The map editor is where you build your own signalling maps for signaller.org: draw the track, place the signals, tell them how they work together, and test them with trains before you share the map in the workshop.
This page shows you around the editor. To build a map step by step, start at Building a map.
Getting in
Open Map Editor from signaller.org's main menu.
- You sign in with Discord. The editor uses your Discord account to keep your maps, so only you can see, open or delete them.
- You need to be in the signaller.org Discord server. If you are not, a box asks you to join, and nothing else works until you do. Select Join server and the editor adds you.
- You stay signed in for 30 days.
Your maps
The first thing you see is Your maps, a list of the maps you've saved. You can come back to it at any time with Open (Ctrl+O).
- Click a map's name to open it. The buttons beside it download it as a map file or delete it.
- New map starts a blank map.
- Open file adds a map file (
.sg) that you or someone else downloaded. - Back to the map returns to the map you have open.
You can keep up to 25 maps.
The screen
- The toolbar runs along the top: New, Open, Save, Save copy, Publish, Download, undo and redo, view settings, and Test.
- The tools are down the left side. Each has a key, shown below.
- The map fills the middle. Scroll or pinch to zoom; drag with the Pan tool to move around.
- The side panel on the right has four tabs:
- Inspector: the settings of whatever you have selected. With several things selected it becomes Selection.
- Map: the map's name, description and authors, and how much traffic turns round at termini.
- Routes: the services trains run. See Routes in the map editor.
- Check: problems the editor has found. See Testing a map.
When you select a signal, the signals it is connected to are ringed in colour, with a key in the corner of the map. See Seeing how signals connect.
Tools
| Key | Tool | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| V | Select and move | Click to select; drag to move. Track joined to what you move stretches to stay connected. |
| H | Pan | Drag to move around the map. |
| T | Draw track | Click points to lay track. Ending on another track makes a junction. |
| S | Place signal | Click on a track to place a signal facing along it. Shift-click faces it the other way. |
| P | Place platform | Click beside a track to place a platform. |
| E | Place termination | Click a track end to place a buffer stop. |
| X | Place label | Click to place text, such as a station name. |
| B | Draw zone border | Click corners to outline a zone. |
Keyboard shortcuts
| Keys | Does |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+S | Save |
| Ctrl+Shift+S | Save copy: save as a new map and carry on with the copy |
| Ctrl+O | Open one of your maps |
| Ctrl+Z | Undo |
| Ctrl+Y or Ctrl+Shift+Z | Redo |
| Ctrl+A | Select everything |
| Ctrl+D | Duplicate the selection |
| Ctrl+F | Search for a signal, platform, station, buffer stop or label |
| Delete | Delete the selection |
| R | Turn the selection 45° (Shift+R turns it back) |
| F | Flip the selection round (180°) |
| Arrow keys | Nudge the selection one grid step (with Shift, five) |
| G | Show or hide the grid |
| I | Show or hide signal, platform and buffer stop ids |
| ` | Preview: see the map exactly as the game draws it |
| Home | Fit the whole map on screen |
| Esc | Finish drawing, stop picking, or clear the selection |
While you draw, hold Shift to keep to 45° angles and Alt to ignore snapping.
Seeing the map as players will
- Preview (the ` key) hides everything the editor adds, such as ids and selection marks, and shows the map exactly as the game draws it.
- View in the toolbar shows the map as one zone's player sees it: that zone's borders, labels and controllable signals.
Saving
- Save (Ctrl+S) stores the map on the editor's server under your Discord account. A dot next to the map's name means there are unsaved changes.
- Undo covers every change since you opened the map.
- If you saved the same map from another browser tab, the editor asks whether to overwrite it or keep both.
- If your sign-in runs out while you work, the map stays open. Sign in again in another tab, then save.
- Download saves the map as last saved as a
.sgmap file. Only signaller.org can read inside it, but anyone can open it in their own editor with Open file.
Guides
The guides use one small example map throughout, Example Junction: two lines and a branch that crosses one of them on the flat.
- Building a map: the order to work in, and drawing the track
- Signals in the map editor: placing signals, their settings and next signals
- Conflicts in the map editor: keeping trains apart at junctions
- Routes in the map editor: the services trains run
- Testing a map: running trains on your map before you share it
- Publishing a map: sharing it in the workshop