Re: RR Track Design software

There is a Getting Started tutorial in the manual (pg 5) that should be on the DVD. It takes you through most/all menu items and shows you the various ways of doing things while you design/edit a layout. It is worth every minute spent doing it.

Fortunately, I have a tablet as well as a laptop, so I was able to follow the tutorial without having to flip screens back and forth or print parts of the tutorial.

Ron

Don't get discouraged. It can be a bit intimidating to a beginner but over time you will get the hang of it. Don't expect to master it in one or two sittings.

Don't jump right in to your ultimate design. Start slow with a simple circle/oval. Then add some switches and a siding.

Explore all the menu options to see where they take you and what features you find. Try them out.

What track libraries did you purchase?

John

Welcome to the club, I am in the same boat, I just installed RR track software, and yeah, it is confusing more than a bit. The tutorials that come with it are okay, they aren't great, for sure. The other resource is to check out you tube, people put video tutorials up there that often are better than the ones the producer has...I suspect once I work through it it isn't that bad, it just isn't the most intuitive interface I have seen (for example, to effectively build your tabletop assuming it isn't one of the basic shapes they support, like rectangle or C or around the wall shape, you have to go into terrain mode to draw the tabletop......

It looks pretty powerful, fortunately I am in no rush, still have a basement to fix up that has taken a looong time to get to where I am..and still needs more than a bit of work

I still haven't mastered terrain mode, but it took me the longest to figure out how to fix my terrain after I resized my layout. Now that I'm used to it, it's not a problem, but I can definitely sympathize with folks new to layout design software. I use SCARM, XTrackCAD and RR-Track, and they all do things quite differently. And every time I want to move a piece in SCARM, I still forget that darned CTRL key.

To much for me. I don't have  separate computer to read the directions and try and figure it out on the other one. Track software was total waste of time and money for me, but than i still have trouble posting video's and photo's. About the time I figure it out something changes. If it wasn't for the Apple (real) store and their excellent people, I would have thrown this computer out with that pain in the neck printer I had. Even my cell phone doesn't work here.     

technology challenged

clem

Thanks to everyone for your replies. I bought version5, I think. It has the Gargraves, etc. track options. I will using the gargraves track on mine. Will keep you all posted.

Just upgraded all the lighting in the room and it turned out really well.

Regards,

Ron W.

I'm in the same boat as the others here except, thanks to DoubleDAZ, I can do grades now!  I second his recommendation of the tutorial as a good place to start.  I would add that RR-Track crashes quite often (at least it does for me), so be sure to save your work frequently. I've managed to run it without crashing a few times lately, but when I first started out it was a pretty regular occurrence and I had to re-add lots of things that were lost in the crashes. I save a lot now, after learning the hard way!

And to DoubleDAZ, if you are still here and it isn't too hard to describe, how do you fix the terrain after a resize?  Let me qualify this a little first so as not to waste your time  explaining something I don't get just yet.  I take it you are talking about the green area created when you first define a layout?  If that's not it, then you are still way ahead of me and I need to do some more catching up.  I need to study the terrain stuff a lot more first, but don't go away    And thanks for all your previous help!

Thanks, DoubleDAZ, I really appreciate it! This just went to the printer. Will fiddle with the terrain tomorrow. RR-Track really is a nice program with a lot of features.

I do agree on the crashes, for the price it should be a tad bit more crash resistant. Seems like I could cause a crash by selecting a piece of track, placing it, then deleting it while still selected (changed my mind). Then on the next track selection and placement it would crash. Tried to stop doing that, but it hasn't been crashing on that maneuver lately. So I'm not sure how I get it to crash either. Since I started saving very often it has not crashed nearly as much, and has been working much better. Maybe just my magic touch?

Don't worry about answering my stuff, just enjoy your trip! And have a safe trip as well!

AT FIRST dont try to do more then you can. It is a very rich layout design program. I started out by taking a 3 ft long track from the menu and just dropping it on a rectangular layout to see what happens.

Then I clicked again got the same 3 ft long and paralleled it with the first one. Next I just grabbed any curve section and hooked to one of the straights.  This showed me the orientations based on which end you attached the curve. Click again and the same curve appears. try again to attached it a different way to the other straight. From there I build a simple loop. Next i grabbed any switch or turnout and experimented with its orientation based on which leg I attached.

Try this with other curves and turnouts and soon you will see how to connect simple tracks. For your next lesson try hooking to tracks with the connect command. If you are unsure check back with the on-line manual. 

Originally Posted by rtr12:

I only answer when I have time and we generally plan online time as part of our schedule, so don't hesitate to ask questions, etc.

Had a little run-in with a trucker this morning. He pulled in front of me to pass, then slowed down and got mad at me for getting too close. Of course, then he had to act like a big man and get right on my bumper and hit the horn after I passed him. Little does he know I could have not cared less. I was on cruise and don't pay any attention to who's behind me.

Anyway, I think RRT crashes when it hits the auto-save time, mine is set to 25 and I've yet to see it save.

While the tutorial has 6 parts, you really only need the first 3 to get you pretty far along with understanding the program and how it operates. IMHO, it's worth printing those 15 pages. Once you understand the basics, it's not too difficult to figure out the rest by flipping back and forth between the program and the pdf. You may even get the hang of it after just Part One, so I'd print that and see where it takes you. Also, if you have a smartphone, it might work as a 2nd display device to follow along with the tutorial. I only mentioned having a tablet because it made things easier, but not having one is no reason not to try the tutorial even if it means flipping screens.

There is an update to version 5 I don't know if it helps the locking up as I haven't hat time to use it

Ken M

I have the latest, didn't seem to make much difference here. I'm convinced there are just certain things the program does not like you to do! Just can't figure out exactly what it does not like?

I have the auto save set also, now that you mention it, not sure I have seen it save either? 

I used to travel a lot for work (maybe why I don't like it now?), and 2 trucks trying to pass one another for 10 miles or so while blocking both lanes of traffic on the interstate caused me to utter many words I don't normally use! 

Be careful out there. There's a lot of crazies out there these days!

Trucks were a real pain today from before Houston until we got off I-10 at Slidell LA. Still, we made darned good time. I traveled a lot for the Air Force, but I'll never tire of road trips. If I could get my wife to sell the house, I'd become an RV junkie. Our Montana van turns 15 on Valentine's Day and it's going to be hard to replace it with a 2015 Prius whenever they come out. Still not sure about doing that.