Linking is a central concept to road editing in CityScape. This tip introduces road linking and provides a few helpful hints that will have you hammering out professional-quality roads in no time flat.

Linking two connected road segments simply forces the two segments to share the same tangent at the common node. A few examples will make this clearer.

After starting the editor, enter Road Mode and digitize three nodes using the right mouse button. In doing so, you will have created two road segments as shown:

It may not be immediately apparent, but these two segments are actually linked to each other. They share the same tangent in the middle node and the geometry of both segments meets precisely (i.e. there's no intersection geometry between them).

Now select the middle node and create a third segment:

Notice the blue lines connecting our original two segments - these indicate that the two segments are linked. The two segments will share the same tangent regardless of where the nodes are moved, as shown here:

Linking or unlinking segments is easy - simply select both of the two segments to be modified, and choose "Unlink Segments" from the "Road Tools" menu. As a shortcut, you can hold shift and right-click anywhere in the main render window:

Now that the segments have been unlinked, they clearly have differing tangents at the node, and the appearance of the intersection has changed:

Now that we've briefly explored linking, let's go over a few linking tips to speed up road creation:

Tip 1: Use the Keyboard Commands. As already mentioned, you can link or unlink by selecting the two segments, holding shift, and right-clicking in the render window. This is quicker than using the "Road Tools" menu.

Tip 2: Auto-linking Through Selections. When you lay down a new road segment in CityScape, notice that BOTH the new node and segment are selected:

This indicates that the next digitized node will create a new segment and automatically link it to the selected segment. This behavior applies whenever the last segment and node are both selected:

Tip 3: Understand the Linking Zone. If the segment is deselected (such that only the end node is selected), then automatic linking is determined by a hidden 'linking zone':

If the next node is digitized outside of a roughly 45 degree cone from the current segment, the new segment will NOT be linked:

If the next node is inside the linking zone, the new segment WILL be linked:

Road linking is a relatively simple construct that, when properly understood, can greatly speed up road building. Have fun experimenting!