I have been looking for a layout design program and have been doing some research. I have downloaded demos for 3D Railroad: Concept and Design and for WinRail. Does anyone have any experience to say if one of these is better? Or are there some other options worth looking into?

Thanks for the help!

Hi, wellcome,
I know another program called Railly 4.0., it´s not expensive and you can work with libraries related to Märklin and other manufacturers.
http://www.enigon.com/
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Juan Carlos

I've been using RR-Track software:

http://www.rrtrack.com/

I like it because of it's speed, very quick. I was using it on a Mac (it's a Windows piece) using a Windows software emulator and it ran pretty well. I picked up a 333Mhz Dell desktop on eBay to run it and now it really zips along. I don't use alot of the features as the main thing I wanted it for was getting ideas together very quickly. After a track plan is down you can switch to the 3D view and have the layout spin around so you get a 360 degree view, also rendered very quickly.

For the basics, you hardly need to even consult the manual... something I also found very appealing.

John
http://www.ztrains.com

Raily 2.01 is available for downloading on http://www.enigon.com/Museum/English/wraily2.html.

/Peter

Hi alonso,

Please have a look at the 'Links&Downloads' section of this web site<img src=icon_smile_cool.gif border=0 align=middle>

Kevin!

One train control program that allows you to test "offline" is the Railroad & Co software. But it is not a layout design software, it is a train control program.

Hi!


http://www.freiwald.com/

and also a Yahoo support group!<img src=icon_smile_cool.gif border=0 align=middle>

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/railroadandco/

Kevin!

Moderator,Märklin Bar&Grill

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MarklinBandG/

"...do you recomend to run first digital without a control software (and computer), or you should start digital with a PC and control software?"

In my opinion, it depends on where you are in your layout project, and what you finally would like to do with the computer:

(1) Run the engines
(2) Control turnouts and signals + (1)
(3) Automatic control of the layout (incl. s88 feedback) + (1) + (2)

My conclusions:

(1) If you only want to run the engines, the computer doesn't provide much value at all.

(2) If you want to control turnouts and signals also, and if you have an Intellibox, you can achieve this stage. If having a 6021 Control Unit, you need to purchase (at least) one 6040 Keyboard also. I would spend the money on a 6051 Computer Interface instead of buying a 6040, and design a nice switchboard for the screen with the software.

(3) If you are currently designing and building your layout, and you know that you would like to get to stage (3), I would recommend you to immediately start with the computer. You will have to plan and test contact track locations etc. in parallel, and for this you need the computer. The software packages have different slightly requirements of contact tracks. Once the tracks are fixed on the layout, changing the contact tracks of course derives more work. I really enjoy the possibility to work with the scenery one day, and with layout control software the other day.

I started immediatly with a computer, which you can see on http://peter.funck.net.

<img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle> Peter