PartComp3D

Editor for 3D Models for WinRail®

© 2014 Gunnar Blumert and Span Software Limited

 © 2012 Gunnar Blumert and Span Software Limited

Table of Contents
Introduction 3
General instructions 5
Importing .bdf-files 6
Header 7
Trees 8
Structures 9
Block 10
Decoration 11
Text 12
Signs 13
Skylight 14
Wall 15
Curved wall 16
Stairs 17
Ladder 18
Fence 19
Polygon 20
Square 21
Box/hollow square 22
Square chimney 23
Round chimney 24
Sphere 25
Partial sphere 26
Ellipsoid 27
Partial ellipsoid 28
Ring/partial ring 29
Bowl 30
Cylinder 31
Cylinder segment 32
Tube 33
Partial tube 34
Cone 35
Disk 36
Disk segment 37
Ellipse 38
Ellipse segment 39
Platform 40
Sign 41

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Introduction
It is quite hard to create 3-dimensional models for WinRail using the "old" Parts-Compiler.

Therefore - inspired by the "ObjectCreator" that was released by Mr. R. J. Heijink as freeware
a few years ago - we have created an editor for 3D models that will simplify the task
remarkably.

With just a few mouse-clicks you will be able to create

- Trees

- Structures

- Platforms

The 2D- and 3D-preview will give you immediate feedback:

Please read the General instructions before you start to develop your own library.

Here's an example of what can be drawn with WinRail 3D:

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General instructions
These general instructions are valid for all objects you may create:

We recommend that you always keep the 3D-preview open, so that you will get immediate
feedback whenever you make a change.

When you tag an element in the treeview on the left, its colours are displayed inverted in the
3D-preview. As soon as you edit any property in the right pane, the colours return back to
normal.

All elements need article number and description. These fields must not be empty.

WinRail uses the article numbers to identify elements uniquely, especially for the statistics.
Therefore article numbers should be unique.

A layout file may contain many elements from different manufacturers. We recommend you
precede the article number by an abbreviation of the manufacturer name so that the
manufacturer of each element can easily be identified. This "manufacturer prefix" can be set
on the header page for all elements of the library you are currently developing.

If an element is available only in packages that contain more than one element, then please
enter the number of elements in the package. The price then is the price of the package, not
the price of a single item.

For many drawing elements you can decide if you want to create a 2D-representation or not.
You should enable the 2D-representation at least for one drawing element (or add some
"additional declarations" that create the 2D-representation); otherwise the element will be
ignored when creating the WinRail-library.
Not all commands will create a 2D-representation.
The additional declarations are intended for people who are used to the "old" parts-compiler
and want to add things not supported by the 3D-editor. These lines will be passed as they
are to the compiler.

For performance reasons we recommend not to add too many details. Please keep in mind
that your model will almost never be viewed in 1:1 scale, so very small details will be
invisible, but your computer will have to perform several calculations to find that out.

Also you should activate the option Draw back only where it is required. For example, you
know that you never will see the inside of a house - your computer again will have to perform
several calculations.

Once you are finished editing your elements, call File-Compile to create a .blb-file you can
open in WinRail via Element-Load library.

Importing .bdf-files

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Importing .bdf-files
If you have purchased WinRail DeLuxe you are able to import .bdf files via the commands in
the file-menu. However, as PartComp3D actually only supports structures, only structures
declared using the keywords STRUCTURE or TRACK (used for some roundhouses) will be
imported; all other elements will be ignored.

The commands drawing the elements are stored as Additional declarations.

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Header
Here you enter information for all elements in the library.

The manufacturer-prefix will preceed every article-number in WinRail. WinRail uses the
article-numbers to identify the elements uniquely, therefore article-numbers should be
unique.

Because usually a layout contains several elements from different manufacturers, it is useful
to add a manufacturer-prefix to the article-numbers, like Fa- for Faller, Vo- for Vollmer, and
so on.

You also should choose the correct scale; all other fields may be left blank.

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Trees
As for all other elements, trees need to have an article-number and a description.

If the tree is available only in packages containing more than one, then enter the number of
trees per package. The price then is the price of the package, not the price of a single tree.

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Structures

For every structure please enter article-number and description.

The basic drawing element for a structure is the

Block. Additional drawing elements are:

Walls,
Polygons,
square and
round Chimneys,
Fences (railings)
Cylinders,
Cones,
Spheres,
Partial spheres
Ellipsoids
Partial ellipsoids
Rings and ring segments
Bowls
Disks and partial disks
Disk segments
Ellipses and partial ellipses and
Ellipse segments

Please note that not all elements can create a 2D-representation. The file can be compiled
only if at least one element creates a 2D-representation. Otherwise the element would be
invisible in 2D-view and couldn't be tagged, moved or deleted.

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Block

A "block" provides almost everything you need to design a house with just a single
mouse-click: a square with a roof.

But there are many more ways to use a block: you may change the colour of every single
wall, remove some walls or the roof, and a block can be used as a dormer window as this
example demonstrates:

You may change the orientation of a block, for example to create a dormer window at a corner
of the house pointing to the left or right. However, the "front" wall will always be the wall
that faces you when orientation is set to 0°, even if it faces to the back because you set an
orientation of 180°.

You may add

Decorations (windows, doors, openings),
Texts and
Signs (text on a background) to the walls of the block.

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Decoration

Decorations are windows, doors and openings.

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Text

If you intend to pass your library to other users you only should use fonts that ship with
Windows. If the font you have chosen is not available on a computer it is likely that nothing
will be printed.

You can set width and height of the text independently. Set one of these values to 0 to keep
the proportions of the font.

Converting the fonts to 3D-drawing-c ommands takes some time and allocates a reasonable
amount of system-resources. Therefore we recommend that you use as few different fonts as
possible. The size doesn't matter, but italic and/or bold do.

Please keep in mind that lettering that is just a few m illimetres high will almost be invisble in
a layout and therefore better should be omitted.

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Signs

A sign is a rectangular area with a frame where you may place Text.

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Skylight
Creates skylights of different shapes:

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Wall

A wall supports the same additional elements as the walls of a Block:

Decorations (windows, doors and openings),
Texts and
Signs (Texts on a background)
Polygons

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Curved wall
Creates a curved wall.

A wall supports the same additional elements as the walls of a Block:

Decorations (windows, doors and openings),
Texts and
Signs (Texts on a background)

You can't decorate a curved wall with polygons.

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Stairs
Creates stairs that you can design individually in different ways.

The rails can be designed individually as wall, there are separate panes for that.

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Ladder
Creates a simple ladder with a gradient you may choose.

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Fence

Here you define the poles and - optional - additional vertical elements that don't have to
reach down to the ground.

Then you may define the horizontal bars.

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Polygon

A polygon is a surface of any shape positioned anywhere in space.

We recommend the use of polygons only if neither a Block nor a Wall supports the
shape or position you need.

For every vertex of the polygon you have to enter the X-, Y- and Z-coordinate. A
polygon requires at least three vertices. All vertices should share the same plane, but the
orientation of the sphere in space doesn't matter.

The ordering of the vertices should be counter-clockwise to distinguish “front” from “back”.
Front is where the vertices appear in counter-clockwise order.

Your computer only can draw "simple" polygons.

A simple polygon must meet two conditions:
1: The edges created by connecting subsequent vertic es don't cross.
2: Imagine lines connecting every vertex with all other vertices. If one of these lines is
partially outside the polygon, it is not simple.

If your polygon is not simple, then please check "Complex polygon". This tells WinRail to
tesselate the polygon before drawing it. This of course eats some performance, even if no
tesselation is required, so please check this option only if it is required.

These are examples for simple polygons:

And here are two examples for complex polygons:

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Square
Creates a 3-dimensional square that can be rotated around all three axis.

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Box/hollow square
Creates a hollow square or an open box that can be rotated around all three axis.

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Square chimney

Please note that the width of the walls m ultiplied by 2 must be smaller than the width of the
chimney.

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Round chimney

Please note that the wall width multiplied by 2 must be smaller than the smallest radius.

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Sphere

Draws a sphere.

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Partial sphere
Creates a partial sphere. At most a half sphere can be created.

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Ellipsoid
Creates an ellipsoid. A sphere is a special case of an Ellipsoid, where the diameters in x-,
y- and z-direction are equal.

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Partial ellipsoid
Creates a partial ellipsoid.

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Ring/partial ring
Creates a ring or a part of a ring - that's a curved cylinder:

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Bowl
Creates a "bowl" - a partial sphere with a wall width greater than 0:

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Cylinder

Will draw a cylinder, or a tube if you omit the lids.

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Cylinder segment
Creates a cylinder segment:

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Tube
Creates a tube - that's a Cylinder with a wall width greater than 0. You may add a lid to
the top and/or bottom of the tube.

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Partial tube
Creates a partial tube:

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Cone

If you enter different values for Radius X and Radius Y you will get a cone with an elliptic
base.

To get a pointed cone please set Radius Top X to 0.

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Disk
Creates a 2-dimensional disk, or a part of it. The figure may be rotated around all three
axes.

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Disk segment
Creates a 2-dimensional disk segment. The figure may be rotated around all three axes.

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Ellipse
Creates a two-dimensional ellipse. The figure may be rotated around all three axes.

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Ellipse segment
Creates a two-dimensional ellipse segment (similar to a disk segment). The figure may be
rotated around all three axes.

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Platform

Please open the 3D-preview to see the effect of the settings you make.

You may add all elements that are valid for Structures.

Platforms support specialized Signs telling your travellers the name of the station.

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Sign

Converting the fonts to 3D-drawing-c ommands takes some time and allocates a reasonable
amount of system-resources. Therefore we recommend the use of as few different fonts as
possible. The size doesn't matter, but italic and/or bold do.

Please keep in mind that lettering that is just a few m illimetres high will almost be invisble in
a layout and therefore better should be omitted.

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Index

-.-
.bdf-files, importing 6

-2-
2D-representations 5

-A-
Additional declarations 5
Article number 5
Author 7

-B-
Bar 19
bdf-files, importing 6
Block 10

-C-
Chimney 23, 24
Complex polygon 20
Cone 35
Coniferous tree 8
Cylinder 31

-D-
Deciduous tree 8
Decoration 11
Door 11
Draw back 5

-F-
Fence 19
Font 12

-G-
General instructions 5

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-H-
Header 7

-I-
Importing .bdf-files 6
Introduction 3

-L-
Lettering 12, 13

-M-
Manufacturer-prefix 7

-O-
Opening 11

-P-
Platform 40
Polygon 20
Price 5

-R-
Railing 19
Roof 10
Round chimney 24

-S-
Scale 7
Signs 13
Sphere 25
Square chimney 23
Structures 9
Surface 20

-T-
Text 12
Trees 8
Tube 31

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-W-
Wall 15
Window 11

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© 2014 Gunnar Blumert and Span Software Limited
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