Railmaster Track Plan Designer

[The Captain90]

Had some downtime so decided to play with the Track Plan Designer. Put in a point and the point control buttons. Right clicked these and assigned the decoder port, type etc. Can't work out how the grey line that changes as the point changes is put in the diagram.

Thought perhaps that I may need to have my eLink and Accessory Decoder connected but don't believe this is necessary as the sample programs have the grey line which moves when the point button is clicked with nothing connected.

What if anything am I doing wrong here.

Thanks.

[96RAF]

Doing wrong - probably nothing. RM still has its quirks.

When you start up RM (and if you have already set it up in the settings box and/or the .ini file) you get the option to set your points or not at start up.

If you have set this and/or agree to it at the dialogue box, then RM will cycle your point motors and then the grey/blue lines will appear on your plan.

If you opt for No in either the setup screen or the dialogue option then they don't appear untill the next startup option scenario.

[The Captain90]

Many thanks for your very prompt response. Did what you suggested and "hey presto" the lines were there.

Pity they don't appear in the design window so you can test things.

As you say RM has its quirks.

[Ajay1]

Having succesfully installed RM and my eLink and Elite controllers are recongnised by the software (when plugged in separately off course)  the track plan for the"Mixed Freight Layout" that I set as default in the options screen when I was setting up appears. 

Now I am using none of these layouts, having designed and constructed my own. Obviously I persume that I would not be able to run, or use RM until I have drawn up my track plan  layout and select it in RM , correct ?   If someone would be so kind as to advise.   Also is there a tutorial on using the Track Plan Designer or is it pretty straight forward ?

 

Antony

[Fishmanoz]

No, you don't need a plan to run your locos.  It's just a convenient way for you to know where your points and signals are. And very straightforward to use as per manual. 

[Yelrow]

HI, its quite easy, if you cheat. If tou run down the list of track plans in RM, till you find one that suits, you can adopt it, call it AJAYS plan 8, as opposed to track plan 8. Then you can add and subtract to your hearts content. I am using hornby track plan 8, modified. If you want to run RM, without designing a plan, put up Majestic, and have a look at that. There is also a majestic prog, that runs trains for you. Thats what i did. All you have to remember, is that RM, has no idea, about your Schematic (design). Its only there to aid you, and you may have to reduce size to 75%, if you get carried away. john  

[Chrissaf]

Antony,

.

"Obviously I persume that I would not be able to run, or use RM until I have drawn up my track plan  layout and select it in RM , correct ?"

.

Consider a situation where a user is not using any point motors controlled by an accessory decoder. They can still use RM to operate locos, as can you. I know you have some accessory decoder controlled points as you have mentioned it in other posts. As you are using a track layout of your own design, then yes you will need to create a mimic of your layout in track designer. The size and level of detail you put into it is purely up to you. It doesn't have to copy every detail of your layout or be a scaled representation. It is purely a conceptual representation of your layout. As long as the mimic has the points on it that you want to DCC control or other accessories that you want controlled, signals or TT for example then that is all that is necessary.

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Creating a track plan is fairly intuitive, just give it a go and post back here when you hit a problem. One tip I will give you now. When you want to attach a point control button to the point. Don't try and position it yourself in the correct final position. Just drag the point control button to the centre of the point and release. The control button icon will snap to the correct position, at the same time the other button will suddenly appear on the other side of the point. If you get this snapping action then that is confirmation that the control button has been positioned correctly. Right clicking the control button icon gives you the menu options for configuring it with the DCC address used to control the point plus other point control options as required.

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Another tip. Don't get too carried away and make your track plan too big. If you do, you will struggle to be able to see all of it on screen at a magnification level that is efficiently usable.

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Once you have saved your own track plan. Go back to the system configuration tab and choose your named track plan as the default to load on start up.

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The following You-Tube video is about 4 years old, so it will be a very old Railmaster version, but about 2 minutes in there is a section on using track designer. It will give you the basics. Once you have seen the video, I think you will then appreciate just how easy it is to allow your creative side to take over to create your track design masterpiece.

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[Ajay1]

Thank you all, I will watch the video, have a play around, I'm sure I'll get there in the end. Still at the constructing stages of the layout,plastering scenery,ballasting, inserting point motors and accessory decoders etc so I suppose I am jumping the gun here a little bit. You know how it is, you get a new toy and you want to get it going and have a play around immediately.

[Ajay1]

I've decided to incorporate my own layout design into RailMaster as I'm thinking it will add a little more realism when operating, My question is, how accurate does the plan in Railmaster have to be etc to work properly ?

 

Antony

[cliveg]

Antony,

As Chrissaf said above, " Don't get too carried away and make your track plan too big. If you do, you will struggle to be able to see all of it on screen at a magnification level that is efficiently usable."

"The size and level of detail you put into it is purely up to you. It doesn't have to copy every detail of your layout or be a scaled representation. It is purely a conceptual representation of your layout. As long as the mimic has the points on it that you want to DCC control or other accessories that you want controlled, signals or TT for example then that is all that is necessary."

Make the design a scaled down representation of your layout, try it out and see how it goes, is the best way to learn.

 

[Ajay1]

Thanks for that, BTW it's only a small layout 8 x 4

[Ajay1]

Help!!! I've struck a wee dilemma in going about drawing up my trackplan layout to insert into RM.    I cannot find  the neccessary points diagram to be able to add the remaining tracks to finish off. The  circles are where I want to add the remaining points.   Thanks

Antony/media/tinymce_upload/My_Layout.jpg

[Chrissaf]

Antony,

The points you need to match your preferred design layout are 45 degree points in Track Designer. Unfortunately these 45 degree points are only available in the RailMaster PRO PACK. This is stated on page 79 of the RM manual.

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The essence of the sidings can still be created with the standard horizontal points in Track Designer but the resultant configuration looks less elegant and takes up more space. I will post an example of sidings using horizontal points in a minute - subject of course to moderation delay.

[Chrissaf]

Sample sidings as discussed.

/media/tinymce_upload/Point_Numbering.jpg

[Nick_]

50% of my points are on the diagonal so I bought the pro pack. Was worth it simply for that in my opinion. 

[Ajay1]

Thank you both of you, I did'nt see that bit in the manual being a PDF format I've only skimmed through it. I'll go back an have another look. As for the Pro pack I am concidering upgrading but in the meantime will use the procedure you have outlined Chris. I can now continue to finish it.