... topic: 2734 3D Printed Track and Turnouts posted: 9 Aug 2015 05:18 from: Andrew Barrowman Greetings fellow Templotters, As some of you already know, I've been messing about trying to print turnout bases on a 3D printer. It's fairly easy to create a 3D model of the timbers in CAD from any Templot template. It's also fairly simple to drag models of the chairs into the correct positions and orientation and combine them to produce an STL file to drive a printer. What is not so easy is producing 3D models for chairs that a) actually work, and b) don't look too horrible! I think I have reached a point where I'm limited by the printing technology itself. The results are actually a lot better than I thought they might be when I started out. Anyway, I've been making some wild guesses about chair dimensions, and I have not had a lot of luck finding anything on the Web. Any information would be greatly appreciated. (Here's a bit of track I've been using to test the latest chair ...

... topic: 1540 Odd printing result posted: 17 Jun 2011 08:23 from: Gordon S Hi guys, strange one that I need some help with. No doubt it is something obvious, but I can't see it... Printing off 30 odd pages and one page only has the rails missing and only shows the sleepers. I've tried most obvious things but cannot find the error. Any ideas? 479_170322_540000000.jpg posted: 17 Jun 2011 09:15 from: Jim Guthrie Gordon, I could be facetious and say "scrap thieves". But I note that there is also a rail missing on the adjacent page. Jim. posted: 17 Jun 2011 09:30 from: Martin Wynne Hi Gordon, That's very odd. There are no settings which can apply to an individual printed page. All settings are based on individual templates, or apply to all the pages. However, as Jim says it seems to be more than one page, and on the second page there is just a tiny fragment of rail showing at the top ...

... centres. If your layout track spacing is 50mm, that means the scale of the mimic diagram is 1:10. So that would mean a diagram 450mm square. Which 800x400 isn't? Templot has a function to draw the track centre-lines only, at any width, irrespective of the gauge of the rails (and in the marker colours), which may help you make a panel. Can you post a screenshot of what you mean by jagged track edges? That may just be your screen resolution, it would print smooth. Traditionally a steam-era railway would be controlled from a signal box diagram and a row of levers. Templot and sketchboard can produce some very nice-looking signal box diagrams. But not from an existing track plan, it needs to be re-drawn as a signal box diagram all in plain track templates, something like this: slip2.gif cheers, Martin. posted: 13 May 2020 13:43 from: Gordon S Thanks Martin. ET is 18' x 14', but I plan to cut ...

... likewise running on battery power in many other places around the world. Now if a full-size tram can run on LiPo battery power, not to mention electric cars, and even milk floats (remember them) -- for a model train it ought to be dead easy, surely? Which means in turn that quite soon model trains will no longer need metal rails. You can guess where this is going, and Andy got there a long time before me: topic 2734- message 23411 2983_181646_300000000.jpg My experiments with 3D printing are stalled because of the difficulty of finding consistent settings which allow model rail to be threaded through the chairs easily, without breaking. Model rail sections vary a lot, even between batches, and they all have significantly over-scale web thickness. It is a minefield of trial and error and broken chairs. And that is just for plain track -- threading rails into pointwork is a whole order of magnitude trickier, and of course requires the metalworking skills to make the rails in the first place. But if the ...

... topic: 286 Printing questions posted: 17 Dec 2007 01:23 from: Gordon S I think I have now finalised my track plan and whilst having printed reduced size plans am now at the stage of printing full size. I have some questions. The layout is large at 18' square and to print on A4 sheets will require 284 sheets, each of which will have to be aligned. Questions. 1. I was considering sending a file to a professional printer to have the plan printed full size on plain roll. This has raised other questions. a) How do you save a print file? I understand how you save a box file of templates. Is this what an external printer will require? Will an external printer need Templot software to read the file? If they don't have the software, how will they calibrate their printer? I was hoping plans could be printed on wide rolls (up to a metre?) to reduce errors. If this is not possible or prohibitively expensive, then I am left with A4 ...

... if only because I said I would. Which means that topic will become redundant and need a re-write. It's easy to see how the web site got in such a mess. regards, Martin. posted: 7 Jun 2012 10:59 from: Martin Wynne Martin Wynne wrote: I'm going to put this in the next Templot2 update, if only because I said I would. Done. See: topic 1265- message 13008 posted: 19 Jul 2013 15:19 from: Trevor Walling Hello martin, Output printing from Templot: message ref: 15032 paper grade reference is useful printing advice. Is this the way you mean Martin? No I have done that incorrectly I'll try again.Sorry Output-Printing from Templot: message 15032 Trevor. Last edited on 19 Jul 2013 15:30 by Trevor Walling posted: 19 Jul 2013 15:56 from: Trevor Walling Printing after shoving timbers message 14174 How about this? Trevor. posted: 19 Jul 2013 16:01 from: Trevor Walling problem with printer calibration: topic 2120 Trevor. ...

... topic: 2066 Printing Accuracy posted: 1 Oct 2012 20:57 from: Ray Hughes I have created a PDF file of an approximate 7ft sq track plan with centre operating well so there's a vast space in the middle with no (printed) pages. I have an HP Photosmart printer and believe that I have calibrated it as best I can. As a matter of routine I tend to re-cycle pre-used paper that has already been printed on one side so I'm not necessarily using paper from the same original packet throughout the print process of 65 sheets. My first error was not to set the PDF print option to print Actual Size which left me wondering why the layout plan did not fit on the baseboards. That and a few other things that I'd failed to do before printing has seen me print the 65 pages more than once before and discard them almost immediately. I'm now working with the first set of sheets that I've totally stuck together, all previous prints have either been loosely overlaid or only had a few sheets stuck ...

... topic: 1511 Templot2 change log posted: 23 May 2011 15:53 from: Martin Wynne Templot2 Summary of the main changes in Templot since version 091c of February 2008 support for irregular diamond-crossings and curviform ladders platforms can be added alongside track templates check rails can now be individually set and adjusted by mouse action sketchboard layout drawing function rail foot edge lines can be shown on FB templates (flat-bottom rails) print menu renamed output menu output in diagram mode -- solid colour infill between stock rail edges Important: not available for partial templates if stock rails omitted -- temporarily lay plain track templates across complex formations to create diagram-mode output. output to PDF files, including large single pages for roll-paper poster printing export to bitmap image files in PNG, GIF, JPG, BMP formats export to vector image metafiles in EMF, WMF formats easy capture of screenshots to PNG files print now! function to bypass printer setup and calibration background picture shapes -- support for PNG, JPG, GIF image formats background picture shapes ...

... topic: 2983 Large format PDF printing posted: 16 Feb 2017 12:13 from: stuart1600 I know that some of you have had bad experiences with getting large format printing done, so having just had some excellent service from a printer I thought I would post a recommendation in case it was of use to any other Templotters. The firm is Heatons Office Solutions which has its HQ in Birkenhead and branches in Macclesfield, Penrith and Kinmel Bay (North Wales): http://www.heatons.net/print-and-design.aspx I only have experience of the Penrith branch. The lady who served me was very familiar with the concept of "no scaling" as they do a lot of architectural and engineering drawings. Definitely no need to shout it three times on this occasion. There was some difficulty with getting the longer files to print (the longest being 9150mm x 900mm), and she spent some time working out the problem- which was that their system had been set to a maximum length of 3200mm- she said she altered that to ...

... topic: 139 [0.91b] Uncontrolled printing posted: 24 Aug 2007 15:15 from: Edward Background: recently upgraded to 0.91b; PC platform is h/w+ s/w unchanged and has successfully run all previous versions of Templot. I downloaded and installed 0.91b and uploaded Martin's "dual gauge track" example. I printed out the dual-gauge layout (unaltered) and now I get multiple printed copies everytime I switch on my PC and while I'm working on other non-Templot related stuff. To make matters worse I now cannot run 0.91b Templot (I get as far as the ready, steady click, I click and then the window vanishes and nothing happens) despite uninstalling it and reloading it. I have followed all the suggestions in an earlier thread about "Templot Launch Failure" problettes with 0.91b but without success Any remedial suggestions would be appreciated! Edward (Bristol) posted: 24 Aug 2007 20:37 from: Martin Wynne Edward wrote: Background: recently upgraded to 0.91b; PC platform is h/w ...