[hoarp001]

Hi,

The time has come to get a solid definate layout plan done. At the moment we have a vague idea of what goes where and stuff but we need a proper map that we can follow. Ive seen software around, but the thing is - Im a mac user. I do have an old PC laptop, but id rather not have to use it.

I have got the demo of rail Modeller but im not that impressed. Id like a package that I can model the room with, so I map out the layout boards etc etc in scale then I can put the track on. Idealy if it could calculate how much track there was etc etc. Id also like it to be able to cope with helixes and multi levels.

Any help?

Thanks,

Pete.

 

[dwb]

QUOTE Any help?

Not from me, I use PaintBrush.

. My latest Blog entry has a clip from my latest work of art...

David

 

[goedel]

Hallo,

I use CorelDraw but nothing is as flexible as a piece of paper and pen/pencil! In fact I enjoy doing a plan in pencil, going over it in ink and then scanning it into the computer and annotating/colouring in paint/photoshop/paintshoppro. Good luck finding something that works on an a Mac...

Most of the dedicated tracklaying programs I have come across are dreadful - complicated, unwieldy and unsophisticated.

QUOTE Id like a package that I can model the room with, so I map out the layout boards etc etc in scale then I can put the track on. Idealy if it could calculate how much track there was etc etc. Id also like it to be able to cope with helixes and multi levels.

Google Sketch-Up is free and very good for designing buildings, and also whole rooms with baseboards etc. and very intuitive, perhaps it will work on a Mac:

There are a few pictures on my website but you get the idea!

Goedel

 

[neil_s_wood]

QUOTE (dwb @ 5 Sep 2007, 07:40) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Not from me, I use PaintBrush.

. My latest Blog entry has a clip from my latest work of art...

David
I use excel with graph paper as a background so I can acuurately size it.

 

[dwb]

QUOTE I use excel with graph paper as a background so I can acuurately size it.
I zoom Paintbrush to 800% and switch on the grid. In the clip I put in the blog, one pixel = 1/8 of an inch. It turns out to be surprisingly accurate. When I created a large radius Peco point, made a copy and flipped it to form a crossover, the distance between the tracks matched the reality exactly.

If my new PC parts ever arrive, I plan to buy a 2D CAD program and build up my own library of parts. I had a copy of the original AutoSketch years ago (it crashes on XP or Pentium, don't know or care which) and I found it easy to create accurate drawings simply by entering numbers, not through having to plant the mouse cursor "just so".

David

 

[SPROGman]

QUOTE (hoarp001 @ 4 Sep 2007, 22:13) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Hi,

The time has come to get a solid definate layout plan done. At the moment we have a vague idea of what goes where and stuff but we need a proper map that we can follow. Ive seen software around, but the thing is - Im a mac user. I do have an old PC laptop, but id rather not have to use it.
There is a MAC port of XtrkCad available as far as I know. Ask on the XtrkCad group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/XTrkCad/

Andrew

 

[Gordon H]

QUOTE (dwb @ 5 Sep 2007, 15:46) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I had a copy of the original AutoSketch years ago (it crashes on XP or Pentium, don't know or care which) and I found it easy to create accurate drawings simply by entering numbers, not through having to plant the mouse cursor "just so".
I still use AutoSketch 2.1 on a daily basis on XP, previously on NT and Win '95. The only thing I ever came across as a problem was on NT where you had to carefully disable the SmartCursor function first time round to stop a crash happening. I find this old version much easier to get along with compared to the later ones.

 

[dwb]

QUOTE I still use AutoSketch 2.1 on a daily basis on XP, previously on NT and Win '95. The only thing I ever came across as a problem was on NT where you had to carefully disable the SmartCursor function first time round to stop a crash happening. I find this old version much easier to get along with compared to the later ones.

I found that any attempt to rotate something would crash it.

As for liking the older version, I believe that in the change to version 3 it was a completely different set of code underneath so the original behaviour was lost.

David

 

[sibrows]

As a Mac user as well, I can confirm the conclusion that you have probably already come to, there aren't very many options available to you. I have been using RailModeller for about a year now and as yet haven't found anything better.

I agree that it isn't the best program around but its the best I've found for use on a Mac.

Although a port of Xtrkcad, now that I would be interested in

. . .

 

[rpjallan]

I am also a Mac user and have been using RailModeller. It is certainly a bit clunky but it has been able to do everything I have wanted. I think most of the things you want to do are supposed to be in the next version which should be quite a big update.

I was starting from scratch and I was able to design a layout to fit in the space available, refine it, and then purchase all the track with little or no waste.