I was thinking about setting up an online demo of XTrackCAD. Is anybody interested? If there is enough interest I'll set it up on join.me. You can follow along live and there will be a phone number so you can listen and ask questions.
Give me some suggestions on the best time to schedule it (weekday evening, weekend morning...).
I have no connection to the program or its creators other than as a user. I just think it's the best piece of free software I've ever used and have developed a somewhat evangelist attitude toward it.
I have the right to remain silent. By posting here I have given up that right and accept that anything I say can and will be used as evidence to critique me.
Back some time ago, this would have been of use to me, but I struggled through on my own and now the track is in place. I like to use XTrakCad as a first-order planning tool, not to get an accurate blueprint down to a quarter of an inch.
What I would suggest, though, is hooking up with your LHS for a "demo night" at the shop, or possibly setting it up as a clinic at a train show. These "more intimate" settings would allow you to work through the process with face-to-face contact, which would lead to a smoother presentation if you decide to do it online.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
MisterBeasleyI like to use XTrakCad as a first-order planning tool, not to get an accurate blueprint down to a quarter of an inch.
So what do you use for your detailed planning?
MisterBeasleyWhat I would suggest, though, is hooking up with your LHS
The last one closed down last year.
MisterBeasleyThese "more intimate" settings would allow you to work through the process with face-to-face contact, which would lead to a smoother presentation if you decide to do it online.
I've been doing demo's and presentations as part of my job for 40 years. The last 5 years or so, I've started doing much of it online. At this point, I'm as smooth as I'll ever get.
I didn't volunteer this for my own entertainment. There was a thread last week where a guy was looking to dip his toe into CAD and ended up deciding to go back to paper and pencil. I just thought I'd offer to introduce the process to anybody who was interested.
If there is no interest, that's OK.
car1425 asked: So what do you use for your detailed planning?
I use pieces of real track, pieces of old brass track, photos of track printed to size and cardstock templates. I just find that something real and physical gives me a better sense of how it's going to look. For my carfloat terminal area, I drew up the whole thing full-scale, and added cardstock mockups of buildings. The track there was minimal and there wasn't much question of where it had to go, but the important thing was where the buildings would go and what shapes I needed.
Sorry to hear that. I've been to a couple of in-shop seminars, and I really enjoyed them. With my own retirement approaching, I'm thinking of giving a couple of them myself on scenic techniques.
But, it sounds like you're already familiar with the mechanics. Please keep us informed. If I'm available, I might still drop in.
ANy train shows near you? Most of the larger ones do clinics, which would be an ideal place to do a presentation on track planning with XTrack.
I MAY be interested in seeing this - after many years of using 3rd PlanIt, I gave Xtrack a try, because it is free, and JMRI can import the plans for automation. After a bit of playing around I was able to work through the differences and get my plan translated over. However, the biggest issue I have with XTrack is the lack of the 3D element, so working with elevations is much more difficult.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
rrinkerand JMRI can import the plans for automation
Your mileage may vary, but I tried this and found the result to be unusable. The import doesn't translate the plan into the schematic format I would like to have in JMRI. I have 5 layers of track in the plan and the import just heaped them all on top of each other. It might work for a tabletop layout, but a tabletop probably doesn't require JMRI.
"Free" on the other hand is hard to argue with. I think this is the best piece of free software I've ever used.
Even though my track is all laid down (until I decide to change it) I would be very interested in an online live demo. Almost any weekday late afternoon or evening would work for me (I live in the Pacific time zone). My mornings tend to be when I have various appointments but, given a little lead time so I can make changes if necessary, a morning would probably work, too. I hope enough people are interested in this that it is worth you following through. Please PM me with details if it comes to that.
Thanks for the offer!
The other thing is that it is available for Windows and Linux - my main computer is Windows, but my railroad computer is Linux. Since JMRI also runs just fine on Linux, and I didn;t want or need a hefty power hog to run trains, I built a small form factor Atom processor box and loaded Linux. Works fine even with two interfaces, a USB-serial adapter connected to a DeLoof Locobuffer for layout control, and the PR3 connected as a standalone programmer. Both can work at the same time in newer versions of JMRI, so I can use WiThrottle to wirelessly run trains while at the same time programming locos on my test track.
Though supposedly 3rd PlanIt works with WINE on Linux - I kinda think with the slow speed embedded graphics in the Atom the 3D performance would be somewhere south of dismal at best though. Might be ok for the drawing mode, just forget rendering.
I have recently started using SCARM. Without the youtube video's, I would have been lost. Maybe do some youtube video's and post them to your channel? This would then be available to anyone, at any time.