track software

There may be differing opinions on this, but I like AnyRail...

I started with... and, still use SCARM.  I imagine that most folks tend to stick with the program they start out with.   It took about 10 hours spread over about a week to become reasonably proficient in its use.

I started with RR-Track, but switched to SCARM and never looked back. I’ve dabbled with AnyRail to help folks with AnyRail designs, but it seems cumbersome to me, mostly likely because I’ve gotten so proficient with SCARM. These 3 work with Windows, but if you use a Mac, then you’re pretty much limited to RailModeller Pro. All but RRT have trial offerings, so you can try them for free. They all have a learning curve and they all have pros and cons, but the cons are mostly personal preferences because they all get the job donel. AnyRail might be the prettiest because I think it probably has the most landscaping objects, but it’s hard to beat SCARM’s simulation feature to test your designs. You’re likely to get more help with SCARM because it seems more folks here use SCARM, probably because it was free for a number of years. The author of SCARM is an active forum member and responds very favorably to suggested changes.

I use AnyRail.  I tried RRTrack, but the user interface is too cryptic for me.  I tinkered with SCARM, but AnyRail was more intuitive, so that's what I use.

RR-Track, did what I needed it to.

I like XtrackCAD. It has a very active user community and it is open source. The best part is it's free and works on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

The problem with RR-Track is that it hasn't been updated in a while, customer service is reportedly poor, and you have to pay for separate track libraries.  All the others mentioned (AnyRail, SCARM & XtrkCAD) are free to try (so you can play around with each to see which one you like best) and include a multitude of track pieces from many different vendors.  They also have forums, tutorials and other services at no extra cost.  And, as noted above, XtrkCAD is completely free to use and can be run on Windows, Linux and Mac computers; only drawback is that use is a little more difficult than the others.

Chuck

Fair warning about RailModeler Pro. It has the size of Realtrax O42 wrong. It may have other flaws too, but it is great for O31.

O42 is way off though. If you design something using O42 in that program there is zero chance of that design working in the real world.

I'm using SCARM for my layout design, too.

If you are expecting any reasonable amount of tech support / customer service after paying for the product, stay away from RR-Track. Even after reading the instructions and viewing the tutorials, I had difficulty with a few of the steps, and had to beg Russ Becker, the owner, for 15 minutes of his time to walk me through them over the phone. He spent more time refusing to help than it would've taken if he had simply agreed to help me. Now that I have overcome the learning curve, I have found it to be useful and accurate, but my dealings with the owner were far from pleasant.

I have the free RRTrack that came with an MTH starter set and found it to be accurate and a good program.  

Yes, but I'm guessing it only had MTH track in the library?

Chuck