FORUM CLINIC: Using Photoshop for layout planning

[electrolove]

When you are using the Measure Tool to measure angles. Try to set the start and end points like picture B, if you set them as picture A you will not be able to measure with great accurancy. And draw the measure line close to the object you want to measure. I didn't do that in the picture because it's hard to see the tool when I'm explaining.



Same thing if you want to rotate a layer, Edit > Transform > Rotate. Do not hold the mouse pointer close to the picture when rotating, hold it far away and you will be able to rotate with more control.

For even more control, use the Zoom Tool so you can set the start and end points for the Measure Tool with pixel accurancy.

[StillGrande]

I do like the use. It seems great for copying layouts from the mags into the computer for testing and building (That is faster than I can do it now). Also like the projection into realspace.

[electrolove]

What figures do you have problems with? Maybe I can correct them.

QUOTE: Originally posted by jacon12

I appreciate you taking the time to put this together, even though I couldn't read some of the 'figures' in one or two of the screen shots. I've used Photoshop for several years and I know what a vast and complicated program it can be, but I've never gotten into the measure tool etc. I see that I'm going to have to do that now. I use Photoshop as a digital darkroom for photography mostly, and a lot of it lately as been on pictures like my P2K E6..

Learning about the measure tool and a couple of other things was worth it to me.
Thanks,
Jarrell

[electrolove]

StillGrande:

There are many more ways to ballast a track then you ever need. But that's the cool thing with this forum. It's all about options. So use whatever suits you best.

[StillGrande]

Really cool. Of course, several of the software planning tools do all that (layers, reach, benchwork, track, print full size, etc.) plus more (3d explore, run trains on the layout to test switching and what not. Several also have a whole library of buildings from different manufacturers available (and railcars). Don't see what you want, there are more online and you can also draw your own 3d model in a few minutes (sized correctly to the layout).

They don't take long to learn. If you run through the tutorials in the manual, you should be able to draw room sized layout fairly quickly. I can do the basics of a 24x36 (space I have available) in about an hour, 2+ levels, tracks and terrain (tunnels too). Not too complicated. If you can cut and paste in MS Word, you can use these programs.

[jacon12]

I appreciate you taking the time to put this together, even though I couldn't read some of the 'figures' in one or two of the screen shots. I've used Photoshop for several years and I know what a vast and complicated program it can be, but I've never gotten into the measure tool etc. I see that I'm going to have to do that now. I use Photoshop as a digital darkroom for photography mostly, and a lot of it lately as been on pictures like my P2K E6..

Learning about the measure tool and a couple of other things was worth it to me.
Thanks,
Jarrell

[electrolove]

I think this one needs a bump, just in case someone missed it.

[electrolove]

Thanks. The really cool thing is when I measured my benchwork. I know that Photoshop is awesome but I still was a little surprise to see my benchwork come together with mm accurancy. That was really nice and saved me a lot of time.

QUOTE: Originally posted by howmus

Excellent tutorial electrolove! You pointed out several things that I had not thought about for layout planning. Keep it coming!

[electrolove]

Thanks, glad I can help.

QUOTE: Originally posted by selector

Excellent, truly excellent, Electro. Thanks!

[electrolove]

I had an idea to actually print the whole trackplan on paper in the real size, many small papers taped together. There is software that let you do that. But in the end, everything worked out great without printing anything out at all.

QUOTE: Originally posted by WickhamMan

Excellent start. You've got me curious. I especially like how you overlayed the layout plan on the actual benchwork. Looks like I will need a bigger printer! [:D]

I look forward to subsequent posts, especially those that don't require the use of an existing layout diagram to create a new layout.

[howmus]

Excellent tutorial electrolove! You pointed out several things that I had not thought about for layout planning. Keep it coming!

[selector]

Excellent, truly excellent, Electro. Thanks!

[WickhamMan]

Excellent start. You've got me curious. I especially like how you overlayed the layout plan on the actual benchwork. Looks like I will need a bigger printer! [:D]

I look forward to subsequent posts, especially those that don't require the use of an existing layout diagram to create a new layout.

[electrolove]

NZRMac:

Sorry, I do not know anything about ArcSoft photostudio. Maybe someone else can answer that question.

[NZRMac]

That's cool Thanks Very much.

I've only got photoshop starter 3.0 and the upgrade is reasonably expensive?

Will ArcSoft photostudio 5 do similar things?

Ken.

[electrolove]

Introduction

Why did I use Photoshop to plan my layout? I'm a web designer and have worked as a webdesign teacher as well so it was natural to use it. And I'm glad I did because there is so many great things you can do with it. I will just scratch the surface of possibilities with Photoshop in this tutorial, because it's VERY complicated. If you want to know more I recommend some of the great sites on the net.

What is Photoshop?

Photoshop is the industri standard when it comes to graphical software. It have been on the market a long time and the version that I use for this is the latest, Adobe Photoshop CS2, also called version 9. But you don't need the latest version to follow this tutorial. You can use everything from version 5,5 and up. And as Joe Fugate wrote, you can even use the mini version of Photoshop called Elements. I only have the latest version right now, so I may be wrong. If that's the case, please fill in the missing info.

Where can you download a demo?

At Adobe, try this url:

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/main.html

There are PC and Mac versions. I'm a Mac user, most people in the Graphic world are using Mac. So this tutorial will be written on my Mac but it's very easy to translate this to a PC. BTW: This is a picture of the Mac I just ordered. iMac G5.



Everything is located inside the 20 inch TFT widescreen. You can see the slot for the double layer DVD burner at the side of the screen. You even have stereo speakers, but you can't see them, Apple computer always do things like that. My son already have one and it's incredible. The best computer I have ever seen, period!

[#offtopic] Sorry, on with the show...

Layers

The big thing with Photoshop is the feature called layers. I can honestly say that without layers Photoshop is nothing. It's that importent. Don't even think Paint, it's useless for this, and most other things as well. [:D] What is a layer then. Think of it as a transparent paper where you can draw something. But there is one thing you need to do before you can create layers.

Start Photoshop and create a new document.

File > New...

You will see something like this:



My layout room is 355 cm x 310 cm so I typed 3550 pixel x 3100 pixels with a resolution of 600 like this:



Why did I use 600 as the resolution? I will not explain what resolution is because that is a complicated thing and I want this tutorial to be as easy as possible to understand, even for people that are not used to computers. Lets just make it easy and say that it's much easier if you use 600 as the resolution. I will come back to this later in this tutorial. Click the OK button and you will have your paper to draw on and a layer that looks like this:



The first layer is always called 'Background'

Now you have your paper to draw on and it's the size of your layout room. A pretty good start. Just remember that this paper is BIG and consumes a lot of computer power.

Windows and Doors

Time to draw the location for all your windows and doors. Create a new layer by clicking on the layer button.



Doubleclick on the name of the layer and rename it to windows and doors like this:



Turn on the grid.

View > Show > Grid

Set the grid to the following numbers in Preferences and Guides, Grid & Slices.



Click OK and your picture looks something like this:



Every square is 10 x 10 cm, that makes it easy to draw the windows and doors.

Select the following tool



Draw a rectangle around the place where you have your window or door. Fill it with black.

Edit > Fill... > Black



Click OK and deselect

Select > Deselect

Repeat for all windows and doors. Now my picture looks like this:



Trackplan

I scanned my trackplan from Model Railroader at a resolution of 600. I then opened it and moved it to my picture by copying and pasting. It did not fit my room so I adjusted the size a little.

Edit > Transform > Scale

As you can see I have the windows and the door in the picture. Don't forget to check your radius at this time. If your layout room is to small for the trackplan your radius will also be too small.



Trackplan source: Model Railroader, 1987 November Issue, The Iron Wood RR by Larry R. Forgard

Now the fun part starts. I will show you many small examples what you can do with Photoshop.

Benchwork

First we need a benchwork so create a layer and rename it to benchwork. Draw your benchwork. My benchwork looks like this:



It's made from 1 x 4 inch lumber. As you can see it's 3 benchworks bolted together.

Foam

Create a layer and rename it to foam. My foam layer looks like this:



Set opacity (transparency) to 90% for the foam layer so you can see the benchwork as well. You can then plan how many sheets of foam you need. Very handy.

Backdrop

Create a layer and rename it to backdrop. You need a slightly bigger picture then the room size to do this.

Image > Canvas Size...

I'm sure you can draw it better then this. I was not feeling ok that day. [xx(]



Can I reach everything?

Can I reach everything on my layout? This is not a big problem if you are building your layout around the walls of the room. Create a new layer and rename it to reach. Draw a circle with the Elliptical Marquee Tool. Set the size of the radius of the circle (hold down shift to draw a circle) to the length of your arm. Draw several circles like this:



Continue to draw circles until you can't fill any more of your layout. If you have areas that is not filled after you are done the chance are that you can't reach that part of your layout. Maybe time to rethink your benchwork. Or get longer arms [:D]

What more can you do?

You can continue to create layers with different things on, here are just a few examples: Scenery, inclines and risers, flat areas, bolts, electrical, measurements, angles, location of tortoises, location of signals, loacation of bus wires, location of structures, location of trees and other things, you name it. It's really just your fantasy that's the limit. And you can decide what layer you want to look at by clicking on the eye to the left of the layer.

My favorite examples

EXAMPLE 1

Let's say that you need to know the length of a track. Select the following tool:



Draw a line (with the tool) from the start of the track to the end of the track like this:



Look at D1 and you can see the length of this track:



746,40. Read it as 746 mm, or 74,6 cm. This is where it's so importent that you use a resolution of 600. If you do not use 600 you can't measure with great accurancy. It's possible that you must change your Preferences here.

Preferences > Units & Rulers... > Rulers = Pixels

I used this function a lot for measure my benchwork before cutting the wood. If you do it right you can be very accurate. I'm talking mm accurancy here.

EXAMPLE 2

I need to know the angle of the benchwork in this location:



Use the same tool and draw a line with it. Then select Image > Rotate Canvas > Arbitrary... Click Cancel when you are done, or everything will be a big mess!

The answer is 15,78 degrees. Then I use this wonderful tool (set to the same angle) to cut the wood:



EXAMPLE 3

I want to know the location of a structure. Use the same tool again and measure two times so you get the x and y coordinates. As easy as that.

EXAMPLE 4

You can even do things like this:



Happy planning! [yeah]