Table of Contents
Best Practice
Track plan (CTC)
- Keep the track plan design simple and schematically and leave out all unnecessary tracks.
Every symbol in the track plan is a Window object 1) and needs computer resources.
| Example of extraction | |
|---|---|
 |  |
| Station areas in a designer. | Station areas schematically in Rocrail. |
 |  |
| Staging area in a designer. | Staging area schematically in Rocrail. |
Layout
- Plan block length to fit the longest train which will run on this layout.
- Plan at least 2 sensor sections in each block. (ENTER and IN)
- Plan switches or switch motors with position feedback.
Large layouts
Large layouts with Windows is not a good choice:
A free Linux distribution on the same hardware is preferred.
Command Station
- Select a simple CS because Rocrail offers all control needed and saves a lot of money.
File names and IDs
In Rocrail all file names and IDs are case sensitive.
- Avoid using blanks in ID's.
- ID's should be short codes; Use the description field for more information.
Modifying XML Files
In case an XML Layout file should be manually modified, which is normally not necessary, an UTF-8 capable editor must be used to save none ASCII characters like umlauts.
The standard Windows 'editor', Notepad, will damage the encoding.
Recommended editors
- Notepad++ for Windows
- Gedit for Linux
- TextEdit or TextWrangler for Mac
1)
Objects on the screen are not only graphic symbols, but are managed by the program, ie responding on mouse actions and if necessary changed