New model railroad software

Sorry! Something seems to be wrong with the registration form. I am working with the server to deal with it. Please try again if you can't get through.

-- Jim

Jim,

Tres Cool!

This is a neat idea. I wish I had more time to play with it this week, but I've got so much on the stove...

Mike Tennent

"Jim" wrote:

"IronPenguin"

Might be nice if you had something on the web site re: operating system and hardware requirements...

It might be nice if the UNINSTALL function was operable too! I had to do a system restore in XP to get rid of it.

John

Well, being a Mac user, that's not something I'm worried about - especially since the software seems to be limited to Windoze systems in the first place.

The screen shot seems _very_ much like Abracadata's "Design Your Own Railroad" system overlaid on a graphic background.

I hope appropriate rights clearances (particularly for the art, since it clearly is not original...) were obtained. The full page of track plans seems questionable, at best. Simply stating that the drawings are "Copyright © Kalmbach Publishing" isn't really enough - it should state "Used with permission" if that in fact is the case - if not, they shouldn't be used at all.

Thanks for the comments.

1. The posted version now has a repaired uninstaller. You can download again and just hit Uninstall when it first comes up (he said hopefully).

1. Operating system requirements are now posted.

2. If it looks like DYOR, there's a reason. I was the one who wrote that for (the now-defunct) Abracadata back in 1990.

1. I'm working with Kalmbach on the contractual arrangements. They're aware of the site and the product and the use of the layouts, in fact it was they who suggested putting up the MR ones. I did, however, change the 101 Layouts page so clicking the thumbnail no longer gets you the full image.

2. How come John Franklin's message got quoted here but not posted?

-- Jim

Jim wrote: [...]

That's an issue between you and the news server that you use.

Just curious, what would be involved in expanding the software so that it could have aerial photos or geodesic maps as backgrounds? It could be a hoot running a train along some of the old abandoned short lines, especially if switching for the old industries was possible.

The geodesic maps have no copyright, so using them for backgrounds wouldn't step on any toes. Many older ones are available as files at:

Interesting idea!

If you know which one of those maps that has a nice dense collection of tracks and yards, please point it out. Doing the open countryside would probably take too much background bitmap.

-- Jim

Good! I'm glad to hear you're doing it right.

Any chance of you doing a Mac version? ;)

I paid my Mac dues in the DYOR days. It was painful.

I installed the demo on a Win2K system. It doesn't run, it complains that it is missing gdiplus.dll. Be very careful installing this software!!! I tried installing it to a non-existant directory and it didn't prompt to create it, it just installed in the parent directory. The uninstall blew away *everything* in that directory not only it's own files. I lost several unrelated subdirectories for not paying closer attention. I guess I should know better!!!

---john.

terraserver is your friend:-)

They're better now. Really they are. If the Xtrkcad guys can swing windows and Linux, it can't be that hard to do on the Mac (Under OS X).

I find this hard to believe. It does create a dir if it doesn't exist. It uses the system file copy routine to populate the dir, so if it were invalid you'd get an alert.

We're working on the gdiplus issue. This might be something you'd have to download from MS if you aren't using XP. but I don't know yet. Another user reported the same problem.

-- Jim

By the way, I'm sorry about the loss of your files. You're right, the uninstaller would do that, and needs some protection. We'll straighten out these issues, it's why we need beta testers.

-- Jim

Usually Beta testers get paid in some way, that's how it worked for us at intel. When we used XP in it's myriads of rebuilds we got something from MS for that............ It's was no big deal for me to do a system restore, but I would be highly pissed if I had lost other files. Like you, my PC helps me make a living.......

John

John,

I've never heard of game testers being compensated, except for getting a copy of the final version. Most do it just to be involved.

Mike Tennent "IronPenguin"

Uh Mike, is that NOT compensation?

John