I saw a comment from Martin in a post about a plan he was checking that had several copies of a template stacked up but he didn't see why that should be. It is possible that it was an old message and the reason has been found but I couldn't find anything about it but I do know how it can be done.

If you are working on a plan with several items and you want to see the overall layout you might store and background the last template being worked on. If you then click on another track item and then click again there or elsewhere, the last template being worked on will become the control template again with the original underneath it. If you then store and background that template you will have two identical templates stacked up. It's very easy to do accidentally and quite easy to sort once you know it's there.

Apologies if this has all been discussed before but as I said I couldn't find any posts relating to it.

Fraser

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Thanks Fraser.

Welcome to Templot Club.

There is always a control template. When you store a copy of it on the background, it is temporarily hidden so that you can see the stored copy. But the control template still exists unchanged, and can be stored again and again, whether it is visible or not, creating multiple stored copies.

This functionality is needed when building up complex formations from multiple partial templates.

But generally before storing the control template, or using the tools > make... functions, it is a good habit to press or hold down the HOME or ENTER key to flash the control template on and off. You can then easily see if there is an existing stored copy below it -- and if necessary delete it before using the make... functions, to avoid duplicating it.

You can also click through the control template to an underlying template, which will be highlighted if any such exists. Despite the multitude of functions available for the control template, simply clicking on it does nothing.  The click goes through to the background template(s) if any underneath.

regards,

Martin.

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Hi Martin.
There is another way that I have discovered that this happens. If you have a Template which you use the tools to split or make double track, crossovers etc. then click the undo button to get back the original to alter it and repeat the process, the half of the template that is stored remains a visible background template on the trackpad each time. I have never considered this to be a flaw but is a mechanism that produces such a result, easily cured by removing the unwanted background templates in the storage box once you are sure they are not wanted.
Regards
Tony.

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Tony W wrote:There is another way that I have discovered that this happens. If you have a Template which you use the tools to split or make double track, crossovers etc. then click the undo button to get back the original to alter it and repeat the process, the half of the template that is stored remains a visible background template on the trackpad each time.Hi Tony,

There isn't an undo button.

I think you mean the undo changes button (blue left arrow) (CTRL+U), which undoes changes to the control template only. It has no effect on any background templates or program settings.

If one of the tools > make... functions produces an unwanted result, simply click on the new background template and then delete to the control (or press T).

If the tools function has modified it (e.g. changing the turnout road exit to crossover), use the blue arrow buttons to go back as needed. They repeat if held down.

regards,

Martin.

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Martin Wynne wrote: Hi Tony,

There isn't an undo button.

I think you mean the undo changes button (blue left arrow) (CTRL+U), which undoes changes to the control template only. It has no effect on any background templates or program settings.

If one of the tools > make... functions produces an unwanted result, simply click on the new background template and then delete to the control (or press T).

If the tools function has modified it (e.g. changing the turnout road exit to crossover), use the blue arrow buttons to go back as needed. They repeat if held down.

regards,

Martin.
Thank you Martin, that explains a lot of my confusion regarding how the program works and how I was going wrong. There is just so much to get your head around but once you do it's amazing. I'm definitely getting better with it now and feeling more in control with making things. I'm busy trying to turn a very regular (quite large) Cyril Freezer track plan into something a bit more curvey so all help is useful. I have some questions about things on it but I'll post them in a more relevent topic.

Thanks

Fraser

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Thanks Fraser.

There is another way to access the undo changes / re-do changes function.

If you hold down the SHIFT+CTRL keys, you can roll to and fro through recent changes to the control template using the mouse wheel. This is very convenient when looking for a template which you forgot to store, or to put in the parking bay for later. You can then roll forward again, back to where you were.

There are 80 slots in the rollback register, which sounds a lot. But it fills up surprisingly quickly once you start shoving timbers or adjusting check rails, or splitting partial templates. So don't rely on this if you know you will need a previous control template -- store it unused or put it in the parking bay (do > parking bay > menu items).

If stored unused it will be in your .box file and storage box next time. Templates in the parking bay are lost at the end of the session (but are faster to access). 

regards,

Martin.

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