SCARM - Simple Computer Aided Railway Modeller


For What It's Worth...

I must say that scarm is fairly straight forward and easy to use. For simple layout design for those of us that don't want to (or need to) get carried away with intricate designs and modeling, this is a great tool to have.:)
 
New version - SCARM 0.8.6

Thank you, Sweet-Chuck :)

Finally, the new version 0.8.6 of SCARM is ready :)

The most important new feature is automatic 3D terrain generation. It will allow realistic 3D representation of the layouts, which have defined heights, bridges and/or tunnels. For example, here is a simple layout with shape of the digit '8' with two stations and with predefined heights of the tracks:

8-0.jpg


If the tracks in the lifted middle section are set as bridge, the layout will look as follows:

8-1.jpg


8-2.jpg


If the tracks in the other (lowered) middle section are set as tunnel, the layout will look as follows:

8-3.jpg


8-4.jpg


8-5.jpg


To look through terrain, you can switch to “Wireframe” mode, using View > Terrain > Wireframe from menu bar in 3D viewing mode. To make terrain invisible, use View > Terrain > Invisible.

Quality vs. Speed of terrain generation is controlled from Tools > Settings > 3D View. It is recommended to keep Automatic setting, which is default – the program will automatically adjust quality/speed of terrain calculations according to your layout. Large layouts with complex track development will require more time for rendering of the terrain. You can turn off terrain generation if you prefer old, flat baseboard view or if terrain calculations are too slow for you.

Terrain engine will help for better visualization of multileveled layouts and is cornerstone in SCARM development, because all future 3D objects with assigned heights depend on the terrain shape. I will create terrain modeling interface so you will be able to create your own mountains and valleys in SCARM.

Hope that you will enjoy the new features – more will come soon ;)

Download the new version from www.scarm.info/index_en.html

Mixy
 
Hi choops :)

Where do you need coordinates to be entered? I am planning to make some tools (dialogs) for entering coordinates and angle of Start point and for coordinates or offsets for Baseboard, but I am not able to tell when this will be ready.

Mixy
 
I am entering the baseboards right now. It takes a while to move the endpoint around to the exact number.

Steve
 
Hi Steve,

Yes, it can be quite bore sometimes. I will enable moving and zooming, while baseboard is created and will start to work over coordinates entering tools :)

Mixy
 
Screen shot. I like very much so far. I get an error when connecting flex track sections but it works anyway.
Steve

snapshot2.jpg
 
Wow, it looks like a huge layout :)

You can move and zoom in/out the camera in 3D with mouse scroll wheel just like in 2D. If you get some error again, you can make screenshot of the message (with PrintScreen key) or just write down the text and post it here, so I will check it and fix the bug :)

Mixy
 
Creating of buildings, trees, roads and other like those will be introduced in some of the next versions of SCARM - I am working over it :)

Mixy
 
SCARM 0.9.0 released

And here is it – the new version 0.9.0 of SCARM – http://www.scarm.info/index_en.html.

Now with 2D/3D shapes and objects for representing of buildings, platforms, roads, signals and many other railway and layout related items and accessories. The enthusiasts will be able even to create the interior of the room where the layout will be standing :) The user can easily create many things with the figures in SCARM, but there are also some items that will be unable to be shaped. This is due to the simple work in one plane in the 2D editor and I have to work more in order to solve this. However, now there are predefined figures and objects like signals and trees and I will add more in the time.

There is a sample SCARM layout: Sample1_HO.zip. Download it, unzip and open in SCARM to see in details some of the new features.

Before start working with the new version, pleasе check the new items in the FAQ section of the documentation. I will also post here some tips and tricks in the next days.

And now, see some pics taken from the example layout (click to enlarge):



Remember that SCARM is still in beta stage of development and sometimes may not work as expected. Always create archives of your layouts and save changes in the files with incremental names (just in case) i.e. layout_1.scarm, layout_2.scarm and so on. Please report any bugs or error messages with explanation how, when and where in the program they occur and I will try to fix them as soon as possible. The version before the last is still available from http://www.scarm.info/SCARMsetup_0_8_8.exe

Hope all of you will like the new features in SCARM :)

Mixy
 
Love this program! All the other layout planning tools I found were either too complex or too simple, but this strikes an amazing balance. Bravo, Mixy.
 
Thank you, guys :)

Check SCARM website regularly – more cool features and improvements will appear in the program next weeks ;)

Mixy
 
Baseboard creation tips

Hello again,

I have prepared 2 example diagrams about using of new baseboard creation tools in the Toolbox of SCARM. They are showing the input sequence of the coordinates, when creating some complex baseboards. I hope that these diagrams will be useful in understanding of how baseboard creation tools are working in SCARM. Next update will include one more baseboard tool for fast entering of simple rectangular baseboards.

Diagram 1 – Baseboard (absolute coordinates) – for entering of the baseboard by absolute coordinates of corner points.

Diagram 2 – Baseboard (displacements) – for entering of the baseboard by offsets from each last point.

Mixy
 
Hello

I've got a problem with the program! I downloaded it about a week ago, and now I can't stop track planning!!!

I actually have a real problem and get the attached access violation using version 0.9.1.beta. It happens when I'm using Peco N scale code 80 flex track, trying to connect it to another piece of track when the arrow turns green. If I'm holding the left mouse button to click and release the track, but accidentally move the mouse and release the button while I'm moving, this error message pops up, but not always. I don't know if the error occurs with other track makes or scales as I haven't used anything other than Peco.

It happened again this morning, then when I tried to reproduce the error to check what I was doing before posting this message, I couldn't get it to do it again. Unless I force quit the program, anything I try to do brings up a copy of the original error message until there are several over the screen.
 
Hello Stephen,

Thank you, for reporting this problem. I will check it and will try to fix it in the next update :)

Mixy
 
Hello Mixy,
I first want to thank you for all the work and effort your putting into doing this as well as making it available to us to use. It seems fairly unique compared to Atlas's Right track I initially used to plan my layout with but I had problems with it in a couple of areas and it didn't offer any 3d view either.

I'll have to admit I only glanced over your program after downloading it so I'm not completely familiar with all it will do.

I'd like to ask two things.
1. Can I import an existing track plan from Atlas Right Track and save it as an SCRAM file?

2. Just how difficult is it to create a switch say file when hand laying track where switches are made to fit situation that prevales?

Thanks for your help.
David
 
Hello David,

I am glad that you like SCARM and I hope that it will be useful to you :)

At the moment, SCARM has no ability to import files, created with other layout editors. About turnouts – you can create your own turnouts by editing library files with Notepad. It is relatively easy, but first check the sample library file http://www.scarm.info/temp/BTTB-TT.lib - it has descriptions of all parameters, needed for definition of different track types.

Greetings,

Mixy
 



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