Trainz/Surveyor

Introduction
Surveyor is the built-in world editing tool of the three Trainz operating environments. Like the Windows application Content Manager the three GUIs draw on the Trainz local data base for asset information. Most versions of Trainz include the Surveyor module - the notable exceptions are the few "driver only" introductory products such as the 2005 release Trainz Driver. The pages provides planning details on the fine points of how build routes and their associated gameplay sessions using Surveyor, whereas this module will focus on learning the basics with a number of projects and many situational examples of operations--things you can use immediately and build upon as we introduce more challenges. This book's authors have no intention of rehashing things you can learn by reading and rereading the basics from the excellent Trainz pdf manuals. We strongly suggest having yours printed (and it's there, even in downloaded-No DVD versions!) and reading through it during toilet time, if not otherwise. Many of us flew the program with such a copy right beside us to learn what we hope to ease you learning! With a series of tasks, demo, document and then have you do, you should learn capabilities and operations very quickly&mdash;and memorizing things like hotkeys will be natural from using them.

Surveyor menus
The main Trainz GUI menus changed significantly with the advent of TS10, in effect combining things a bit differently and still proving the same functions. Railyard was exclusively accessed using the Main Menu,...

Tool Tabs and modes
Surveyor has seven major tools that are accessible via hot key combinations and mouse click combinations and from the earliest Trainz Beta 0.9 release until the latest, these differ only in the sixth tab which until layers were introduced in TS2010 was for World control settings like clouds, water appearance, season of the year, time of day and the world origin. Most of these are intermediate controls that for now either will already be set up (since we're going to have you (1) Look, (2) modify, (3) learn-by-doing ... not start by creating your assets from scratch, in the time honored Trainz tradition.)


 * For now suffice it to say the world controls have been moved off the tab and put into the surveyor options menu in favor of a new powerful mode tool, the Layer association tab/tool on the  tab instead.
 * This tool let's the user associate assets on either a session definition (Navigation waypoints called s, things a session Rule might test like  and rolling stock in s) which are integral to making up a given scenarios needs) or ''on the 'route/map/layout' (track, scenery items, landscape features, interactive industries like train stations, yards, switching, and so on and so on).


 * , By Jytte Christrup &mdash;Step by Step Surveyor tutorial on signaling.
 * , By Chuck Brite, "A Tutorial For New Train Simulator Surveyors" &mdash;About a dozen Step by Step Surveyor how-to tutorials

Editable Items

 * In the below, certain groups of tools have hotkeys, which are accessed using – which have had the same main functions since Trainz 1.3 until TS10 relocated the Environment controls and replaced them in the World building GUI mode with the Layers Tab (see below for layer details)''. As a concurrent improvement, the main menu in Driver and Surveyor have access to the environment allowing a user with a few clicks to drive a session under very different conditions including time and date, giving variations of seasons, weather, day-and-night, etc. broadening the variations and enjoyment a single session might give in Driver.

Surveyor allows the manipulation of the following aspects of the game:


 * Routes &mdash;map building and model detailing to potentially absurd degrees of game slowing over-doing it.
 * One of the biggest factors affecting data throughput, or s (game display and smoothness of operation) is how many different asset varieties are used in its construction. The less the better for frame rates, as cautioned prominently in the Surveyor section introductions going back to the original Trainz.
 * This is a partial list in lieu of the more comprehensive coverage below of Surveyor tools and hotkeys:
 * Ground Height
 * Ground Textures
 * Water
 * Route Layers (see below for layer details)
 * Tracks and track related (Trackside) objects (


 * Sessions
 * Environmental Conditions (initial) - Newer releases let user customize in session
 * Many new Session Rules (50 included with TRS2006 release, many more now on DLS)
 * Session Layers (see below for layer details)
 * Customised ability to define Initial Junction Directions
 * Customised ability to define Map Object Properties (e.g. searchable names on a locale or building)


 * Per-Layer &mdash; Since TS10 many digital objects which were once by necessity bound and defined solely in the map part of the simulation&mdash;before they could be accessed using Trainz rules references in Trainz sessions which glue together gameplay software interfaces with objects and the sessions giving the interactive play to sessions&mdash; have through the introduction of layers now enabled a base map definition to have the variations in capabilities and even placed visible interactive content with their new ability to have their definitions inside a session layer'. Prior to this routes had to hold all the key elements needed by a particular session or a family of sessions built on the map, which at one and the same time, would clutter up a route and limit its flexibility and that of the appropriate sessions which could be built upon the map.


 * Map Objects (Scenery, etc.)
 * Scenery Splines
 * Track
 * Trackside Objects
 * Trains

Content Search Filter is a powerful tool that allows you to selectively filter the items you want to find.

The Content Filter is opened by clicking on the Funnel Icon on the top menubar, which also accesses the picklist window in more recent releases.

For example, typing "red" in the Surveyor Filter Window will then show only items containing the letters "red" in the various Surveyor Tool Tabs objects select panes, part of the Trainz tools and asset selection panels on the right hand side. Typing 'signal' lists only signal containing titles in the objects select pane, which if you go to use (Trainz and Consists) will likely give a list on the right containing NONE, as seen in the similar example at right where stations hides selections in ! The filter always overrides the Tabs contents at the right.

Don't forget to reset (Clear) your filter when you have found what you are looking for. Discussion of the button controls will be on a page about the filters.