Track Planning Shareware

[John]

i use 3rd plan it - it's ok, but the learning curve is steep.

and it costs money

[chuck geiger]

I'm getting my arms around the xtrackcad.

[asciibaron]

i use 3rd plan it - it's ok, but the learning curve is steep.

and it costs money

only if you don't know how to use the internet

[diezmon]

what's an "internet"?

[asciibaron]

what's an "internet"?

a series of tubes, like at the bank.  except these tubes cost you money.

-steve

[keystonecrossings]

I have both Macintosh and Windows boxes available to me...

I tried 3rd Planit back in 1999 and found it too complex. I reopened it today and confirmed.

I found Empire Express for the Mac. Fairly easy to use, but I don't like the look of the track. Some useful libraries, but not much structure support.

I found RailModeler for the Mac. Superb interface and extremely easy to use. But lacking in libraries.

Took quick look at XtraCAD. Looks easier than 3rd Planit, and the price is right. Tentatively looks like they have a lot of nice libraries, but the online docs are lacking... so until you download it and get up to your waist in it, you don't know what it has!!! Would be nice if they'd get a page up somewhere listing all the included libraries. I appreciate that this is open source, but compare it to JMRI, which has an excellent array of pre-use documentation online.

My next step is to download XtraCAD and give it a shot.

[Subwayaz]

As previously stated I found both Atlas RTS and Xtracad to have quite a learning curve. But for the price "FREE" what can you expect. But on the other hand if you don't mind spending a few bucks for $55-$59; you can have a good easy to use program.
1. CAD Rail I found to be excellent 3D Layout planning program. An extensive Track/Scenery Library, and quite user friendly ($59) download edition    http://www.sandiasoftware.com/
2. AnyRail is another track planning program that I found to be very user friendly little to no learning curve. Good track library most of the common brand of track included. But 2D Not 3D. ($55) download edition.
There you have it my Two Bits   http://www.anyrail.com/index_en.html

[scootbird]

I have been using Xtrkcad for about 6 months now.  It is somewhat overwhelming at first but once you sit through some tutorials, download some plans others post on the net, play with it then Viola...it's a very powerful and straight forward planning tool.  Latest version (4.01) has cleaned up a lot of previous probs.

My nickels worth

Mike