How do I convert my 3rd PlanIt track plans to a format that I could take to a commercial printer to have them printed 1:1?
I could print the plans 1:1 on my own printer but that would take more than 500 sheets of letter size paper and a gazillion feet of tape to stick them all together. There are 11 sheets of plywood required.
I’m assuming that the printing companies will not have 3rd PlanIt on their systems so how do I convert the 3rd PlanIt files to a readily usable format?
I would really appreciate a detailed explanation of the proceedure because I am not computer savy.
You should contact print shops and ask which CAD formats they can print.
I don’t know 3rd PlanIt in detail (I have CadRail) but it should be able to export different files. One of them should be .dxf-format. This has to be translated into the printer’s language. But that the print shop should do.
Here is an address I found while looking for information about 3rd PlanIt’s print options: http://layoutprinting.com/5.html
Gruß,Volker
I went to the 3rd Planit site and it says it can export both DXF and DWG CAD files. Both are AutoCAD format files and the newer preferred versions of AutoCAD/Autodesk is DWG format. Any blueprint or printing service can print out a DWG file.
Not all CAD programs convert perfectly to DXF & DWG, I would suggest you load an Autodesk viewer (freebee) to check if 3rd Planit converts to your needs.
I’ve been using DesignCAD since it’s beginning as Pro Design back in the early 80s. Line width and line fill doesn’t always convert clean. I went with Pro Design for $$ savings, back it the 80s Pro Design was $20 and AutoCAD was over $400. I stuck with it for the ease of the learning curve over a different program.
I’m an old dog and learning new programs isn’t one of my tricks.
You can also use a PDF driver like CutePDF and tell 3rd PlanIt you are using some ridiculous paper size and send it to a PDF.
Also it might not be as much as yoou think if the design is mostly around the walls - no need to print all that white space. While having a full size print to hang on the wall is neat so you cna show visitors (and other members) the final vision for the layout, I’m not convinced trying to lay all that down on the plywood is worth the effort. I did it once. Printed it myself and taped it together - each side was 3 pages wide by 8 pages long so it wasn’t THAT much. But that experience made me noot do it again on my last layout. I printed a scaled drawing and located critical turnouts from that and filled in the rest by hand (and a stick and my camera tripod for curves). I didn;t even draw grid lines on the foam, although next time I probbaly will only because it is a much bigger prooject, filling my basement. That’s an easy way to transfer things without using giant sheets of paper (even printed as one big sheet on a plotter, it’s still somewhat unwieldy). Mark off grid lines corresponding to the grid size used in 3rd PlanIt on the plywood, and then it’s fairly easy to look at a scaled down plan and place track in matching locations on the layout.
Dave I agree with Randy, its much easier to use a grid to layout your track and you will find out large prints cost big $$$. If you end up with many radius center points close together like I did number them or use a different color for each center point.
Large prints are great if you have the $$$, I for don’t. When the HP T120 was first released I bought one for its 24” wide printing capability for large stuff but even the larger paper and ink can be a problem with cost, large prints eats ink like crazy.
A little known fact about HP wide format printers, I had one at work and it just quit. I called IT and they sent it in for repair, everyone was surprised when they were told it had a 1000 page limit so it was done. An HP tech said that HP wasn’t going to sell a cheap printer ($700 in the early 2000s) that would ding their plotter sales.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
We had a professional printer in the forum who did exactly what you want. Of course his cost was nil. He left in a huff so I doubt he will chime in here.
I’ve always worked with a single page plan showing one foot gridlines in one hand, and a tape measure in the other (this is an example of when the left hand should know what the right hand is doing!). Assuming you allow for proper clearences, in almost all cases, variance from the plan by an inch or so is no big deal. If I’m laying a set of complex trackwork that requires a high level of accuracy, I’ll lay out actual track components on a generously cut piece of plywood and trim it later as needed.
Worst case, I might make a little more scrap than intended.
I have found that using my plan and then laying out some flex track and turnouts on the plywood works best. I can change and re-arrange the track until I get something that looks good to me.
Thank you everyone for all the suggestions. What seems to be obvious to you isn’t to me. My computer knowledge is limited.
Anyhow, 3rd PlanIt does indeed have the ability to export in a DWG format. Up until now I didn’t have a clue what that meant.
The layout printing service that was referred to by Volker shows a price in the $1000 range, which I think rules commercial printing out for us. I will look at doing it on my own printer and taping it all together. Not printing the aisle space is obviously a good idea.
Something else you can do in the printing part of 3rd Planit, is align the grid to one edge of the layout, so you have a place to take measurements from. Or maybe that was because I started the one edge exactly on a grid line (by typing X and Y values for the very first line. That allowed me to look at a smaller printout and judge where I needed to put the track, I only really measured on the side where my yard was, because I had to fit all those tracks, leave room for a removable set of flats, and then the two staging tracks behind that. Nowhere else was it really critical, just that the track couldn;t be too close to the edge. SO I measure and marked the center lines for each of the yard tracks and the main, and the two staging tracks, the rest fell where it did when I traced the curve centers with the stick and tripod. It even met when I got back around to the other side - although none of the straight sections were parallel with the benchwork - which is a good thing.
So Randy if I was running a mainline down the back edge of shelf layout, parallel to, and next to the vertical masonite backdrop, …what minimum distance should I use between that face of the backdrop to the centerline of that track?
In the yard tracks, what minimum distance can be used between the tracks?
Depends on if you need to reach your fingers in to rerail equipment or not. With HO a common compromise is 2" center to center - it’s slightly wider than scale for yards. If it’s a straight vertical wall, you should keep a similar distance away fromt he wall to allow reaching in to rerail cars. I like to keep the closest edge of th track at least 2" in from any edge, helps keep things from hitting the floor if they derail.
Working with foam is a bit easier than wood for drawing the layout, but going from paper to reality is a challenge. I never thought about putting lines on the layout to run the track. Another thing I thought to do is different colors for types of track–sidings, main, yard, etc.
I wouldn’t give up so easyly. I would place letter size E (34’‘x44’') frames on the layout drawing and check how many you need. These frames you have to make into seperate drawings to have them printed. Ask a print shop working for engineering office for a price. A lette size E print would cost about $15 in Germany.
Regards, Volker
I don’t know that foam is any easier, just different - when I laid out what I did on foam, I used a medium line Sharpie, pencil didn’t show good enough. On plywood, a pencil will work.
I have a somewhat irregular 18x24 space to work in and I just can’t fathom printing out enough sheets of even E size to cover the benchwork areas. I might consider maybe 4 such prints, to have enough detail of each area compared to how small it would have to be scaled to fit on one sheet of A size. Plus my plan is double decked - so twice as much paper!
I draw the track alignment on the plywood full-size (that is to say, full 1:160 size) using conventional drafting equipment. That was a very normal practice for engineers in the old days before the advent of CAD. Not the plywood part, but the full size and scale part. I know guys in the aircraft and shipbuilding industries who lay very large bedsheet-size rolls of paper on the floor, take off their shoes, and draw stuff on hands and knees. That particular practice is called lofting.
Curves, even large radius curves, are not an issue because I lay out the geometry from the forward and rear tangents and not from the radius points. That practice would be a little difficult to explain here, but once understood it is pretty simple and completely accurate.
Whether you transfer the layout via hundreds of letter-size pages or dozens of architectural E-size sheets, you need to establish some accurate reference base lines here and there. Walls and floors are almost never straight, level, plumb, and/or square. I use an 8-foot aluminum channel as a straightedge and several 4-foot stainless steel ones, along with large triangles and whatnot. A really meticulous layouter could use taut chalk lines to get started. The point being that even though printing out designs on paper is a convenience, a lot of effort is needed to keep stuff aligned, and baselines are a must.
We are in the process of getting quotes from local printers. I will ask about the ‘E’ size sheets. As was suggested earlier, we don’t need to print the aisles so that will save some money.
OK, I’ll admit that I am slow sometimes (most of the time?). At about 3:00 am this morning it dawned on me that the easiest solution had already been suggested right here. We will use tape measures and carpenter’s squares to plot the track location every 3" or maybe 6" on the homasote, and then use the homasote when cut to mark out the plywood sub roadbed. I can print the plan with 3" or 6" grids at a scale that will be easy to measure. Problem solved. Money saved.