Here are the basic steps in preparing a layout for
TrainPlayer use. All are described in more detail throughout the manual.
1. Prepare the image
If you're starting with a picture of a track plan, you'll need to turn it into a graphics file on your computer. If the image is on paper, you'll need to scan and crop it; if on a website, download it; if in a CAD program, export it. The result needs to be a high-resolution graphics file in any of several standard formats.
You don't actually need a background image. You can start with a blank screen and just lay track freehand.
2. Adjust the grid
To create an accurate layout, you need to establish the relationship between the image on your screen and the real-world dimensions on the layout. You do this by adjusting the TrackLayer grid. The grid is defined in real-world units -- in HO, for example, grid lines are defined to be 12" apart -- so when you overlay the grid on the image, you tell TrackLayer all it needs to know about layout size and dimensions in any scale.
Most published layouts, including all those in 101 Track Plans, have grid lines included in the image. So adjusting the grid in TrackLayer is a matter of dragging the mouse a couple of times until it matches the one on the background.
3. Draw curves and turntables
Curves and turntables are a little tricky to create, more so when working in an area already crowded with track. Therefore the experienced track layer draws these items first.
4. Draw straight track and switches
Drawing straight track is easy -- you just trace over the lines on the image with a series of connected line segments. Switches are created automatically whenever three or more segments come together.
5. Add special features
Most layouts have sections of track hidden in tunnels or underneath the layout. You can mark these sections in TrackLayer so that when trains pass over them, they appear hidden. Or you can mark a section of track as "tunnel," so that a train entering at one end immediately emerges at the other.
6. Debug
TrackLayer provides tools for checking your work. Diagnostics can spot overlapping junctions, zero-length tracks, and other problems, so that you can fix them before anyone derails.
7. Annotate and save
Give the layout a name, add descriptive or historical comments and credit to the designer, then save the file, and you're ready to run.
8. Add trains and enjoy
Actually you can add trains at any point during the building process, and drive them over whatever track is available.