revised 3-Nov-2004
In Templot the word "template" has the same meaning as in established model railway track building practice. A template is a design for a single item of trackwork such as a turnout (sometimes called a "point") or a length of plain track.
When printed full-size on good quality paper for use in actual track construction, it is known as a construction template, and the production of these is the primary purpose of this Templot computer program.
More complex formations are created by linking together several such templates. For example, a crossover is formed by linking two turnout templates back-to-back. Complete track plans are created as a collection of several discrete templates.
This meaning of "template" differs from its meaning in many other drawing and CAD applications. In Templot a template is the intended final output, not simply a drawing aid.
There are three types of template in Templot:
1. the current template.
2. unused stored templates.
3. background stored templates.
1. the current template :
There is only ever one current template. It appears in the foreground on the drawing pad and is the object of all the design changes and adjustments which you make. When you set a new curving radius, for example, or change the V-crossing angle, it is the current template which changes.
You can imagine the current template as being drawn on a loose sheet of clear film, and the drawing pad as your baseboard.
The B-6 turnout which you see on the pad at startup is the starting condition for the current template; it is waiting there for you to make the changes to it which are needed to suit your track plan. If you have just started Templot, one of the first changes which you are likely to want to make is to set your required gauge and scale by clicking the control > gauge and scale... menu item.
The current template can only be changed. There is always a current template in existence because it represents the current output from the template generator engine. It can never be removed or deleted. It can however be temporarily hidden (pad > hide current template menu item or CTRL-W) so as not to obstruct your view of the background, on which you may be developing a complete track plan design.
When you want to print out a single construction template, you will normally print it as the current template (print > print current template menu item or F11).
If you are using trim and fit methods with printed paper templates
directly on the baseboard, you will probably do all your work with the current
template. Many users will be content to use Templot this way. It can be great
fun printing, trimming and fitting full-size templates, and you are sure
to gain interested onlookers as your layout plan takes shape.
Remember to give each template a name and store it (see below), so that you can print it again later if needed. Be prepared to use up plenty of paper! If this is a problem the templates can be printed at a reduced size. Discarded paper templates need not be wasted, young children love to cut and glue them, and colour them in.
Designing your track plan entails making frequent changes to the current template, often on a trial-and-error basis. You can quickly revert to a previous current template by repeatedly selecting the adjust > undo changes menu item or CTRL-U.
There are 80 slots in the undo register, which works cyclically so that pressing CTRL-U 81 times reverts to the most recent change, and so on round the cycle again. If you go back too far, you can cycle forward round the register to re-trace your steps by selecting the adjust > re-do changes menu item or CTRL-D.
The undo register is intended for use after making inadvertent or unsuccessful changes, and can only go back so far. When you know in advance that you will want to revert to the current settings, but are not yet ready to store the template (see below), you can temporarily park a copy of the current template in a parking bay.
Select the control > parking bay > park current menu items; there are three bays and you can have three different parked templates at any one time, one in each bay. They will remain there undisturbed until you select the control > parking bay > retrieve menu items, or park another one in their place.
You can retrieve the same parked template as often as you wish, which is
very useful when experimenting. A template retrieved in error can be cancelled
using undo
changes, as above.
For some further notes about the meaning of current template, see also utterly baffled.
2. stored templates :
When by adjusting the current template you have achieved a template design which you want to keep, either as part of a complete track plan, or simply for future reference and printouts, you can store a copy of it in your storage box.
Simply storing it (control > store as unused menu item) does not make any visible change on the drawing pad, you have merely made a record of the existing condition of the current template.
What you have stored in the box is a copy of the current template,
not the current template itself which remains unchanged on the drawing pad
to be further adjusted, or re-used elsewhere in you track plan.
If you look in the storage box (control > storage box menu item or CTRL-O), you will see that this template is shown numbered in blue, meaning that this template is unused. In other words, it does not currently appear on the screen drawing pad, or in a printed track plan.
All stored templates have a name for identification. Click the rename... button on the storage box to set the name of your choice for this template. This makes it much easier to find required templates later.
3. background templates :
When designing a track plan on-screen, you do so on the background, in other words your design is built up "behind" the current template.
Planning a complete track layout on-screen gives you much more flexibility to try different designs than trim and fit methods. But it is also a more demanding process, and it is recommended that you first become familiar with all the functions for working with the current template.
A template which has been stored in your storage box can be copied to the background so that it appears on the drawing pad and in printed track plans. It then becomes a background template and is numbered in the storage box in red. Often you will want to store a template and immediately have a copy of it on the background, and you can do this in one go by clicking the control > store & background menu item, or by pressing CTRL-V. See the screenshot diagram above.
You can see a list of all the background templates, and set options for how you want them to be drawn on the screen (control > background list menu item or CTRL-B).
Templates on the background normally appear in different colours from the current template, which is always drawn over the top of them (unless it has been hidden).
store
& background automatically hides the current template, so
that you can see the new background template behind it. Press
F12 to see it again.
This option can be changed in the options > on
store & copy from pad menu items on the
storage box window.
If a template is no longer required on the background it can be wiped, and it then becomes an unused template again. Stored templates can be copied to the background and wiped as many times as you wish. In this way you can try several different designs, and "mix and match" between them. A template cannot appear on the background unless it is in the storage box, but you can in addition have many more unused templates in the box.
All the background templates and unused templates are included in the file when you save all your templates in a .box file.
To print the complete track plan design you print the entire pad (print > print entire pad menu item or CTRL-F11), and have options whether to include the current template in the print or not, and whether to print at full or reduced size.
In addition, individual background templates or a complete background track plan design can be exported in DXF file format for transfer to other drawing software.
DXF files do not include the current template. To use DXF files as a source
of construction templates, they must be background templates. Click for more
information about using DXF files.
Stored templates can be copied back to become the current template again for reworking, and you can choose whether this causes them to remain on the background, or be wiped, or be deleted completely from the box. When a template is on the background, you can click anywhere on it to show a pop-up menu giving these and several other options.
You will also normally copy the background templates from your finished plan to be the current template before printing them out as individual construction templates.
Background templates consume memory and slow down the screen re-draw process, so you should normally only have those templates on the background which you are currently working on. The templates forming finalised parts of the design can be grouped together and temporarily wiped to speed up the program response.
For more information about using your storage box to store and save templates, click the what? button on the storage box, or click here.
A note about UK track
terminology.
A turnout is frequently called a "point" by modellers, but not by railwaymen who refer to points (always plural) meaning only the movable switch blades which are, of course, pointed.
A turnout comprises a set of points and a V-crossing linked together. A set of points is also known as a switch.
(Because it is the points (blade tips) which are connected to the signal box, terms such as point-lever, point-motor, point-rodding, etc., are however entirely sensible.)
Templot does not use the term "points" to avoid confusion. In Templot a turnout is comprised of a switch and a V-crossing, and the point blades are called switch blades.
A V-crossing comprises the vee and a pair of wing rails (an assembly which is sometimes called the frog) and a pair of check rails.
A vee is comprised of a vee point rail (in the main road), and a vee splice rail (in the turnout road).
The outer main rails of a switch or turnout are called stock rails. The inner rails linking the switch blades to the wing rails are called closure rails or closer rails or filler rails.
The position at which the wing rails come closest together is called the knuckle.
more notes here soon