27th May 2010

RWDecal 2.1.7 has been released.

This is a minor release with some debugging improvements

To download the latest version visit our download page.

For the latest RWDecal information check out the news page.

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 27seconds to create a decal and 3minutes, 10seconds to turn a km² into a decal (live data from RWDecal Improvement Statistics)
• Available in two versions. Freeware and Donationware (minimum donation £3)
• 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.
• Donationware version does everything the freeware 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.