Best layout software?

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I realize this is "best layout software", but does anyone use other software tools with their layouts? I saw in a few other threads where eTraxx talks about Google's SketchUp, but no threads dedicated to it. I love SketchUp and use it for all kinds of projects. But are there other software tools that anyone is using? Fast clocks, roster management databases, webcam setups, etc?
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Kitchen Measures
 
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I realize this is "best layout software", but does anyone use other software tools with their layouts?

We're about to drift OT here, so apologies upfront! [Maybe another thread?] Anyway, while it's not layout S/W at all, are you using JMRI? Absolutely indispensable for DCC programming and *so* much more (including fast clocks etc). I wrote some of the doc's for it *way* back but am deliberately staying away for now as it's the least of my concerns.....

Cheers,
Ian
PS - "Java model Railroad Interface", also at Sourceforge btw
 
Well Ian, and this ought to wake up the peanut gallery, but it looks like XTracCad remains exactly worth what it costs. :D

Uh-oh!..... While this is not the place for "religious" arguments about FOSS versus commercial S/W, I've gotta note that I'm a *huge* believer in good OSS that's active.

LoudMusic said:
Joe is just grumpy because he can't make it work

:)

And thanks for your comments. Seems to me that apart from a "quirky" interface (that needs learning?) and Joe's dislike (:)) it is the "dominant" player. A *consistent* name would also be good! - I couldn't find the Yahoo group as I searched for "Xtrackcad" (the name on the "new" homepage) - It also shows up as "xtrkcad", "xtrakcad" and some others! Incidentally, the Yahoo group seems pretty active; ~14 new members and 25 posts in the last 7 days - Good enough for me!

I'm gonna switch to the Ubuntu box and see if it's in their repository. I can't figure why it crashed under OSX, and hopefully won't need to find out!

Cheers,
Ian
 
...I'm gonna switch to the Ubuntu box and see if it's in their repository....

Indeed - Version 4.02 versus the latest (4.03a), but it seems to be running fine so far - A few "bugettes" reported by GtK and GLiB but really minor stuff.

I haven't found anything that details the differences in the versions (!) but the various sources of help & the tutorials look really promising. I'll report back once I've made some progress.

BTW - While "first impressions" suggest (to me anyway!) that the Apple "dmg" file is the only version available from SF, clicking in "view all files" & then the version gives tar balls, gzip's et al......

Cheers,
Ian
 
Indeed - Version 4.02 versus the latest (4.03a), but it seems to be running fine so far - A few "bugettes" reported by GtK and GLiB but really minor stuff.

I haven't found anything that details the differences in the versions (!) but the various sources of help & the tutorials look really promising. I'll report back once I've made some progress.

BTW - While "first impressions" suggest (to me anyway!) that the Apple "dmg" file is the only version available from SF, clicking in "view all files" & then the version gives tar balls, gzip's et al......

Cheers,
Ian

Yeah I noticed that too. Seems a bit odd. I run the 4.0.3a version in "Windows XP Mode" (virtual PC) on Windows 7 64bit and it's mostly stable. A bit slow at times. And I recently discovered that 'running trains' is oddly jerky. Though that was on my laptop - I'll try my i7 desktop here in a minute and see if more cycles makes a difference ;) It was genuinely smooth in native XP on an older computer.

EDIT: Yeah, it's smooth as glass on my desktop. Train update speed at 30 milliseconds (33.333 frames per second) and really great performance.
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Lovely Wendie99
 
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