TRAX, the first webbased model railroad design application

[fedor]

Hi,

I' d like to introduce to you my model railroad design application TRAX. It is the first and only web based program of it's kind and it is totally free.

I started developping TRAX in 2011 and launched the first version in the beginning of 2012. Until now it was only available in Dutch - my native language - but recently I started to translate the app and the web site into English.



TRAX features:
- It works on all computers that are equiped with a modern browser, like Windows PC's, iMacs and Linux machines. I'm trying also to get it working well on Android and iOS devices.
- Easy dragging, attach and detach track sections
- Use colors for separate sections or area's. Complete with nice legend
- Make snapshots of your design and save it as png,jpg or gif.
- Surface over 100 by 100 miles possible.
- Share your design. Get comments from fellow TRAX-users or allow others to copy it.
- A viewer that allows you to embed your layout design on your own website or on model railroad fora.
- Share layouts you like with your friends using Twitter-, Facebook- and Google+buttons.
- 100% Free.
- Over 30 track programs already available, Atlas H0 and N Track programs are two of them. And if you are missing one, let me know and I will try my best to get it in.

 

Please take a look, let me know what you think: www.traxeditor.com

Please note that English is not my native language, I dearly appreciate any suggestions to make the texts on the website and in the user manual better.

[fedor]

Hi all!

TRAX is still progressing: we now have about 120 different Track Programs, a lot of bugs have been resolved and we have a TRAX Forum where you can share your layout designs, ask for help and share your general model railroad efforts.

[jonklein611]

Neat! Thanks for sharing this tool.

[jhuteman]

Excellent, though I can say from experience that you must be careful, "all plans go out the window upon first contact with the enemy" is also true in MRR getting the track on the table to match the program does not always go as smoothly as we would like. The REAL track pieces do not always want to do what their computer counterparts do!

Expansion gaps and joiners will 'throw' the calculations off by just enough to drive you insane, especially on bigger layouts like mine.

[Paul Cutler III]

jhuteman,
I'm a long-time user of another layout CAD program. I've built a 25' x 50' home layout using it, and I'm currently the layout design chairman of my club which is building a 6300 sq. ft. HO layout. I can assure you that high precision is possible when going from plan to layout.

I had a complicated place on my home layout that involved 4 mainline tracks running through a passenger station with two curves through the platforms (resulting in a horseshoe curve), along with two curved switches. I drew a 1 foot grid on my plywood that matched my CAD drawing, plotted all the points where every track centerline intersected each grid line based on the CAD, and then laid out all the lines on the plywood. Everything fit perfectly.

Same thing has happened at my club. I had designed a yard ladder that the tracklayers swore would not work. I printed out the ladder full-scale, taping all the papers together. I handed it to them...and they found that it did work after all.

[jhuteman]

Apr 24, 2016 17:07:49 GMT -8 Paul Cutler III said:

jhuteman,
I'm a long-time user of another layout CAD program. I've built a 25' x 50' home layout using it, and I'm currently the layout design chairman of my club which is building a 6300 sq. ft. HO layout. I can assure you that high precision is possible when going from plan to layout.

I had a complicated place on my home layout that involved 4 mainline tracks running through a passenger station with two curves through the platforms (resulting in a horseshoe curve), along with two curved switches. I drew a 1 foot grid on my plywood that matched my CAD drawing, plotted all the points where every track centerline intersected each grid line based on the CAD, and then laid out all the lines on the plywood. Everything fit perfectly.

Same thing has happened at my club. I had designed a yard ladder that the tracklayers swore would not work. I printed out the ladder full-scale, taping all the papers together. I handed it to them...and they found that it did work after all.

Now THAT, I truly admire. It shows far more patience than I have. It's my Layouts fault, the 'thing' I built cannot be seen in it's entirety from one spot and when I've tried a program I run 'off the map' very quickly and get all kinds of confused. Ex-military and long time recovering alcoholic and drug addict, not much in the way of brains left. I'm just going to kinda free hand it as I go. Have almost filled this 30' x 30' basement with a 'table' that touches all four walls as a three foot shelf with a 4'x 24' across the whole room connecting the shelf to itself. From above it kinda reminds me of the machines that chased the hero in the first TRON movie, those big arches with the windows that looks like big rectangular eyes, the 'eyes' are access holes to get at derailments and to do scenery. I had no plan other than to run HO trains, being a TOTAL NOOB at the age of 52 has had me playing catch up with NO idea of what I am doing. 

My advice to all newbs is to take it s l o w . and use a program!