Layout Plan

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

Hi to all!

This is my first attempt at building a full layout. My main problem is that my son and I are not designers.

Is there anyone in the Memphis area that I could contact and sit down and show them what we have?

We are doing a freelance of N&W in the mid40’s to the mid50’s. Most of it will be steam with maybe 1 of 2 early diesels.

We also plan on wiring the layout with DCC.

We also have no way to scan our plan into the computer. The plan was drawn with 3rd Plan It V9.x

Thank you for your help.

Mac

R B Macdonald

2

What size layout are you planning?

There is a free program called RTS by Atlas that can help.

3

3rd Plan It can’t export a track plan?

Alt+PrtScreen og Paste into e.g. Ms Paint doesn’t work on your computer? (I am assuming you are running Microsoft Windows as your operating system).

No digital camera?

Smile,
Stein

4

2nd what Stein said.

All plans I post are in 3rd plan it are done with printscreen then trim the in paint, save as a JPG, post on flickr and post the link here.

5

t

6

If you drew the plan with 3rd Plan It aren’t you already “in” the computer? No need to scan it? Just upload the file to a site like Photobucket?

Dante

7

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8

i

9

Find a local hobby shop and tell them what you are trying to do. They can surely introduce you to one of their regular customers who can help and advise you with exporting your computer drawn track plan so you can upload a diagram to be viewed on this site.

Rich

10

Another piece of advice would be to re-post this thread with a title something like “Looking for Help with my Layout in the Memphis area”. The title of this thread is too generic, and someone who can possibly help you may not read this thread.

Rich

11

Also there is Xtrackcad as a program for track planning. It’s free.

12

How about saving it (or “exporting” it, if that’s how you do it in 3rd PlanIt) as a pdf file?

Dante

13

Mac has posted (http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/t/191923.aspx) that he will try to figure out how to post images when he can, but that it may take some time, since his wife is dying from stage 4 cancer.

Mac - my sympaties to you, your wife and your loved ones.

Stein

14

Since the plan is already done in 3rd PlanIt, it would be a huge waste of time for the original poster to start over with another CAD program.

It seems that the Original Poster has other things going on now. It’s hard to tell from the wording of the original post, but it may be that the 3rd PlanIt file is not on the Original Poster’s computer, but someone else’s. Hard to tell, the post is a little cryptic.

But for future reference with 3rd PlanIt:

Exporting a “postable” file is easy. In 3rd PlanIt, look under the “File” menu. Choose “Export”, then “View to File”.

The next screen “Image Export Settings” has to do with the size of the file, for now, don’t worry about it, just click “OK”.

You will then see a “Save As” screen with a pull-down offering a number of options for saving the file. JPEG is a good choice for posting to the internet.

Best of luck.