|
|||
author | remove search highlighting | ||
---|---|---|---|
posted: 12 Feb 2010 19:11 from: Dellboy
click the date to link to this post click member name to view archived images |
Hi there There are quite a few suggestions around on how to make a track circuit diagram for a track control panel or how to produce one for a lever frame panel. Below for interest is my attempt using M/S Excel which I have not seen used before. The result is a professional looking diagram. It can be adjusted to any size for printing and mounted under a perspex sheet for protection. Regards Derek 1821_121405_190000000.jpg |
||
posted: 12 Feb 2010 19:44 from: John Lewis
click the date to link to this post click member name to view archived images |
Derek wrote: There are quite a few suggestions around on how to make a track circuit diagram for a track control panel or how to produce one for a lever frame panel. Below for interest is my attempt using M/S Excel which I have not seen used before. The result is a professional looking diagram. It can be adjusted to any size for printing and mounted under a perspex sheet for protection Derek Yes, that looks very good. How did you do it, please? |
||
posted: 12 Feb 2010 22:26 from: Dellboy
click the date to link to this post click member name to view archived images |
John Lewis wrote:
Well John I must assume you have some familiarity with M/S Excel. First I drew the track plan out using Sigscribe, a free download from the Australian Modratec lever frame web site available after you register with them. This is an impressive little programme and a quick way of generating a diagramatic track drawing in proper proportion. Then used Print Screen to paste this into Windows Paint and cropped down to just leave the track diagram. Saved this as a JPEG image file. Opened a black worksheet in Excel and adjusted column width to 3 and row height to 20.This gave me a square grid pattern which helps with the drawing out. (Incidently in Excel a width of 7 and height of 30 will produce an almost perfect square grid). Then zoomed-out to give as large an area as possible on the screen - I chose each screen grid square to represent 3mm on the finished plan. Based on this I put a border around the area I thought would give me the overall panel size I wanted. I then reduced the print size to 44% (initially a bit of guessework here on the percentage to reduce by but print view will help you here) and printed test sheets to check the printed size of the border was what I wanted for the panel size. Any adjustment can be made easily by increasing or reducing the number of rows and/or column screen grid squares within the border. (Alternatively If you print a blank sheet with the grid lines showing you can by measuring the grids determine exactly how many grid squares will make the size drawing you want to produce) Once I was happy that the border on the screen would represent the correct size when printed at the reduced print percentage established above, I started the drawing by pasting in the Sigscribe JPEG file. Stretched this to just fit within the border. Now I had a perfect diagram on screen to which I drew the track plan on top of using 25 thick lines in different colours. Once the track plan was completed I dragged the JPEG image clear to reveal just the finished diagram on screen. The square grid pattern makes positioning any other detail you wish to add very easy and the ability to zoom-in means you can be very precis in this. From start to finish took about 4 hours I think. The finished plan is 555 x 291mm. This size could be adjusted again, up or down by use of the print percentage setting. Hope this makes sense! Derek |
||
Please read this important note about copyright: Unless stated otherwise, all the files submitted to this web site are copyright and the property of the respective contributor. You are welcome to use them for your own personal non-commercial purposes, and in your messages on this web site. If you want to publish any of this material elsewhere or use it commercially, you must first obtain the owner's permission to do so. |