Best Free Track Laying Program and links kind sir

[cudaken]

I have the RTS 7.0 free soft ware and find it to be a pain in the Caboose to use. I would like to say I am on a fixed income, but I am not. It is still broken.[:D][:D]

Anyone have a easy to use for someone is not smart when it comes to Keyboard Thingies?

Main thing I would like a program where I can set the bench work sizes and shapes.

Thanks in advances.

Cuda Ken

[SpaceMouse]

XtraCAD also has a learning curve but once you learn it, it is more intuitive than Atlas and far more powerful. The key is to do the tutorial. Takes a couple evenings.

http://www.sillub.com/

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by SpaceMouse

XtraCAD also has a learning curve but once you learn it, it is more intuitive than Atlas and far more powerful. The key is to do the tutorial. Takes a couple evenings.

http://www.sillub.com/

Page not displayed.

[SpaceMouse]

I just clicked and it worked for me. Might be in my history though.

[cudaken]

Link worked for me. Latter I will down laod it and see if I can get the hang of it.

Thanks spaces mouse.

Cuda Ken

[jamnest]

I use the Atlas RTS 7.0 with no problems. It is a great program and the price is right!

Jim

[Anonymous]

I agree with Jim!!

RTS 7.0 works great for me!!!

but i'll keep my eyes open to see if there is another software out there for you!

[Anonymous]

I like the RTS program well enough but I admit it has it's quarks. Once you figure out how to work around them it's not so bad. I tried XtraCAD also but long enough to give an honest opinon.

[Anonymous]

I'll second (or third or fourth...) XTrkCad. Absolutely you must do the tutorial, or you will throw it away. (I am a computer type person, and was hopeless without the tutorial.) Some of it is not intuitive, but it will do a good job, and it really isn't hard to learn.

[jxtrrx]

Cuda Ken, I've used both of the free ones: Atlas and XtrkCad... and can tell you that although it takes some time to learn, XtrkCad is the clear winner especially if you want to work with flex track. Download it and go!

[pcarrell]

I've tried them both, and they both have their strong points. I don't have any problems using the Atlas program, and to be honest, that's the one I use the most. It does fine work for me.

Here's a couple of examples of whet the Atlas program can do:

Click to enlarge






What seems to be the problem that you're having with it and maybe we can help.

[ezielinski]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jamnest

I use the Atlas RTS 7.0 with no problems. It is a great program and the price is right!

Jim

Same here. Made a complex 8x17 layout with the freeware.

[SpaceMouse]

The Atlas program is made specifially for Atlas track. I used 5.0 for my current layout. But I used Bachman track and had to add 6" to make it fit. It became a 4.5 x *8 layout. It's the risk you run with Atlas software.

XtraCAD has software libraries for most any brand out there and new ones are being written all the time. It is the big advantage of open source softeware. It just keeps getting better and better. As programers get tired of the quirks, they fix them.

[cudaken]

Pcarrell, that is the free Atlas planer? If it is I am doing something wrong big time.



This is all I can get out of mine so far. Rail beds are way to wide, cannot see the rails plus have not found a way to make a jpg file out of the saved plains. Have to print and then take a PIC of the plain.

Doning something wrong afain, Cuda Ken

[tstage]

Ken,

If you right click the screen with your mouse, you can call up "Properties" and try and change the track display that way.

Tom

[pcarrell]

Cuda Ken,

That is the free Atlas software I used for those. Like Tom said, you have to set things up right in the properties area to get better results. There's always a learning curve with new software, so let's see if we can't figure this thing out, huh?

First off, you also can't really do a lot in the scenery department with this software. I get a trackplan I like all made up, then I do a "save as" into "My Pictures" as a Bitmap file (thats important if your going to do the next step). It won't let you save it as a JPG yet. Then I go to "My Pictures" and right click on it and then select "Edit". I then use the various microsoft paint tools to do the scenery. I expand the pic to 800% when I do this so I have good control of things. When I'm satasfied, I do another "save as", this time I make it a JPG file. Then I just upload onto my photobucket account and post!

Photobucket says it will accept a Bitmap file, and I think I loaded one once and it automatically converted it to a JPG. Does anyone know about this?

Is there anything else you're having trouble with on this program?

[tstage]

Ken,

You can always save your RTS layout as a .bmp file, open it up in Paintshop, then save it as a .jpg file. You can then upload your pics onto a photo site like Photobucket or Railimages and link your picture from there to display it on the forum.

Tom

[cudaken]

Hum, as far as I know I don't have paint shop. Run XP Pro on the keyboad thingie.

Dump as a Rock when it comes to computers Ken

[tstage]

Sorry, Ken. I meant to say Paintbrush, which you should with XP.

Just click "Start" in the lower left hand corner of your desktop, then "All Programs", then "Accessories", then "Paint". Open your saved RTS .bmp file and save it as a .jpg. That should do it for you. (Course, you'll have to wait till after Wednesday to post it because the forum is going to go down. [:(]

Tom