SCARM - Layout design software with 3D ? All users Topic

[jamespetts]

I have been spending some time of late using this software, having bought the registered version. I find it most useful for planning layouts, but I have a little constructive criticism of the user interface in some respects which I hope that it will be helpful if I share.

 

Firstly, it can be very difficult to find the exact point at which track will align. When track needs to align other than by being dead straight (which is easy), it is often necessary to make the most minute movements of the mouse to move the (flexible) track to the exact position where the red arrow turns green and allows a connexion to be made. Possible solutions include the ability to hold down a key to reduce the amplitude of movements or snapping to a known alignment more readily.

 

Secondly, it would be useful to have more keyboard shortcuts - for the measuring tape, for example, and for layers. In Blender, layers can easily be selected and de-selected using the main number keys - a similar system would be very helpful here. Likewise, rotation of elements with keyboard input alone would be helpful: the Blender way of doing it is simply by pressing "r" and then typing in the rotation angle in numbers.

 

Thirdly, it can be very awkward interacting with the "no selected start point" dialogue: if one accidentally presses the space bar when one has no start point selected, one gets a dialogue box with this error message which one then has to clear in order to do anything else, which can be extremely awkward and take a great deal of unnecessary effort.

 

Fourthly, the undo tool does not take into account selections. Suppose that one selects a large number of track pieces and then moves them, but one moves them to the wrong place. CTRL+Z will undo the movement, but it will also undo the selection at the same time, so, if one wants to move them again, one would have to select them all manually again. That can be very laborious. Again, Blender has an excellent way of dealing with this: all selection/unselection actions are simply treated as separate undoable steps. This approach would be extremely helpful in SCARM (the large number of undo steps available in SCARM is already a good feature).

 

Fifthly, there is no easy way of showing what type of track is already selected, so, when I press the space bar, I do not know whether I will be getting some straight track or a turnout/set of points.It would be helpful if the last selected piece of track would be highlighted in the menu on the left somehow.

 

Sixthly, the colours for track is a useful feature, but it can be difficult to remember which colour that one has recently used as the colours do not have easy to remember names, there is no way of saving the colours, and there is no "recently used colours" list.

 

Seventhly, it would be helpful to have an option to constrain the angle of track and other objects to 45 degree increments.

 

Finally, although I think that this has been raised before; it would be very helpful to have geometary for Marcway points, as the geometary for these is, I understand, quite different from that of Peco points.

 

In any event, I do not mean to be overly negative - there is much to like about this software and I do not regret having paid for the registered version, but it would benefit greatly from some UI improvements. I hope that this feedback is helpful.

[Junctionmad]

aside from transition curves, The major feature I find lacking , is the difficulty in specifying a " sweep " angle , i.e. I want to create a set of connected flexitrack , that sweeps exactly through 180 degrees, This is very difficult to do in SCARM. ( its easy using settrack but not flexi) 

[Mixy]

Thank you guys, for your comments and feedback

 

@Junctionmad: You can use the "Flex-track modelling" function in the Toolbox and make perfect flex sections with any radius and angle. Below is example of 3 transition curves created with flex tracks in that way:

 

 

 

 

I will consider if and how the printing templates can be saved, because any change in the boundaries of the track plan may result in a different size and location of the pages grid and that will conflict with the already saved templates.

 

While there is no way the metric and imperial units to be displayed in the same time, you can toggle between them very fast by use of “U” key.

 

And precise defining of the figures will come in some of the next versions of SCARM.

 

* * * * *

 

@jamespetts: Here are my comments on your topics:

 

1) All movements of tracks and objects on the drawing plot are in 1mm increments. If you want to control the movements precisely, you need to zoom-in the plan at the point where you want to obtain the join. If you want to join a flex-track to other track, you can always use the auto join feature:

 

 

2) Many keys are already assigned for a hot-key commands. I will consider adding of more, as you suggest, however, I am not sure how to deal when there are more than 10 layers (SCARM allows unlimited number of layers in the registered version).

 

3) If you get "No selected start point" message when you accidentally hit Spacebar, just hit it again to hide the dialog box. You can do the same with Esc or Enter, because using of the mouse to hit [X] or [OK] is much slower.

 

4) Adding selection steps to the Undo buffer will make it less usable. Your example is not good - if you move a selection to a wrong place, you can just move it to the correct place with the next move, and there is no need for using undo here (except if moving results in join and relocation with disordered parallel tracks). And if Blender uses this approach, many other CAD programs does not do that (i.e. CorelDraw). There are many ways to get the required selection in SCARM with single (or several steps) and most of these are explained in the following articles: Selection of Tracks And Objects and Fast Selection of Sequential Tracks in SCARM. However, I will consider your idea once more and may add an option for including of the selection steps in the undo buffer, so you and other users that finds this useful to be able to enable this behavior in the Settings.

 

5) There are 2 cases here: A) The currently selected single track is always displayed in the status bar. B) For the last used track that can be repeated with pressing of Spacebar, I may add a description in the menu item. Marking this track in the selection panel will not work, as it may be currently located outside of the visible area or the library may be already changed.

 

6) You can always select already colored track and open the tracks selection panel – if you used standard color from the panel, it will be marked there and you will see it immediately. This is the way to see what color to use again. And you can save up to 16 custom colors in the Color selection dialog, when Colors panel is open and you press “More colors…” button on the bottom.

 

7) You can always rotate any track or object at 45deg by use of “Edit” > “Rotate” menu command and then directly click over the label “45” or “-45” for clockwise or counter-clockwise rotation. Or you can use the “Star point” function in the Toolbox for placing a new start point at 45deg or any other angle. If you want to draw strictly horizontal, vertical or diagonal (at 45deg) lines when you add new Polygon figure, hold down Ctrl key while drawing each next line.

 

And for the Marcway turnouts – I was trying to contact him 2-3 times by e-mail and to ask for dimensional and geometry data, but there is no reply from him till now. Actually, I found the only e-mail address on the website in the "Terms and conditions section" - perhaps it is not used or no longer valid.

 

Mixy

[jamespetts]

Thank you very much for your replies: that is most helpful. I am aware of the auto-join feature, but it does not always seem to engage in places where I can nonetheless, with minute adjustment, join manually (including very commonly on two straight pieces of track that are some distance apart but are very slightly mis-aligned as regards each other - in reality, this would easily be correctable with a very gentle curve, but the auto-joint feature does not seem to recognise this).

 

An option to allow selection items to be included in undo steps would be extremely helpful, as would a display of the last selected track. Thank you for the information about the colours - knowing that does make things easier.

 

In relation to having > 9 layers, one possible UI mechanism for this would be for the "l" key (which I do not think is currently bound to any command) to bring up the layers dialogue, and then for numbers typed when the layers dialogue is open to input the layer (perhaps allowing that any number key pressed within, say, 750ms of another number key with the layer dialogue open is part of the same sequence of numbers, and so if a user were to press "l, 1, 0" all within 750ms, layer 1 would be toggled when the 1 key is pressed, but when the 0 key is pressed, the toggling of layer 1 would be reverted and layer 10 would be toggled). It would in any event be very useful to have a keyboard shortcut key for opening/closing the layers dialogue.

 

As to the Marcway turnouts - it is excellent that you have tried to include these. I wonder whether your e-mails might be getting lost as spam? They do give a telephone number and postal address on the website, too, I notice. Alternatively, you could order the paper templates and get the geometary from that.

Edited February 22, 2018 by jamespetts

[Junctionmad]

 

 

@Junctionmad: You can use the "Flex-track modelling" function in the Toolbox and make perfect flex sections with any radius and angle. Below is example of 3 transition curves created with flex tracks in that way:

Nope thats not the issue, the issue is how to tel SCARM to assemble from flexi and make a curve that sweeps through 180 degrees exactly made up of several pieces of flexi. You keep using examples where the curve is contained in a single piece of flexi track 

 

 

heres the issue 

 

Edited February 26, 2018 by Junctionmad

[JimHearne]

Nope thats not the issue, the issue is how to tel SCARM to assemble from flexi and make a curve that sweeps through 180 degrees exactly made up of several pieces of flexi. You keep using examples where the curve is contained in a simple piece of flexi track 

 

 

heres the issue 

 

SCARM180.png

 

I had the same problem, i got around it by finding the flexy track in the configuration files on the hard drive, copying the 1 yard length details and making the length 4 yards. 

This gives you a long length of flexy that should go right round most bends and can be cut to length or angle.  

Ideally the flexy track would give you an unlimited length but divide it up into standard lengths, or, let you add another length inline with the end.

 

Jim

[Junctionmad]

 

 

I will consider if and how the printing templates can be saved, because any change in the boundaries of the track plan may result in a different size and location of the pages grid and that will conflict with the already saved templates.

the major issue is that SCARM needs to put alignment marks on the pages and allow a non printing border. Most printers in my experience do not hold the paper straight  over many copies and the result is its difficult to lay the paper templates accurately 

Edited February 26, 2018 by Junctionmad

[Junctionmad]

I had the same problem, i got around it by finding the flexy track in the configuration files on the hard drive, copying the 1 yard length details and making the length 4 yards. 

This gives you a long length of flexy that should go right round most bends and can be cut to length or angle.  

Ideally the flexy track would give you an unlimited length but divide it up into standard lengths, or, let you add another length inline with the end.

 

Jim

didnt know you could do that , but it doesnt solve the problem , as you have to work out exactly where to make the split so that the exit track is square to the grid , a tiny misplaced " split" and the start point will not cause any straight track to line up parallel to the grid .

 

whats needed is a Toolbox feature that you enter in the finishing angle , i.e. a sweep angle , and SCRAM computes all the pieces needed to make that 

Edited February 26, 2018 by Junctionmad

[Mixy]

Nope thats not the issue, the issue is how to tel SCARM to assemble from flexi and make a curve that sweeps through 180 degrees exactly made up of several pieces of flexi. You keep using examples where the curve is contained in a single piece of flexi track

I still don't understand where is the issue...

 

I don't know what type of track do you use, but it seems that R900 @ 90deg is too long for a single flex track of that type. What you can do is to use two R900 sections at 45deg for 90deg turn or 4 x R900 sections at 45deg for full 180deg turn. And the end of the turn will be just above (below) the start.

 

Or, if you want to use full-length flexes and only to get the last small piece to finish the turn as per your example, click over the last start point (actually, it is already selected in your picture) and observe the angle in the status bar.

 

 

Then add it to 180deg (or to -180deg, depends on the turn direction) and place a flex-track with the same radius using the Toolbox and you will have again a perfect 180deg curve from flexes.

 

Mixy

Edited February 26, 2018 by Mixy

[Mixy]

I had the same problem, i got around it by finding the flexy track in the configuration files on the hard drive, copying the 1 yard length details and making the length 4 yards. 

This gives you a long length of flexy that should go right round most bends and can be cut to length or angle.  

Ideally the flexy track would give you an unlimited length but divide it up into standard lengths, or, let you add another length inline with the end.

Note that this approach will mess-up with the calculation of max number of flex tracks that are needed for the layout. This number is shown in the Parts list and relies on the correct length of the flex tracks set in the libraries.

 

Mixy

[Junctionmad]

I still don't understand where is the issue...

 

I don't know what type of track do you use, but it seems that R900 @ 90deg is too long for a single flex track of that type. What you can do is to use two R900 sections at 45deg for 90deg turn or 4 x R900 sections at 45deg for full 180deg turn. And the end of the turn will be just above (below) the start.

 

Or, if you want to use full-length flexes and only to get the last small piece to finish the turn as per your example, click over the last start point (actually, it is already selected in your picture) and observe the angle in the status bar.

 

 

Then add it to 180deg (or to -180deg, depends on the turn direction) and place a flex-track with the same radius using the Toolbox and you will have again a perfect 180deg curve from flexes.

 

Mixy

 

Thanks Mixy, that worked, I hadn't appreciated the angle was displayed in the status bar 

[Norm81]

I had the same problem, i got around it by finding the flexy track in the configuration files on the hard drive, copying the 1 yard length details and making the length 4 yards. 

This gives you a long length of flexy that should go right round most bends and can be cut to length or angle.  

Ideally the flexy track would give you an unlimited length but divide it up into standard lengths, or, let you add another length inline with the end.

 

Jim

Hi, any more details on how to do this or which file to search for/edit?

 

Thanks,

Norm,

[Norm81]

Can I ask why is there now a "forced upgrade" policy and the software shuts down? It used to be you could upgrade at your leisure or not at all, as you could still use the software.

[Junctionmad]

one thing that would be very useful , would be a facility to print the track plan with the full size template IDs on them 

Edited June 16, 2018 by Junctionmad

[Junctionmad]

Hi Junctionmad

 

I agree this would save time, I ended up doing a print screen from the print preview screen to show where each page goes and print it. I then just labeled the top row A,B etc. and the left column 1,2,3 etc. , as they came off the printer they can be quickly labelled a1,a2,a3 etc. is that any help?

Print Preview.jpg

Templot does a very nice summary sheet showing all the reference numbers , SCARM is a strange program , having used it to design a big O gauge layout , it’s missing some very basic and practical features. Far too much effort has gone into “ snazzy “ 3D effects , while the basics are often over looked like

 

1. No scroll bars , hence paning a large design takes ages

 

2. Can’t save which templates have been selected to be printed , so when returning for another print run , you have to manually select every page again

 

3. No fiducials on the printed full size templates page , so accuracy dependant on printer paper handling

 

4. Missing uK comphrensive signal set .

 

5. No template reference sheet facility

 

These are only the ones of the top of my head

 

Dave

Edited July 26, 2018 by Junctionmad

[Mixy]

Thanks to all for sharing your opinions and thoughts about SCARM.

 

I will consider all these and will make the necessary changes and improvements in the upcoming versions of the program.

 

Mixy

[The Train Man]

Hi Jaggzuk, I am new to the hobby of model trains and currently looking at building a layout in my shed, that I have insulated myself  

 

How long did it take you to do that, the 3d view looks awesome?? Thinking I might give scarm a try, altough I think for my first layout I may keep it simple.

 

cheers

 

Dan 

[RedgateModels]

First go with SCARM, pretty impressed so far. Here's #2 son's revised layout plan. It's on 3 4x2ft boards and has been laid out so that the middle one can be omitted and it all still connects up

 

 

All Hornby set track and will be DCC wired but with some sidings etc self isolating so that DC can also be used.

 

[RedgateModels]

This is what it will look like with just the outer two boards

 

 

Wish Hornby (or Peco) did R1/R2 curved points as I'd add a crossover on the left or right hand section to link the centre loop .....

 

I could hand build them I suppose .....

[Night Train]

That plan doesnt work. THe R600 bottom left is only 160mm long. Not long enough the get a loco and wagon into the sidings bottom right.

 

Edited March 7, 2020 by Night Train

[Norm81]

Has anyone got a copy of a 0.9x beta release?

 

I’m sick of the forced upgrades where you’re locked out of your design till you do it, my attempts to stop the software contacting the internet haven’t been successful. It’s infuriating as my line speed isn’t great nor is my laptop the quickest.

 

I was happy with one of the much earlier beta releases as I just use it for 2d planning, I don’t need all the new features and bug fixes etc.

 

Thanks.

[RAF96]

I have nothing but praise for both the application and the help Mixy provides.

This is my feeble effort at a layout designed in SCARM.

The built in train sim allowed me to run the layout aforehand to make sure it worked in practice.

 

Edited September 5, 2021 by RAF96
Info about train sim