours
Pascal

Box

A fantastic plugin, but it does have something that bothers me. I like to use a limited number of toolbars and only open them up when I need them. Your toolbar, no matter which way you close it, will always reopen on startup unless you have actually disabled the plugin. Could you look at removing this behavior.

eneroth3

@box said:

A fantastic plugin, but it does have something that bothers me. I like to use a limited number of toolbars and only open them up when I need them. Your toolbar, no matter which way you close it, will always reopen on startup unless you have actually disabled the plugin. Could you look at removing this behavior.

The plugin should run toolbar.restore within a 0 timer t avoid some bug (apparently called 2902434) but for some reason my code uses .show instead . It'll be fixed for the next release but you can manually change it an line 1248 in main.rb now if you want to. I think this was the solution for a bug in SU 8 which doesn't support the plugin so it's probably not needed at all.

Box

Thanks, it was only a tiny thing in an otherwise superb plugin.

deaneau

WELCOME BACK <joke> JCE (sound like jaycey)</joke> Eneroth3.

i have find some bugs and eastereggs in your plugin.

more about this via PM.

dean

ppoublan

@eneroth3 said:

By 'Translate camera', do you mean moving the camera relative to the train but without rotating and by 'Rotate around selection' the current behavior?

Hi Christina,
Easier to explain with sample. Here are some functions I used, to be called at each frame.
Feel free to integrate/customize/mix as you want within your plugin.

Here is the ruby file:
camera_animation.rb

And samples:

rotate around

Youtube Video

target

Youtube Video

follow

Youtube Video

Pascal