I have reached a point that I need to find a better way to document my layout. I currently make extensive use of spread sheets and they work great for some stuff but do not provide the complete story. I would like to find a way to make notes on a layout image that supplement my spreadsheets.
I originally designed my N scale layout (Kato Unitrack) with RR-Track. It was simple and worked well for my needs at that stage. Now that it is operational and I am adding more stuff, it is getting more complex as I fold in blocks and other stuff. I can print out my layout with RR-Track and make it as big as I want. Same for the image of my layout in JMRI Layout Editor (and Control Panel Editor). However, I want something I can add notes to via computer and make a permanent record that I can edit or add notes and items to. The ability to do that in RR-Tracks as well as the JMRI panels is crude at best.
Looking for suggestions on a CAD style program (low cost and easy) that I can replicate (not design) my layout in, add notes, etc in a permanent record. I don't need to have a precise match to my layout but I want the track plan to LOOK like my layout so I can mark block boundaries, show where track feeders are, add notes, etc as a way to add some graphical style data as a complement to my spreadsheet and other documents.
Suggestions?
Paul D
N scale Washita and Santa Fe RailroadSouthern Oklahoma circa late 70's
A posibiliy. Requires a little drawing.
Roger Hensley= ECI Railroad - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/eci/eci_new.html == Railroads of Madison County - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/ =
wouldn't it be great to have program, or webpage with a drawing of the layout that you could select various types of details to be displayed and be able to click on for more information.
details can be gaps in rails, power districts, location of components like reversers, circuit breakers, boosters, switch-machines, connections between components and track or panels, ...
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
Mel- I have use CAD like programs many years ago but lack the inclination to relearn them. I am only a few years behind you. However, that may be my best solution.
Roger- what program did you use to make your drawing?
If you have PowerPoint, you can use that. Or Visio - I've used Visio to draw control panels in the past, and you can draw all sorts of lines and curves, and assign text tags (and actually, it can even work a bit like a database that has sets of attributes for each object, so for example, you can have a representation fo the signals and for each one it would have a text box that conistently logs the name, the controller address, etc). I use Visio constantly at work to document computer networks, so I have access to it, otherwise it's not cheap.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
PEDI would like to find a way to make notes on a layout image
Why not do exactly that? Take photos, load them into your favorite editing program (you could use something as simple as Paint, or PowerPoint) and put your notes directly on the photos? This would have the side benefit of being in a format you can directly share online.
As has been said above, CAD carries a steep learning curve. Why invest the time in learning it when you don't need the precision it provides?
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.
This thread has gotten somewhat interesting. I never even drew a track plan, I had an idea, a simple sketch, and I knew the size of the area I had to play with, so I just built, but I would like to do a track plan, as I have an industrial area along with a transloading/small yard that I would like to make just a tad more switcher friendly, and I think actually drawing what I have would be a good start, in redesigning what I could do.
Mike.
My You Tube
i second Powerpoint. You can import am image of your layout and overlay almost anything in power point. I did all my control panels for my layout in powerpoint.
Also here is one of my old layout. I drew the track plan in Xtrkcad and overlayed the wiring diagram in Powerpoint.
I have to admit powerpoint worked great for all the artwork on the control panels but I did switch to AutoSketch 10 for doing the wiring diagrams since i got it for free from my office. The other nice part is that Autosketch has is layers. I can different layers on and off for what I need to show.
Colorado Front Range Railroad: http://www.coloradofrontrangerr.com/
I also think this is an interesting thread.
I am a draftsman by nature. I started with paper and pencil on a large flat table and easily transitioned to CAD in the eighties. I look at drawing and sketching model railroad stuff as just another aspect of this hobby; every bit as enjoyable as anything else. And I think OP Paul and others do as well.
It seems to me that he and others are already pretty far along on the CAD learning curve. What with the spreadsheets and the JMRI Panel Pro and the CadRail and whatnot, it doesn't seem too far a stretch to get to where he's going, and I'd encourage him (and others) to keep plodding along.
I'd like to hear more ideas along the lines and topics already mentioned.
Robert
LINK to SNSR Blog
I am very familiar with (and have) PowerPoint and have built a million briefings with it in the past. Also familiar with Visio (to build flowcharts at work) but do not have personal copy ($$$$). If I tried to use PP, I would need to break my 8x23 layout into pieces to draw it but I could do that. An interisting alternative to PP is Excel. You can do a lot of the same drawing in Excel as you can in PP. There are also free versions of Visio available that I need to examine.