Saturday, June 02, 2007
XTrkCad Tutorial Part 2: Editing Layout Elements
In part one we saw how to create a layout using XTrkCad and Set Track track items. We covered adding new items to the layout, but at some point you will almost certainly need to edit what you have already added either to add extra features to the layout or to correct mistakes.
On order to edit items, you first need to know how to select them. To put XTrkCad into select mode, click the Select Tracks button. 
- To select a piece of track, click on it. It will turn red. Click it again to unselect.
- Click other pieces of track to select them also.
- To select a piece of track and every piece of track attached to it, hold the Shift key and click on it. All the attached tracks will turn red.
Tip: If you want to select everything except a few pieces of track, it may be quicker to shift-click to select everything and then click on individual pieces to unselect them.
Tip: If you want to edit a large subsection of the layout, eg. a set of sidings, it may be useful to separate them from the main tracks first. Click the Split a Track icon, 
then click on a joint between two track sections. This breaks the joint and you can now Shift-Click to select the sidings.
The operations described below, operate on all the currently selected pieces of track, even if they are not attached to the current track. They also affect selected tracks which are not even on screen.
To prevent accidental mistakes, it’s often best to make sure everything is unselected before moving to a new area. To do this, right-click and choose Deselect All.
To delete the selected track or tracks, press the Delete key, or right-click with the mouse and select Delete.
Tip: To undo a deletion (or any other change), click the Undo button towards the left of the toolbar.
To move the selected tracks, right-click and select Move, then click and drag the tracks to their new location.
Rotating the tracks is similar. Right-click and select Rotate. Then click-hold on the spot around which you want the track to rotate and drag the mouse to rotate the tracks.
Parts List
Before we move on to flexitrack, I’ll mention one more useful feature, the ability to create a shopping list of parts. Select the parts you want to price (or probably more usefully, Shift-click to select everything) and use the menu item File/Parts List. This shows how many pieces are required, but you can also get it to include prices.
Back out of the Parts List window and go to File/Price List. Scroll down and you can enter the prices from your local modelling emporium. At the bottom of the window is an option the enter the price of a length of flexitrack, where the first box is the length (in inches) of a section of track.
When purchasing just bear in mind that there will be a certain amount of wastage from offcuts of flexi-track, so you may want to buy an extra length or two.
With a little bit of practice you should soon be able to master evrythng we ave covered in parts one and two. Next time I’ll move on to designing layouts with flexible track.
See also:
Download XTrkCad
XTrkCad Tutorial Part 1: Getting Started
XTrkCad Tutorial Part 3: Flexible Track
XTrkCad Tutorial Part 4: Curved Track