RR-Track printing-SOLVED!

The easiest way to do it is change the "Layers" to different colors, as well as the "Grid" 

All layers were set for black.  No effect on printout.

Verify your printer is not set to Gray(grey) mode

Post the rrt file and I'll see if I can print it or figure out what might be wrong.

Hi Dave,

Heres the rrt file.

Murphy law says it will print perfectly on your printer.

Unfortunately, you'd be right, Sam. I tried Grayscale too and it only slightly lightened the inner loop-to-loop to gray. I tried other settings too and never got what you did, I got full color, grayscale and black & white without any problems. My printer has 5 ink cartridges and I got funny results printing my layout because one or more were out, so I ran up and got refills, but I assume you've checked the ink level(s). Sorry I couldn't help.

Edit: I do have a question though. How are you going to do that crossover in the upper right?

Well I just have a laser black only printer, so I assumed everything would print black.  Thanks for your look-see at this.

The cross over is four Ross switches on table level.  The line you see going across it is actually 5.5-6" above those switches and is the trolley line that circles the town on the left by the six track siding (under construction) to the soon to be built carnival at the other loop on right side.

Sam,

I see the trolley line is elevated. What I'm wondering about are the 2 purple tracks that cross each other in the upper sample. These appear to be on the same level, but they are individual tracks, not a crossover. They are close to a 60 cross I added in the lower sample, but not quite. I'm concerned that they look close enough and you've simply overlooked them thinking they were a cross.

Hi,

I am using an old Lionel 22.5 degree crossing from my boyhood layouts that makes this configuration work.  Nobody that I know today makes a modern shadow rail tubular 22.5 degree crossing (hint-hint RMT).  45 and 60 don't work.  I test tried this configuration on the floor with my KLine O-72s and 22 degree and everything fit perfectly with no forcing on track joints to get things to match up.

Yes Purple is trolley line above the interlocking crossover.  Trolley travels through a Lionel trestle bridge, also from my boyhood.

Ok, that explains it. I just noticed there wasn't a cross in the track library that would fits, so I thought I'd mention it just in case. I have a similar crossover situation in my design and will see if something like this would fit vs a Ross double-slip switch. I don't know if 4 wyes would be cheaper, but they would allow more design options.

rrman,

Could your laser printer be set for draft quality? I think mine has something like that which will make some of the printing come out very light. I think this is in the printer settings somewhere. I sometimes set these things and don't remember and then cuss the equipment until I find it was something I did to myself!

Might be ink saving or something like that in the setup also?

I imagine you're able to print other things without problems and you've checked any setting for grayscale, draft, etc.

Hi Dave,

Yep checked the printer parameters and OS settings to see if any have "been naughty or nice".  No go, all set for high quality laser black printing.

Have sent file to RRTrack for analysis.  See if he/they respond.

My last email to them went unanswered, so good luck. I wonder if it would help if I made a minor change, saved the file and sent it back to you. I'm using the latest 5.1.03.214.

Sure and thanks!

Here it is. Probably won't help, but doesn't cost anything.

Did get reply from Russ:

In RR-Track v4, track rails are printed using a zero-width pen.  On some laser printers, this defaults to sufficiently narrow as to look washed out rather than solid.  You can go into the set up dialog for your printer and try reducing the print resolution to 300x300 to make these lines larger.

-Russ Becker

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Tried shifting to 300 DPI which cause RRT program to do strange things to printout formatting and page sizing, but even then, track was still washed out gray.

Also my RRT 4.x program cannot read the newer RRT 5.x format, but thanks for sending it.

I should have asked what version you had rather than indicate I had 5.1, I knew v4 would not read v5 files. Sorry.

At least you got a response. I know you said you've printed previous designs, but have you ever printed with the current version/printer?

If you haven't already done so, one thing you might want to try is to add a color to both of the color options for the layers you are using for your tracks. That might at least get you a usable printed design.

And so my brilliant bride reminded me that I had done these older RRT drawing with the now discarded Epson laser printer.  That printer had been rescued from the college dumpster and wasn't very sophisticated (no halftones, grays etc) just plain old black.  Its laser cartridges were getting harder to find so when this new whiz bang do everything Brother laser came along as a replacement, I just assumed it would print like the old one.

So now mystery solved (unfortunately for me  

Not too late for another Christmas present.