Which View When Building

I am not sure exactly how to word this, but I am having a problem with track positioning if I switch views.  The actual position or location of the track  looks right in one view, but if I switch views, it is not right.  Can someone briefly explain what I am doing wrong, or if there is a trick to using the views during building.  I apologize if this sounds totally insane, but hopefully some of you know what I am attempting to explain and can offer some advice.  I appreciate your help. 

I know exactly what you're referring to, and the only advice I can give is to check your work in all 3 2D views to make sure it's right.

This is exactly the reason there's 6 different views. YOu need to use all 6  to get your track right.
I tend to use the overhead view to get my track going the right direction. I use the various side views to adjust the height. I use the 3D view to adjust curves and transitions.
Then I go back through the different views and tweak some more. :)

I know why this happens, but it's probably hard to explain.

I'll give it a shot though:

Imagine, in the top view, you have a lift hill that's at a 45 degree angle to the grid lines, as well as at a 45 degree angle to the ground, with vertexes equally spaced. Now pretend you wanted to make the lift hill concave down  (so it's steep at the bottom and middle and less steep at the top, like a regular lift hill).  So you go into one of the side views and move the vertex at the top end straight to the right a little, so the last segment has a less steep angle.  Unfortunately, since the lift hill is at a 45 degree angle to the grid lines, *the plane that you're moving the vertex along is NOT the same plane that the lift hill is in.*  It is actually at a 45 degree angle from the plane of the lift hill.Thus, when you go back to overhead, the lift hill will not be straight, even though it looked great in the side view.

I've found it easier to create all your pieces in overhead and then go to a side view and ONLY move things vertically up and down.  If you move them left and right, you'll mess up your overhead (unless everything on the overhead was at a perfect 90 degree angle).  Then do tiny touch ups in 3D.  If you do any serious editing in 3D it will undoubtedly mess something up because the plane of editing is so goofy.

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The legend lives!

Makes sense to me.....thanks!.    I have only attempted one coaster in No Limits, which was Apollo's Chariot.  My rendition was ok, but that 6th drop that banks to the right is killing me.  I'm going to go back and take another look at it with a new approach.

The 2nd drop that banks and drops on Goliath is frustrating me. If I tweek it on all the ways, I'll go back to the first view and it will be messed up again.

Here's anther little tip that would be a huge help when tweaking a coaster, find the spot you want to tweak in the 2d modes, open up the inside 3D window(on the tool bar), this will open a window in the top right hand corner of the editor(3d mode will be inside this window). Click on the ride button, use the " W " key on your keyboard to 'ride' the coaster in the 3d window, ride it to the spot you want to tweak. Make you tweaks(in the 2d mode) and use the " W " and " S " keys on your keyboard to move forwards and backwards over the spot you just tweaked. Repeat this intill you feel that spot is "just right".  This is a much easyer and much faster way to tweak your coaster. Anther thing too, in 3D mode, when you are 'walking' around your coaster, you can use the following keys to move around "  W "-move forward " S "-move backwards " A "-slide left " D "-slide right and of course use you mouse to point you in the right direction.
ECR
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Did someone say coasters?

*** This post was edited by evilcoasterrider on 2/6/2002. ***