Re: Is there a way to identify where a sectional track piece is used in a layout?
Chris Kenyon
In the meantime, one simple way is to stick sectional tracks on a different layer so they show up in a different colour ..... which is obviously easier if you do it from the start!
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Re: Is there a way to anchor a set of tracks so they cannot be moved?
Don Hewitt
Thank you Adam,
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Re: Is there a way to identify where a sectional track piece is used in a layout?
Andy - Arlington TX
Thanks, Dave.
I have registered and entered feature requests for selection of sectional track pieces and replacement of selected track pieces. Andy D Jones
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Re: Is there a way to identify where a sectional track piece is used in a layout?
Not sure if non-admins can add themYes they can -> please remember to sign-in so that the request does not need moderation - as there is no prompting about that and it will appear as though it "vanished" to the submitter. A signed-in user will post immediately. --- I think there may be three related items - A way to "find" particular items on the layout, a way to see those based on title, and a way to search for titles. A suggestion is that by having a "jump to item number" function and then hooking it to some version of the inventory list one might have a way to use the inventory. On top of that would be a way to search for names to produce a sub-inventory. Adam
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Re: Is there a way to identify where a sectional track piece is used in a layout?
Dave Bullis
You see Feature Requests here https://sourceforge.net/p/xtrkcad-fork/feature-requests/
Not sure if non-admins can add them Dave
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Re: Is there a way to identify where a sectional track piece is used in a layout?
scenicsRme
I'd like to turn this into a future feature request, at least for "special" track sections i.e. turnouts, crossovers etc., and maybe even structures. I could have used this feature the other day while reviewing my new layout design. I ran the parts list and realized I had mixed a few code 55 into the code 80 peco turnouts in the design. I wanted to fix that (the geometry is sightly different I found) so I had to go in and select each turnout in the layout to show it's part #, 67 in total, to find the 4 code 55's that were hiding in plain sight, and replace them.
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Re: Is there a way to identify where a sectional track piece is used in a layout?
Andy - Arlington TX
Thanks Dave & Adam.
Simply finding the instances of a part number/description, and adding them to a group (as if I had ctrl-clicked each one) would be nice, so they would be pre-selected for group action (even if just seeing the selected pieces). For selecting the piece to be found/grouped, it would be nice if the user could click on the symbol in the same bar that is used to add it, but typing in something would be a good start. It would be helpful with an additional ability to replace ground level track pieces with equivalent viaducts/bridges, etc., or vice versa. XTC need not be able to identify the "equivalent" piece(s); the user can do that. I VERY often temporarily replace a turnout with the equivalent curve or straight piece, since turnouts anchor the track location, when trying to connect nearby pieces. Deleting and adding the track pieces, both before and after, makes this task more arduous than necessary, and could be made much easier with this 'replace' capability. How does one go about requesting these new features/capabilities be added?
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Re: Is there a way to identify where a sectional track piece is used in a layout?
see https://www.shellhacks.com/windows-grep-equivalent-cmd-powershell/ for a Windows equivalent of grep.
A nice extension of the BOM would be to be able to highlight specific track pieces. Not only useful in the question of Andy, but also very handy to check whether you have been desinging things correctly. For instance I am driving digitally and for each track piece between 2 turnouts there must be 2 contact rails, just right after the turnout. In my layout I already forgot to draw these specific tracks and just used the ordinary tracks, resulting in a BOM which in itself is correct, but not giving me the proper amounts of these contact rails. Now it is check, check, double check and double check that again.... :-)
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Re: Is there a way to identify where a sectional track piece is used in a layout?
Dave Bullis
Unfortunately exception highlighting doesn't work for sectional track
You could open the .xtc file in a texteditor, find the track piece by searching for its description or part number. That will get you something like TURNOUT 89 0 2 0 0 N 2 70.964948 173.968777 0 134.021993 "Peco-55 Curved Left SL-E387F"
The location is in bold On Linux you could say $ grep layout.xtc "SL-E387F" and get all the uses of that track piece. I don't know how you'd say that in Windows All sectional track will be a TURNOUT line We have a Parts List which gives you aggregate counts. Not really a BOM. Dave
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Re: Is there a way to anchor a set of tracks so they cannot be moved?
Don,
No - it should be that the "normal" select wont select the frozen item - but until we get the fix out the others will, I'm afraid. Several of these bugs are of long-standing, I think. Adam
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Re: Is there a way to identify where a sectional track piece is used in a layout?
We don't have this today.
However, just for small radius curves, by temporarily setting the value for Layout minimum radius to be a larger value than the curves you have in mind, you will show all the smaller ones using the exception color. Adam
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Is there a way to identify where a sectional track piece is used in a layout?
Andy - Arlington TX
I design my layouts in XtrackCad using N scale Unitrack sectional track, which offers a very wide variety of track pieces. I often want to review a layout to figure out where short radius curves are used, to potentially replace them with larger radius curves, or to ensure they are eased by larger curves, etc.
Sometimes I look at the BOM, and ask; "Where is THAT used?" Is there a way to find/group/highlight sectional track pieces in a layout by their description, part number, etc.? Perhaps an interactive BOM exploration tool, that would allow the user to select a BOM line item, and highlight every occurrence of that item in the layout, would be a worthy enhancement?
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Re: Is there a way to anchor a set of tracks so they cannot be moved?
Don Hewitt
Thanks Adam,
It looks like you confirmed this behavior - is there anything you would like me to test with my file? And I did use Left-Click with Shift in my selection. Don
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Re: Is there a way to anchor a set of tracks so they cannot be moved?
Following bugs found -
1) Select All - Frozen tracks were selected 2) Select with Left-Drag - Frozen tracks were selected 3) Select Connected - Frozen tracks were selected 4) When changing a layer to frozen, selected tracks on that layer remained selected Basically all special selects did not respect Frozen. Fixed pushed to V5.2.2 level. Adam
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Re: Is there a way to anchor a set of tracks so they cannot be moved?
Don, It seems to be that you have found a bug that allows these to be selected. Is that Select Connected (left-click with shift) or Select All, perhaps? it may the code is not checking the layer membership properly.
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Is there a way to anchor a set of tracks so they cannot be moved?
Don Hewitt
I'm a new XtrackCAD user and I'm trying to find a way to anchor or lock tracks in place so they cannot accidentally be moved.
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Re: Roundhouse & turntable
Alan Cox
On Fri, 08 Jan 2021 21:39:52 -0800
"Adam Richards" <adamjmrichards@gmail.com> wrote: All sorts of things could be done in extremis - tenders could be detached emptied and turned separately, there could be other motive power employed (shunting engines, stationary engines with capstans, traction engines, tractors, ponies, horses and of course “Armstrong”).In the UK at least we had very few roundhouse type arrangements. The turntable was often only used for turning locomotives because on an intensively used rail network having the turntable break and all your locomotives stranded was a bit of an embarrassing mess. You can drop the ash and the fire on a UK locomotive at least (dunno about US) and then use the existing raised steam to put it to bed. Folks might find this fun (1951 film on the subject starts at 35:50 or so) https://youtu.be/vljRhfLHPc0?t=2168 as you can see it takes a lot of time to cool down. Alan
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Re: Roundhouse & turntable
All sorts of things could be done in extremis - tenders could be detached emptied and turned separately, there could be other motive power employed (shunting engines, stationary engines with capstans, traction engines, tractors, ponies, horses and of course “Armstrong”). Armstrong, for my U.K. friends, is a US term for shank’s pony or the RN 2-6-heave - as in the story of Henry the Green Engine in Thomas the Tank Engine book - the one in which Sir Topham Hat refused to help.
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Re: Roundhouse & turntable
CustomDeSigner ; D. Brelsford
If memory serves me correctly, they used small steamer like a switcher to move it around. It really all depended on what they were trying to get done,even a old 44 tonne switcher was used. Check a search engine for a much better answer. Good luck.
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Roundhouse & turntable
Robert Scott
How would the railroads pull a cold steamer from the roundhouse onto the turntable and get it out of the way, or insert a cold engine for repairs? Would the turn table be large enough to accommodate a little shunt engine too? A winch?
They could use pry bars on the wheels. seen that done with freight cars. Bob
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