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topic: 3474How to join/align 2 templates?
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posted: 3 Aug 2019 02:19

from:

drrsenior
 
DUNDOWRAN BEACH - Australia

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I am sure this is very basic but I have been unable to find the answer.I am designing a shed layout and have been making decent progress. Have battled through divergent turnouts with adequate success.
Where I am struggling is linking adjacent tracks with a turnout as a simple operation.
Attached is a file showing a simple example of what I mean. (Deliberately so there is no easy drop in curve)
I have say 2 shed roads which are fixed, lengthen one of the roads and insert a turnout. What is the best way to now link the other road to the turnout? To date I have had to put plain track on either end of the gap and then fiddle around with length and radius until they meet neatly: I presume there is a better way?
Attachment: attach_2865_3474_linking_question.box     161

posted: 3 Aug 2019 10:28

from:

Tom Allen
 
United Kingdom

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i'm a pretty new beginner myself so i doubt my answer is correct. I would create a "branch track" and "curve" it into position to intersect the road, then adjust both tracks to meet with the "length" command.
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Last edited on posted: 3 Aug 2019 10:42 by Tom Allen
3 Aug 2019 10:42

from:

Tom Allen
 
United Kingdom

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here's the result
Attachment: attach_2869_3474_linking_question_2.box     140
Last edited on 3 Aug 2019 10:42 by Tom Allen
posted: 3 Aug 2019 11:02

from:

drrsenior
 
DUNDOWRAN BEACH - Australia

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Thanks.That does work BUT if for example the second track was in the engine shed then it now has around 600mm less of straight track as it was shortened to meet the curve neatly.
My example is certainly not how I would lay it out but was deliberately meant to make it so that this easy way of joining was not possible without altering the existing track.
I suspect that it is going to need a reverse curve of some sort.

posted: 3 Aug 2019 14:01

from:

Martin Wynne
 
West Of The Severn - United Kingdom

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drrsenior wrote:
Thanks.That does work BUT if for example the second track was in the engine shed then it now has around 600mm less of straight track as it was shortened to meet the curve neatly.
My example is certainly not how I would lay it out but was deliberately meant to make it so that this easy way of joining was not possible without altering the existing track.
I suspect that it is going to need a reverse curve of some sort.
Hi Richard, Tom,

For the usual way to link between two existing templates, see:

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

That method avoids have to make precise length adjustments by eye.

However, in this case that is going to much reduce the length of the shed road as in Tom's example. To link those two templates as they stand is going to need a sharp reverse curve.

But the B-6 turnout is much longer than it needs to be. Because of the contraflexure it can be shortened significantly -- here I made it a 9ft-switch 1:5 turnout, which still provides a radius of 1165mm (46"). Change to a curviform V-crossing, make a branch track, and insert an S-curve transition in it. Then adjust the length and position of the transition zone until the curve doesn't quite kiss the shed road, close to the end of it:

2_030829_590000000.png2_030829_590000000.png

Then you can use the make transition function as shown in the above link to complete it. Because the control template is itself a transition curve, it is necessary to select its 1st radius in the make transition dialog.

The shed road template can then be deleted and the new template extended to replace it:

2_030829_590000001.png2_030829_590000001.png

I also normalized the first S-curve transition (to look neater on the trackpad, it doesn't affect the tracks).

The fly in this ointment is that no prototype railway company ever used mathematical transition curves in an engine shed! Templot needs an easier means to create tangential arcs in situations like this. That's something I have had on my NOD list for years, maybe it's time I did something about it. :) It can be done now with some counter-intuitive working from dummy pointwork, or by using school geometry on dummy templates, but it needs something simpler.

cheers,

Martin.

posted: 6 Aug 2019 08:07

from:

drrsenior
 
DUNDOWRAN BEACH - Australia

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I have made some progress with transition curves: thank you.May I ask another basic question?

Is it possible to separate  a section of the track plan to move around on the trackpad?
I am designing an engine shed layout. Apart for minor tweaking, I am reasonably happy with the layout of the facilities (coal hole, T/T, ash road etc) but have not settled on the actual shed.
It will be a 4 road shed and once I have designed the throat into the shed I would like to be able to move this part of the design around a little, eg rotate a few degrees or laterally a few cms. until it looks 'right' and then relink it to the rest of the plan.

posted: 6 Aug 2019 08:49

from:

Martin Wynne
 
West Of The Severn - United Kingdom

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drrsenior wrote:
I have made some progress with transition curves: thank you.May I ask another basic question?

Is it possible to separate  a section of the track plan to move around on the trackpad?
Hi Richard,

Sure. You first need to select the templates as a group. Lots of ways to do that, but the fastest if they are mixed in with other templates is to click on each one in turn and then press G.

(Press G again if you select one by mistake.)

To move them all as a group, the shortcut for the mouse action is the BACKSLASH key or SHIFT+CTRL+F7 shift group.

To rotate them all as a group, the shortcut for the mouse action is the FORWARD-SLASH key or SHIFT+CTRL+F8 rotate group.

You can also shift, rotate, mirror them, etc., using the other functions in the group menu.

Using the notch linking functions you can have them attached in alignment with the control template while you adjust it.

edit: There is a very old video showing that for an engine shed at:

 http://flashbackconnect.com/Default.aspx?id=ZLVNmNUKDgVeG8l3h3kFpw2

cheers,

Martin.

posted: 6 Aug 2019 12:28

from:

Martin Wynne
 
West Of The Severn - United Kingdom

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Hi Richard,

The video is now available online without downloading first:

 http://flashbackconnect.com/Default.aspx?id=ZLVNmNUKDgVeG8l3h3kFpw2

I added a few notes to bring it up to date.

I'm afraid the image quality has not converted to MP4 very well.

(It never does. But we seem to be stuck with it for HTML5 video.)

cheers,

Martin.



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