Getting started 7: Decorating
Track, tunnel, mountain and gradient are in place. What is missing is everything beside them: houses, trees, lamps, poles. This step shows where those objects come from and which two peculiarities they have that track does not.
tutorial7: the goal of this step.
The buttons with the objects
Down in the left toolbar are four multi-tool buttons. Each shows the tool last used from it, and the small triangle beside it opens its list — as does a long press on the button itself, which is the easier way on a touchscreen:
| Button | What it contains |
|---|---|
| Railway | what belongs to the track: signal, pole, barrier, bridge, platform, station, engine shed |
| Buildings | what stands as a whole: building, tower, wind turbine |
| Building parts | what goes onto or into a building: window, door, balcony, chimney, stairs, clock |
| Scenery and life | everything around it: terrain, tree, lamp, shape, walker, camera |
A click on the tool hangs the object on the pointer; the next click in the plan sets it down. The tool stays on the button afterwards: ten trees are the same click ten times.
Set it up first, then place it
The Insert menu carries the same four lists. There, each entry first opens the object's dialog, and only after OK does it hang on the pointer. Either way, Raily remembers how you last set up an object of that kind.
Shaping a building
Set a building beside the track. At first it is a box with a roof.
Select it and click it again. On the left, the building's values appear — Variant, Length, Height, Width, Roof shape — and green and yellow handles for the same dimensions appear on the object itself. Type a number when you know one, drag a handle when you are looking for it.
That is how all these objects work, from tree to station hall.
Windows and doors belong on a wall
This is the first peculiarity, and it applies to almost everything under Building parts. Windows and doors do not lie on the table, but on a surface:
- Set them in a 3D view. From above you see no wall, only the roof.
- They hang themselves on the wall you point at, with its tilt and its direction. A window on a gable wall stands upright in it without you having to rotate it.
A window that has been set travels along the wall when dragged, so also upward and downward.
From a sticker to an opening
A window on the wall at first sits only in front of it. A hole appears only once you install it:
- Select the window.
- Add the building too with Ctrl-click. Whatever was clicked last is the host.
- Press Shift+I.
Raily cuts the opening out of the wall, and from then on the window belongs to the building: it travels with it when you move the house. The same three steps install a staircase, a tunnel or any other solid into another.
From then on a click hits the building, not the window anymore. To get hold of the window again, select the building and enter it with I; Esc leads back out, see Groups. Inside, Shift+O uninstalls the window again.
Why not right away, when it is set down?
Because the cutting has to be computed, and because you will usually move a window once more first. Installing is the moment at which you say: now it is in the right place.
Lamps
Add lamp sets a light fitting that really does light. Mounting chooses between post, wall bracket, suspended, bollard and the fitting alone. With Wall bracket it behaves like a window and hangs itself on the wall; change that setting before you place it.
Lit when is a small condition. The default is night|dusk, from dusk until
morning; true means always, false never. The same kind of condition sets a signal and closes a
barrier, see Signals, barriers and blocks.
All lamps light up, but only a few cast light
Every lamp that is on is bright in itself. But at most four lamps and headlights at a time cast their glow onto the ground and walls — the nearest ones, because light costs computing time. On a fast computer, set 3d lamps and headlights to 8 in Settings, group Rendering.
And when is it night?
In a fresh plan it is always midday, so the lamps stay off. What decides when it gets dark is the environment.
Poles remember their track
This is the second peculiarity, and it applies to poles and signals. Set a pole beside a track and it binds itself to it. Which side it stands on is decided by the side your pointer was on when you set it down.
Move the track later and the pole goes with it. Drag it far enough away and the binding is released again.
Next
That was the getting-started path. From here the remaining chapters describe the individual tools, the table of contents is the starting point.
See also
- Snapping: how objects hang onto surfaces and tracks
- Installing into multiple hosts
- Material selector
- Environment: time of day and position of the sun