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Subject: The Saga of my Ever Shrinking Railroad, Part Duex

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Webber

Brakeman
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09/08/2008 7:55 AM
Your layout is a real inspiration. I'm rethinking my basement right now. Although I should push on with the outdoor plans first. Great visualization. Must be a ton of hand work. I use Google SketchUp for 3-D visualizations of projects. I've just started using it for an outdoor RR design effort. There's a free version and it allows you to import jpgs and others as a base for your drawings. http://sketchup.google.com/ Just strip off the labels and dimensions from base drawing and import it into SketchUp. You can resize it to match real world (indoor) dimesions. You're half way there. Add your buildings using the pull tool. You could create standard track sections and turnouts and reuse them but your plan is already well along. The Big benefit is just what you're trying to accomplish here. Really nice thing is I can swing around and change point of view, computer does the redrawing in a split second. Another feature is that you can create a multipart visualization and "walk through" you're whole thing from an operator or train perspective. Overall, SketchUp is relatively easy to learn and has lots of video tutorials and friendly user forums. Anyone who works in CAD can grasp the concepts very quickly. Have fun and share any images you create.

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