Hi Sander,

You're right. Thanks for pointing this out. We can easily add a few more elements to this library.
We'll do so in the next release.

David.

Hi David. Thanks for getting the schematic out so quickly.

Two extra elements that immediately come to mind are diagonals (top-left to down-right and top-right to down-left). See may first sketches. Also, it would be good to be able to continue the 'curve' on the left to the vertical.

I note that, although tiles can be rotated, the only sensible rotations woudl be better described as horizontal and vertical flips.

Turntable os a bit crude but I cannot see any way to improve it.

Given some time, I might be able to look at other implementations (Arnold, Fleischmann) and see what they have to offer.

Finally, I wanted to select a block of tiles and separate it from the rest of the tiles. But the only way I can see to do this is to disconnect each individual tile along a row, move the rest of the block down and then connect the disconnected tiles back to it. Cumbersome to say the least.

Once again, thank you for this scheme.

With best wishes,
Chris.

Hi David.

I was mistaken. It was Trix that had modules for creating a control panel. Arnold and Fleischmann just produced switches that one mounted into/onto a panel. Also Trix sis what I was going to suggest, namely to make teh symbols square rather than rectangular. This allows for them to be rotated through 90 degrees, allowing the user to create a mimic panel rather than using my method where I have, in effect, two separate panels (station and hidden sidings).

While I agree with much of what santerdam has written, I would suggest keeping the switch/push-button symbol as it gives an exact centre for drilling. Also, I am wondering what the best way to indicate track sections is. I woudl assume that the majority of users would stick to one colour throughout so there would need to be a way of indicating where the track isolation breaks are. (There would be no need to indicate whether feeder of isolation track or even isolated fishplate is involved. For maximum flexibility breaks would need to be able to be shown in the centre or at the end of modules. (Incidentally, in the mock-up I sent earlier I have made little attempt as showing where track breaks or switches etc. are to be positioned.

Finally, I would suggest more, rather than less signals as I found having constantly to reorientate turnout symbols slowed me down considerably. Just a thought.

Chris.

Please find attached a trackplan with the symbol library. The track itself is not supposed to be an exiting track. It is for test purpose only. I noticed some issues, which I will try to explain.

On the north-side I set up a section. The section is named "section name", dark brown color.
- (1) The position of the name of the section is not really close to the section.
- (2) Related to the scale of the symbols, the textfont is rather large, you can't make it smaller.
- (3) The track did not change color
- (4) The isolations are not visible (which is not needed for me)

For the test, I took some signs from the Viessmann library
- (5) Related to the size of the symbols, it is hard to match.
- (6) The left sign is normal size. This can be used in 1:1 print for mounting 3 mm LEDs on the panel
- (7) The middle sign is made smaller. This looks better but it is too small for mounting LEDs.
- ( After placing the signs, it is very hard to grab them for moving

On the bottom you see some text (numbers) used for naming turnouts amd such
- (9) Although the text is as small as possible, the numbers are still rather large

Sander

Chris, I don't think the TRIX symbols can do all you want. I can read German and looked at the functions. The main difference is that they are using square blocks. No specific elements for uncouplers and such, however they show the colorcaps for the pushbuttons in red-green-blue. That is what you also can do with the AnyRail symbols. Just buy and mount different color pushbuttons. In the symbol library you don't need to make that difference, the symbol is just a straight line without anything on it.
TRIX has also look-alike elements, because they sell them with and without electronics. But do you need all such differences in AnyRail ?

The issue with a printed pushbutton on a turnouts is even more complex. Some people will use a single pushbutton to toggle the trunout. Others are using 2 buttons for a single turnout, 1 button for each direction. And even more buttons for 3-way and 4-way turnouts. If you don't print the buttons in AnyRail, you don't have any problem. You can drill everywhere you want.

You wrote you have 50 sections and you describe what they do. It is clear you have a different definition of a section. My definition corresponds the computer software, that is digital controlling the track.

Sander

Hi Sander. Thanks for the comments.

I wasn't really implying that AnyRail should mimic al the switches and push-buttons in the Trix set, just the patterns (which form a subset of the whole shebang). My main thrust was that they are square so can be rotated 90 degrees and that there were a couple of symbols not currently covered by the AnyRail set. I should have edited the images into one but didn't have time.

As for track sections, I have deliberately shunned the computer control path. I wannt to have full manual control of my layout, errors and all. There is some logic on (or,rahter, under) the board to make things a bit easier but my control panel has over 50 switches/buttons supplying power to the layout. So a section can consist of as little as a short (11cm/4.5 inches) section to prevent an over-run at a signal. If you are talking about functional sections then there would be far fewer.

Chris.

Thanks David for your comments.

The rectangular symbolic library is fine for me. Of course, feel free to add a second library for square if others think it is usefull. I will use the rectangular style.

Regarding additional symbols, I posted yesterday at 04:48:53 PM a set of symbols. As far as I can see now, that example has a good range of symbols. Rotating and flipping is no problem for me, I am happy with a reduced set of variations.

If you want to make click-on red/yellow/green lights, that's OK for me, but I don't see the purpose. My target is making a control panel. As soon as you drill the panel and mount a led, the printed red/yellow/green lights are invisible.

Disabling the 'Create Section' functionality is fine for me. In my test, I noticed already that it is not usefull and I will not need the functionality.

You think the symbols seem quite small, even in 1:1 printing. My opinion is opposite, they are large. I made some testprints and I had to reduce 50% or more to get the size of the panel I want to have. The actual 50 mm symbols are too large.

One thing is not discussed in your post. The yellow indicators on turnouts. You have them now like the Uhlenbrock design software shows them. But the real control panel lego-blocks don't have those yellow indicators. In reallity those are transparant parts (which they have in yellow, red, green and blue). They are visible when the light is on and invisible when the light is off. On turnouts it is never possible to have all yellow, like you have now on the symbols. See this photo from Uhlenbrock :



I do hope you remove the yellow spots. When making a controlpanel, it will be drilling and mounting lights. The lights can have other colors, they are round and never a yellow line.

Other issue is the size of text. Text can be made smaller, but the smallest font is still so large that a 50 mm symbol can hold only 7-8 characters. For the usual track plans, the fontsize was never a problem, since 1:1 scale was not often used. The target for control panels is to use 1:1 and than the text is too large.

Sander

Chris, is your layout 180 mm long ?

For me this is not a competion for the most complex layout. If you think yours is a lot more complex, feel free to think so. I never published my layout on this forum.

Sander