Free online Layout designer

[Simon Greasly]

hello there Simon Greasly here again

I was just wondering is there an online model railroad layout designer program that is free if any of you could help out that would be great

[GlennW]

AFAIK Atlas makes the only freeware layout design program. There may still be some demo versions of other commercial programs available. Not sure how good *bay may be for older versions of commercial programs.

Atlas:
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS FOR VERSION 7.0:

    * PC with Windows 95, 98, NT, ME, 2000 and XP.
      Note: Windows Vista is not supported at this time.
      Note for Version 5.0: Windows XP users may have to right-click on the installation file and select "Properties", then "Compatibility" and then check the box for "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" and then select "Windows 95" from the drop-down menu.
    * VGA Monitor - Graphics; Mouse
    * Note: Version 7.0 is currently only set to work on systems using US/English configurations. The program will not work in foreign languages.

[Franz T]

Simon!

Try XTrkCad, available for free from http://www.sillub.com The website will give you the key for open registration. A very good program, not a big learning curve...

HTH

Franz T

[jprince46]

Xtrkcad has now gone open source (Free).  Here is the link to the latest version of the software. I believe it is version 4.01

http://www.xtrkcad.org/Wikka/HomePage

Great stuff - very powerful, but has a steeper learning curve compared to Atlas.  If you are going to use any track other than Atlas - then this is the way to go.

jim

[Simon Greasly]

okay uh thx i tried out the atlas one and it works fairly well  but one quick question what is a learning curve 

[jprince46]

The time it takes to learn the software.  A short learning curve would indicate that the program was easy to learn.  A long learning curve indicates that the program was difficult to learn, or has several options and features that require more time for you to master.