Hi there,

I'm about to give Rocrail a try on my lay-out.

I've explored their page, downloaded the program and watched some vids on youtube. It all looks good. Besides that its free! Digipet costs quite a lot.

I especially appreciate the possibility to use my Uhlenbrock Lissy transmitters as contacts + my Intellibox. I've got quite a lot of them and it would be a waste of money not to use them.

On this forum I noticed some users of the program.

Can you tell me your experiences? What are the easy-to-make-mistakes? Is it as reliable as the website promises?

Im a real novice in using software+pc to manage my lay-out.

Thanks in advance,

Rinus

Hi Rinus,

I'm using Rocrail since about 6-8 months. I've chosen this software primarily because my computers all run under linux, but I've also tried it in a virtual machine under XP with the same success.

I can't compare with any other train software as I don't own others. My advice may be a "one point of view only".

My layout is not very large (18 blocks are setup) and is still under construction, so I can't provide any real "continuous operation" feedback, but from time to time I put 8 / 10 locos running for an hour in automatic mode, and that's really amazing, especially the random way the routes are chosen on the fly...

About mistakes...mmm, I don't remember a lot...Sometimes misunderstanding on my side, but the default values Rocrail is configured with are "secure" so there is not a lot of risks. Enable the "Stop on Ghost train", as it will immediately stop operation in case an unknown loco or wagon is on an unplanned block.

Carefully read the docs, there are a lot of infos. Read and re-read them and quickly experiment a feature you're interested in as it is a very rich software with many many possibilities.

Start with the tutorial with very basic things, stop, go, setup a turnout address, switch it with the mouse, add a MM loco (Motorola 14), then maybe a DCC if you owns one, and finally a mfx. Regarding mfx, it's a bit special, read the docs before (you'll have to find out the "real" address)...
Then only add one sensor -contact track, reed, circuit track- (or more), create a block, and look if the sensor activates when the loco is in the block. Then, add more blocks and a route, and experiment.

I use it with a 60214 CS2, no special trouble except sometimes some of the 763XX signals don't start, so I press the stop bar then release it, and the normal behavior comes back. I think it's an electric problem on my side, not with Rocrail. No glitch with turnouts and locos.

I've started blocks with only one sensor per block. It gives good results but not very satisfactory if you want to stop the loco just before the signal. I recently attempted 3 sensors in a block, then downgraded it to 2 sensors per block. Using timers with the events "enter2pre" and "in" and adequate tuning of the deceleration of each loco (decoder tuning), it gives perfect results.

I don't use a turntable at the moment, but I'm planning one if I find enough room !

That's my feedback at the moment, but I'm far from having discovered all that software can do.

HTH
Cheers
Fabrice

Rinus,

Scale is not important but leave enough room when your creating block names so the title of the train show up properly.
This will help when you have two BR 01's on the track if its too short it cuts off the road number and you cant tell which one is where on the screen.
I had to redo it a few times to get every thing to show up on the laptop that I use to run the train.

Also save different version of the layout, a good practice would be to save the layout with a different name just before you hit AutoGen to create routs. If you have a mistake in the drawing and you hit autogen it can make some strange rout connections that are hard to get rid of with out starting over.

The thing I like most about RocRail is the simulation mode you can start it up in automatic mode and start clicking your contacts the way the train would run and test it over and over before you ever connect it to the layout.
If you have a complex layout you might want to build just sections of it and test them in the simulation mode first before adding it to the full track plan.

The other thing I like is that you can define a block with only one contact sensor. Most of the other programs require at least a contact for the train entering a block and one on the exit. In my hidden station I don't care if the train suddenly stops. So I only have one contact on each track in the hidden station where I want to stop the train and one as the train enters the yard to slow it down.

Great!

I'll explore the programme this weekend!

Regaqrds,

Rinus