The Right Track ® Software 3.0 Copyright © 1994, 1995 Gunnar Blumert License agreement for the use of The Right Track Software Use of the Right Track Software Program includes an agreement to comply with every aspect of this license agreement. In case you cannot comply with this license agreement, you are requested to delete the Right Track Software from your hard drive and return the disk to the sole Distributor: Atlas Model Railroad Company, Inc., 378 Florence Ave., Hillside, NJ 07205 USA. Hereafter, the term Licensor will be used to refer to Gunnar Blumert, the official licensor of the Right Track Software; Distributor will be used to refer to Atlas Model Railroad Co., Inc., the sole distributor of the Right Track Software Program; the term Program will be used to refer to the Right Track Software Program enclosed. 1. OWNERSHIP: The Right Track Software Program is a licensed work, and is the sole and exclusive property of Gunnar Blumert of Germany. 2. LICENSE: The Right Track Software Program may be used on only one computer at a time. The Program may be copied into another computer or onto another disk for backup purposes in support of your authorized use of the Program. The Program is protected by copyright law. The copyrights remain with the Licensor, Gunnar Blumert of Germany. The purchaser may freely use all layout plans he draws with the Software, and the layout plans may be provided to others without any restrictions. 3. RESTRICTIONS: You may not reverse assemble or reverse compile, electronically transfer, translate or convert the Program or any portion thereof, or sublicense, rent or lease the Program; or use the Program in a manner which would violate this license or would infringe the property rights of others, violate the law, tariffs or regulations of any country. 4. TERMS: This license if effective until terminated. You may terminate the license at any time by destroying the program together with any backup copy in any form. This license will also terminate upon conditions set forth elsewhere in the Program License Agreement or if you fail to comply with any term or condition of this Program License Agreement. You agree upon termination to destroy the program together with any backup copy in any form. 5. LIMITED WARRANTY: The Distributor warrants that the media on which the Program is recorded will be free from defects in workmanship and materials for a period of 90 days from the date of purchase of the software. The Licensor warrants to the original licensed user that the Program will, when properly used, perform substantially in accordance with the performance description set forth in the applicable user documentation. This warranty will only apply to failures to meet the warranty that are reported to the Distributor within 90 days after the date of purchase of the Program by the original licensed user. The Distributor's sole obligation for failure to meet this warranty, and your exclusive remedy under this warranty, will be to attempt to correct the failure by repairs or replacement of the Program. If the failure should, for any reason, not be corrected within a reasonable period of time after the receipt by the Distributor of the report of the failure, the Distributor may terminate this license and refund the fee paid for the Program. NEITHER THE LICENSEE NOR THE DISTRIBUTOR WARRANTS THAT THE OPERATION OF THE PROGRAM WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE. YOU ASSUME THE RESPONSIBILITY TO TAKE ADEQUATE PRECAUTIONS AGAINST DAMAGES TO YOUR OPERATIONS WHICH COULD BE CAUSED BY DEFECTS OR DEFICIENCIES IN THE PROGRAM. 6. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY: IN NO EVENT WILL THE DISTRIBUTOR OR LICENSOR OF THE PROGRAM BE LIABLE FOR SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO DAMAGE TO COMPUTER HARDWARE OR SOFTWARE, LOSS OF PROFITS OR INABILITY TO USE THE LICENSED MATERIALS, EVEN IF THE DISTRIBUTOR OR LICENSOR HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE DISTRIBUTOR'S OR LICENSOR'S LIABILITY FOR ANY DAMAGE OR LOSS TO YOU OR ANY OTHER PARTY EXCEED THE MANUFACTURER'S SUGGESTED RETAIL PRICE OF THE PROGRAM. 7. GENERAL: If one or more conditions of this license agreement should prove invalid as stated by current law, all other conditions of this Program License Agreement remain unchanged and valid. All distribution rights reserved by Atlas Model Railroad Co., Inc. No part of this software may be copied, duplicated, shared or distributed without written permission of Atlas Model Railroad Co., Inc. New Features In This Version - Ability to work on up to 256 real layers, independent from height - Ability to add wires/lines - Better handling when forming flex track - Define radius and degree of curvature for individual pieces of flex track - Helices are calculated and created according to your instructions - Transition curves can be created to join straight and curved track - Display roadbed outline - Insulation of track joints - Create parallel tracks - Automatically computed gradients according to desired altitude - Height display, individually adjustable for each track joint - Print tagged elements only - Print mirror image - Filling color individually adjustable for each track - Colored elements may now be printed - Insert text macros for date, time etc. - Elements from clipboard may be clicked directly to desired position on workspace - Zoom for layout view ranges from 1:1 to 1:100 - Benchwork may be created in inches or tenths of inches - Defaults for newly inserted elements - Moving only horizontally/vertically - Add files created with older versions Compatibility with previous releases Though the file format of plans and libraries has been changed, The Right Track ® Software reads in the plans and libraries of all previous releases. Previous releases, however, cannot process files created by this version . The method used to fill in colored areas (up to now only grey and black) has been changed in order to make it possible to print them. There is no more flood filling if the line width chosen was too thin. The conversion of plans is done automatically at the grey areas (you don’t remark it). Simply, all grey filling points are deleted and the areas necessary for the tracks are computed. Introduction The Right Track ® Software is a program that allows you to design your model railroad layout on your PC. The Right Track ® Software can - create the track layout in correct scale (including flex track) - manage an area of 100 by 100 ft (more than 10,000ft²!) - add accessories (wires, houses, electrical components) to your layout - link parts of different layouts (e.g. your favorite module to the rest of the plan) - compute and create helixes - compute lists of materials used for your layout - calculate the cost of all the materials used for your layout The Right Track ® Software requires Windows 3.1 in standard or enhanced mode. The Right Track ® Software supports a mathematical co-processor, if available. If not, the whole thing will work a bit slower and the library WIN87EM.DLL (or something similar) which belongs to Windows 3.1 must be available, i.e., in the system directory. The initial program start The Right Track ® Software works like any other Windows Program. If you have never used a Windows program before, we recommend using Microsoft’s PaintBrush for exercise. PaintBrush is the painting program belonging to Windows. The answer to basic questions like „What is the enter key“ can be found in your Windows tutorial. After the program is installed, The Right Track ® Software shows an empty work space. Above it, there is the toolbar. To design a layout, you first have to load an element library (via ELEMENT, „Load library“). At the end of your session The Right Track ® Software remembers which library had been loaded last and will start with just this library the next time again. The Right Track ® Software creates an initialization file RTS.INI, in which several parameters are saved. Per default The Right Track ® Software will store this file in that directory which also contains RTS.EXE. For some reasons this might not always be useful (network environment, pre-installed shareware versions on CD-ROM). In this case create in the directory containing RTS.EXE a file RTS.INI which only contains [INI] IniFile= must be replaced by path and name of the desired file, e.g., [INI] IniFile=c:\User\RTS.INI You also may determine that the initialization file will be stored in the Windows standard directory by entering [INI] IniFile=WindowsDirectory The first layout Choose the desired element from the selection bar at the upper end of the work area or from the ELEMENT menu, „Pick This window shows you the selected track. The window may stay open on the screen while you continue with your work, or may be closed if there isn’t sufficient space. Now choose TOOLS, „Place object“ and click with the left mouse button at the position where the element (track) shall be placed. When you have placed a piece of track, the active tool is automatically switched to the “Place track and connect“ tool.You may now connect more tracks to the first one by again pressing the left mouse button at the desired position. The mouse cursor changes its shape depending on whether a connection is possible or not. The accuracy with which the mouse cursor has to be positioned, can be adjusted under OPTIONS, „Other options“ To begin work on a new section of track, choose TOOLS, „Place object“. If you add a turnout or a curved track, the element may be facing the wrong direction. By choosing ELEMENT, „Flip track joints“ or the TOOLS, „Flip track joint tool you can connect any track edge of the new piece of track with the old ones. Use of Keyboard Although not recommended, The Right Track ® Software can be operated by keyboard only. The cursor keys move the mouse cursor-, the RETURN key functions the same as the left mouse button. If you depress the CTRL key and/or keep the cursor keys pressed for some time, the mouse cursor will move faster. Tag and manipulate elements In order to rotate, move or delete elements, you first have to tag them with the ARROW tool. If you want to tag more than one object, keep the SHIFT key depressed while clicking on the objects. If you tag a piece of track, all other tracks connected to it will be tagged automatically. To manipulate one single piece of track in a row of connected pieces of track, you first have to disconnect this single piece. To do this, either use TOOLS, „Disconnect tracks“ and click on every connection or click the piece of track once using the loosen track tool. If you keep the SHIFT key depressed while you are moving elements with the mouse button pressed, the elements will be moved only in a horizontal or vertical direction. There are two ways to connect tracks. One is using tools-join tracks. You can move both parts of track close together and click on the connection. Please not that the allowed tolerances (distance, angle) are set via OPTIONS, „Other options“. In case you note that the track supplier is a „bungler“ and the pieces of track won’t fit smoothly, you may have to raise the tolerances slightly. The Right Track ® Software computes connections very accurately, so tolerances that you would not notice while building your layout show very clearly when you design the layout with this program. At the point, where the circle shall be closed, all differences would then be added together while „in practice“ they would be distributed through all the all connections. The second way to connect track pieces works only on tracks that are not connected. Thus, it does not work if you want to close a circle. Click on the first connecting point shown as a small black arrow afterwards. Now click on the second piece of rail, and both of them will be connected (the track you clicked first moves to the second one). If you click on a section of flex track with the SHIFT key pressed, the shape of the flex track will be altered, not the position. In version 3.0 a new function has been added to the PLACE AND CONNECT tool: you may close circles (and of course any other gap between two straight tracks) with the most suitable pieces of track. If the two connecting points you have clicked on are already connected indirectly, i.e. via other pieces of track, then the program searches automatically for the best fitting pieces of rail. In any other cases you must keep the Control key pressed while clicking on the second connecting point. Only while doing this will the search for appropriate track sections be done.This search can last some time-, therefore you may choose to control the process via OPTIONS, „Close circles“. The Clipboard You can work with the clipboard as usual. The Right Track ® Software supports OLE. To copy elements from one layout into another, you have three options: 1. Open the first layout, copy the needed part into the clipboard (by going under the EDIT menu and clicking on „Copy“), then open the second layout and choose EDIT, „Insert“. 2. Start two copies of The Right Track ® Software 3. Link two layouts via OLE. Views Depending on the gauge and the chosen scale you have to find out the best view by changing options in the menus view and options. Windows cannot always correctly display a wide radius when a large scale is given. Depending on resolution and driver you will see simply nothing or a „general protection fault error“ will be caused. In this case take the menu options-system and choose there the display of arcs by „application“. This, however, will slow down the output and the object will turn out to be rather angular, but nevertheless something will be displayed. Prices and lists of material used The Right Track ® Software shows a list of all the track and structures you have used in your layout. You may print this out by using the statistics menu. The Right Track ® Software also computes the total cost of your layout. Since prices may differ from retailer to retailer, you can change the prices in the library (statistics-change prices) and use the new prices for all parts of an existing layout with statistics-activate new prices. Additionally you can fix the price of every element in your layout (element-properties). However, this price will be overwritten by the function statistics-activate new prices. Prices and item numbers shown were correct at the time of publishing. (May 1995) Prices and item numbers from any manufacturer are subject to change at any time. To insure accurate pricing of your layout, please check the current prices with your retailer. Descriptions Every element is by standard connected to its item number and its description. This information may be hidden or moved to another position with tools-move description. Thereby the description is always connected with the element. If you move the element, the description is also moved. Finally you may enter your own free text with tools-textfield. Insert the text by tagging the text field and then choose element-properties. If you want to insert text while placing the text field, simply keep the CTRL-key depressed. Tag and move free text with the normal marker arrow. Super-Flex® track Super-Flex track can change its shape and length, and therefore it doesn’t fit into any library. For this reason you find two tools in the tools menu: INSERT FLEX-TRACK and FORM FLEX-TRACK. Since the libraries do not contain flex tracks, you may insert the item number and description in the ELEMENT- „Properties“ dialog window. In this window you also enter the length of the flex tracks you are using. The statistics function in the “Statistics“ option needs this data to compute the number of needed tracks and total cost. Waste of track, however, will not be calculated, only complete pieces. We suggest to buy a bit more than the program calculates to account for this. The details for newly inserted flex track are set in the OPTIONS - „Flex-track“ dialog box. For more complicated layouts you may have to use several sections of flex tracks. At first, place a normal piece of track at the transition from one curve to the next curve. Then connect the flex track to this normal track. Afterwards, the normal track can be deleted. The flex track still keeps its shape and may be the starting point for the next flex track. Gradients and Slopes In the dialog window ELEMENT-Properties, you can add gradients to track already on your layout. Gradients cannot be added to turnouts or crossings (since they have more than two joints). You may not assign a gradient directly to flex track, its gradient will ultimately be determined by the height of the two pieces of track it is connected to. Once a height is assigned to the two pieces of track at the end of the flex track, the gradient of the flex track will be automatically calculated by the program. Version 3.0 will calculate the gradient of a section of track if you assign a height to an end piece of track. To enter a height for a piece of track, click on the TRACK ELEVATION tool, then on the necessary piece of track. Enter the height in inches in the correct box. If you have "Show height" checked in the TRACK ELEVATION dialog box, and in the VIEW-Set up View dialog box, you will see numbers appear under each piece of track to reflect the gradient the program automatically assigned to that section of track for you. You may also enter a gradient manually (as long as the section of track does not have crossings, turnouts or flex track in it). The value of a gradient is entered as a percent (i.e. - 2%, 3.5%, etc.). Most model railroad gradients do not exceed 4%. Please reference the written manual for further explanation of how to figure out the necessary gradient if you need a specific height for clearance at a certain point (rise/run concept). When you assign a gradient to a section of track, the height of each piece will be set automatically. When we refer to "slope," we are referring to the downward gradient which takes your track from an elevated point, back down to your layout table. To add a slope to a section of track, you must enter a negative value for the gradient in the ELEMENT-Properties dialog box. The height of each piece in the tagged section of track will be set automatically. See the manual for complete instructions on how to add a gradient or slope to a section of track. hoose which levels shall be visible. Lines and wires With WIRE tool you can produce wires and lines. Wires have soldering points at their edges. If you set the radius of these soldering points to „0“ in the ELEMENT - „properties“ box or OPTIONS - „Wires“ your wires will appear simply as lines. To place wire, choose the WIRE tool and click on the desired starting point on your layout. At the point where you want the line to change its direction, click with the left mouse button. At the ending point, make a double click or click with the right mouse button. If you keep the SHIFT key depressed, horizontal and vertical lines are produced. You may even change the shape later by tagging the element with the arrow. Then click on the ending points or corner points and drag while keeping the mouse button pressed. Wires are listed separately according to colors in the statistics menu. Windows identifies colors with the help of numbers. These numbers, however, won’t tell you much. So you should always insert a name for a color if you use it for the first time. With the help of this name the required length will be computed. Surely, this value won’t correspond exactly to the length you really need later on, however, it will give you an idea of which colors you should buy a bit more of. You also may give the same name to different colors. Then these wires will be treated like the same color in the statistics menu. Should it become necessary to change this name later, you must edit the file RTS.INI, i.e., in the section [Color]. Attention: There exists also a section [Colors]! The Pentium-bug At the end of 1994 news about a bug in the Pentium processor caused a sensation. In rare cases, it happens that divisions are not --- as promised --- exact up to 18, but only to 5 digits. Even though this error will rarely occur, a correction was added to the program to prevent it. Values, which are computed faulty, show a certain bit sample, they may be filtered out and no loss of performance will be noticed. If you are interested in how your processor does work, you may have a look in the file RTS.INI in the section [Pentium] . If there is a faulty Pentium in your computer system, you will find the line IsDefectivePentium=TRUE; in all other cases the value FALSE should be shown. Should you be interested, how often this fault will affect you, you may insert the line Count wrong results=1 Then, after having started The Right Track ® Software again and having ended it, you will find the lines Total number of divisions= and Detected errors= The first line contains the total number of the divisions that were checked up, the second one the number of faults that have been found. When interpreting these values you should take into account, that many divisions were not checked at all, namely if the divisor is is a constant, which does not produce false results (e.g. Pi). On the other hand, there is a division process when verifying the result. So the fault may only occur, when the result, which originally had been correct, is verified. After every start of the program, the counting starts again at 0. Should you like the counting to start with those values, that were computed during the last run-time, please insert the line Reset values=0 in the [Pentium] section. Troubleshooting If you really don’t know how to go on, and you can’t find any hint in the online help or the printed manual, then please call Atlas: Atlas Model Railroad Co. Inc. 378 Florence Ave. Hillside, NJ 07205 USA Phone: 1-800-872-2521 or (908) 687-0880 Fax: (908) 851-2550 Internet e-mail: support@atlasrr.com CompuServe: 74013,337 AOL: AtlasRR Atlas Web Site: http://www.atlasrr.com/atlasrr/ If something doesn't work out the right way, please shut down Windows, restart your computer and don't start anything else but The Right Track ® Software. If the error doesn't come up again, some other application is responsible for it. Otherwise, there are two possibilities: - You have a problem with your Windows-Installation or the cooperation between Windows and your hardware. In that case Atlas won’t be of much help. - There is a bug in The Right Track ® Software. According to Murphy, there is always one more bug in an application --- but this applies to Windows, too. If you experience problems with the printing, most likely your printer driver is at fault. Try another printer driver or another printing resolution (eg., 180 dpi). In any case the functions for printing are the same as the output-functions to the screen. So we may provide efficient help, please be ready to give Atlas detailed information. Which function did you call, what happened and what, in your opinion, was to happen? Atlas will attempt to help you, and if all else fails, will contact the programmer for an answer. Tips and hints for further development of this application are highly appreciated at any time. Please write to Atlas Model Railroad Co. at the address found inside your manual. All reasonable proposals will be considered. Frequently Asked Questions „How come some curves are not visible?“ When using big radii and a zoom of 1:1 down to 1:5, some screen or printer drivers may have trouble to displaying the curves. Check the „Curves painted by application“ box in the OPTIONS-System menu to avoid this. „Why do elements disappear without reason?“ The VIEW-Layers dialog box allows you to hide layers, but it’s still possible to insert new elements into hidden layers, when the layer in the ELEMENT-Default layer is one of the invisible ones. They will be displayed --- until the next repaint. „Why don’t the track pieces fit as I think they should?“ - You may have the wrong library loaded (for example, you started with HO track, and you tried to finish with N scale). In most cases, however, it will turn out that the tracks really don’t fit, for several reasons: - You chose a wrong radius by mistake. Refer to information supplied by the manufacturer, especially when you attempt to use curved turnouts. - The track templates included in the libraries were created using CAD-driven dimensions. Therefore, they have the exact dimensions of the actual track items. In „real life,“ when placing track on your layout, you can move track ever so slightly to get it to fit as you need. The computer (and therefore this program) doesn’t allow for any type of slack, so it is possible in some cases that a layout you actually built, may not be able to be recreated exactly on screen.