Coaster smoothing

Do any of you who are very good at building smooth tracks (without tools like newton) have any tips or suggestions for how to make tracks not have such obvious and jerky transitions between nodes.

ask gouldy, jensenator, gertslcrazy, or some of the other great handbuilders

[jayman]

i have a couple ..
the tops and valleys of hills ought to ALWAYS be one segment. when it comes to turns it gets tricky. the thing about hand building is that it's eye building too, be patient. the best thing about no limits is that you can look at how it turns out after you add something and correct it . when you make an element ride the coaster in the sim .. keep an eye out for what might be wrong and do what you think will correct it , and then check again ., it's a long process but after awhile you start to remember what works and what doesnt when you're building.. ..

Once I've got the shape I want, I'll usually cut the entire track up into small segments and use ctrl-g over everything (except the lift, station, and brakes of course). This is probably the smoothest way to hand-build, while keeping the shape you want. Now that I think of it though, I usually only do this before AHGing it.

1. Never let the vertex handles cross over the track, unless it's for intentionally putting a bump there.

2. Try using vertexes that are about the same distance apart. It will make it a lot easier.

3. In general, make the length of the vertex handles proportional to the length of the track segment they define. (I.E., if there is a shorter segment followed by a longer one, the vertex should likewise have a short backwards handle versus a longer forward handle.

4. Try to use at least one vertex for each 90 degrees of lateral turning or 90 degrees in change of vertical angle.

5. Make sure that you are either turning at a constant radius, or that the radius is constantly decreasing or increasing. Don't go back and forth.

6. (two interesting methods)
6A: (for small bumps only) Run the track through the AHG with 0 heartline and a vertex every 8-10 m or so, and and it will very often take care of small bumps.
6B: use the "split up" feature to divide the segments before and after a troublesome vertex. After using the smooth feature, delete the middle vertex, split up the resulting long middle segment, re-smooth, and then delete the two vertexes that you created at the beginning. This will very often lead to smoother vertexes.