My job periodically requires me to make CAD drawings of schematics, room diagrams etc. using professional software, so I wouldn’t say I’m new to CAD drawing.
However, I must say Atlas’s free RTS 8.0 track software has me stumped. For me anyway it is the most illogical confusing piece of software I have ever used. I can’t even draw benchwork with this thing! If I’m not mistaken it was designed by a British firm? Any one else have problems with this “free” software?
I’m going to try xtrkcad instead and see if that makes more sense…
I have some CAD experience too. I think I had to read or follow a short tutorial they have, then it made sense, but it doesn’t follow what was expected.
As far as bench work, I just draw a square shape. However, my biggest gripe is that you can’t zoom in on specific areas easily.
I only use it to see if specific track arrangements (sections) will fit in a specific area or not.
I have NO CAD experience, yet have little or no trouble using RTS. Drawing benchwork may be a litte more difficult since it’s hard to draw freehand curves. If all of your benchwork will be straight lines, it’s not that hard.
Ditto the Xtrkcad…I used RTS for quite a while, but I really didn’t like the way it handled flextrack. All I wanted was to be able to set the endpoint, specify a curve radius, and have the program compute it for me. Xtrkcad does that, a lot closer than RTS does, anyway. Plus, RTS only uses Atlas track components. Xtrkcad has Atlas, Peco, Shinohara, etc. And there are a large number of structures available as well, so you don’t have to guess how one will fit.
I’ve used XtrakCad and Atlas RTS for years, and honestly, I usually use RTS as my “go to” program because it’s so much easier to use. The XtrakCad is more powerful, but also more involved. The RTS is quite intuitive and once you get the hang of the flex track tool (it’s quirky) it’s a snap.
The trick with the flex track tool is to connect your ends, then click on the shape flex track tool. Now click on the track and a popup menu comes up. Move the two sliders most, but not all, of the way to the left. Now hit the “optimize” button. You should get something pretty close to perfect, but you can hit the “optimize” button a couple of more times to really dial it in. Don’t ask me why “optimize” doesn’t really optimize the first time, but it’s all good.