Title: Let the tutorials begin - Xtrkcad familiarity Post by: disisme on February 13, 2006, 09:26:08 AM Xtrkcad, for most people, is a rather mind
boggling thing to get started in. All those buttons, tracks that go
all over the place, and none of it makes any apparent sense. This particular thread will contain very basic information on the xtrkcad screens, what the buttons do, and will go into designing a very small oval. While creating that oval you will use tha majority of the buttons for different reasons, and will get an insight into the basic operation of the software. These posts will be very small, so you can just popo in, take a loook, and actually learn something without making a major time commitment. Once all of the 'basic' tutoorial posts are made, I would expect it to take around 2 hours for someone to complete it. Once they have done it, however, they will be able to reproduce the end layout in around 2-3 minutes. The thing is, they'll know HOW they did it. Title: Re: Let the tutorials begin - Xtrkcad familiarity Post by: disisme on February 13, 2006, 09:32:04 AM OK, first things first. Before going
any further, you must have Xtrkcad downloaded from www.sillub.com.
You must also have it registered. Do a search at www.sillub.coom for
'registration'. It will show you a link where you can reigster it as
"Open Registration" and provide the password. I wont be listing that
password here! Right....the fact you have gotten here means you have the software installed, registered and, I assume, running. You should have a blank xtrkcad screen. Across the top you will notice the menu bar and a whole lot of strange buttons and icons. The following picture explains these a bit. If you want a larger, printable version, you can find it at this URL : http://www.railimages.com/gallery/album439/aaa?full=1 (http://www.railimages.com/gallery/album439/aaa.sized.jpg) In fact, I suggest you print that, then read the next post in this thread. Title: Re: Let the tutorials begin - Xtrkcad familiarity Post by: disisme on February 13, 2006, 09:44:06 AM OK, your looking at your print out, so let me
explain the buttons. We'll go into the menus themselves a bit
later. If you move your mouse up over the buttons, you'll see that a little description comes out when the mouse hovers over them. Quite handy at first. Try it out WITHOUT clicking on anything!. The first 3 buttons are the 'zoom' group. These let you zoom in and out on the layout. Quite handy at times, depending on how big the overall layout is, and how 'fiddly' the particular thing you are currently doing is. The left most button is zoom out, the middle button is 'change drawing scale', and the right most is zoom in. I tend to just use the zoom in and 'change' buttons. If you look at the very bottom left corner of the screen, you will see something like 12:1. This is your current zoom level. While I tend to vary around quite a bit while drawing a plan, this is a good starting point. Hit the 'zoom in' button. See those numbers in the bottom left change? They should be at 6:1 now. Go ahead and mess around with the zoom in and out buttons. When your done, click on the middle button. You'll get a drop down list of zoom levels. Select 12:1. Right, your back with me? What does it say in the bottom left of the screen? If its not 12:1, go fix it. The next 2 buttons are the undo and redo buttons. At the moment they should still be ghosted, but once we DO something, they'll become active. I'll explain what they do anyway. Say you draw 10 pieces of track, then realise that the third piece you put down was wrong...oooops.... You can hit the undo button several times and go back until that third piece is removed again, relay it, and continue on. Say you do all your undo's, then before you actually do anything else, you remember that you did it for a reason and DO want it. Hit redo...the track comes back... you can hit redo repeated times until you get right back to where you were when you started hitting 'undo'. Dont worry, this will all make a bit more sense later..... Title: Re: Let the tutorials begin - Xtrkcad familiarity Post by: disisme on February 13, 2006, 10:01:53 AM Right, now we get into some of the 'nitty
gritty' buttons of the product. The track laying group. The first 2 buttons are the straight track and curved track buttons. Now, the track these buttons lay is NOT set piece track...its flex track. It also does NOT cut the pieces off at 36" lengths...if you want a 400' long single piece of flex, it will draw it for you. Click on the straight track button, then go down to the main window. Left click somewhere on the screen, then drag the mouse....doesnt matter what direction.... You'll see 2 lines extending from where you first clicked to where the mouse is at the moment. As you move the mouse around, the lines follow it. Let go of the mouse button. You now have a piece of straight track laid. Hit 'undo' so the track disappears and you have a blank screen again. Now, before we do the curve track bit, I want to point something out. Once you start drawing a curved piece, you want to be looking at the numbers that apeear on the bottom of the screen. In the left corner you have the zoom ratio...you should be familiar with that. Ignore the next number for now. The next number is your 'X' position on the screen, in inches. This is tell you how many inches the mouse is from the left hand edge of the layout, NOT the bottom of the screen. The next number is the 'Y' position, in inches. This tells you ohow many inches youo are from the bottom of the layout. The enxt part, is actually a tesxt field, but it will also have information in it that is important when laying curves. I'll explain it as we go along. Read the next bit first before you start just doing it because you cant swap back here while your holding your mouse button, now can ya? Click on the curve track tool. Put the mouse somewhere on the screen, click and HOLD the left mouse button and drag it to the right. Youo'll see those 2 lines again just like the straight track. DONT let go of the button yet! You'll see 'Angle=xx.xxx' in that third box. Move the mouse around till it says 'Angle=90.000'. It doesnt matter how long the piece of track is at this stage....Let go of the button. What happened? You should have those 2 straight lines, but now you also have 2 big red arrows pointing up and down, right? OK, this is where we actually curve that piece of track.... Click on one of the arrows...dont matter which, so long as you have room on that side to curve the track...and drag the mouse around...... Look at the text box at the bottom. It will now say "Curved track: Radius=xx.xxx Angle=xx.xxx Length=xx.xxx" OK, now we're getting somewhere..... Let go of the mouse button. You now have a curved piece of track. It might be purple, it might be orange.... thats doesnt matter right now. All purple means is that it exceeds the minimum or maximum allowances you have setup. We'll change those later. Hit 'undo' so you go back to a clear screen. Title: Re: Let the tutorials begin - Xtrkcad familiarity Post by: disisme on February 13, 2006, 10:11:31 AM OK, you've seen a basic example of straight
and curved track, lets go on with some more buttons. The next 5 buttons in that track laying group will not be covered in this tutorial. They are pretty specialised, and I think I've only used 2 of them..and that was once.... The last button in that group, however, is pretty common. This is the 'create parrallel track' button. Lets draw a straight piece of track somewhere on the screen, about 15" long (look at the text box at the bottom to see the length). Dont matter what direction its going in..... Now, click the parrallel track button. Look at the bottoom of the screen. The text box will now say "Seperation:" and have a little window beside it. The value in this window is the track center seperation, in inches. Dont change it right now.... Move the mouse down and click on the piece of track you drew. Tadaa, another parrallel track. You can determine what side of the original this new track is laid by the position of your mouse. Click on the left side of the track, new track is on the left, click on the right, new track is on the right. Now, making sure you hit undo after laying each new piece of track (so you left with just that original straight piece), mess around with placing track to the right and left or above and below. Also try changing the value of the seperation box down the bottom. When you're done, and just have that original straight piece of track, come back here :) Title: Re: Let the tutorials begin - Xtrkcad familiarity Post by: disisme on February 13, 2006, 10:30:35 AM OK, your here...that means you must have a
screen thats at 12:1 zoom, and has a single straight piece of track on
it. We're done with the track laying set of buttons, we're now into
the tracik modification group. The first 2 buttons in this group get one helluva workout. They are 'modify track' (actually "modify or extend a track", but same-same) and 'join 2 tracks'. Click on the 'modify track' button, then go down to your straight piece of track. Click and drag your mouse around. Notice how the length of the track changes, but you cant actually change the angle or curve it. This might not seem so impressive, but trust me, you'll use it a LOT. When you release the button, the track will 'solidify' into the new position. Read the next bit before you go off and try it. Click on the curve track tool. Go down to the main window, close to the upper left corner. Left click and drag the mouse so "Angle=90.000" appears in the text box at the bottom. The length dont matter. Click on the down arrow on the new track and drag the mouse down, then left so you see the following in the text box : Curved track: Radius=18.000 Angle=180.000 Length=56.549 Let go of the mouse button. You have just created an 18" radius curve that is an EXACT 180 degree turn and the track length is 56 1/2 inches. Read the next bit too before you go off n play.... You now realise you really meant to only do a 90 degree turn, so you want to modify that curve. Click on the 'modify track' button, then left click on the bottom end of the curve. Move the mouse around a bit. The track does some wierd things, hey? Whats happening is, the radius will ALWAYS stay at what it was originally set to, but the program will try to make the track get to whereever your mouse pointer is at the time. That may involve inserting straight pieces or whatever, but it'll do its dangdest to get there. Movoe the mouse till you get the following in the text box : Curved track : Radius=18.000 Angle=90.000 Length=28.784 Easy peasy, huh? The thing with curved tracks, generally, is to get your radius right first, without worrying about the track length or angle. As soon as you have the radius, you can use the modify tracks button to fix the rest :) Title: Re: Let the tutorials begin - Xtrkcad familiarity Post by: disisme on February 13, 2006, 10:52:34 AM OK....now we're going to use probably one ofo
the most useful tools in Xtrkcad. The 'join 2 tracks'
tool. hit undo oon your plan until you have NOTHING left on the screen. Click on the straight track tool. We are going to draw 3 straight pieces of track. Draw the first track in the upper left corner of the main window, with an angle of 90 and a length of 18" Draw the second in the bottom left corner with an angle of 90 and a length of 24 Draw the third in the top right corner with an angle of 180 (so straight down) and a length of 24 Imagine these 3 pieces of track are laid along 3 walls in a room and we want to get em together. First, we'll see what joining the first 2 tracks together looks like. Red this next bit first, cos you'll be holding your mouse button and looking at things. Click the 'join 2 tracks' button, then click on the right hand end of the first track. A red dot will appear. Click and HOLD the left button on the right end of the bottom track.... a curve appears joining the 2 tracks together. KEEP HOLDNG THAT BUTTON.... Notice how both the straight pieces of track now appear to be the same length? Move the mouse around the screena bit... See how its 'adjusting' the length of the straight sections to let you put the curve where you want it? Pretty smart, huh? OK, leggo the button. You now should have 2 straights joined by a curve. OK, we dont like that much, so hit undo until you have just those 3 straight pieces. Lets try and bring that top right straight piece in..... Read this before proceeding.... Click 'join 2 tracks' and click on the right end of the top left track. Red dot appears... Click on the top of the right top piece of track. See how the top left track has been extended all the way across the top of the screen, then theres basically a 'fold' onto the other piece...cant call it a curve..... ok..hit undo so you go back to just the original 3 pieces. Click on join 2 tracks, and the right end of the top left track. Click and HOLD the mouse button on the top of the top right track. Move the mouse up and down while holding the mouse button. See the curve radius opening up and both straight sections getting shorter (or a loop forming above the track!) ? See the text box down the bottom talking about a curved track? Try to make the radius of the curve 25"....... Cant do it, right? The 2 lines we're dragging arouond go red rather than black. Red = bad, black = good. Make the curve 18" radius and let go of the button. OK, you now have a straight piece of track right across the top, then an 18" radius curve, then a 6" long straight piece going down the screen. LEts try and join the bottom left track to the right side. Read the next bit before proceeding. Click on 'join 2 tracks', then on the right end of the bottom left track. Click and hold on the bottom of the right side straight track. Loook at the text boox. You should have about a 39" radius curve. The bottom track will have been extended in length quite considerably. Drag the mouse down until the text box says you have an 18" radius curve. The right side track will now be significantly longer, as will the bottom piece. Leggo the mouse. Now yuo have a piece of track that almost circles the entire screen. Not bad.... Lets get some continuous run happening in the next post. Title: Re: Let the tutorials begin - Xtrkcad familiarity Post by: disisme on February 13, 2006, 11:07:47 AM Right, we're sitting here with our track
along 3 sides and 18" curves linking them. We want to get some
continuous run happening here, so we need to link the left side. We
have 2 options here. We can either go with one big constant radius
curve, or we can reproduce the right side onto the left. Lets play
with the continuous curve first. Read this bit before playing. Click on 'join 2 tracks', then click on the left end of the top left track. Click and hold on the left end of the bottom left track. A big ass curve will disappear off the left side of the screen. If you look at the bottom left of the screen, you'll see on the ruler lines that we are at the 0' mark on the layout. That means that anything that goes off the left of the screen has left the layout space. Unless your REAL friendly with your neighbors, you cant do that. Drag the mouse to the right and you will see the curve follow you. Once the entire curve is on the layouto space you can let go of the button. You now have a 31" radius curve linking the left side. Hit undo once....you should just have the track across the top, down the right, and across the bottom with 18" curves joining them. Lets do on the left what we did on the right. To do this we need a straight section on the left side. Read this bit before playing. Create a straight piece of track halfway up the screen on the left that is angle 180 (or angle 0 if you dragged UP) and length 18". Clck on 'join 2 tracks'. click on the left end of the top left track. Click and hold on the top of the new piece fo track you drew. A curve track appears. Slide the mouse up and down until you get an 18" radius curve. The curve track didnt appear and you got a big loop going left and up off the screen? OK. let go of the mouse, then hit undo so you have your 3 sides track and your new piece. Click 'join 2 tracks' then click on the top of the new piece, followed by clicking and holding on the left end of the top piece. Slide the mouse to the right until you get an 18" radius. The reason you got the loop was because your new piece of track was further right than the left end of the top piece, so it was technically easier for the program to do a loop rather than a curve.... no biggie, but an idiosyncracy to be aware of. OK, you have your 18" curve off the top down the left. Click on 'join 2 tracks', click the bottom of the new track, and the left end of the bottom track...drag to get your 18" radius. leggo the rodent. OK..you now have a square of track that goes right around the screen...that didnt hurt TOO much. Title: Re: Let the tutorials begin - Xtrkcad familiarity Post by: disisme on February 13, 2006, 11:21:44 AM OK..lets save that square loop of
track..we'll use it later. Click 'file' and select 'new' It
will ask you oif you want to save it. Say 'yes' and save it as
'xtrkcad 101' and hit enter. You now have a clear screen. Draw a straight piece of track in the middle of the screen. Draw another piece, pretty much lined up, and about an inch away from that first one. Lets connect the 2 together. The button next to 'join 2 tracks' is the 'connect tracks' button. Click on that, then on one of the pieces you jsut drew....make sure its the end closest to the other piece of track..... then click on the nearest end of the second piece. Blink, the should join together.... If not, you will have an error message at the bottom of the screen, probably saying "Tracks too far apart or diverge too much". Xtrkcad can only do SO much for ya.... hit undo so you only have 1 piece of track, and draw another one a bit closer, or a bit more closely aligned and try to connect them. Keep trying till you get it right....LOL OK, you now have 2 pieces of track joined together. Easy...this gets used quite a lot, especially in the initial stages of drawing a layout. I dont actually use it a loot, prefering to go with 'join 2 tracks' as much as possible, but you'll learn those tricks as you go along on your own. OK, you can see 2 pieces of track...looks like one long peice with a line in the middle. Click on the button next to the 'connect tracks' button. This is the 'split track' button. While it doesnt actually split them apart, it DOES put a 'break' in a track piece...so it effectively makes one piece into 2 pieces, still connected together. Give it a try by clicking on one of those connected pieces of track. See the line appear where you clicked? Easy.... You dont tend to do this all that often....usually only when you are messing with elevations, whcih we wont be going into in this basic tutorial. We wont be going into the next 3 buttons in the modify track group. They are rather too complex and obscure for a basic tutorial. Title: Re: Let the tutorials begin - Xtrkcad familiarity Post by: disisme on February 13, 2006, 11:31:36 AM The last 2 buttons I'll cover today are the
query and select tools. The query button is the question mark.
This is the button selected by default if no other button has been
pressed. If its not highlighted, click on it now. Go down and
click on one of your pieces of track. A window will open up showing
you all sorts of good stuff. Length, X and Y positions, Angle,
Radius.....all sortsa stuff relevant to the track piece you clicked
on. The size of the box will vary according to the piece. At this stage I am assuming you are looking at 3 pieces of track, if not more. Click on the select tool (looks like a little arrow). Now click on one of the center pieces of track on your screen. It will go red. This is where we get into a whole set of new commands that you didnt even know about yet. If you have a red piece of track click the RIGHT mouse button. You will get a window open up with a whole lotta options on it. Try em all out. If what they do is a bit obscure, or you cant even work out WHAT they did, dont worry, it will be covered in one of the tutorials. I find I tend to only use this function, on a basic layout, to use the commands in the second block on the list... move, rotate etc. There are generally easier ways to do most of the other stuff. Thats it for the familiarty section. The menu items etc will be covered according to the more advanced tutorials. At this stage you have the capability to lay some basic trackwork. Mess with it a bit and become familiar with the thingss explained here. Other tutorials will assume you have this familiarity and wont pull any punches. If your not familiar with them you will probably get lost. The
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