Home > Tutorials > TRS2006 Rolling Stock Coupler Bogey Tutorial

Rolling Stock Coupler Bogey Tutorial

In this tutorial you will learn how to add a coupler to the flatcar created in this tutorial. The couplers will be set up as bogeys/trucks.

Note. To complete this tutorial you will need to download the US style coupler here.

3DStudio Max will be referred to as 3ds.

To complete these tutorials with the dimensions listed herein you will need the following setup
1. Open the "Units Setup.." dialog from the "Customize" menu and select the "System Units Setup" button. In the "System Units Scale", use the system unit scale of 1.0 units = 1m
2. In the "Units Setup set "Display Units Scale" to Metric Meters.

1. Flatcar and new attachment points.

The first thing you need to do is open the flatcar from the flatcar tutorial. Once open we need to add two more attachment points to the mesh. Add the points in the top view and name them a.bog2 and a.bog3. Relocate them to the following locations.

	X	Y	Z
a.bog2	0.0	-5.75	0.88
a.bog3	0.0	5.75	0.88

0.88 gives a coupler height of 34.5" which for North American railroads is the standard coupler height. If you find the couplers are too close to the body then you can adjust the "Y" dimension to suit. Once added then you need to rotate a.bog3 180 degrees in the "Y" coordinates. This allows the use of only one coupler bogey. Once rotated export the mesh to the same location you exported the flatcar to overwriting the existing model.

2. Couplers

Once exported save the file and open the coupler from the above download link. The coupler is in the wrong location for our requirements. Use the "Select and Move" tool to move the coupler so the back face is on 0. Use the following co-ordinates.

	X	Y	Z
Coupler	0.0	-0.424	0.0

Add a texture to the coupler and an "Unwrap UVW" modifier.

Figure 1 Coupler in correct location (NOTE location of grid lines)

3. Coupler exporting and bogey config.txt

Before we export we need to create a new asset with CMP which is done by clicking on the "New" button or by selecting "File" "New" from the main menu. Once you have the "New Asset" window open scroll down to the "Bogey" entry select it and then click on the "New" button. You will then be presented with the Content Creator Plus program with a Bogey asset and the default config entries. The first thing we need to do is to give the asset a name. Type Coupler Bogey into the username tag in the Tag Space.

Once you have named the mesh we need to add a mesh-table container to the directory. To do this right click in the "Tree View" area and select "mesh-table" from the available containers at the top of the list.In the "Enter Name" window type in "default" and click OK. You should now be able to see the mesh-table entry in the tree view area. Now that we have an asset partially created in CCP and the config started we need to switch back to CMP and select the asset and then from the right context menu select "Edit" and then "Edit in Explorer" This will open a windows explorer window at the new assets path. Once the explorer window is open note the path of the directory as this will be the location for the main mesh. Switch back to 3ds and make sure you have nothing selected and from the "File" menu select "Export". Navigate to the folder for the asset and type in the filename Tutorial_bogey.im. Before you hit the "Save" button change the file type in the drop down window to "Trainz Format(*im, *kin, *pm). Once you have this selected click on the "Save" button. 3ds will begin to convert and export the mesh into the Trainz .im format.

Figure 2 New toolbar button

Figure 3 Creating a new TrainCar asset

Figure 4 Default entries for a Bogey asset (NOTE: Default installs of TRS2006 will have far more eras and regions.)

Figure 5 Adding a Mesh Table

Figure 6 Naming the mesh-table's first container

Figure 7 Default entry added

Figure 8 Export

4. Adding containers

Switch back to CCP from 3ds and in the tree view ensure the "default" entry of the "mesh-table" is selected. In the "Tag Space" click on the file selection button and use the "Load Mesh" file explorer to navigate to the folder containing the mesh. Select the mesh and click on OK. The path to the mesh should now be showing up in the mesh tag. While we have the default container selected right click in the tree view and add the following tags.

auto-create

ensure the check box is selected which activates that entry. If you have added a shadow mesh then you can also add another mesh to the mesh-table container. In this case name the container "shadow". Once added use the file navigation button and explorer to select the shadow mesh. No other tags are needed for the shadow mesh so we can move on to the next container.

In the file tree view right click and add the following tags.

company
light
description

Also add the following container.

thumbnails

Once the tags and containers have been added then enter the following values for each tag

Tag name	Description and recomended value
kuid	This is an uneditable entry and cannot be changed.
trainz-build	This is an uneditable entry and cannot be changed.
category-class	Select the required class from the drop down box. In this case we need to select ZB - Bogie/Truck
category-region	Select the required regions by clicking in the checkbox next to each item. You can add as many regions as you like. In this case select the following; CA; US
category-era	Select the required era's by clicking in the checkbox next to each item. You can add as many era as you need. In this case select the following; 1970s; 1980s; 1990s; 2000s
username	Type in a sutiable name for the asset. In this case I have used the following; Coupler Bogey
kind	This tells Trainz that the kind is a Traincar and not a scenery or track item and is an un-editable entry and cannot be changed
company	This is a company name for the item. In this case I have used the following value; Tutorial
light	Sets lighting to be used for object to be ambient or directional. If the checkbox is selected then the lighting is set to directional light which is affected by the position of the sun.
description	This is a description about the bogey. It can be brief or very detailed. I have used the following text for this tag Standard US coupler set up as a bogey

5. Flatcars Config.txt

The next step is to modify the config.txt file for the flatcar so that it can utilize the new couplers. The first thing we need to do is open the asset up in CCP and then add another bogey to the bogey container. The second bogey needs to be identical to the first one except for the name . I used the name rear for the second bogey. Now add another two bogeys to the container and use the KUID browser to specify the Coupler Bogey as the bogey asset to use.

Figure 9 Extra bogeys added

6. Viewing in Trainz

The final step is to ensure both assets have been "Committed" before starting TRS2006. Once TRS2006 is started the flatcar can be viewed in either Driver, Surveyor or Railyard and should now have couplers at each end.

Figure 2 Finished product viewed in Trainz

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