Hi people, I'm about to start a new layout and would like to know how you fellow modelers do to transfer a plan made with a drawing software (XtrkCad, etc) to the layout wood stucture??? I presume you print the plan with a ratio of 1: 1 and then??? - glue the plan on the wood sheets, door, etc. So you're sure to have a perfect reproduction. - just use the plan as a guide , knowing the software isn't always right... - OR....??? It would be very interesting to know how you do this. P:tb-nerd:lease let me know. Seb
I'm guessing you've got the plan solid enough so there are no major problems to solve. I'd build the benchwork, make the subroadbed for the curves, then the flat areas (yards, industrial , towns), locate them on the benchwork, then connect them with the straight or slightly curved parts. I wouldn't make 1:1 templates unless there was a really critical piece. I've never tried spline subroadbed so that may be a different process, but I don't see much to be gained in the full size plan process.
I've been doing it both ways. In some areas, I've just transferred critical points to the roadbed, and connected them. In other areas I've glued the one-to-one down, and laid the track right no top of it. Just start, and you'll probably get a feeling for what works in different areas.
Thanks jlbos83, I think i'll glue the 1:1 plan down only on critical areas like big jonctions or critical s curves and the rest will be build up more freely.
I just finished laying tracks on my new layout that I designed using 3rd Planit software. My initial idea to transfer the layout on to wood was to simply print out the entire layout on a large number of pages ,stick them together. The problem with this approach is that errors accumulate and over a space of about 10 feet, the stuck-together sheets start to diverge significantly from the actual locations. I finally gave up and printed out only small sections where the track work was complex. For the rest of the layout, I used techniques similar to that used by surveyors to identify the beginning and end of straight track segments and used a trammel to draw the curves. This was a lot of work but getting the layout down accurately was well worth the effort.
I did this for my two yard throats at Westport. Here's a pic how i did this. I printed the track lines and glued the pieces together. This way I've got a template for the yard throat. You will find more at my Westport site. But sometimes I made the drawing 1:1 onto the layout. You see my big compass also at these sites. Wolfgang
