paulthomann

My farmhand is back and I still just sat down. I am up at 6am and tend to get out to feed the animals by 7:30 and then do any other chores before it gets too hot. And with all that the days just roll by. Mind you I do try to be back in the house by noon but sometimes things just don't work out. And this is not even a real farm. My kids call it a hobby farm. They say that cause they know it aggravates me. If it works for you I usually get up by 5:30am which would be about 10:30 your time. By the time I make coffee it is almost 6am. Would that be good for you tomorrow or perhaps Monday morning? Thanks so much Simon for all the time you have given me so far. I have checked with Facebook Messenger. It does allow you to screen share so I am sure that would be helpful when you are demonstrating primitives. I am pretty adepth at Fusion360 and have a pretty good knowledge of Blender so not a complete newbee. Here is my Facebook Messenger address. https://www.facebook.com/paulthomann1 Try sending me a message to see if it works.

3D10DB13-DCDE-4E37-8696-8B513BC6444F

Eureka! I managed to complete all the track and it seems to be working.

By the way I use Facebook Messenger. Stopped posting on Facebook a few years ago because things people say tended to ruin my day. I still use Messenger though and marketplace. So we could connect up on messenger if we ever find the time. Thanks again Simon. Paul

It looks like it won't get done today. I live on a small farm and my farmhand/wife is away so I have all the chores today including taking care of all the animals. Just got done and so hot out had to take a shower to cool down. Tomorrow will be a problem too but Saturday she will be back and I will have some time. Hope you are feeling better. In the meantime I will see what I can figure out on my own in my spare time. Paul

I am in North Carolina just below the Virginia border near Danville, Va. So 5 hours. Love the UK. We will be there in September. Where in the UK do you live? I shot the video at eye level to the trains and in some cases even slightly lower. That tends to change perspective and makes it hard to tell what scale it is. There is a lot of discussion in model rail forums on how high the track layout should be set. A lot of factors go into it but the main one is that models look better at eye level. I look forward to getting together. Not sure what is a good time. I would like to watch and see how you use primitives. I tried using them but they don't seem hard to line up. I think I just don't understand them properly. Paul

First to answer your question, I model in HO. A question for you. Where are you located? Just trying to figure out time differences. I stopped by your layout. Impressive to say the least. Interesting how the sounds change volume as you move toward them and away from them.

Well I must say I spent about an hour going through this. A little at this point is being lost in the combination of the translation and my knowledge gap. I get what they are doing to achieve the rusty stub section but I haven't done any changes to geometry or bed lowering or even texturing for that matter so I still find it a little confusing. This has given me a good idea of the level of detail that can be achieved with the program. Not the same as if you were weathering track on your own but a lot more than I expected for 3d modeling software. Thank you for directing my attention to this information. I plan to go through the Extra's Tab next. Are there any videos of someone using this tab to good effect? Paul

Wow! That is solid advice. Thank you so much. I am going to go through that thread tomorrow. It looks interesting as it points to the level of detail that can be achieved by the program. Anything else you want to throw my way would be appreciated. Thanks Simon!

Well I am retired and just happen to have the space to for something this large in my barn loft. I never used it for anything else anyways. Kids like to store their stuff there but I try to actively discourage the squatters. I started to use some of the Model Oriented track and have found it to be a bit more forgiving and easier to coax into position on the layout. I must say the program IS far more forgiving than real life model railroad. I have spent days upon days getting the track laid in such a way that passenger trains will not derail. This layout was the layout of a master scratch builder. I disassembled it and reassembled it in my barn loft. It took over 3 weeks at his home to disassemble and then going on 4 months in the loft trying to get it all back together. It was never completed or running so I had to do a lot to get it back together again and then complete sections he had not finished. I think it was his first whack at DCC so the wiring was badly done. I ripped most of that out and started over. Here is a video of the track in operation.(finally) I want to thank you Simon for your help. Nothing is possible in this hobby without the help of others. Well it may be possible but it would be frustratingly slow and mistake ridden. My goal with this layout is to get it all landscaped. The original owners conception was Albany to New York City in autumn during the 1950's. I was born and raised in Western New York near Buffalo. I would like to revision the railroad from Buffalo to Albany with parts of the Erie Canal which would be sites more familiar with what I grew up with. I live in North Carolina now and could easily turn it into the Piedmont Rail but honestly the Erie Canal still feels more like home to me. I apologize for the long post. A friend of mine from Toronto told me about this software and thought it might help me to achieve my vision. At this point I am excited because I have seen what other have done and I think this software can do it. I am humbled by and greatly appreciative for any help I can get. Best regards, Paul

I have been through all of the instructions. I was just looking for information that went beyond the instructions. Simon, the information you have given is helpful. I am starting to get the hang of laying code 83 flex track so I will just stick with that. My layout is a mix of code 83 and code 100. I haven't seen much of a difference between the code 83 flex track in the software and the "Model Oriented" version. Indeed you can connect it right up to the code 83 variant. I am not looking for exact. My goal is to get it close so I can experiment with the landscape and other concepts before committing them to the build. This is the first program that I experimented with that seems to have good visualization tools and has flexible tools for setting up an irregular base and laying a lot of track quickly in order to get to other aspects. Here is a view of what I have so far. Suggestion and/or advice are always welcome. Don't worry. You won't hurt my feelings. Thank so much for all your help. Paul

I posted a question yesterday and got a great response. Thanks again everyone. This program is a bit of a struggle since there is not a lot of English support for it. I don't mind having to watch German Youtube videos the problem is finding what you are looking for. I think the easiest way is to get knowledgeable people on this forum to point me in the right direction. I am getting through a lot of the program basics in trying to mimic my layout on this program I have a horseshoe shaped layout 9 meters on the left side, 7 meters along the back and 5 meters on the right side. There are nearly 50 turnouts on it. As a result I am having a tough time get things to line up. Is there a video or article where it describes some best practices for laying track to make this process go a little easier? Thanks so much for all your help.

Thanks to everyone for the quick replies. Really appreciate the response.

Thanks Simon, now I get it. That completely explains it. I didn't realize it was being used for this purpose and had another purpose in mind. I am trying to put my layout on the software and it is modular in nature so I thought I could just create existing panels and stick them together to form the whole. The program can still do the same thing by adding points which I just found a little cumbersome since my layout is so large. I can work through that though.

Hello Everyone, Just getting started with 3d Train Studio. I am trying to expand the layout with additional panels and that tab does not seem to respond to anything. Is this because I am on the free version. I have searched high and low trying to figure it out but can't seem to find anything on this feature that comes up in an internet search.