Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
These "what is the best ..." - questions are always quite difficult to answer. The choice of a track planning tool finally depends on what features you woulkd like to have and how much you are willing to pay. There are freebies, like XtrkCad or SCARM, which do a decent job. The free version of AnyRail has a limitation to 50 pieces of track. If you want more, you will have to buy the full license. There is WinTrack, which is a quite powerful tool, but not easy to learn. 3rdPlanitt us also not really cheap. There are others, which do not come to my mind right now. A word of advice: no software tool will do the design work for you. That you still have to do, either in the back of your head or a piece of paper. Track planning tools provide the sanity check, if everything will come together they way you envision it. They also help to visualize your ideas properly, especially with a 3D feature. A second word of warning: none of the tools are really plug&play. All of them have a learning curve. How quickly you will be able to draw nice track plans depends on your own ability to understand these systems. My personal hoice would be a freebie.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag

Update Reply

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

Model Railroader Newsletter See all

Sign up for our FREE e-newsletter and get model railroad news in your inbox!