Can anyone on the forum recommend a downloadable track-work drawing programme.
What I am looking for is a programme that allows you to draw a base board with a grid pattern on it, upon which one can draw a layout to scale, while testing different options of track radiuses, curves, points etc.
I have an idea for a Scottish narrow gauge line based on a disused track bed running up Glen Ogle from Loch Earn terminating in Killin on Loch Tay
Thanking members in advance,
BrianT.
This one can invoke strong opinions so be warned! ;)
I think it depends what you want to do with it and how much time you wish to invest learning how to use it. There are people who swear by Templot http://www.templot.com/ (http://www.templot.com/) which (so I understand) is excellent if you also make your own track.
I have dabbled with XtrackCAD http://www.xtrkcad.org/Wikka/HomePage (http://www.xtrkcad.org/Wikka/HomePage) as it has features in it that I like, but have never had the time to learn it properly and struggle to relearn the commands when I pick it up again. I'm a little dubious of its ability to cope with metric measurements properly.
My favourite is AnyRail http://www.anyrail.com/index_en.html and used the free (size limited) version for some time before I decided to buy. It has limitations, but apart from some of the less used facilities is the most intuitive layout software I've tried. It is great for "doodling" on my small laptop sitting in front of the TV. It has the Peco 009 track library and does all you mention. It will print 1:1 scale over several (many?) sheets of paper for making full-size track plans, prints grids of a wide choice of size (metric and Imperial). "Laying" flexible track is simple and the warnings for curves being too tight are very useful and make it easy to experiment with different track paths.
I've never tried any of the simulator type software.
Thank you Graeme.
I have downloaded a copy of "Any Rail" and will attempt to fathom out how to use it, this may well take a while so don't go away. ;D
Kind regards,
BrianT.
I would rather get some card to the full size of the proposed layout space. Get paper point templates and get down on the floor on hands and knees and play around with the templates. You will get a better idea of what you want with some of your stock laid out as well. I find a visual impression works every time. I T is useful for many things but a computer screen will not give you the relevant clearances of run round loops for the stock you intend to run, lengths of sidings etc to hold certain stock. This post will probably cause a storm but for me I T is not necessarily the answer.
Roger
Well said Roger! Many people built great layouts before the advent of computer planning systems, why is it thought to be desirable now? Its a bit like, for me, DCC. The technophiles think its wonderful, impossible not to love it etc, whilst the unreconstructed luddites (and proud of it!) like me can't see the point of it. The promised 'you only need two wires' advantage did not materialize and all the DCC layouts I've seen don't work!
But I don't have a smartphone or an ipad either. And don't see the need for them.
Rod
lovely Rod; dont remember the guy (man) with the red flag walking in front of your Corris trains last time I admired them.
This kit keeps my grandkids occupied 150% , out of my train room and out of my wifes hair
Seriously I sympathise with all except DCC where I wouldnt be without it and my layout is wired conventionally except all tracks have feeds
I also can live without layout design software but many of my club friends love it
Each to his own
Peter Smith
You are right of course Peter, as usual I have a somewhat extreme view. But I do find the 'must have a high-tech gadget before I can do anything' mindset to be slightly irritating. Whatever happened to 'just getting on with it'?
Rod
Whoa Roger, Rod and Peter, I don't want to start a war. ;D
I agree, computer software will not replace pencil, paper, ruler and compass and of course the essential rubber, which I have all ways used in the past, and will probably use it for what I have in mind, but I am getting long in the tooth, my mobility is becoming restricted, and I spend a lot of time "Armchair" modelling, with my laptop on my knee.
I thought that to be able to draw on screen without scrambling around with sheets of wallpaper lining paper on the floor for the first few sketches, as I throw ideas around in my head, might be worth while, so I will give it a try, if I can get the old grey matter to cooperate. ;)
Kind regards,
BrianT.
Brian
No intention to start a war on my part. Taking your previous post at face value, it just seemed to me that you were saying 'I can't plan a layout because I don't have to software.' Now you have amplified your position it's obvious this is not the case. However, when you look at the vast number of people nowadays who cannot do anything without a computer screen, and more worryingly, implicitly believe everything that screen tells them, its an increasingly depressing future ahead of us.
Rod
Cheer up Rod, anyone daft enough to think you can go from computer screen to track laying, (with the possible exception of some one working with set track) would soon find that many compromises are required to finish the actual layout. ;D
It is merely a tool, some may make more use of it than others, but like any tool, it will require other tools to work along with it before the layout reaches completion.
Regards,
BrianT.
I agree about seeing something on the screen is not the same as a full-sized mock up. I've got the roll of lining paper (wallpaper) to prove it!
However when it comes to small scale hand drawn pencil doodles I can fool myself into believing curves are not a severe they actually are. This is where I find the software helps as by contrast often I find myself making the clearances too generous on-screen. I think this is preferable as it is easier to close up clearances and gain a bit more platform or siding length for example.
Of course there is (in an attempt to economize on printer paper) a halfway house in that it is possible to print out short sections to move about on the baseboard top or even individual track templates.
I use Anyrail to get the general idea of the layout - its very good at producing bespoke radius curves - but have always found I end up with getting track out and pinned down on the baseboard.
Its also good just to try out some "what-if" scenarios.
However its not a replacement for actually doing the trackwork on the baseboard.
Bob
We have always used lining paper. (Blank wall paper) to draw out the layout plans using pre cut templates for the points.
Lining paper can be obtained for about
We have some bedroom wallpaper that I have taken an exceptional dislike to so I use the back of spare rolls of it for roughing out designs.
The domestic authorities have not yet noticed but when they do there could be a few sharp words.
Bob
Lining paper's good for it. All good advice Brian, thanks.
Jim Hewlett at the Model Railway Club actually used a roll of lino for his full-size plan of his OO layout 'Blaen-y-Cwm'!
When we first set out the MRC's O Gauge 'Happisburgh' layout we used the cast-off roll from a newsprint 'pup' and laid out the entire full-sized plan in my living room over a weekend!
Personally I've always found a computer programme takes too long, especially if I'm forever changing the layout of the track... Pencil and paper for a rough sketch and then play around with real track on a piece of suitably sized wallpaper until I like it!
I've never managed to go from paper plan to the real thing without changing things!!