Where is the best place to ask questions?
How much is it?
How do I get a License?
What's in the Professional version that's missing from the Demo?
Why the need for BTB? Can't I already do this in 3d Studio Max?
It crashes upon startup. What's the matter?
None of the new Objects are appearing in my old projects?
Does it work with Windows 64 bit?
Does it work with Windows Vista or Windows 7/8?
What's .Net Framework and why do I need it?
The Google Earth kml is missing height data.

Where is the best place to ask questions?

Thanks to the hard working guys at RaceDepartment, Bobs Track Builder now has a new home for its forums.

How much is it?

The price is AUD$59.95 - log in and follow the PayPal links to see what converts to in your local currency.

How do I get a License?

To unlock the application your need to have purchased a single user license, after which you'll be able to obtain a license from this page.

What's in the Professional version that's missing from the Demo?

The only difference is the inclusion of more default materials and textures. BTB is very expandable in this area and over time libraries of Objects, Materials and Textures are being collected.

Why the need for BTB? Can't I already do this in 3d Studio Max?

Yes you can, if you have the skills but even then the experienced builders are finding that BTB saves them time, especially when finetuning the track surface for great racing.

For the newcomer 3d Max is a general purpose tool with so many features that it scares many away, inlcuding myself, from building their own tracks.

BTB is a tool dedicated to building only one thing, racing tracks. Don't even dare think about building a chess set!

It crashes upon startup. What's the matter?

Make sure you have met the Prerequisites.

• Windows XP (32 bit)
• A shaders 2.0 capable video card
• The latest DirectX drivers. There are several versions of 9.0c, get the latest ones! Download them again just in case. DirectX 10 & 11 do NOT contain DirectX 9; it must be installed independantly.
• Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0 (it will be downloaded during the installation process if it's not already installed)

If you are getting an "Unhandled Exception" try this procedure.

None of the new Objects are appearing in my old projects?

As new version of BTB are release, any new Objects are contained in the new XPacks under the BobsTrackBuilder\XPacks folder. They need to be copied to any project that you wish to use them with. eg. Copy the file C:\Program Files\BobsTrackBuilder\XPacks\Default.zip to C:\Program Files\BobsTrackBuilder\My Projects\YourProjectName\XPacks\Default.zip.

The reason this is not done automatically for you is because if an XPack no longer becomes backwardly compatible, because of a missing object or material, then copying into your new project would mean the project would fail to load.

Does it work with Windows 64 bit?

Not yet. Hopefully later this year.

Does it work with Windows Vista or Windows 7/8?

Maybe. Vista/Windows 7/8 is not listed officially as a BTB supported operating system. I do not yet own either and hence cannot test for myself. I have been told by some people that it does work and by others that there are some minor problems. Try the demo for yourself to see if it works for you. Also see this thread for some possible help.

The most common issue stems from a lack of permissions on files in the BTB folder. Make sure you are running BTB with Administrator rights.

What's .Net Framework and why do I need it?

The .Net Framwork is a set of Microsoft libraries that need to be installed on your machine in order for BTB to run. Version 2.0 must be used; they should be downloaded and installed automatically as part of the BTB installation (although I believe this does not happen using Vista); if not please search the Microsoft site for them.

The Google Earth kml is missing height data.

It appears that although Google Earth is quite capable of displaying the height information, when saving a path to a kml file they fail to store any proper height data. I am not sure if this only applies to the free version or not, however one work-around solution is to use this following site to add the height information to your file.

www.nearby.org.uk/elevation-kml.php