Anyone know which computer assisted design software would be the best to buy for designing layouts?
Buy?
You can get Atlas RTS from www.atlasrr.com (under “Layouts”) or XtraCAD from www.sillub.com for free. XtraCAD is more powerful, but as you would expect it has a longer learning curve. I used RTS, but I was only interested in the basics. Still, it was sufficient for the job I wanted to do.
The list:
3rd Planet (if they ever give you the darn key) About $90.00 I think Easy to learn good graphics and you can run your trains in 3d and SEE your mistakes
Cad rail, some guy love it, never really spent enough time with it.
There are a couple more put there including the grandaddy AutoCadd. This was what I DXF’d (drawing exchange format) my 3rd planet to for fine tuning.
The best I have seen and the most accurate is a 2H pencile and paper with a good design template. “YEA RIGHT” Good fro doodling on your CAD PLANS!!
xtrkcad as mentioned before is probably one of the best for the price (its free now). It has most of the major turnouts preprogramed. it does have a bit of a learning curve but if you follow the tutorial that is included its pretty quick to pickup. I would also suggest joining the xtrkcad yahoo groups as you can also get help from them and some extra features.
claycts,
I’m sorry, but I have to disagree most strongly with your “paper & pencil are best” statement. To give you some background, I actually enrolled for a drafting degree before switching to Mech. Eng. in college, and not only have I taken paper drafting classes, but also have used AutoCADr11 to r14. I also am a 3rdPlanIt user & owner (since Ver. 2), and I’ve tried CADrail out (but didn’t like it).
I have drawn several layout plans in paper and on CAD over the years, both for myself, my friends, and my club. I like paper drafting…to me, it’s an artform, one that is quickly dissappearing. And I have to say that “pencil & paper” drafting is the absolute worst for accuracy in any usable model railroading scale.
Just think about it. A typical layout design scale is 1" = 12". That makes a normal pencil line at 0.5mm (a standard width) is 6mm, or 0.24"…almost a 1/4"! How can that be the “most accurate”? A 1/4" is a large fudge factor when actually building a layout, and that’s just the width of the pencil line.
Meanwhile, AutoCAD computes to 16 decimal places. And while 3rdPlanIt is not as accurate, it’s a heckuva lot better than a 1/4" variable, and you can print to any scale.
For real world experience, I’ve built a layout I designed on paper, and it required a lot of “fudging” to get the track down correctly. None of the yard leads worked as drawn, and curves? Forget it.
I’ve also built a layout I designed on 3rdPlanIt, and everything has worked exactly as planned. No joke. Everything came out just as it was drawn.
I still prefer to sketch on paper, but when it comes to actually designing a real layout, CAD is the best way to go…
Paul A. Cutler III
Weather Or No Go New Haven
Paul3, THAT WAS A JOKE!
I taught AutoCadd from relese 2.1 at the corportae level for to long. I still use a 2H to draw on my 1"=1’-0" 3rd planet plot to try building locations and such. I use AutoCadd Auto Arch to do my buildings I want to build and tweak the 3rd Planet for supports and such.
Sorry for the scare.
I’ve tried Xtrakcad, 3rd PlanIt and Cadrail.
I didn’t get on with Cadrail, but Xtrakcad and 3rd Planit are both good. Although not as powerful as 3rd Planit Xtrkcad is now open source (i.e. freeware) its the best value.
Any cad package takes a little while to learn, and to a certain extent the choice is really down to personal preference of the user interface. I’d suggest trying out the downloadable demos and seeing which one you like best.
I like CadRail - it has a very technical / engineering feel to the interface. Since I’m an engineer, it fits well.
claycts,
Whew! Don’t scare me like that…
FYI, if you’re joking on the 'net, please (pretty please) use a smilie or “LOL” or “LMAO” or something (anything) so people know you are joking. Sarcasm, without smilies, really doesn’t play well in plain text, as you can see.
BTW, there really are people who swear that pencil drafting a layout plan is still the best way to go ('course, these are the same people who don’t own a computer, so somehow I doubt we’ll ever see them here).
Paul A. Cutler III
Weather Or No Go New Haven
Although this may not be the best answer, the best software to buy is the one that you find easiest to use. You can try both XTrkCad and 3rd PlanIt before committing to either one for your serious design work. XTrkCad is now open source, as mentioned, and is free of charge. By visiting Sillub Technology’s original website at
you can get a reference to current sources for the program, and a set of good descriptions of what it’s strongpoints are. As I understand it, it’s primarily, if not entirely a 2D program.
You can also download a demo version of 3rd PlanIt from El Dorado Software’s website at
The demo version won’t allow you to save your work, but it will allow you to get an idea about what it can do, and it will allow you to read other people’s files, of which there are many.
Both of these two pieces of software have active Yahoo discussion groups. These two are the ones that I am most familiar with. I know there are others.
I went with 3rd PlanIt about two years ago, and have not been disappointed. It’s ability to visualize in the third dimension can be very useful. It’s a pretty easy program to work with, once you get used to the whole concept of digital drafting and layout design. All of these programs have a learning curve, by the way, so just play around with the thing, designing little and big bits of throwaway design at first, to familiarize yourself with how the program works. And by ALL means, read the manual, and join the relevant discussion group.
The most valuable thing that a computerized layout design program will do is force you to work within what’s actually possible, rather than what seems to fit based on sketching with pencil and paper. It’s very easy to design impossible layouts with paper and pencil. The tendency is to design more than will actually fit into the space. I’vr seen it stated a number of times t
I’ve used Xtrkcad myself, and I liked it for the most part. It’s pretty easy to work with, and I used it to design a module I’m building as part of my club’s layout. I can’t speak for any of the other deisgn softwares as I haven’t used them, but for a free program XtrkCad is pretty good.
Noah
I Fixed it, sorry, I thought the 2H and high button shoes where and automatic LOL! [:o)]