Nictor Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 Just bought this program and have to say I am not impressed at all. Early retired and thought I would take up railway modelling. First choice Hornby but if this program is in anyway reflective of their products then they are well on the way to losing me. I coped with the ‘Administative rights’ setup bit although I see no logic to this. Loaded up, clicked on the desktop icon to open. Nope told I had to set up as the administrator. Read the instructions for removing everything and then did what I did the first time. Hmmmm. Worked out that you can’t just click the desktop icon to open, you need to open it by clicking run as administrator. Program is pretty basic. Got frustrated trying to set up a baseboard but finally figured out how to do it. Basically the program wants you to design your layout then add a baseboard last. Me, I want to see the rectangle or what ever I am designing the layout on. Anyone know how to put in an L shape? Now onto my fourth – ‘A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available’. Hmmm, have my doubts about the latter! Four crashes in ten minutes is a bit much. My biggest frustration – is there a way to move joined pieces around like you could do in their virtual railway program? I.e. if I put three platform pieces together or three straight sections – can I move them as one to a new location? Surely it is not a case of laboriously moving each section. I expected this piece of software to be something of a flagship program to really hook people up. Big disappointment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GWR66 Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 I've just brought this programme too as relocating layout to loft from garage, finding it very difficult to get started, have dimenstions for new base board but can't seem to set it up on programme. I agree seems very basic programme. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishmanoz Posted January 29, 2013 Share Posted January 29, 2013 If you check through the threads in this forum, you will find that a number of people report problems as you have but others have found it to be fine and it has met their needs. When I was doing my research, I noted the problems and decided to go with anyrail. I'm glad I did as I discovered later that I wanted to use P*co live frog points on my layout and Trackmaster won't allow this. Others have also reported a number of different free programs that have met their needs. The need to run installation software as administrator is not so unusual and is put there by Windows to help protect you against unauthorised changes to the configuration of your operating system. It is almost certainly needed for this program so that entries can be made in the registry for the program to operate correctly. Remember this if you continue with Hornby and decide to go down the Railmaster route because it is the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMSTim Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 TrackMaster is a basic layout designer, but it does the job. It doesn't pretend to be anything else. It supports only Hornby track and that is clearly stated on all advertising and packaging, however I managed to 'cheat'and incorporate Peco single nd double-slips just by overlaying the Hornby express points. When you finally build your layout you are bound to make some minor adjustments with the track, anyway. Doing L-shaped baseboards is just a matter of putting two boards together of different sizes to create the shape desired, just like in the real world. You can also enter the dimensions of the baseboards directly to size them. Pretty basic, really. TrackMaster is simply a replacement for the Hornby little plastic track bits, stencil and plans book. At its level it does its job very well. I designed a two-level 10' x 8' layout on it with 20 separate baseboards, which is going to be in the next issue of Hornby Magazine. It would have taken ages to do it by hand, or by experimenting with real track. There are certainly more sophisticated layout deign systems out there but at the expense of full support of Hornby track with pricing and ease of use. I just found it very easy to use. Plonk the track pieces on the plan, print the plan and print the shopping list ... voila! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMSTim Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 Just to add ... I am also using RailMaster to control the layout I designed in TrackMaster and the layout will be exhibited again in Feb (second year) this time with six locos a turntable and tipper all operating at the same without me having to touch a thing! And it's all running off a ten year old PC and Elite. This means I can talk to visitors, who invariably always interrupt the most delicate operations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMSTim Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 By the way, have you actually downloaded version 1.07 of TrackMaster? You can do so from www.powerpos.com/track-master/tm_setup107.exe and install that over your existing one. It does have a few improvements over 1.05 and 1.06. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nictor Posted February 2, 2013 Author Share Posted February 2, 2013 LMSTim said: By the way, have you actually downloaded version 1.07 of TrackMaster? You can do so from www.powerpos.com/track-master/tm_setup107.exe and install that over your existing one. It does have a few improvements over 1.05 and 1.06. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nictor Posted February 2, 2013 Author Share Posted February 2, 2013 Thanks. Downloaded 1.07. It does seem to make a difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malang66 Posted February 2, 2013 Share Posted February 2, 2013 hi LMSTIM.. i down loaded version 1.07 last night and still find it plays up think hornby should re think this one..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nictor Posted February 2, 2013 Author Share Posted February 2, 2013 Yeah, spoke to soon. Still crashing frequently. Can size a baseboard in metric but not imperial. When I try to change it seems to then want to default to 1000 inches! Not too much of a big deal since everything is sold in metric these days. Wish I had read this forum before buying. Still, looks like it will do the job with a bit of perseverance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malang66 Posted February 2, 2013 Share Posted February 2, 2013 Nictor said: Yeah, spoke to soon. Still crashing frequently. Can size a baseboard in metric but not imperial. When I try to change it seems to then want to default to 1000 inches! Not too much of a big deal since everything is sold in metric these days. Wish I had read this forum before buying. Still, looks like it will do the job with a bit of perseverance. Hi Nictor.. like you wish i had read this forum first before i bought it to... just glad all there products are not like this or i'd be buying another make..... anyrail is a much better program it expensive but well worth the extra money only think it doesnt give you a price list, thats the only good thing about this one...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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