Layout CAD Programs

Ronson2k3

Member
No I didn't ;) .. The programs I was talking about are drawing programs.. You have shapes and lines you can work with instead of sections of track. It's more basic then a CAD.. easier to work with because you are just drawing instead of 'designing' per say. After the drawing is done then refining with a cad program or you can keep that drawing and work from it. You can make your own templates of curves using a circle (on a say Template Layer) then copy the part of the circle (curve) you want use and paste it into the track plan.

Layers are the key. In Paint.net the layers are easy to work with. Think of it as several pieces of paper stacked on top of each other. Or a pad of paper. You can move parts of your drawing from one page to the other. They are raster images so while you can rotate say a turnout you would loose quality. Thats where a cad is really great. CAD draws the element much like a Font using the math of the object your drawing. The art programs scan the part your trying to turn and then place the pixels as mathimatically possible as close to where they should go. CAD redraws the object Paint redraws an image of the object.

I've worked with many of both and find that when starting out art programs will get you where you want to go faster.

I've done mine in 3D to give me the look of what it could look like. In a program called Blender (Freeware modeling software)..

LayoutHighBridge.jpg


LayoutOverview.jpg
 

Mountain Man

Active Member
Interesting. I'm about as "artistic" as a club-footed rhino, but I'll look into it. :thumb:

OK - it's downloaded. (Sighs, takes a deep breath, holds his nose and plunges in...)
 

Mountain Man

Active Member
OK - I'll bite - is there a single, progressive tutorial for this program somewhere? I have done the obvious and been to the "tutorial" forum site, but it appears all broken up into everything except the kind of basic, step-by-step intro that I expected to find.

Very interesting program, BTW. Thanks. :thumb:
 

pgandw

Active Member
Mountain Man

Another alternative: continue using paper and pencil. Take a pic with your digital camera as a subsitute for a scanner. Post your latest design and let us flame away. :twisted:
 
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