I've seen some well done track plans on many web sites and now I'd like to draw my track plan electronically if possible but I don't know how to approach the project. How do you do it? Is there a way using off-the-shelf software like MS Paint? Anything short of buying track planning software? UPGUY has a nice one, in color as do many of you. Any tips? I will hand draw as a last resort but heck, it's not as pretty.
mc, Welcome! I would go to the Atlas website and download their 'Right Track' software Atlasrr , it's free and will do a pretty good job. If you are designing your first layout this software will make things much easier for you. Also don't forget to keep an eye on the layout design discussion forum on trainboard. 2slim [ 18 March 2002, 06:58: Message edited by: 2slim ]
Paul, what did you use as a scale on MS paint. Can't seem to find anything to help keep the plan in proportion? BTW, all the track is laid (is it ever, really?) on my layout. Just looking for a way to put it down in a medium other than the original graph paper plan. Mike
I used a CAD program to draw my track plans, but only beacause I had it on my computer anyway. Not sure it would be worth buying one just to do them.
Transparent paper and a pencil. Minimize it on a copying machine. Scan it to a JPG image. Necessary modifications with Paint Shop Pro. That´s it, and the result is shown below: Other parts of the layout you will find at my site. ------------ Helge SR&WF NARA member #5
I used MS paint for my latest morph of the L shape plan. The benchwork is complete, still yet to finalize the trackplan. The layout design forum and my yahoo projects/photos album have the details/pics. Check it out, and leeem know what you think needs changed! BTW, I used the MS paint grid lines in the zoom mode to scale it to the dimensions I wanted.
Mike, Thanks for the compliment. I used the MS Paint program that came installed on my computer. I drew the plan in the bitmap (bmp) form pixule by pixule. (I think that's how you spell it--I'm not a computer geek.) I saved it in the bmp format for future editing purposes. Work a little and save it often just in case.... It is a lot of work to have to start over! The plan is not exactly to scale, but it is close enough to give the idea of what it is you are trying to create. It can also be easily reproduced, so you can take it to the layout room (my computer and the layout room are a mile apart). Once you have it saved the way you like it in the bitmap form, it is easy enough to save to a jpg fomat also for posting to the Internet.
MS Paint works real well...and then, you can do it in Atlas Right Track Program, select, and copy the layout diagram, and then paste it into paint. I have found that my plans were pretty dead on. The nice thing about this is that you can color and scenic the track plan you create in RTS, and it is very easy to create a new plan. And the hardest part is learning how to use RTS. Now if only my space was available!
I'll add my "me too!" about Atlas' Right Track Software. It's free, fairly easy to use, and the plans can be pasted to MS Paint and colored. My plan is available at my home page , follow the link to the Paris & Mt. Pleasant plan. RTS is a fairly simple plan, and works for both HO and N scales. However, it works with Atlas track only- prepare for variations if you plug in Peco, ME or Shinohara components. Good luck to you, and we'd love to see what you come up with (the Layout Design Forum in Trainboard is ideal for display ).
