Track plan designer - points icons

[St1ngr4y]

LMSTim said:

I can think of two advantages of having the green and red point control buttons separate. Some users may not want to control particular points. Not everybody has every point linked up to a point motor. Secondly, you can use the

control buttons to control other things that may not be standard, e.g. a weird multi-way point, in which you would make up the point without using the point icons, then manually position the red and green dots where you want them. You could also use them to

control multi-aspect signals separately.

There is only one advantage in having them combined and that is that you don't have to press another button to add the control buttons then drag one of them to the point. For me, the two advantages far outweigh

the disadvantages. Remember also, that you tend to produce a track design once. It's not like you have to do it all the time to control your layout.

There is one huge disadvantage in having them separate, and that is that RM insists that when

used for a point, they are positioned on the dividing line of the cells at the toe-end of the point. This prevents you having two points toe-to-toe without a straight piece in between. It also means you have to have parallel tracks further apart just in case

a point on one track conflicts with a point on the other track.

[LMSTim]

That is incorrect. RailMaster does not "insist" that the control buttons are positioned where they are. RailMaster guides you by snapping them, ONLY if you drag one to the centre of a point. You can then move them wherever you want.

[Pete172]

Fishmanoz said:


Also, on 3 way turnouts, take a look in the RM manual on how it suggests you do these by laying to point icons on top of each other in the same square.

.

Hi,
From the Railmaster instructions,

I assumed when they say "just put two points together" they meant place 1 point followed by another (probably with a straight in between). That is what I have done, but takes up lots of design screen space.
I did try placing 1 on top of the other, and yes

it does accept that, but I could not figure out how / where to place the point buttons.
Seeing how complex & delicate the 3 way point is, I am worried about firing one of the point motors the wrong way (could do some physical damage). Can a safe motor firing

sequence (2 motors per 3 way point) be routed some way in Railmaster ?

[Fishmanoz]

LMSTim said:

That is incorrect. RailMaster does not "insist" that the control buttons are positioned where they are. RailMaster guides you by snapping them, ONLY if you drag one to the centre of a point. You can then move them wherever you

want.

Well Tim, learn something new every day. Because RM warns when you put points too close, I thought it wouldn't allow you to put them like that, and I think many others thought so too. And it's not the case, you can put them adjacent, despite

the warning.

I see what you mean about the buttons too. If you put a button anywhere wholly within a point square, both buttons snap to the toe. But if you put a button at least half outside the square, it stays put, and you then have to place the

other button similarly, so you can put them anywhere convenient. And it's only a problem anyway when the toes are adjacent on the same track, or the toes are at the same end of adjacent squares on close parallel tracks.

I'm assuming though that a downside

will be that the point route setting won't show as the buttons will now not be associated with the point icon if not snapped in?

That knowledge will allow me to make my layout more elegant in a number of places. Thanks again.

[Fishmanoz]

Pete172 said:

Hi,
From the Railmaster instructions, I assumed when they say "just put two points together" they meant place 1 point followed by another (probably with a straight in between). That is what I have done, but takes up lots

of design screen space.
I did try placing 1 on top of the other, and yes it does accept that, but I could not figure out how / where to place the point buttons.
Seeing how complex & delicate the 3 way point is, I am worried about firing one of the point

motors the wrong way (could do some physical damage). Can a safe motor firing sequence (2 motors per 3 way point) be routed some way in Railmaster ?

Pete, my apologies for saying put them on top of each other, it says put the together as you

said. And looking at my reply to Tim above, you don't need the straight in between, so you can save a little real estate, and you can still snap the buttons in without then sitting on top of each other as the toes aren't adjacent.

Do a little playing

and I'm sure you'll soon see how it works.

[LMSTim]

I think the program recommends, rather than insists on the point control buttons snapping and the straight between points as there are a number of people who may fumble slightly when pressing a point button, particularly when using a touch screen, and

this avoids them pressing the wrong point by accident. If you are accurate in your pointing then you can place points right next to each other.

I'm not sure if the route setting (blue line) is shown if you move point control buttons outside their normal

area of operation. I guess you'll have to try that out.

Three-way points are an interesting thing. They have a certain 'intelligence' built in, in that in certain circumstances, throwing one set of blades in one direction will also throw the other set

within the group. It's a little difficult to explain without actually showing you. This means that, using RailMaster, you can set up two normal points, one after the other, to replicate a three-way point, however when switching one set of blades (where it

also switches the other set) doesn't do this in RailMaster. RailMaster doesn't know that three-way points can do this.

I understand that the developers are building in specific support for three-way points in a future upgrade and although it is possible

to use three-way points currently, the 'intelligence' built in will make life easier.

Regarding the comment on damaging three-way points, you cannot do that in RailMaster.