Doc, after you have attached the two ends of the flex track there is a flex track shaping tool that you can use to change the shape of the curve. It's one of the little buttons on the toolbar at the top.
TO: DOC5 The button to adjust the flex track is directly below the flextrack button except the adjusment button has two arrows going opposite directions. When you press the button and click on hte flex track it will cause two lines leading from each end of the flex track to pop up. There is a dot on each line when you click and slide those closer or farther away it will adjust the curve of the track. Hope that helps
By the way has anyone found a way to get RailImages to download an RTS layout pic? It keeps saying that it can't download it and there is no other file type i can change it to. They are all text files.
I save CAD drawings as .jpg files. then you can post one here. You can also plot or print out your drawing on 8.5"x 11" paper, scan it and save it as a .gif or .jpg file, then attach it to Railimages too.
I usually use CAD programs to do trackplans, but will download the Atlas one to play with. I have time to try it out before I build my new layout
I use Cadrail. I just put a drawing of my layout on Rail Images, but it is a Cadrail file to a bitmap to a jpeg. I did the drawing a few years ago and Cadrail has improved since then. I don't know about other programs, but I haven't drawn anything much since I settled on the layout design. The thing I liked about Cadrail was using the spirals for curves. All my layout has these spiral incorporated, but I just used mechanical techniques to draw the curves on the layout. I have seen the Cadrail drawing printed out full size to place on the layout. Seemed like overkill. Here is the drawing; my entire basement is included:
I downloaded the Atlas program, but have not had time to play with it much yet. I will see how it goes, and if I don't like it, I will continue to use my CAD prog.
I've played with RTS and I'm too impatient to learn the software, when I could be building something. I may have to try the MS Paint idea though. I'm still a fan of gragh paper and pencil, but could benifit from some easy technology.
Had a little play with RTS, but I could do the whole plan in CAD by the time I learn the basics of RTS!
Well thank you for teaching me the flex tool. I finally can get things to work right now. As for you folks that use CAD programs, I can guess that you will all continue to use them as they are so powerful and refined. RTS is a great option for those that don't have such programs, and who don't want to spend much money on it Still learning! -doc
Having worked with AutoCAD in the past, I think it's safe to say that the learning curve for RTS is MUCH shorter than the learning curve for AutoCAD. Both will work fine though. I'd really like to try out 3rdPlanIt, but not so much that I want to buy it.
I have downloaded RTS and I'm with Alan that AutoCAD or similar might get me there faster. (I have had experience with AutoCAD, and it seems a LOT easier than RightTrack!!) I've yet to get the flextrack piece to work, I'm sure that it will be much more useful when I can figure it out. It connects fine, but just makes a ~2" radius loop right in the middle of the connections. (pretty sure my 70MACs would run over themselves in this scenario!!! )
Watash- How do you save Acad dwgs to jpeg? Is it a plot to file option? Usually to get images of stuff out of autocad, If they don't have to be especially detailed, i use the Alt-PrintScreen function, which copies an image of whatever current window is up to the clipboard. It can be pasted as an image into any program, say Word or an imaging program.
Doug, that's easy enough to fix. You just have to use the flex track shaping tool...which is the button right below the flex track tool.
Hoss, Actually I think your design looks great I have been playing around with RTS but havent yet got the hang of it.
As I am so talented, not, perhaps it would be in my best interests to stay with the safety of good old pencil and paper..... Boxcab E50
I got fed up with trying out RTS so I uninstalled it. Will use my CAD instead, seems easy to use by comparison
Thanks. RTS does have a bit of a learning curve, but I don't think it's all that complicated once you've figured out how the flex track tool works. Actually, I didn't even use the flex track tool on mine. All of my curves were set at a fixed radius using the tool that lets you create custom curves (I forget what it's called on RTS). It's also helpful to go into the "Elements" and change the weight and color of the lines, which allows you to make different tracks be different colors (to represent different branch lines and such). Learning to use the "disconnect track" and the "loosen track" tools is also very handy when you need to rework something. Basically, I think it's a great program for layout design. You just have to play around with it a bit to figure out all of the little tricks.
