The use of route markers can be a significant aid to scenery creation, enabling environments to be built quickly and accurately. The main use of route markers is to map out the basic framework of a scene e.g. railway lines, roads, rivers, important places and to provide jump points in the editor. There are two types of route markers, SERIES and NAMED. Series route markers create a line across the terrain following specified long/lat points. Named route markers create a placed flag on the terrain with an associated name bubble. These named route markers can be jumped to within the editor. Google Earth can be used to get an overview of the route and to create the marker points which will be imported into the game. It is important to check that Google Earth is using the same long/lat format as Train Simulator. To do this, go to Tools > Options > 3D View and make sure the degrees option is selected (the default setting is degrees, minutes, seconds). Once the correct option is selected click Apply Settings. To place a marker in Google Earth, go to Add > Placemark. A flashing marker will appear in the main window alongside a dialogue box. Move the flashing marker to the required position, give it a friendly name in the dialogue box and click on OK. To view the long/lat information for any marker you can right-click on the marker icon and choose Properties. A dialogue box will appear. Choose the View tab and all the location information is listed. Repeat this process for however many markers you require. Google Earth will automatically save these markers when you exit the utility.
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