Macintosh Layout Software

[ChCh]

Can anyone recommend Macintosh software for designing a layout. The software has to be compatible with a G4 iMac with both X and classic 9 OS. Thank You.

[cnw1995]

Welcome to the Forum. There's not much out there - I thought there was an advertiser specifically for Mac software in CTT - maybe I saw it in MR. I'll take a peek. A quick Internet search yields an interesting link you can explore further: http://home.earthlink.net/~mrsvc/id14.html

[Anonymous]

Although I have only used it in demo form, I am impressed with RailModeller, available at:

http://www.railmodeller.com/

It is OS X native, has a friendly interface (far, far more friendly than the two Windows layout packages I have used - the MTH one and the Atlas one), can show you a 3-D view and so on. Download the demo and try it out.

RailModeller is missing a few advanced features such as elevation changes. And the MTH RealTrax library does not have the combination O-31/O-42 switches or O-54/O-72 switches, but even MTH's own software does not have that in their library yet, as far as I know. However, RailModeller does have a utility called the Rail Set Editor where (I believe) you can add or change the track piece specifications.

One great feature: a tool to measure the distance between any two points -- beats the heck out of playing a game of guess-which-length-straight-piece-I-need.

It is $30 to register. It is a good, solid software package which will hopefully become more full featured in the future.

I have been laboring with the MTH software in Windows since money is tight and it was free with my set. I have a Windows box and a Mac at home. On the positive side, the MTH software does show the position of the switch lanterns (and allow them to be flipped, which can be important) and does a better job depicting the track bed.

Getzen

[Bob Keller]

Somewhat older is a software package originally called Train Engineer Deluxe 3D Railroad and Railroad Master 3D, which was both a game and a software planning package for the Mac.

Check

http://www.rrdepot.com/software/games/trainengineerdlx.php

or a link from that site, which I believe is now the software's home site:

http://www.theliquidateher.com/

Mac OS requirements are: Mac OS 8 or higher. PowerMac 166mhz or higher (including iMac). 64MB RAM (59MB free RAM). 110MB hard disk space.
CD-ROM drive. 16-bit color monitor. Quicktime 3.0 or higher. Please note: This product runs in OS X only in Classic Mode and requires OS-9 compatible print drivers.

Good luck! Mac is the superior system, but software variety stinks!

[Jim Duda]

Mr. Keller -
Kinda like having the Ferrari but not being able to buy gas for it...so you drive the Kia instead...(sigh)

[Bob Keller]

Yup!!! You feel my pain!!

[jonadel]

Amen.

Jon

[jwse30]

I just ran rail modeller, and it seems quite nice. My one complaint about it thus far is that while I was using the Lionel O27 library, the switches seemed to not align properly. I didn't try any of the other libraries to see if they worked any better. I'd guess that the rail editor could be used to solve this glitch.

Thanks for pointing out this software to me.

J White

[Anonymous]

I also use railmodeller and its okay but I just got this and haven't really used it much but it seems very usefull

http://www.haddonsoftware.com/emexinfo.html