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Software => Tutorials => Topic started by: disisme on March 27, 2006, 06:02:31 PM



Title: Tutorial 4 - layers
Post by: disisme on March 27, 2006, 06:02:31 PM
Those of you that have successfully completed the first 3 tutorial are probably starting to nose around at other stuff on the xtrkcad screen.  Thats fine, but I'll eventually do a tutorial on em all if your patient.

If your running the default setup for xtrkcad, you probably noticed the boxes 1 thru 10 in different colored fonts across the toolbar.  These boxes are to let you show or hide 'layers'.

Let me explain just what a layer is.  A layer is a totally seperate  visible 'level' of the track plan.  When you physically lay a plan, you tend to build it from the benchwork up.  Benchwork, track, mountains, structures etc.  What layers do is let you 'hide' the elements you dont want to see, or show just the ones you DO want to see.

The way I use layers in Xtrkcad....There is no wrong oro right way...this is just how I do it....is I put the benchwork on layer 10, the Base level mainline on layer 1, upper level (ie multi deck) mainline on layer 2.

Now, in theory you ocould put spurs on one layer, buildings on another, but when you start using a lot of layers you have the significant risk of drawing things on the WRONG layer...which makes thw whole thing rather meaningless and confusing.

How do you use them?  Well, theres a drop down box beside all the nice colored numbers.  You select the currently active layer from this box.  By default this will be 1 - Mainline.  This means anything you draw on the main screen will only be displayed when layer 1 is visible.

Go ahead and draw a straight piece of track going from left to oright...dont matter how long it is.... OK, that piece ofo track is on layer one.  Select layer 2 from the drop down box.  Draw a curved piece of track.  You just dres the curve on layer 2.  You can still see em both though, cant you?  Click on the "1" box next to the drop down window.  The straight piece of track disappears!  You'll notice that the "1" is now slightly different.  What happens is, when a layer is visible, its number is underlined...when its hidden, the underline is gone. 

Click on the "2" button.  Got an error, right?  Look at the bottom of the screen.  It says "Unable to hide current layer".  Because you have layer 2 in the drop down window, you cant hide it....Pretty clever, hey?  Actually, it can be a downright pain in the butt.  Sometimes you want to look at where the track is running on layer 1 so you can tie layer 2 into it...you turn on layer 1 and you really have no clue which is which on some layouts...so its handy to 'blink' a layer so you can see whats going on (blink means turn it on and off often, quickly).

Now, you should set your own ideas on what layers you want to use, but I cant stress strongly enough that you must ALWAYS know what layer you are on before you draw something.

A lot of you will think 'this is great, I can use a layer or 10 for 'what if' scenarios.  What if I made that track do THIS on one layer, and doing THAT on another.  Well, I HATE this.... If you want to do "What ifs', do it for real and save it as a version of your plan, dont frig around with layers to do it. The reason why?  Well, if (when?) you realise that designing a layout is way too hard and pass it on to someone else, how will they know what a what if is, and what a 'real' piece of track is?  Pass me a track plan with what if scenarios in it, and I wont even think about updating it... Its simply not worth my time figuring out what you were thinking when you drew it.  Those ones simply arent worthy of analysing.

Now, Layers are also extremely handy for printing given sections of your layout so you can lay track.  Say you have a fairly comprehensive layout, and your going to lay this 8' section of track tomorrow.   Obviously, its not just a straight bit, or you'd jsut lay it without the print out :)  What you do is, you select the pieces of track you intend to lay, making sure you have a reference point....ie, the tracks connect directly to the existing track, the benchwork edge...something so you can tell where the heck they go after printing them.  Right, you have the parts your going to lay selected, so they are all red...you DID remember to do a "deselect all" before selecting them, now didnt you?  Hit ctrl-C.  This will copy the selected pieces of track onto the clipboard.  Select an unused layer from the drop down window and hit ctrl-V.  This will paste the selected tracks, still selected, into the bottom left corner of the screen.  Right click and select 'move'.  Left click (and hold) and drag the track until it is positions DIRECTLY over the top of its original positions...which is still there and still visible on layer 1.  Now, hide all layers except the one you are currently on.  Tadaaa, just the bit of track you want to lay is displayed.  Of course, after printing it, you'll deleted the track off that layer, now wont you?

You can now print the layout 1:1 and ONLY the visible layer will be eligible for printing.

There are a million other things you can use layers for, but I strongly recommend keeping them as few as possible.  People have enough trouble designing a layout without complicating things beyond belief.


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