Getting foundations to line up vertically

[Caver451]

When I am building factories to be connected later by catwalks, I slap the foundations to the world (holding CTRL) which ensures they face all in the same direction and the catwalks will all be hitting the blocks at the correct angles. Unfortunately, they don't always line up vertically, so the catwalk is sometimes 1-3 meters too high.

Is there a way to guarantee that the top of a 4m high foundation will line up with the top of any 4m high foundation anywhere in the world? Something I might accidentally be doing which is causing this vertical mismatch?

What is really frustrating is when I am connecting several satellite factories, maybe 1000m apart, and only two of them line up. You can't exactly bump up a finished factory a couple meters! You can fudge that gap away, but it is ugly and makes me sad every time I see those weird junctions! It is even more frustrating when several catwalks converge, and they are all at slightly different heights. Ugh!

Wish there was a way I could stand on top of a foundation and see the exact world height...

Any hints? How do you deal with lining this stuff up? Do you even bother?

[Fenix]

Ok this happen if you use a 1m foundation as base somewhere.
so when placing a Foundation on the ground it centers the foundation to the middle or half way point vertically.
Meaning if you use a 1m foundation, it's set that foundation 0.5m above/below that snap point.
only use 2m and 4m foundation at ground level or you will get the 0.5m mismatch you are seeing.

[Caver451]

Originally posted by Fenix:

Ok this happen if you use a 1m foundation as base somewhere.
so when placing a Foundation on the ground it centers the foundation to the middle or half way point vertically.
Meaning if you use a 1m foundation, it's set at foundation 0.5m above/below that snap point.
only use 2m and 4m foundation at ground level or you will get the 0.5m mismatch you are seeing.

I thought that too, but I'm seeing it when using 4m foundations as well. I also see that when I am putting the 4m foundation down, sometimes I will see it snap down a meter or two, then back up, which is how I think this is happening.

I do use 1m foundations for the floor of subsequent levels, but those all line up to the base 4m foundation.

Are you suggesting that I shouldn't be using 1m foundations anywhere, even if the 4m foundations are the base of the buildings?

[Fenix]

Originally posted by Caver451:

Are you suggesting that I shouldn't be using 1m foundations anywhere, even if the 4m foundations are the base of the buildings?

No only when snapping to the world grid, to prevent the 0.5m offset.
If you are having this issue, using 2m and 4m as a world grid base I'm not sure what to tell you, they should line up

[markuswolfe]

There's some kind of "snap to global grid" tool for this, but I never use it, so I can't tell you what the command actually is.

[info]

Start at the top at one level then build down.

I make a 1km grid over the world high enough to just clear the top of the falls at the red forest for radar then where I want to build down I drop a column of frames to the ground then build off that so everything in the world is on the same reference.

[TH3R4BB!T]

Am I the only one that starts with walls on the ground to measure the proper height? Then snap the 1m foundations on the top and build from that point on. Never had this 0.5 shift that way.

[kLuns]

It's not about a 0,5m shift.
The smallest walkway ramp is 2 meters.
That causes a 1meter issue when alligning them between different factories.
It's one of those many unfinished series of buildables.

The way to prevent most of those 1 meter issues is afaik always starting with snapping a 4 meter foundation on worldgrid when you start on a new place. But all the places you built before doing this will still have the issue.

[Fenix]

Originally posted by kLuns:

It's not about a 0,5m shift.
The smallest walkway ramp is 2 meters.
That causes a 1meter issue when alligning them between different factories.
It's one of those many unfinished series of buildables.

The way to prevent most of those 1 meter issues is afaik always starting with snapping a 4 meter foundation on worldgrid when you start on a new place. But all the places you built before doing this will still have the issue.

I get it, I’ve had problems with this just because one floor of my factory, I build was 5m high, since it isn’t a multiple 2m, I couldn’t use the ramps/stairs
This isn’t just a world grid issue.

[Caver451]

Yeah, as I said, I know how to snap to the world grid. I always lay down a 4m foundation with the "snap to grid" function. Then I stack 4m grids on top of that one until I am at a sufficient height. If I do the same elsewhere on the map, sometimes the top of the foundations are the "correct" height multiple, sometimes they are off by a meter.

I have noticed that when I snap to grid, sometimes the foundation will "hunt" for the vertical grid, and slide up or down a meter or two. I then abort the build, and try to snap to the grid again.

I'll just chalk it up to another game quirk. I do wish there were stairs that went down in increments other than just 4m, but I'm not going to rage quit about it.

[info]

Originally posted by Caver451:

I'll just chalk it up to another game quirk. I do wish there were stairs that went down in increments other than just 4m, but I'm not going to rage quit about it.

How about a section of ladder up a short wall when you run into that offset issue.

Not saying make do and like it, I agree that stairs like foundations have multiple increments in height. That is a solid suggestion.

[Caver451]

Originally posted by info:

Originally posted by Caver451:

I'll just chalk it up to another game quirk. I do wish there were stairs that went down in increments other than just 4m, but I'm not going to rage quit about it.

How about a section of ladder up a short wall when you run into that offset issue.

Not saying make do and like it, I agree that stairs like foundations have multiple increments in height. That is a solid suggestion.

Sometimes I just put some stairs in anyway. They'll clip through one of the walkways, but not much I can do about that.

I've also tried a "transition" platform, where you use ramps to normalize the heights.

It's not like it is game breaking, but when you've made a nice factory complex, and need to resort to shenanigans to connect them together with catwalks, it is simply disappointing.

Anyway, think we've beaten this one to death. :)

[Flash✪Gordon]

Originally posted by info:

I make a 1km grid over the world high enough to just clear the top of the falls at the red forest

You must have very long conveyor lifts up and down. Is that maybe the reason that your savegames explode? Or do you use only drones and they are not as bad savegame wise as conveyor belts (do they transport whole stacks?)?

[Flash✪Gordon]

Originally posted by Caver451:

Is there a way to guarantee that the top of a 4m high foundation will line up with the top of any 4m high foundation anywhere in the world?

In short: NO.

The world grid is only horizontaly. There is no vertical world grid. For the level differences you have Ramp foundation and better even DoubleRamp Foundation.

If you want to connect a stair to something high above, as people mentioned, build it downwards and not upwards.

The only method that you could match heights exactly, since this world is flat and not curved, is the rather sophisticated and elaborated method of Info described above. But that is quite ... work intensive and not that easy to apply. If you are a hardcore perfectionist that is the way to go otherwise DoubleRamps do the job of smoothing out differences. The choice you have is either to be perfect or efficient.

[info]

Originally posted by Doc✪Hollywood:

Originally posted by info:

I make a 1km grid over the world high enough to just clear the top of the falls at the red forest

You must have very long conveyor lifts up and down. Is that maybe the reason that your savegames explode? Or do you use only drones and they are not as bad savegame wise as conveyor belts (do they transport whole stacks?)?

No, there are no goods transporting by long belts, in this save everything is moved by Drone.

This is just a single file grid of foundations and power lines to the point where radar is out to. The grid is a reference that comes out leaving the Radars on towers every 2 km along the gridlines staggered to get full map coverage.

[Flash✪Gordon]

Originally posted by info:

Originally posted by Doc✪Hollywood:

You must have very long conveyor lifts up and down. Is that maybe the reason that your savegames explode? Or do you use only drones and they are not as bad savegame wise as conveyor belts (do they transport whole stacks?)?

No, there are no goods transporting by long belts, in this save everything is moved by Drone.

This is just a single file grid of foundations and power lines to the point where radar is out to. The grid is a reference that comes out leaving the Radars on towers every 2 km along the gridlines staggered to get full map coverage.

Are drones transporting stacks instead of 1+1+1+1+1+1+1? and when do I get them?

That would surely be easier and shorter to describe in a savegame than these belts with all the stuff on it and the exact location of every of this stuff.