I am running XTrkCAD 4 on a PC having tried a lot of other railroad CAD packages. None seem to be as user-friendly. I have some experience of AutoCAD so I don't think I'm a total novice!
I have drawn out a 12' x 10' (3500x2900mm) multi-level 16.5mm OO layout to fit in a garden shed and I now want to plan my analog control wiring with this package. I can create a new layer for wiring track feeds and a further one for turnouts and signals but cannot see how to do "isolating" track sections on the track plan layers. I am using Peco Streamline Code 100 as it suits some of the vintage stock I have and want to use live frog turnouts, hence the need for more detail on wiring plans! Layout is based somewhere in the west of 1930's UK with almost all steam traction.
I am trying to plan a 16x20 layout and I have looked at several track programs and I havent found a one that I think is user friendly. Im wondering that if the free trials they dont have everything activated, but that would seem to me not to be a good way to sell the program if doesnt let you see what it will really do. Anyway I have taken a step back and thought about everything I would like in a layout and layed out the size of the bench work to fit the room on graph paper and Im trying to do it just on the graph paper and I may even go to the work of the benchwork and layer of foam and then laying it out piece by piece until Im happy. Im struggling because this is a big lay out and I want it right and I dont want to build alot to just tear it apart to start over.
Dugan
Gruffalo Gramps I am running XTrkCAD 4 on a PC having tried a lot of other railroad CAD packages. None seem to be as user-friendly. I have some experience of AutoCAD so I don't think I'm a total novice! I have drawn out a 12' x 10' (3500x2900mm) multi-level 16.5mm OO layout to fit in a garden shed and I now want to plan my analog control wiring with this package. I can create a new layer for wiring track feeds and a further one for turnouts and signals but cannot see how to do "isolating" track sections on the track plan layers.
I have drawn out a 12' x 10' (3500x2900mm) multi-level 16.5mm OO layout to fit in a garden shed and I now want to plan my analog control wiring with this package. I can create a new layer for wiring track feeds and a further one for turnouts and signals but cannot see how to do "isolating" track sections on the track plan layers.
What do you mean by "isolating track sections" in this context?
Smile, Stein
I suppose I am lucky that I have some previous knowledge of CAD packages from days working with things like AutoCAD. I wanted to use a "standard" program because the library of files for things like turnouts and crossovers would be already done and I didn't plan to build my own. I find the item positioning in this program easier than in others and it is possible to alter angles quite easily. It isn't that friendly when you want to fill short spaces but you can't have everything - particularly in a free package! I find layers very useful, having got my upper and lower baseboard framework drawn, I know where turnout motors can and can't go so the rest of the track then starts to fall into place. Of course I could do it all by pen and paper, using lots of rubber, but the CAD advantage is that you never need a rubber! I haven't bought a CAD package, just tried all the free demo versions I could find before I came to my conclusion. XtrckCAD also works on my MAC so it isn't on my PC that is dedicated for work stuff.
Gruffalo
Hi Stein,
Think of a continuous storage loop fed from a single track. When the train enters the loop, it crosses through a turnout set in one direction and when it passes round the loop, the turnout must be switched to the other direction. Without a rail break (isolating section), the left rail on the track into the turnout would be connected to the right rail out of the turnout, leading to a short circuit. We therefore have to break the rail using an isolating joiner or similar. Does that clarify what I meant? I want to show those breaks in the rail but cannot see a way how i can do so with that package.
Regards
Thanks Stein, I was perhaps being a little too ambitious before I had mastered the package!
Although I'm not an XTrkCAD user, what is easily done in other MRR CAD programs is to create a new layer and manually draw the gaps in a contrasting color.
Byron
Layout Design GalleryLayout Design Special Interest Group
cuyama Although I'm not an XTrkCAD user, what is easily done in other MRR CAD programs is to create a new layer and manually draw the gaps in a contrasting color. Byron
Yup - that's what I suggested to Gruffalo too, when he sent me a PM.
I also pointed out that while you can do crude wring diagrams in XtrkCad, using one or more of the nine layers for putting colored lines or rectangles or circles in various places to signify things like feeders and insulation joiners, it is a track plan drawing program (with some capability for drawing benchwork).
It isn't really a program all that well suited for making and maintaining wiring diagrams.The drawn in feeders and insulators are not in any way attached to the tracks or each other - they will just be lines drawn over (or under - depending on the order you add things - newest thing on top) the tracks on the screen or on paper, if the layer you have put your lines in is displayed.
Smile,Stein
Thanks Byron. I have started putting this suggestion into place and it seems fine so far.