I am designing and building a new layout in my home. My search for a piece of software to help led me to the free XTrackCAD (www.xtrkcad.org). I just wanted to let readers know that this is a truly awesome piece of software. It has many of the track systems (Atlas, EZ-Track, etc.) in its libraries that make designing a layout a snap. Best of all is that it allows me to print the layout in full scale to transfer it to the bench. This is an invaluable aid in designing special benchwork for other than straight trackwork. It has a tutorial that I went through and that let me get started. Check it out if you are planning to build new. (BTW, totally unrelated question: How do I enter a paragraph break in these posts? Everything comes out as one continuous paragraph.
I am on a Mac. I have to double space to avoid that problem.
Brent
I’ll second this one…XTrkCAD is a really good program, and really flexible. Not to mention it’s free.
I’ve been using it for a few years now to design modules, and discovered that if you design a module, then “group” the elements and save it to a custom file, you can lay out an entire modular layout in minutes.
And adding buildings, roads, etc. is easy to do as well…all of the tools you need are right there on the panel.
The program has a major advantage over Atlas’ Right Track Software, too…it includes track files for many different manufacturers’ track products, not just Atlas’ own track. I’ve used Peco, Shinohara, Walthers/Shinohara, AND Atlas, and that’s just in HO! There are files for N-scale, Z, O, and G as well!
So if anyone is looking for layout design software on the cheap and doesn’t mind a slight learning curve (as is common with any good software), you can’t go wrong with XTrkCAD.