Just a few Suggestions

[Geep]

Having reviewed a number of programs on the market I recently purchased your software and was very impressed with the overall look and functionality of the program. I particularly liked the fact that I could move the menus on the screen and was able to copy track sections from file to another.  But, what I especially liked was that I found the screen resolution and the printed output to be excellent and somewhat better to other programs that I looked into. The only difficulty I had was the use of specifying track heights which took some time to figure out, but in the end found it to be an excellent method of layering track sections.

However, there are few changes that I would like to suggest. Please note that I am not an expert and if I have misinterpreted something I would like to apologize upfront.

1. The biggest weakness of the program is that it is very difficult to use the line/surface feature. Deleting objects can be absolutely frustrating. The ability to copy, move, delete and group both objects and text would greatly enhance the program.
2. Since I am relatively new to the hobby I have been reviewing a number of drawings to determine how they work. I found it very difficult to determine and set the "height levels" of certain track sections without scanning the entire drawing. I would recommend that in the View menu under Listed Sections that the heights of the different sections be listed.
3. A toolbar for the visible range would be helpful as well as a toolbar that could and switch the on /off status for Heights on slopes, height on plains, Part Number , Section Name, Section Usage and Lines and surface.
4. Setting the position and height of text would be helpful. It would also be nice to switch text information on/off similar to lines and surfaces.

These are a few suggestions and hope it helps. All in all an excellent program.

[David]

Hi Geep,

Thanks a lot for all your great suggestions. We'll go over them one by one and come back with a more detailed reaction later.

David.

[David]

Hi Geep,

Thanks for all the praise!

Here a few more detailed answers:

1. Yes, we realize that this is not up to par. However, while it was first meant to just draw the baseboard, people immediately started to draw all kinds of things with it such as houses and trees! Apparently there is a great need to be able to draw all sorts of features, and your suggestions are in line with our thoughts about this.
2. We're still discussing what would be the easiest approach here, from showing shadows for elevated track, to user defined layers. What many users do is print the plan out for a number of 'visible ranges' (min height to max height), to get a better understanding.
3. We are currently investigating various approaches for faster access to options. We've great ideas here, but they might take a while to get implemented.
4. With height of text, do you mean how 'big' the font is, or on which physical height it should be positioned. You are right that it might be useful not to show the text. We've added that to our feature base to be scheduled soon.

David.

[Geep]

Hello David, thank you for your quick response and kind remarks.

Let me see if I can explain myself little better in regards to item 4. 

If a layout is created where sections of the track have heights that are located on different levels
(e.g. -10, 0 and 20), it would nice to be able to locate the text information at these levels as well. This way the text information can be viewed /printed or removed temporarily depending on the visible range that is selected. Hope this makes sense.


Thanks
Gunther 

[David]

Yes, it does make sense. It's much like the height setting for the surfaces.
Thanks for your elaboration.

David.