Railway Tools for Axiom

An Axiom addon for Minecraft providing advanced railway path generation tools, designed for use in large-scale building projects such as BuildTheEarth.

Overview

Railway Tools for Axiom extends Axiom's toolset with a specialized rail path creation tool. By placing a series of control points, the tool generates smooth, mathematically precise railway corridors with automatic block selection and orientation — eliminating the need for manual block-by-block placement.

This mod was developed independently by a single author and is not affiliated with the BuildTheEarth organization.

Features

Smooth Path Generation

Paths are computed using Catmull-Rom spline interpolation, producing natural curves through any number of control points. The algorithm ensures smooth tangent continuity, avoiding harsh angles between segments.

Two Distinct Rail Styles

Select between two independently developed placement modes directly from the tool panel:

Classic, Uses dead fire coral wall fans as centerline markers, mud brick walls as lateral supports (aligned or cornered according to the curve geometry), and spruce shelves or trapdoors as curve indicators. This style provides a clean, structured appearance suited to survey and planning work.

Natural, Uses lecterns as the track centerline (replacing the center block with a pale moss block on inclined segments), gravel as lateral rails, and leaf litter with directional segment amounts for curve decoration. Diagonal intersections are automatically filled with gravel and directional leaf litter.

Adaptive Block Orientation

Every block is oriented according to the local path tangent and curvature. Lateral blocks, corner connections, curve indicators and diagonal joints are all computed per segment to maintain geometric consistency throughout the path.

Terrain Following

When the ground-snapping option is enabled, the tool searches vertically from each spline point to locate the nearest solid surface, adjusting the path elevation to follow existing terrain.

Configurable Density

The spline sampling density is adjustable from 2 to 32 points per block. Higher values produce smoother curves, particularly useful on tight-radius bends.