I am considering the purchase of software to design model railroads. I think I've narrowed it down to the two mentioned above. Can anyone offer likes and/or dislikes about them?
I am presently using RR Track, which I like, but it does not allow operation of the trains. That is a "must have" on the new purchase. I will use it to help friends design, or modify, their pikes. I don't have much room to build a layout of my own, so the software will also serve as my dream layout. (Who says a club sized layout won't fit in a 1400 sq. ft. house?)
CADrail hands down. Couldn't even get 3rdPlanit demo to work. Used an older version of CADrail several years ago; tried both 6 months ago when I wanted to start work on a new layout. Learning curve, yes, but when you get the hang of it, CADrail works great. I'd suggest you download and try the demo versions on each.
On Mon, 13 Dec 2004 15:25:13 UTC, snipped-for-privacy@wmconnect.com (Solaroak01) wrote: 2000
I have used CadRail for many years and now use v8. It is a powerful program with a lot of capability. It takes effort to learn but there is a reward. There is a Cadrail support group and you get your questions answered. I tried the 3rdPlanit demo but quickly found that I would be into another learning curve and was unwilling to spend the effort.
As far as the RunRail part of CadRail it is an afterthought. Tom has not put a lot of effort into it although he has improved it in each new version. It does work and I was able to run a couple of switching simulations with it. You are limited to 10 cars and one loco. It has a couple of quirks but can be used to test out a design. It is a bit laborious to work with.
I've been perfectly happy with 3rd PlanIt. The Yahoo group is very active and helpful with some of the "how do I do this" type questions I had.
I'm pretty happy with the ability to run trains, haven't seen any problems at all with this. Working trains, turntables, etc. - all is very smooth. I plan to "test" (read - play!) extensively with my design to make sure it works the way I want before I start building it.
I'd definitely try the 3rdPlanIt demo, and CadRails too (if they have one)
I'm leaning toward 3PI primarily because of the limitations to operations in CADRail. I have an old CAD software program (TurboCAD) so I don't think the learning curve would be a major problem. But, like Scott, I will be doing quite a bit of testing. One loco and ten cars on a dream layout just won't cut it.
Thanks for you comments. I'll keep listening for more. Don
I bought 3rd PlanIt about 2 months back to do revisions to an already built layout. It is a very comprehensive program and I'm pretty happy with it. It allows operation of trains on the layout after it is built, though I really didn't get too much into that aspect -- I was more interested in trying alternative approaches to the revisions I was considering. I found that it has a very strong "verification" feature that allows you to check for excessive grades, clearances, sharp curves, etc.
I can't compare it to CadRail...I tried demo versions of both but found that I really didn't learn much from the demos. These programs are so complex that you really don't understand them until you've been working with them a while. I am sure there are many more features of 3rdPlanIt that I didn't use, but I got what I needed from it.
My only gripe with 3rdPlanIt is that improvements should be made in the on-line help, and better indexing of the user manual. However, there is a friendly and helpful group of users in a Yahoo group that assisted very quickly with those points where I got stuck. The developer also provided on-line phone support and was extremely helpful.
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