# Anyrail Question



## Stejones82 (Dec 22, 2020)

Am I missing something? 

Is there anyway to have Anyrail "put in" or generate dimensions for construction and layout? , Yes I know that I can attach a 'ruler' and get a dimension, but that is reliant upon my ability to place the cursor accurately and get it perfectly horizontal or vertical. 

Seems that a CAD program should be able to auto-dimension. Now that I am in the construction phase, there are certain key dimensions upon which the entire layout anchors. It would be nice for those to be precisely generated via the CAD. Or maybe I am incorrect in calling Anyrail a CAD program? 

Thanks all! --------------Steve J


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

CAD means "Computer Aided Design". It does not confer any additional implications as to the ability to perform certain functions.

I'm not following what your issue is. You are not designing the next moon lander or semiconductor, where everything has to line up precisely to the nanometer. The purpose of Anyrail is to visualize your layout. The small fudge factor (3/64ths, unless you changed it) used by the software already introduces some errors. The imprecisions in the dimensions of pieces (both as manufactured and in the software) add still more. And any slight imprecisions made by you in the laying of track will cause yet more. All in all, model railroading is a fairly imprecise and forgiving hobby.

Any measurements you need, taken from the ruler, will be close enough, especially if you zoom in the scale sufficiently. You can also set the rule to precise lengths, and easily make it either vertical or horizontal by "snapping" to the grid. You can hover the cursor over a length of track and get get precise measurements (or get them from the materials list. You can also print the plan in 1:1 scale if yiu really feel you need a template (you don't, but if it makes you feel better, do so. 

At the end of the day, you're just creating artificial obstacles for yourself. It's OK if you make a mistake. Very little in this hobby is unrecoverable. It's natural to be nervous and unsure, but trust me, it will come out fine. Just go build it. If you build it, it will run.


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## Stejones82 (Dec 22, 2020)

Yet again, your wise, experienced voice is a treasure. Attribute my foolishness to the earliness of the hour and the befuddlement from my not feeling well. I am indeed building away, and correcting my all-too-frequent errors as needed. Yesterday I had to pull up my 2d ladder track as I had failed to check the center-to-center measurement, and sure enough, it 'wandered' away from its partner to the north such that the 3d ladder would have been much too close. But all redone, with due diligence toward spacing. A good flexible putty knife makes a nice 'eraser,' I am finding, just as I used to erase away computation errors back in the day.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

I did my whole layout in AnyRail. As mentioned, it doesn't come out exactly, but certainly close enough to get the job done. Since I used a lot of flex track, it introduces some little dimensional errors that would be very difficult to eliminate.









I'm currently in the finishing stages of building an expansion, the yard below, also mapped out in AnyRail. I find it allows me to see if something will work, but when I get to actually laying track, sometimes the result is slightly different.


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## JeffHurl (Apr 22, 2021)

In anyrail, you can define the length of a straight piece of flex track very precisely, but the placement is manual.. either grab and move with the mouse, or, you can select a piece then move it with the arrow keys. You can also get precise with curving a piece of flex track by telling it the radius and degree of curve.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

JeffHurl said:


> In anyrail, you can define the length of a straight piece of flex track very precisely, but the placement is manual.. either grab and move with the mouse, or, you can select a piece then move it with the arrow keys.


You can, however, place a second piece of track parallel with the first one at a specified distance.


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## JeffHurl (Apr 22, 2021)

gunrunnerjohn said:


> You can, however, place a second piece of track parallel with the first one at a specified distance.


Correct, and if you do a parallel piece next to a curve, it adjusts the radius according to the distance away from the piece being mimicked.

One of the tricks I have learned is how to align pieces of track from a distance. Say, for example, you want to put a curved piece in line with a section directly above, you can temporarily join the pieces, then "disconnect" the piece that is now at the correct attitude, and move it vertically with the down arrow button. This keeps it aligned with the piece you separated it from (dangling participle on purpose, lol).


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## Stejones82 (Dec 22, 2020)

As a follow up PSA, i discovered the problem and, as previously suggested, it was operator error. I goofed on a measurement by 6 inches. Won't bore you with details, but I am now a huge fan of Anyrail as it is purt darn ac'ret from my perspective. 

Sorry for the bad post. I don't suppose moderator would please consider deleting the thread? Thanks

Steve


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

No reason to delete the post Steve, the ongoing discussion gives a few pointers to using the application, that's a major benefit of having discussion threads.


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