[Mixy]

Hello Alan,

You can cut flex track by pressing right mouse button while modeling it.
Right and Left are relative directions and for complex tracks or sections this can be confusing. But you can rotate the track (or section) by placing new start point, oriented in the desired direction. Then just attach your track (or section) to that start point.

Regards,

Mixy

 

[Mixy]

OK Alan, try the following:

Place new start point, but hold the left mouse button to set the desired direction. Move the cursor away - the direction angle is shown in the status bar. When ready, release the mouse button. Now you can place new track here or use this point to rotate already existing track to the new direction.

To do the rotation of existing track first select it, then right click over it and select "Move" from the context menu. Move the mouse (the track will move with the cursor), so one of the track end arrows overlaps the new start point - when this occurs, the arrows will be colored in red and green. Click with left mouse button and the moved track will be placed rotated to the start point's direction.

Hope this will help you.

Regards,

Mixy

 

[Mixy]

QUOTE (spurno @ 20 Apr 2011, 13:09) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>hi mixy

thanks for getting back to me so soon.i have done it now.i don't want to sound ungrateful for what is a good program but i still think a rotate button would be quicker and easier to use.like in a photo program.i hope you take this as a constructive criticism,it's just my opinion for what it's worth.

many thanks

alan

OK, I will think over this

Mixy

 

[Mixy]

Hello Stephen,

Yes, I am working over this, but not sure when it will be ready - hope soon

Regards,

Mixy

 

[Mixy]

The new version 0.8.6 of SCARM is ready

The most important new feature is automatic 3D terrain generation. It will allow realistic 3D representation of the layouts, which have defined heights, bridges and/or tunnels. For example, here is a simple layout with shape of the digit '8' with two stations and with predefined heights of the tracks:

If the tracks in the lifted middle section are set as bridge, the layout will look as follows:

If the tracks in the other (lowered) middle section are set as tunnel, the layout will look as follows:

To look through terrain, you can switch to "Wireframe" mode, using View > Terrain > Wireframe from menu bar in 3D viewing mode. To make terrain invisible, use View > Terrain > Invisible.

Quality vs. Speed of terrain generation is controlled from Tools > Settings > 3D View. It is recommended to keep Automatic setting, which is default - the program will automatically adjust quality/speed of terrain calculations according to your layout. Large layouts with complex track development will require more time for rendering of the terrain. You can turn off terrain generation if you prefer old, flat baseboard view or if terrain calculations are too slow for you.

Terrain engine will help for better visualization of multileveled layouts and is cornerstone in SCARM development, because all future 3D objects with assigned heights depend on the terrain shape. I will create terrain modeling interface so you will be able to create your own mountains and valleys in SCARM.

Hope that you will enjoy the new features - more will come soon

Download the new version from www.scarm.info/index_en.html

Mixy

 

[Mixy]

Thank you, Michael

I am posting just to "report" my progress over SCARM. See some preliminiray snaphots from the development and testing stage of the next version in this topic. Hope all you will like them.

Greetings,

Mixy

 

[Mixy]

Hello dear friends

Long time passed from the last update, but I believe that it was worth the wait. The new version of SCARM is almost ready. Now I am performing the final tests and making documentation updates. I hope that new version will be released in the beginning of the next month with many new additions and features and without significant bugs

@Normy: Yes, you are right about baseboard creation. There will be a dedicated tool in the new version for entering baseboard coordinates and measurements from dialog. About slopes - use '<' and '>' keys (signs for Greater and Smaller) and you will be able to alter track heights.

@Brian: Thank you for using SCARM and hope that it will be easy and useful to you.

Mixy

 

[Mixy]

Thank you, jukebox

And here is it - the new version 0.9.0 of SCARM - http://www.scarm.info/index_en.html.

Now with 2D/3D shapes and objects for representing of buildings, platforms, roads, signals and many other railway and layout related items and accessories. The enthusiasts will be able even to create the interior of the room where their layouts will be standing and to show how they will look to the wives in the 3D Viewer

The user can easily create many things with the figures in SCARM, but there are also some items that will be unable to be shaped. This is due to the simple work in one plane in the 2D editor and I have to work more in order to solve this. However, there will be predefined figures and objects like signals, trees, lamps, catenary and so on and new version already contains some of them.

There is a sample SCARM layout: Sample1_HO.zip. Download it, unzip and open in SCARM to see in details some of the new features in 2D editor and 3D Viewer.

Before start working with the new version, please check the new items in the FAQ section of the documentation. I will also post here some tips and tricks for using of new features in the following days.

And now, see some pics, taken from the example layout (click to enlarge):



Remember, that SCARM is still in beta stage of development and sometimes may not work as expected. Always create archives of your layouts and save changes in the files with incremental names (just in case) i.e. "layout_1.scarm", "layout_2.scarm", and so on. Please report any bugs or error messages with explanation how, when and where in the program they occurs. I will try to fix them as soon as possible.

Hope all of you will like the new version of SCARM

Mixy

 

[Mixy]

Hi Anthony,

Is the old version 0.8.8 able to run on your computer? If you are installing SCARM for the first time, please uninstall it, download the old version from http://www.scarm.info/SCARMsetup_0_8_8.exe and try it. I was tested 0.9.0 on Win 7 last week and it was working fine.

Mixy

 

[Mixy]

Hi Anthony,

It is possible something with the 0.9.0 download package to be wrong. Please try to download the new version again, then install it, run and tell me is the error remaining or is gone.

Mixy

 

[Mixy]

Thank you, Sarge

Your ideas are good and I will try to realize them in the near future. For now only the trackbed is textured and there will be more possibilities in the next versions, including user defined texturing of the scenery and objects. But now I am concentrated in some interface improvements, bug-fixing and fulfilling of the libraries with all new tracks, accessories and so on. The programming of SCARM is taking a lot of my free time, but I am enjoying doing it. If you have more ideas about new features or improvements of existing functionality, share them with me and I will add them to the list

Mixy

 

[Mixy]

Thank you, Anthony

I am glad that my program is useful to you.

Mixy

 

[Mixy]

Hello again,

I have prepared 2 example diagrams about using of new baseboard creation tools in the Toolbox of SCARM 0.9.x. They are showing the input sequence of the coordinates, when creating some complex baseboards. I hope that these diagrams will be useful in understanding of how baseboard creation tools are working in SCARM.

Diagram 1 - Baseboard (absolute coordinates) - for entering of the baseboard by absolute coordinates of corner points.

Diagram 2 - Baseboard (displacements) - for entering of the baseboard by offsets from each last point.

Also, the last update 0.9.3 of SCARM includes new tool in the Toolbox for simplified creation of rectangular baseboards.

Mixy

 

[Mixy]

QUOTE (Anthony566 @ 27 Sep 2011, 01:36) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Hi Mixy, this may be a stupid question but is it possible to add text to my layout plan ?

Actually, it is very reasonable question - I am working over this and texts in the layout will appear in some of the next versions of SCARM, hope soon

Mixy

 

[Mixy]

QUOTE (Sarge427 @ 27 Sep 2011, 22:03) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Mixy,

I know you have started your own built-in 3D editing tools to make buildings, but how about considering importing Google SketchUp files? It's free, easy to use, and, most importantly, there is the warehouse where objects can be stored on the 'net. If you set some basic guidelines, I bet there are quite a number of computer savvy modellers who would all be able to contribute to a library of buildings. You could even have a few on your website.
You're right that built-in 3D tools for creating figures and shapes in SCARM are very simple, but that is the purpose of them for now. Google SketchUp is very cool program and may be I will consider some import from it or other 3D editors in SCARM in the near future, because this will give more rich and realistic looking of layout and scenes in 3D Viewing mode. I need to play more with SketchUp in order to learn more about it

Mixy

 

[Mixy]

The new version SCARM 0.9.5 is ready and published on www.scarm.info

The most important new features are the ability to set track colors and 1:1 zoom factor for exact printouts of particular track pieces.

To set the track colors, use the color menu, displayed by dedicated new button in the toolbar (next to Tunnel button). If there is selection, all tracks in it will be colored with the chosen color and newly added tracks will be colored with last selected color (visible on the button). There is a small bug - tracks, repeated by pressing of Spacebar are not automatically colored, but I will fix it in the next update.

To print in 1:1, select "View" > "Scale" > "1 to 1" from the menu - the Print Preview page will be displayed and adjusted exactly at 1:1 zoom factor. You can print in 1:1 even whole layouts, but for now this can be done only manually (page by page) and is not convenient for large layouts. In the next days, I will try to create an example about 1:1 printing for those of you, who want to use this feature

Mixy

 

[Mixy]

After some delay I am happy to announce that the last version SCARM 0.9.16 is ready and can be downloaded as usual from http://www.scarm.info

The most important new feature is the ability to work with texts on the drawing plot - a huge lack for many of you until now

To place some text, first select "Edit" > "Place Text" from the menu and then click with the mouse at desired location on the plot - a text box for editing will appear. You can select font type and relative font size form the controls, appeared in the right part of the Toolbar, next to "3D" button. When ready with the editing, press Enter or click outside of the text box. You can move the text or group it with other figures on the layout and also rotate and align it to other texts and figures. You can change the text color from the Properties window. For now it is not possible to enter formatted (bold, italic, justified, etc.) or multi-line texts, but this will be changed in the future versions. The texts are visible only in 2D mode and are not displayed in 3D Viewer.

Note that not all fonts are suitable for scaling and rotating. Some fonts may not be presented on other computers and texts might be looking different when layout, saved on one computer is opened on another. Try to use the most common system fonts, available on all Windows-based machines to ensure proper text look of your layout on all computers. My experiments show that "Trebuchet MS" and "Verdana" are good fonts for using in SCARM. "Arial", "Times New Roman", "Courier New" and "Tahoma" are well scaled, but are rendered with some offset when rotated. This is due to reasons outside SCARM, but I will search how to make it better will all possible fonts.

There are also some new and updated libraries and many small improvements and bugfixes. I hope that you will like the new version of SCARM

Mixy

 

[Mixy]

@Brian Considine: Yes, these track systems are already included

@Kevin Appleby: Many Linux users report that SCARM runs smoothly under WINE

 

[Mixy]

Hi Terry,

Nice to see you here

Our newborn is growing fast - almost 0,75kg for 3 weeks - and we are very happy

This will slow down my work over SCARM, but not for long (I hope).

It is strange that old version is unable to see the new one - may be the file with version data has been read trough the cache - I will check this. Don't worry to send me more HD structures - I will deal with them when I have time

Mixy

 

[Mixy]

Hello Ashleigh S

You can easily add a water surface of any form by using Polygon figure. Just set the height to 2mm and Color to Blue. See the lakes in the sample layouts on SCARM website

Here is a sample pic of a lake - click over it to enlarge:



Mixy