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TEMPLOT 3D PLUG TRACK - To get up to speed with this experimental project click here.   To watch an introductory video click here.   See the User Guide at Bexhill West.

  • The Plug Track functions are experimental and still being developed. Some of the earlier pages of this topic are now out-of-date.

    For an updated overview of this project see this topic.   For some practical modelling aspects of using Plug Track see Building 3D Track.

    The assumption is that you have your own machines on which to experiment, or helpful friends with machines. Please do not send Templot files to commercial laser cutting or 3D printing firms while this project is still experimental, because the results are unpredictable and possibly wasteful.

    Some pages of this and other topics include contributions from members who are creating and posting their own CAD designs for 3D printing and laser-cutting. Do not confuse them with Templot's own exported CAD files. All files derived from Templot are © Martin Wynne.
  • The Plug Track functions are experimental and still being developed.

    For an updated overview of this project see this topic.   For some practical modelling aspects of using Plug Track see Building 3D Track.

    The assumption is that you have your own machines on which to experiment, or helpful friends with machines. Please do not send Templot files to commercial laser cutting or 3D printing firms while this project is still experimental, because the results are unpredictable and possibly wasteful.

    Some pages of this and other topics include contributions from members who are creating and posting their own CAD designs for 3D printing and laser-cutting. Do not confuse them with Templot's own exported CAD files. All files derived from Templot are © Martin Wynne.

Experimental Plug Track: 3D-printed, CNC-milled, laser-cut

Quick reply >
Hi Michael,
the reason your not seeing an STL file of the control template is, you can't how Templot works is the control template is for working on that particular aspect, be it straight track or a turnout. in order to create a STL or DXF you have to first save it to the box file. from there you can export. you don't need a full track plan to do this, you simply save one turnout for example, and then export that to the STL.
Cheers
Phil,
 
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The challenge I have is that when I try and export the control template (turnout) only the create SDL goes grey but when I print the whole trackplan it works - hence sending the track plan to see what was going on. Any clues what I am doing wrong?
@Michael Woods

Hi Michael,

Click on the template, then:

group_a_template.png



group_dxf.png



P.S. this is basic Templot stuff. This topic is already 50 pages long and spiralling out of control, and is going to fall over completely if it has to include explanations of the basic workings of Templot. All this stuff is explained elsewhere, or we can start a new topic in "Baffled beginners" if you can't find it. :)

cheers,

Martin.
 
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Hi Michael,
Can I make a suggestion?
S Scale chairs and timber base for testing
Make a fresh start in Templot then:-
Gauge > 22.45 S
Then [plain track], then [curve] , click on the blue radius in mm text to get a pop-up window:-
1682261887174.png


replace the 3143.25 with a / character and keep pressing <cr> until you get the trackpad back with a section of straight track, then click the [legth] button to shorten the template until the result fits within your build plate
Real > chairing > experimental chairing, and you should get this:-
1682262647492.png

click the [3D] to get the "experimental 3D" pop-up if it is not already displayed.
1682262834386.png

ensure all three tickboxes ticked
click on the colour box so that we can choose a different colour for the template that we are about to store.
1682262929257.png

In this example I am going to click the next colour along the bottom next to the existing colour, and then click [ok]
1682263023915.png

This allows us to to select a different colour for each timbering template brick we save.
Perform your favourite method of "store and background", for example just click on the buttonat the top with the two adjacent red down arrows.
This screen pops up:-
1682263238188.png

click "shwo storage box" to get this:-
1682263300179.png

note the colour, then click [show box list] button to get this:-
1682263370301.png

This will list all the templates that you have stored so far, and note that each template will display its chosen colour on the right hand side just before the identifier (PL001 in this case)
Close this window
Now click on the [DFX/ STL file export] button that is on the bottom of the 3D pop-up.
This displays the export dialogue screen:-
1682263630360.png

In the group box in the top left hand corner I have ticked the "timbering brick only" radio button.
Note the colour in the box adjacent to "brick colour".
This means that all background templates (and shapes for that matter) that have been stored with this colour will be exported.
In the group box with the yellow background tick the [timbers only] button.
This will set all the pararmeters on tis screen so that just the timbering brick will be output, ie no chairs, but there will be sockets for the chairs.
In the "puce" group box in bottom left hand select the radio button for the type of print you will be performing

Rail
When you come to print "chairs only", you will need to have selected the correct rail profile from the pre-sets available, or if not available click on the [set custom rail] button in the top right hand box.
Now key in a description that is relevant, here is one I have made up:-
1682264126956.png

when you click [ok] you will get the "3D custom rail section dialogue" box, which will have values that default to BS-95R section scled to your chosen scale (i think, Martin might correct me here).

ANyway I would try the defaults first, unless you have already got your micrometer out.
I could not find values on the S society webiste for the rail they supply.

I would recomend that you try printing a section of plain straight timbering brick, and a set of corresponding S1 chairs to check the fit of your rail.

By print i mean :-
Export the STL from Templot, fix using the link in the bottom right corner, then slice with your slicer & print. No CAD involved (other than you might want to view the files.
If you need to adjust the rail section parameters in templot, then feed the info back to the forum so that Martin ahs the option of adding a pre-defined S scale rail to Templot, as this would then be very useful for those users of Templot who only ahve Templot and dont have access to CAD software like yourself.

I hope this helps
Steve
 
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replace the 3143.25 with a / character and keep pressing <cr> until you get the trackpad back with a section of straight track,
@Steve_Cornford @Paul Boyd

Hi Steve,

Try:

set_straight.png


That straightens the existing control template.

Or if it's not horizontal on the screen, you can start with a new one:

new_straight.png


Many thanks for posting the detailed brick instructions. :)

cheers,

Martin.
 
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@Phil G

Thanks Phil. Looking forward to your report, but I doubt your situation is typical of most Templot users?

The specific problem for laser cutting and the reason for writing before is the crossing chairs you asked about. My current designs require some 3D effects into the FDM/CNC/resin timbering base, and I'm not sure it will work on laser-cut plywood.

cheers,

Martin.
Hi Martin,
Interesting comments,
So you're going to have the timbers under the a B and possibly C chairs do more work then just have a pocket in them to take the chair plug. that's interesting. I will wait with bated breath :)
just a question do you think these (special timbers) could also be made on a resin printer, assuming the build plate was large enough?
cheers
Phil
 
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Thanks Steve. This is massively helpful. Too late to print this evening will try for next weekend. Together with the chairs. Thank you to you and Martin for your patience.

View attachment 5562

@Michael Woods @Paul Boyd

Hi Michael,

You have that set for a standard printer profile (0.2mm NORMAL).

It's worth a try, but based on my experience with 4 different FDM printers, it is unlikely to produce very satisfactory results. The socket dimensions will be poorly defined, inconsistent, and the chairs won't fit them. Especially those skewed at an angle to the timbers. There is likely to be some stringing across the sockets. On most machines the standard profiles are designed to optimise print time over print quality.

Attached below is the settings profile which I use for the timbering bricks on my gantry printer (Neptune 2S) which is similar in design to your AnyCubic Mega Zero.

It's for the Cura slicer, I don't know how the settings compare with the Prusa slicer. Cura is free if you want to try it -- the settings file below is for version Cura 5.1

Here are some of the settings which are important. It looks complicated but hopefully all that most Templot users will have to do is download the Cura software (free) and load the appropriate profile setting from the Templot web site.

After an initial print, you would need to measure it, and probably adjust some of these settings and the shrinkage settings in the DXF export to get accurate results on your own printer. In due course there will be a calibration print file available to make this easy (like the 2D printer calibration for the paper templates).

I'm really fearful that by posting all this stuff now it is going to frighten off some potential users of plug track. I intend to make it really easy for them -- get this, click that, press this button. BUT I CAN'T DO IT YET, it is far too soon. There is so much still to find out and do first.

I will write again later to explain some of these settings. Thank goodness it is too late for you to start printing tonight! :) I have got a chance to draw breath and take my time explaining things properly.

cura_bricks_slow.png



cheers,

Martin.
 

Attachments

  • neptune2s_bricks_slow_cura5p1_april2023.curaprofile
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So you're going to
@Phil G

Hi Phil,

Now you are making me bad-tempered! :)

I never said I was "going to" do anything. I said I'm experimenting with different ideas -- and I haven't yet concluded anything from them. I don't know how many times I have to keep saying that I'm conducting an experiment. When you do that you don't know the results until the experiment is finished. Absolutely nothing about Templot plug track is yet finally decided.

It's great to have folks helping me with this experiment and providing feedback, but it's turning into a constant battle of wits to stop them running ahead of me. That's entirely up to them of course, but they could be wasting an awful lot of time, money and materials. I don't want to be responsible for that. :(

cheers,

Martin.
 
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Hi Martin,
Sorry certainly not my intension to put you in a bad mood.:)
You know, that I know its all experimental, that's a given. To the point I don't even mention it, maybe I should for the sake of other readers.

If I gave you the impression I was forcing you in a direction, that was not my intension at all.
I was just curious, but I take on board your point, you can't develop the product if you spend all your time replaying to posts.

As to the comment about ill spent money, your sounding like your talking directly to my wife. :)
As I said to her, its my money and my choice, Some people rush out and buy new cars each year. I have a bit of a habit of collecting tools.
After all, even if plug track falls over completely heaven forbid, I will find other uses for the tools. So no need to feel your in anyway responsible for me purchasing things.

With that I will leave you alone to carry on with your experiments in peace.
Cheers
Phil,
 
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@Michael Woods @Paul Boyd

Hi Michael,

index.php


1. Layer Height

This setting is the most significant in controlling the print time. I'm using 0.12mm which is far less than it needs to be for most of the timbering brick height, but not for the top layer. There is a small rebate around the top of the sockets to ensure the chairs can sit flush to the timber surface. If the top layer is more than 0.12mm Cura will not be able to print this rebate and will simply ignore it. Increasing the depth of the rebate would prevent the chair plugs from fitting tight.

Ideally we would use say 0.24mm for most of the timber depth, switching to 0.12mm for the last few layers only. Which would shorten print times significantly. It seems Cura does not have an option to change layer height for different sections of the model. As far as I know the only slicer program which does so is the paid-for Simplify3D slicer which is expensive and received poor reviews for the latest version. Given that most of the other FDM slicers are free, we probably don't want to bother with that. Cura has an experimental "Adaptive layers" function which ought to be able to do what we want, but in lengthy dabbling with it I couldn't get it to do anything other than increase the normal layer height for the whole model. There is a lot of experimenting with different slicers and settings which could be done here, but it's just side-tracking me from getting on with the chairs. It will have to wait for another day.

Instead, I have written a Gcode editor utility which can create the required effect by splitting and combining two separate Gcode files from Cura. It sort of works and reduces print time significantly, but it's a faff to use, so I'm not going to release it until I have got it to the stage where it can be used with just a few clicks. At present it would need yet another page of explanation of ifs and buts, and I'm reaching burn-out in writing endless explanations -- here I am in the 3rd paragraph about just one Cura setting. :(

More Cura stuff to follow.

In the end Templot users won't need to know any of this -- just download the recommended plug track printer profile and use it.

cheers,

Martin.
 
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you can't develop the product if you spend all your time replaying to posts.
@Phil G

Hi Phil,

I know you didn't mean anything by that, but I just want to be clear that plug track is not a "product". I'm not supplying or selling anything at all with Templot. It is just my hobby interest, which others can join in if they wish.

I've already had to fend off emails from folks trying to order plug track from me, asking for price lists, even expecting to buy a 3D printer from me. I've tried and tried to make clear what I'm doing with Templot, but some folks just don't seem able to understand.

I know there are still a few bits of wording on the web site left over from the time (12 years ago now) when I was selling the Templot program commercially. But I can't stop now to re-write the web site, otherwise I never will make progress with the plug track, it seems to be getting slower and slower.

cheers,

Martin.
 
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message ref: 6459
Hi Michael,
Here are some tips for chair rafts
Starting with S gauge, plain straight track , i set length to 110mm, then added a yellow(easier to see) background shape to contain the MS rail wit chairs plus space above the chairs for another row.
then real > rails > omit rails etc
1682356501830.png

unticked TS running rail, that just gives us the MS running rail & chairs, stire & background,. this stores a template to the storage box with the MS running rail chairs.
Then real > rails > omit rails again.
untick MS running rail & tick TS running rail to give us the opposite of the first template
1682356690296.png

Now click [shift&join] button to move the TS running rail set of chairs down so that they also fit on the yellow rectangle (which will become the raft)
1682356828022.png

store & background
Then perform the DXF/STL export, selecting all background templates, chairs only, setting your custom rail.
This will give you a long narrow raft with S1 fixed jaw chairs (unless you play with the various chair & jaw tickboxes)


I recomend you go for a long narrow raft as it is easier to a) release raft from build plate (at leats on the my Mars), b) with chairs close to edge of raft allows you to get Xuron style cutters in to snip off the chairs.

You can get more chairs in by "grouping" the two templates, making a copy and shifting the copy of the group so that the chairs are adjacent to the original group but are inbetween if you see what I mean.

good luck with your printing

Steve
ps measure the length of your sleepers, and also the legth of the timber base from the outside surface of the two end timbers to check the accuracy of the finished timber base.
You can use shove timbers function to calculate what the length of the base should be (see a previous post by Martin & myself a few pages ago fro method)
 
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message ref: 6470
@Michael Woods @Paul Boyd

Hi Michael,

You have that set for a standard printer profile (0.2mm NORMAL).

It's worth a try, but based on my experience with 4 different FDM printers, it is unlikely to produce very satisfactory results. The socket dimensions will be poorly defined, inconsistent, and the chairs won't fit them. Especially those skewed at an angle to the timbers. There is likely to be some stringing across the sockets. On most machines the standard profiles are designed to optimise print time over print quality.

Attached below is the settings profile which I use for the timbering bricks on my gantry printer (Neptune 2S) which is similar in design to your AnyCubic Mega Zero.

It's for the Cura slicer, I don't know how the settings compare with the Prusa slicer. Cura is free if you want to try it -- the settings file below is for version Cura 5.1

Here are some of the settings which are important. It looks complicated but hopefully all that most Templot users will have to do is download the Cura software (free) and load the appropriate profile setting from the Templot web site.

After an initial print, you would need to measure it, and probably adjust some of these settings and the shrinkage settings in the DXF export to get accurate results on your own printer. In due course there will be a calibration print file available to make this easy (like the 2D printer calibration for the paper templates).

I'm really fearful that by posting all this stuff now it is going to frighten off some potential users of plug track. I intend to make it really easy for them -- get this, click that, press this button. BUT I CAN'T DO IT YET, it is far too soon. There is so much still to find out and do first.

I will write again later to explain some of these settings. Thank goodness it is too late for you to start printing tonight! :) I have got a chance to draw breath and take my time explaining things properly.

View attachment 5567


cheers,

Martin.
Thanks Martin,


I played with the settings. Will have another go later in the week but feels like it is directionally correct. Will spin up the chairs on my resin printer next weekend.
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot 2023-04-24 212421.png
    Screenshot 2023-04-24 212421.png
    500.5 KB · Views: 63
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message ref: 6471
Hi Michael,
Here are some tips for chair rafts
Starting with S gauge, plain straight track , i set length to 110mm, then added a yellow(easier to see) background shape to contain the MS rail wit chairs plus space above the chairs for another row.
then real > rails > omit rails etc
View attachment 5574
unticked TS running rail, that just gives us the MS running rail & chairs, stire & background,. this stores a template to the storage box with the MS running rail chairs.
Then real > rails > omit rails again.
untick MS running rail & tick TS running rail to give us the opposite of the first template
View attachment 5575
Now click [shift&join] button to move the TS running rail set of chairs down so that they also fit on the yellow rectangle (which will become the raft)
View attachment 5576
store & background
Then perform the DXF/STL export, selecting all background templates, chairs only, setting your custom rail.
This will give you a long narrow raft with S1 fixed jaw chairs (unless you play with the various chair & jaw tickboxes)


I recomend you go for a long narrow raft as it is easier to a) release raft from build plate (at leats on the my Mars), b) with chairs close to edge of raft allows you to get Xuron style cutters in to snip off the chairs.

You can get more chairs in by "grouping" the two templates, making a copy and shifting the copy of the group so that the chairs are adjacent to the original group but are inbetween if you see what I mean.

good luck with your printing

Steve
ps measure the length of your sleepers, and also the legth of the timber base from the outside surface of the two end timbers to check the accuracy of the finished timber base.
You can use shove timbers function to calculate what the length of the base should be (see a previous post by Martin & myself a few pages ago fro method)
Thanks Steve - will have a work through on this.
 
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message ref: 6472
Bit of work to do on printer settings to get the chairs to be a nice snug fit......also I need to try and set the custom settings for the S Scale society prefered code 87 rail. I chose the scale profile and it is too tight.....but these are things I can play with.....great system!

Screenshot 2023-04-25 203719.png
 
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@Michael Woods

Hi Michael,

I can't be sure from your photo, but your chairs seem to have the rail seat missing (the red component here):

s1_cad.png

The seat supports the underside of the rail. Without it, the rail will be hanging in fresh air on the jaws and the key, and you won't be able to firm the chairs into the sockets. The settings are on the DXF dialog. However, it is all change in update 238a which I hope to have on the server this week, maybe tomorrow.

So it will just be confusing if I explain any more now.

I should have explained that model rail section never matches the prototype exactly, the web thickness is almost always over-scale. You could start by increasing that.

cheers,

Martin.
 
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@Phil G

I'm hoping to release 238a today in time for the Zoom meeting tonight.

It's going to be a close shave because I have other things on the go today. But if I don't make it there will be no point in talking about plug track in the Zoom meeting today because there are a lot of changes coming in 238a to fix the pig's ear I made of 237c.

Phil, I'm going to take your advice and throw 238a out of the door as-is, for everyone else to find the bugs. :) I'm sure there are some, but I just don't have time at present to test everything exhaustively myself, and until it is out of the door I can't get on with the crossing chairs.

cheers,

Martin.
 
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.
Program update 238a is now on the server.

Restart Templot to update.

Martin.
 
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@Terry Downes

Hi Terry,

In the Zoom meeting you wanted the wrong chairs to run through the crossing?

You can do that if you change to the all L1 bridge chairs option:

terry_all_bridge2.png


terry_all_bridge1.png



That option is of course intended only for plain track on waybeams, and it's a bug that it works on a turnout and plain sleepers. Or at least it is at present, it wouldn't be a bug if I make it apply only to replacing S1 and S1J chairs, and only on timbers, through a turnout. Not that I can see any reason why anyone would want such a thing, but they might do.
edit: I have seen pointwork using bridge chairs on waybeams adjacent to a water column, so that drains can be provided between the rails for any overflows. Would be an interesting detail to model.

You can do the same thing using the all SC fictional chairs option, but in that case another bug means you don't get any chair jaws, just the chair bases. But you do get longer sockets more suited to the location.

To make practical use of this you would need to create several partial templates, with timbers shortened so that the sockets don't conflict:

terry_all_bridge3.png


For some reason the check rail chairs aren't being replaced, so that's another bug.

These are the sort of bugs I would have found if I had delayed 238a to do more testing. No doubt there are more.

I can't see any practical use for the above, even the sockets will conflict through the crossing and not draw properly into the timbers, but it's what you asked for. :)

cheers,

Martin.
 
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.
There was some talk in the Zoom meeting about cutting the chairs from the raft. Here is the diagram I mentioned (I was referring to the raft as a "skate" at the time I posted it):

index.php



index.php


The edge rebate along the underside of the raft is intended to aid prising it from the build plate.

It's very advisable to have only 2 rows of chairs on a raft. On the left above you can see where I have broken a raft in half in order to get at the middle chairs with the cutters. Multiple rafts can easily be cloned on the printer build plate, using the slicer software.

If the plug doesn't cut cleanly from the support pyramid, the chair can be dropped into a loose-fitting socket on a spare timber, and given a rub across the underside with a file, to ensure it won't bottom in its destination socket before it is fully home.

cheers,

Martin.
 
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In that diagram the rebate at the top of the pyramid looks quite pronounce, very similar to the base plate overhang above the plug. When I printed some Check chairs it did not seem so pronounced. Is it possible that the default parameter has the wrong value?
 
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In that diagram the rebate at the top of the pyramid looks quite pronounce, very similar to the base plate overhang above the plug. When I printed some Check chairs it did not seem so pronounced. Is it possible that the default parameter has the wrong value?
@Steve_Cornford

Hi Steve,

Here are the current sizes, for the 3P (switch) and CCL/CCR (check rail) chairs:
pyramid_top_width.png


I made the pyramid top wider than before in order to accommodate the slot for the loose pin, in the situation where the slot is skewed in the chair, and may be very significantly skewed. If it isn't much skewed, or you are not using loose jaws, you can change the settings:

pyramid_top_width3.png


and/or make the plug deeper and wider at the bottom by being less tapered:

pyramid_top_width4.png


which results in this:

pyramid_top_width2.png


pyramid_top_width1.png


That's the default check rail end chair, and the slot looks to be fine with the gentle 1:18 REA flare angle. But the numbers don't quite add up, so I need to check what the mesh fixer makes of it. Probably it's fine.

Another option (so many things to try before we arrive at the final design!) would be to make the pyramid top wider than the plug, and use the cutters the other way up? We could then make the pyramid a lot shorter (lower) to avoid wasting so much resin. But there might be an adverse effect on wash flow.

I'm sorry I didn't explain all this when you asked about it in the Zoom meeting. It's getting a bit beyond me to explain everything, and I don't know what to do about it. :(

cheers,

Martin.
 
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Hi Martin,
Thanks for explaining this in detail, and especially for the suggeston of having a loose fitting timber base as a filing jig.
Snipping the chairs off the raft (or would you prefer us to call it a skate?) is not an exact science so there will always be the odd chair that needs the bottom of the plug tidying up.
I would not worry too much about resin consumption, as we seem to be able to get 120 S1 chairs on the build plate of the Mars for a resin cost of 37p.
As long as you are happy to let me dabble & try this out I will continue to play experiment.
ps Hope you manage to get to a bluebell wood before they disappear.for the year.
 
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Hi Martin,
Just a quick question,
when you go into the part of the program that allows pyramid dimension adjustment, as you have shown above.
Does that then act the same on all the chairs that have been selected in the new chair options? IE if I understood the zoom meeting correctly, (which by the way was very informative, thanks for posting it so soon) we now have the option by the radio buttons, to select which chairs and what type of jaws we can export out of Templot, thus creating a mixed raft of chairs for exact requirements.
Cheers
Phil,
PS please can we still keep calling it a (raft) :) As I have my head around that.
 
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or would you prefer us to call it a skate?
@Steve_Cornford

I'm happy with raft. I called it a skate because I saw that term being used on several 3D printing web sites. It's not a good term because it suggests something which slides about -- which is the opposite of what we want. A raft can float about too, but presumably can be moored. The most obvious term is slab, but we are already using that for rectangles within the timbering bricks.

Words, words -- it has always been the words. Within the code a stored template is still called a keep, and the storage box is still called the keeps box. I was persuaded to change the public name by Brian Lewis of C&L, and have always regretted it. Templot itself was very nearly changed to Platelayer, logo created, but I'm glad now that I never quite got round to doing it. It's important nowadays to use a word which isn't in the dictionary, so that you get top of the Google results without even trying. :)

cheers,

Martin.
 
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Hi Martin,
Just a quick question,
when you go into the part of the program that allows pyramid dimension adjustment, as you have shown above.
Does that then act the same on all the chairs that have been selected in the new chair options? IE if I understood the zoom meeting correctly, (which by the way was very informative, thanks for posting it so soon) we now have the option by the radio buttons, to select which chairs and what type of jaws we can export out of Templot, thus creating a mixed raft of chairs for exact requirements.
Cheers
Phil,
PS please can we still keep calling it a (raft) :) As I have my head around that.
@Phil G

Hi Phil,

At present those settings are global across the entire exported file. Not all of them are even included in the custom settings file. I just can't do everything at once. :)

It's my intention that eventually everything will be template-specific and applicable to individual chairs, as now done in 238a for some* of the chair jaws. I didn't start off doing it that way because I didn't actually know what settings would be needed -- and I still don't. Adding extra settings into the BOX file is far more work than temporary global settings. I put that list of buttons on the DXF dialog primarily for my own use to find out what the default values should be.

At some stage we are going to need a new file format, for the custom chairs, which might then include some of these settings. But that's a lot of work, so will have to wait for now.

By now I should be working on the crossing chairs. But yet again I have been distracted -- I'm currently working on the pyramid tops to make the width dynamic, and only widened for chairs where it needs to be for skewed pin slots.

*I forgot to include the SC fictional chairs in the list. Consequently they are now without any jaws at all. :(

cheers,

Martin.
 
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Martin - Firstly thank you for the zoom call.

I have now loaded the new version of Templot

Thank you

Quick question at the risk of making myself look very foolish. When I export the 3D sleeper file, here my file name is black track as I want to print in black, I am getting the following error. It appears a colon is being inserted after the .STL.

Screenshot (201).png
 
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@Michael Woods

Hi Michael,

Good to see you at the Zoom meeting. :)

That's very odd. The colon isn't being added by Templot, I just exported an STL to check:

stl_file_name.png


So it must be something in your Meshmixer program. Presumably you can edit the file name in the File > Open dialog?

Maybe when you edited the file name to black_track you accidentally added a colon?

Have you tried using the online mesh fixer service instead:

https://www.formware.co/onlinestlrepair

cheers,

Martin.
 
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message ref: 6513
It's my intention that eventually everything will be template-specific and applicable to individual chairs, as now done in 238a for some* of the chair jaws. I didn't start off doing it that way because I didn't actually know what settings would be needed -- and I still don't. Adding extra settings into the BOX file is far more work than temporary global settings. I put that list of buttons on the DXF dialog primarily for my own use to find out what the default values should be.

I've looked back through all my plug track posts and I think perhaps there is something I have never properly explained.

I keep saying that the project is an experiment. What that means is that the present user interface for plug track is a complete kludge from start to finish. I simply tied everything needed to conduct the experiment onto the existing dialogs with string, as a temporary expedient to avoid needing to write everything from scratch. For example I re-used the existing background shapes as a quick means of adding some non-track components into the 3D export. I put all those extra buttons and tick boxes on the existing 2D DXF dialog (which I hadn't looked at for years) as a convenient place to put them for now, so that I can change the settings and see what happens.

It's not intended to stay that way in the finish. Or at least, it wasn't my intention originally and it still isn't if I keep going long enough. The idea is that when the experiment is over, when we know what works and what doesn't and what is wanted, a completely new set of dialogs and file formats will be created to support the new 3D functions. The existing background shapes and DXF dialog can then revert to what they were before plug track.

I've made a start on that with the new chairing options dialog in 238a, but I've done it in isolation from anything else, and I'm fairly sure it will need some changes before we are finished.

It's dawned on me that a lot of folks just haven't grasped all this. That the current plug track stuff has been bodged into Templot simply as a temporary means to find out if it works. You are not seeing the final implementation of this function, so there is no point in learning where everything is, or expecting it to be in the same place twice running. Or even to exist in the end.

The thing I need to know most is -- does it actually work? Are you able to make track which is fit to be used on a model railway and which trains will run on? The exact details of which button does what and why can come later when we know if the whole thing is worth doing in the first place.

cheers,

Martin.
 
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@Michael Woods

Hi Michael,

Good to see you at the Zoom meeting. :)

That's very odd. The colon isn't being added by Templot, I just exported an STL to check:

View attachment 5608

So it must be something in your Meshmixer program. Presumably you can edit the file name in the File > Open dialog?

Maybe when you edited the file name to black_track you accidentally added a colon?

Have you tried using the online mesh fixer service instead:

https://www.formware.co/onlinestlrepair

cheers,

Martin.
Tried everything - including the online formware - I must be doing something silly.....tried to see if I can attach it here....now called usual market_square etc.....
 

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  • Screenshot (204).png
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