instructions or user guide

[martin_wynne]

A lot of the problem is the changing user base and demographics. 20 years ago when I wrote the original Help notes for Templot I knew exactly who I was talking to. Most of the users were EM or P4 modellers, with a smattering of 2mm, S gauge, S7, and the rest. All of them were experienced at handbuilt track -- you could hardly then model in EM or P4 and not be, and why else would they have got themselves a copy of Templot? If I referred to a B-7 turnout, everyone knew what I meant. The original Templot users would have recognised everything in this photo:

 

 

 

Things nowadays are rather different. I suspect that many would not recognise the slide rule, let alone the old templates. A majority of Templot beginners are now 00 modellers, and many of them have never built their own track. They want to learn to do that to do justice to the modern improvements in 00 RTR models, and obtain Templot as the perceived first step in that direction. But if I refer to a B-7 turnout now, a good proportion of the readers are going to need an explanation of what that means, preferably with diagrams, a comparison with Peco turnouts, and advice on when to use a B-6 or B-8 instead. The task of writing the Help for Templot has doubled in size.

 

What I always hoped is that someone else, a lot younger than me, would come up with their own "son of Templot" program going forward into present-day NR60 trackwork. So leaving Templot, and me, to rust quietly away in a bullhead backwater. But with Peco recently introducing bullhead track, there is now a resurgence of interest in bullhead at the eleventh hour in prototype terms, and modellers are coming new to it often with very limited knowledge of the prototype.

 

When I first wrote the Templot web site I was confident that everyone reading the web site knew the difference between an A-7 and a B-8, what a Brook-Smith rivet looked like, and which way up was top on bullhead rail. But now, 20 years later? And without that knowledge it is very difficult to explain the inner workings and purpose of Templot. I don't know where to start, and I'm not sure I'm the right person to do it. What I do know is that I don't really have the time any more. Everything on the computer now takes me a lot longer than it used to -- I do as much as I can. But I have written the "99" page, which may help beginners to understand what they are looking at:

 

http://templot.com/companion/origins_intent.php

 

The good news is that the Templot code is now open-source. Hopefully before too long someone else will come along to pick it up and run with it:

 

https://sourceforge.net/projects/opentemplot/

 

cheers,

 

Martin.

[Junctionmad]

There are several mind melds that users need to accomplish to use templot. 

 

The first is to discard any any notion that this is a derivative of any form of “ settrack “ planning application. A comparison would be Autocad versus openOffice Draw. 

 

The second is the interface “ looks” like Windows, but in fact , it’s completely idiosyncratic in nature. Hence you need to largely discard your “ expectations “ even the common dialogs arnt present 

 

I always say with templot , lay the track then modify to add turnouts etc. Do not view turnouts as a seperate piece 

 

once you achieve mind meld status you’ll be fine 

 

templot is by by no means unique here , try getting to grips with Fusion360 for anything other then trivial stuff and you’ll face similar learning curves.  

Edited February 1, 2020 by Junctionmad

[Reorte]

The videos and guides I found were enough to get me going on how Templot works but when faced with a lot of choices I got confused from not having a clue which one I should be using. It should be strongly emphasised that this isn't a failing with Templot, it was lack of sufficient knowledge about the real thing, and it would be well beyond reasonable to expect Templot to come accompanied with a whole load of material on prototypical trackwork. Learn about that first and I imagine getting in to Templot would be a lot easier.

[Godders]

My comment, for what it is worth is, why didn't the OP go on the Templot Forum and not this one.
 

There is a lot of information on there and there are a lot of people who would help if asked.

 

Would you go on the Ford site to get a Mercedes handbook.

 

I think we all acknowledge that Templot is a hard application to learn and requires a lot of hard work to get everything out of it.

 

However, that applies to every aspect of railway modelling. 

 

If you wish to learn about DCC or signalling or operations, you have to work at them or if you want an easy life, be content with what you have got,

 

Godders

[sharris]

10 minutes ago, Godders said:

My comment, for what it is worth is, why didn't the OP go on the Templot Forum and not this one.

Could it be because this part of the forum is called "Handbuilt track and Templot"?