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AnyRail 6 Tutorial Videos

Started by Radiotech, November 15, 2020, 08:29:23 PM

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Radiotech

Hi all,

I have been playing around with AnyRail for a while now and decided to make some videos for YouTube. There are currently 15 that cover items that I found confusing and could not find an answer for so I played with AnyRail until I came up with a way that worked for me. I state clearly that I am not an expert and some of you might know better ways to do what I did. The videos can be a bit long but I worked from the assumption that a lot of users have never used a CAD program before so I go into a bit of detail and repeat quite a bit. I know from trying to teach CAD to co-workers that it can be confusing for first time users. You'll understand what I mean by not being an expert when you see the videos on adding curves between two sections of track.

Anyway, they are available at Steam Powered Radio on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMJcpHZtGr6xx4Gx2LAJFtg

Hope some of you find them useful. I am still working on some ideas for more and a video on my final design.

Dave



David

Hi Dave, thanks a lot!

I've just watched the first video, and it's very clear and easy to follow.
My compliments.

I will go through the whole series shortly.

Thanks again!
David Hoogvorst. Founder and Owner of DRail Software. Creator of AnyRail.

Radiotech

Hi David,

First let me thank you for AnyRail. I really enjoy using the program. Also, thank you for nice words and the really helpful comments on the videos. I enjoyed doing them not only to help others but the experience increased my understanding of the program. Most of the videos are third generation because as I would edit them I would discover a mistake or I would have to add something that I had just discovered. I will try to work all of your comments into them as I re-edit them. I still want to make a few more and after I get all of them done, I will probably look at the order in which I presented items and make some changes so I don't jump around so much in presenting them. I'm retired now, I have the time.

I would like to make one suggestion here that should probably be in another part of the forum. A 'FILLET' command would be very useful for both track and lines.

Thanks again for the nice comments.

Dave

David

Hi Dave, bi 'FILLET' do you mean 'round edges' for surfaces and lines?

If you click a control point, you can select 'Round' or 'Curved' corner.
'Round' will create a circular arc, and 'Curved' will create a, well, curved line between both neighbouring endpoints.

To control the size of the circular arc: the radius is the shortest of the two distances with the neighbouring points. Insert an extra point to reduce the radius.
David Hoogvorst. Founder and Owner of DRail Software. Creator of AnyRail.

Radiotech

Hi David,

I go over how to put curves into lines in video 15. In that video at about 3 minutes in, I show how 'fillet' works in FastCAD, which is the CAD program I've used for about 30 years for all of my electronic designs. In CAD, the Fillet command allows you to put a tangent arc in between two other objects. It also allows you to specify the radius of that arc in advance and the program calculates where the tangent point will be. The reason I mention it is because it would make placing a curved piece of track between two other pieces of track much easier as it would find the tangent automatically. Same would be true for lines. In my video I show how I created a table to determine the tangent point for different radius curves that I was looking at to use on my benchwork. It roughly equates to 0.5875" out from the corners of two intersecting lines for each inch of radius, E.G. 10" radius curve equals 5.875" from both intersections. Hmmm, I wonder if that would work with track. Have to try it.

Dave

SteveH

David

Thanks for developing Anyrail and the new versions over the years.  While I am a paid license holder I am only a casual user.

Dave
Thanks for the videos on YouTube.  I only discovered them this week, viewed lessons 1 & 2 plus began viewing # 42.   BTW Are you also a HAM?  de AA4SH

Steve

Radiotech

Steve,

Glad you like the videos. I will try to come up with some more on different subjects. I have three in the works and two of them should be posted soon. Video 14 and 14A.

No, I am not a ham. I always had an extremely hard time with code. For some reason my brain will not decipher the dots and dashes. I also always had problems with two way audio. My colleagues and I would listen to it and they would nod knowingly and I would have to ask for a translation.

I did spend 45 years in commercial radio. 31 years with the CBS radio network here in San Francisco. Retired in June of 2019. I was the Technical Supervisor for the San Francisco cluster. I'm guessing you saw the KCBS Transmitter Tour Video I have up as well. If you want to see more about KCBS and some of the other stations, check out my website www.steampoweredradio.com It is dedicated to preserving old radio broadcast manuals and catalogs plus pictures of various radio stations. I hope to start a series of videos soon on restoring old broadcast audio equipment and a friend of mine and I have discussed doing one on restoring an old AM transmitter. Should be fun!

Dave

Bob Fuller

Enjoying your tutorial series, Dave. I particularly like the use of the numbering system that you demonstrated in Layers. I've adapted this to give a kind of nesting effect, shown attached.Layers Indenting.PNG

BadBanana

Hi Bob, Welcome to the AnyRail forum - I recognised your name immediately (I am Les-M on the iTrain forum). I have been using AnyRail a couple of years and know it pretty well, and I already number my layers to help organise scenery, contours, different lines in the layout, etc, but your idea of creating a hierarchy is inspired and helpful. 

Thanks for sharing.

Les.