31st July 2012

RWDecal is unrestricted and 100% free. Enjoy!

1st February 2012

Google Earth was updated to version 6.2 on 26th January 2012. Unfortuntely this version is NOT compatable with RWDecal.

RWDecal does still work correctly with GoogleEarth 6.1 and earlier. These versions can be downloaded from Google directly but you will need to make sure that automatic updates are disabled on Google Earth to prevent it self updating to the latest version.

Full details and downloads of previous GoogleEarth versions are available on Googles web site.

To use RWDecal you MUST use Google Earth 6.1 or earlier!

RWDecal is a tool for RailWorks that allows you to quickly and accurately create decals using data from Google Earth. These decals are essential for the accurate positioning of scenery items and where complex track laying is required.

For those of you new to route building in RailWorks / Rail Simulator a decal is a flat object that sticks to the ground in your route. By using Google Earth images for the decals you can create highly accurate routes easily and quickly.

RWDecal was originally developed due to my frustrations with trying to lay accurate track for Leeds Station (UK). Once I realised it was possible to create decals I started to work on ways of automating the process. Without automation, the task takes 10 to 15 minutes per decal.

With RWDecal it is not only possible to create decals in a fraction of the time but with much greater levels of detail and accuracy.

• Supports both RailWorks and Rail Simulator
• Available in multiple languages: English British, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Danish and Swedish
• Simple to use and fast. On average RWDecal takes 6seconds to create a decal and 2minutes, 3seconds to turn a km² into a decal (live data from RWDecal Improvement Statistics)
• Unrestricted and completely free. If you wish to support the development of RWDecal then please make a donatione
• Automatically "chunk" decals up into sections. This reduces the likely hood of a bug with RailWorks where areas of large decals become invisible on uneven terrain
• Simple to use. Just provide 2 pairs of longitude and latitude coordinates
• Automatically create markers for your decals to help align them in RailWorks
• Automatically adds an alpha channel to decals to prevent bleeding / blurring of decal edges
• Automatic export of decals and markers to RailWorks. Increases marker accuracy (Blueprint Editor limited to 4 decimal places on coordinate values) and without using Blueprint Editor
• Automatically calculate the amount of rotation to apply to a decal to compensate between Google Earth and RailWorks models of the globe.
• Freeware version does everything the donationware version does except that below 1000m altitude, the bottom half of the decal is black

RWDecal is downloaded as an MSI file for easy installation. The other requirements are:

• RWDecal MUST be run with administrator rights
• You must have Google Earth installed. RWDecal has been tested with version 5 of Google Earth (build 5.1.3509.4636)
• A resolution which is at least 1024x768. Lower resolutions will receive a warning message although RWDecal will still run.