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NY Signal drawn by 3rd PlanIt

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NY Signal drawn 
with
3rd PlanIt by Walter Griffin

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With 3rd PlanIt you can easily add turnouts to any location in your drawing. The ToolKit offers a complete set of switching options, including straight turnouts, curved turnouts, wyes, crossings, slip switches and 3-ways. These "Smart Turnouts" can be drawn directly into existing track, and used to connect existing track as well.

Designing with Turnouts

Click to view animationIf you have an existing tangent track, you can draw a turnout directly into it using the Draw Turnout tool. The turnout will align itself to the track, and can be moved along the track with the mouse. As you move from side to side, the turnout exit follows your mouse. You may also right-click while drawing to reverse the direction of the points. Click for animation (337K)



Click to view animationYou can also connect two existing tangent tracks with a turnout with the Connect Turnout tool. Depending on where you start and end the connection, the turnout will be arranged to move traffic in the direction of your connection guide line. This allows easy connection between main lines or branch lines. Click for animation (149K)




Click to view animationThe Connect Turnout tool can also be used to quickly generate yard trackwork. When used with the Parallel tool, this yard drill lead was generated in just a few seconds starting from a single tangent track. The Connect Turnout tool automatically detects a yard situation based on the angle and spacing of the tracks you are connecting. Click for animation (289K)



Click to view animationThe same Connect Turnout tool can quickly generate sidings from two parallel tracks. Shown here with the Parallel tool, you can see how quickly you can make sidings of any length. Using the Easements option in File / Settings / Turnouts, you can have these connections made with automatically positioned easements. Click for animation (158K)



Click to view animationAnother versatile tool is the Connect Crossover tool. This tool places two turnouts on parallel tracks and aligns their diverging routes perfectly. If you have already positioned a turnout on one of the parallel tracks, you can connect directly to its diverging route. The second turnout will be a duplicate of the first, properly positioned and inserted in the parallel track. Click for animation (122K)

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Last modified: October 16, 2018