Hello,
I frequently use the MR Track plan database.I really appreciate the drawings, both accurate and aesthetic.Plans are artfull and, at the same time, reference documents.
Which software(s) do the MR Editor use to produce that ?
Can a same design software handle accuracy (tracks) and render aspects (colors, shadows ei : mountains drawings, rocks, roads, houses ...) ?
Best.Francis
This question has been asked a number of times in the past. While I do not know which tool the MR artists use, I know that it is a graphics tool rather than a CAD tool for track planning.
Happy times!
Ulrich (aka The Tin Man)
"You´re never too old for a happy childhood!"
Hi Francis:
Have a look at 3rd PlanIt. It will do everything that you ask but it will take a while for you to learn how to use all the functions.
https://www.trackplanning.com/
Cheers!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Thanks for this so quick answer !
Could it be possible to know more ? The MR editors perphaps ?Drawing plans is a favorite part of my hobby.
In his book "45 original track plans", Bernard Kempinski have the same approach : no CAD but Adobe illustrator (accuracy) + photoshop (art)
Best.
Francis
SD40Drawing plans is a favorite part of my hobby.
It is also a hobby within the hobby for me, although I don´t do much in this direction lately.
Here are some examples I did with WinRail:
Hi dave,
Thank for the answer. I'm going to hahe a look to this software.
I'm still intersted by all the creative appoaches to combine accuracy (tracks, measures) and artisitic design.
All the suggestions will be welcome !
Well, lets' have a look to WinRail !
Until now, I used Cadrail.Very accurate, many functions, but too weak for the graphical aspects.
There are way more powerful track planning tools than WinRail. Which one may appeal to you finally depends on what you like to do. If you look for 3D features, than SCARM or WinTrack or 3rdPlanit are more suitable than WinRail.
wouldn't more useful track planning SW include
maybe such a tool would take some of the fun out of track planning, but would avoid coming up with unrealistic track plans
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
gregclimits for minimum radius, insure correct lengths for turnouts (specific to brand) calculate grades and or effective grades on curved track clearances under overpasses adjust for easements spacing between tracks
Most track planning tools include these features!
While they don´t do the design work for you, they perform the "sanity" check.
3rdPlanIt has decent additional graphics capability, but MR uses software like Adobe Illustrator which will have far more graphical capabilities that a program designed primary as a track planning tool. It all depends on what you want - a pretty picture that is mostly accurate (just compare the track plan to the photos in the layout visit stories and you'll soon find discrepencies) or an accurate plan for your layout that has the track all accurately located but doesn;t look like a super detailed illustration?
Of course, it's a lot easier to make sure the plan matches the real thing if you draw the plan first - trying to recreate a plan from a bunch of photos is no picnic, and MR usually gets it right. SOmetimes I'm sure the illustrators have an actual track plan to work from, but there are those stories where it even says the builder didn;t have a plan, just started putting stuff together, so you can be sure whoever drew that illustration did so from photos and verbal description. Can't be an easy task, on a larger layout anyway.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I believe, in the past, that they've said it is just good old Illustrator. Fantastic for virtually every kind of 2D art, not so great at CAD (which is what I'd argue trackplan software is bucketted in).
Our staff artists use Adobe Illustrator. As others have mentioned, it's great for artwork, but not designed for track planning. However, it can import drawing files exported by popular track-planning software, so if you have both, you get the best of both worlds.
--Steven Otte, Model Railroader senior associate editorsotte@kalmbach.com
Question for the OP . . .
Are you wanting to draw illustrative trackplans of layouts that already exist?
Or, do you want to create and technically design new trackplans and have beautiful renderings fall out the bottom of the software?
Robert
LINK to SNSR Blog
.
To each his own... drawing track plans is my LEAST favorite part of this hobby.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Frank
SeeYou190 SD40 Drawing plans is a favorite part of my hobby. . To each his own... drawing track plans is my LEAST favorite part of this hobby. . -Kevin .
SD40 Drawing plans is a favorite part of my hobby.
Not my favorite part, not my least favorite, but I still do mine on mylar with polymer graphite.........CAD programs are way to slow, and have steep learning curves. I was trained in drafting in the old days, I took a CADD course about 15 years ago, quickly decided it would not save me time in my business as a residential designer.
I have done a few track plans for friends, and few for clients. Years ago I designed a detached garage/layout room for a guy, and also designed the layout.......
But please understand, I'm not available for such services now, way to busy at work and home.....
Sheldon
Sheldon,CAD is not slower. It's actually faster when one learns how to use it.
Don't get me wrong, I love pencil drafting. I took drafting courses in high school and college (in fact, that was going to be my degree). I was in the very last hand drafting class in my college back in 1993. The professor quit right before the semester, so they brought in a retired draftsman to teach the course. Being the only kid with prior experience, I was his student assistant; I had a great time. I still have all my drafting gear, some of it handed down from older guys who had some really nice German gear. Hand drafting is like art to me.
Still, I only design layouts with CAD now, specifically 3rdPlanIt. My last pencil on paper layout drawing was for my club. I drew a 15-track staging yard (that also included a bunch of other things) as requested and presented it to the committee. The committee decided they'd rather have the yard moved over a few inches. I then had to erase all the yard tracks and redraw the entire yard. After doing all that, right then and there I decided that I need to learn 3rdPlanIt.
Now, if the same situation happened again, I could change the location of the yard in mere seconds. Click and drag to select, then click, move and release to move it. Simple and easy (and I save big on erasers).
The best thing about using CAD in model railroading is that it won't let you cheat. The cuves and switches must line up or they simply won't work. On a pencil drawing, you can fudge it (accidently or on purpose). Most layout drafting tools were 1":12", and just the thickness of a 0.5mm pencil lead at that scale is about 1/4". With a pencil layout plan, one always has to leave room for fixing errors because of the scale (unless one has a E-sized drafting desk).
Paul3Now, if the same situation happened again, I could change the location of the yard in mere seconds. Click and drag to select, then click, move and release to move it. Simple and easy
I have to agree with Paul. CAD makes it really easy to make changes whether they are large or small. I have tweaked the club's layout design many, many times and it usually takes very little time.
CAD also makes transferring your plan to the real thing very easy. You can print out the coordinates of as many pieces as you need in order to locate the real track and benchwork properly.
Once piece of advice that I would offer to new CAD users is to develop a system for identifying your various versions of the design. Always put a date in the title so that you can see what is the most recent version. Otherwise, you might end up working on a plan that out of date.
Paul3 Sheldon,CAD is not slower. It's actually faster when one learns how to use it. Don't get me wrong, I love pencil drafting. I took drafting courses in high school and college (in fact, that was going to be my degree). I was in the very last hand drafting class in my college back in 1993. The professor quit right before the semester, so they brought in a retired draftsman to teach the course. Being the only kid with prior experience, I was his student assistant; I had a great time. I still have all my drafting gear, some of it handed down from older guys who had some really nice German gear. Hand drafting is like art to me. Still, I only design layouts with CAD now, specifically 3rdPlanIt. My last pencil on paper layout drawing was for my club. I drew a 15-track staging yard (that also included a bunch of other things) as requested and presented it to the committee. The committee decided they'd rather have the yard moved over a few inches. I then had to erase all the yard tracks and redraw the entire yard. After doing all that, right then and there I decided that I need to learn 3rdPlanIt. Now, if the same situation happened again, I could change the location of the yard in mere seconds. Click and drag to select, then click, move and release to move it. Simple and easy (and I save big on erasers). The best thing about using CAD in model railroading is that it won't let you cheat. The cuves and switches must line up or they simply won't work. On a pencil drawing, you can fudge it (accidently or on purpose). Most layout drafting tools were 1":12", and just the thickness of a 0.5mm pencil lead at that scale is about 1/4". With a pencil layout plan, one always has to leave room for fixing errors because of the scale (unless one has a E-sized drafting desk).
Paul,
I'm not really in the mood for a discussion, so lets just leave it at this, CADD has the advantage of easy partial duplication, adjustment, editing, 3D modeling, etc. That makes it great for commercial/industrial work, engineering, etc.
I took a CADD course, I get it, I can do it. But I don't like it.
For the one time custom residential remodeling work I do, hand drafting is just fast, and often faster. I generally have to make few if any changes, don't need 3D modeling and don't need the bulk of other features CADD offers.
I also don't need one more piece of software to buy, update and replace all the time. For my purposes it does not justify its cost, and it does take longer just to get the basic floor plan plotted.
I can't even imagine why someone would invest money or the learning curve time to use a CADD program to draw a single model train track plan for a layout they want to build? But then again I already have 45 years of experiance on the board to do it the old way........and I already have the tools.
ATLANTIC CENTRALI can't even imagine why someone would invest money or the learning curve time to use a CADD program to draw a single model train track plan for a layout they want to build?
For quite a large number of people, planning a layout is much more than just simply drawing a track plan. With tools like WinTrack (and others) you can design your scenery and even your benchwork - if that´s what you want to do.
Other folks are just happy with paper and pen, just as some folks are happy with a horse drawn buggy and don´t need a Porsche.
Each according to his needs and wants.
Sheldon,You are right; CAD isn't much better than hand drafting in your home remodeling work. As you say, you're not making many changes after the drawing starts, and most of the design work is probably done ahead of time. Drawing the plan is probably the last step before construction actually starts, so what's the point of CAD in that area?
However, in layout design work, it's entirely different. You start with an empty room and then try to fit a track plan into it. Design work is usually done as you draw the plan. Many, many changes have to be made for most layouts as that yard (or turntable, or factory, etc.) just won't work there, but how about over there instead? Or, that 24" aisle really should be 30", or maybe we can squeeze in another track? And so on. I've designed several layouts, and the constant changes make hand drafting obsolete.
It also cuts down on construction time. There's no fiddling, no trying to make it work. If it works on CAD, it works on the real thing.
The software doesn't "need" to be updated constantly. Heck, with 3rdPlanIt, I'm still on Version 9 and they are up to Version 11 now. It's not like the software expires; my Ver. 9 works just fine.
BTW, what scale do you draw your hand drafted layout plans in? This is just for curiousity's sake. My only layout hand drafting has been done at 1" = 12".
Paul3If it works on CAD, it works on the real thing.
Almost
Paul3 Sheldon,You are right; CAD isn't much better than hand drafting in your home remodeling work. As you say, you're not making many changes after the drawing starts, and most of the design work is probably done ahead of time. Drawing the plan is probably the last step before construction actually starts, so what's the point of CAD in that area? However, in layout design work, it's entirely different. You start with an empty room and then try to fit a track plan into it. Design work is usually done as you draw the plan. Many, many changes have to be made for most layouts as that yard (or turntable, or factory, etc.) just won't work there, but how about over there instead? Or, that 24" aisle really should be 30", or maybe we can squeeze in another track? And so on. I've designed several layouts, and the constant changes make hand drafting obsolete. It also cuts down on construction time. There's no fiddling, no trying to make it work. If it works on CAD, it works on the real thing. The software doesn't "need" to be updated constantly. Heck, with 3rdPlanIt, I'm still on Version 9 and they are up to Version 11 now. It's not like the software expires; my Ver. 9 works just fine. BTW, what scale do you draw your hand drafted layout plans in? This is just for curiousity's sake. My only layout hand drafting has been done at 1" = 12".
Well Paul, I do the "planning" of a layout the same way I design a house, with well propotioned sketches in advance. I pretty much know what is going where and what will fit before the scale drawing starts.