SCARM - Simple Computer Aided Railway Modeller


@CMNR: Thank you, Gary :)

@Mrs T: I am glad that the problem is solved :) Try also the newer version, because it fixes several important bugs, including missing 3D snapshot on some PCs.

Mixy
 
Thanks Milen for another excellent update! :) I read your blog post and I'm really looking forward to the terraforming! :D

I saw you mention in a recent layout feature that SCARM currently has some performance issues when attempting to render a large quantity of trees in the 3D view. How's the progress going on the optimization?
 
The 3D rendering is very dependant of the graphics card speed. I was experimenting with textured images instead of real 3D objects for the trees. They are much faster and look much better, when viewed from a side, but if you move the camera on the top and look down, they are disaster and everything just disappears. However, after current optimizations, if you are able to place a lot of trees in 2D and work with them without delays, it should work fine in also in 3D :) The “large amount” of trees or other objects can be 500 for somebody and 50000 for someone else - the second value is really "large" for any railway software :) Also, different objects can have different complexity - i.e. fir-trees in SCARM are more complex than regular trees. So it depends also on every single layout and preferences of the user. But some other optimizations are on the way and SCARM will become even faster in the next versions ;)

Mixy
 
Mixy, Here's an update to my post earlier with that screen shot. You might like to know I have an Nvidia 460 graphics card in my computer and the 3D renders very quickly for me.

The only thing I notice once in a while is that some elements do not render on the first try, but they always do on the second try if I select the 3D button again right away.

An example from my screen shot of something not rendering would be a piece of the black road or the blue water. It's not a big deal to me, but I thought you would like to know.

Great program!
 
Hi Athlon,

Thank you for the feedback. If you notice again that something on your layout is not rendered, please make a screenshot, render it again and make second snapshot with details appeared on it. I will then compare the images and will check why is this happening :)

Mixy
 
Here you are Mixy........

Here's what I did - I loaded Scarm, then my plan, then clicked on the 3D button and saved snapshot1.bmp.

Then I closed the 3D view, clicked the 3D button again and saved snapshot2.bmp.

Then I used Windows Paint to crop each snapshot and convert them to png format to allow me to post them here.

As you can see, a piece of the black road is missing from the first snapshot.

Again - this is not a big deal for me, and I know how much time you must be spending on this kind of stuff. If you want to call this a 'low priority' on your to-do list that's perfectly fine with me!! :)
 
Thank you, Athlon,

This behavior is really strange - never seen it before :confused: Is this happening in the new version 0.9.18 only or you see it also in older versions?

Can you send me your project file in zip file to SCARM email address:
mail.gif
to check and test it in deep?

Mixy
 
I started using SCARM one version back from this new release only a few weeks ago.

And yes, it did this on the earlier version as well.

File sent..........
 
OK, I received the file and can confirm the bug - will investigate why is this happening in the next days ;)

Mixy
 
Downloaded SCRAM last week, been having fun designing tracks, and learning the program.
A very good program for beginners, like myself.

Thanks for spending the time on this for us ... for FREE!
:D
Greg
 
SCARM helped me greatly in my design process.

The only gripe I have with it is how how it is to join up flex track with existing track ends.

Check this shit out though =)

IMG_20130131_151340.jpg


IMG_20130131_154105.jpg


Couldn't have been easier thanks to your software. Many thanks.
 
These control panels with SCARM printouts on them are looking just great!

I am glad that my software is useful to all of you ;)

Mixy
 
The only thing I notice once in a while is that some elements do not render on the first try, but they always do on the second try if I select the 3D button again right away.

Found the bug :)

Actually, these elements that “blink” on each 3D rendering are Polygon figures with doubled control points in one of the corners. You can just move the control points and will see that in one of the corners of the problematic figures, there are two control points one over another. Delete the doubled corner point and this will stop “blinking”. This issue will be fixed in the next update of SCARM and removing of doubled points will occur automatically. Thank you again for the notice :)

Mixy
 
Good to see that it is OK ;)

The next SCARM release is close :)

Until that, I started to play with the figures and to see what can be done about simple bridges in SCARM... not so much, but some ideas flashed across my mind and I wrote a blog article about them, called Custom bridge pillars and railings in SCARM. Here is one of the bridges, that I created in the program:

SCARM_realistic_railway_bridge.jpg


May be this will be useful for many of you ;)

Mixy
 
First off - thanks. This is a really neat tool. I bet I've messed with a half dozen programs and this is the only one that is anywhere near user friendly.

One request though- please revise how the inclines work. I think it would be neat to be able to highlight the desired max height beginning and ending points and input a climb angle. Then, the program would figure out the rest. Perhaps an option to build mountains/ rivers too? Just a thought.
 
I like the software, i'd like to see a "print" full size layout.... so i can piece the paper together and lay it out on plywood and go from there....
 
Thank you, guys :)

@Railrunner130: I will consider adding some other functionality to the inclines feature, but working with angles instead of heights may be difficult and confusing to other users. However, I will thing over it.
I am already working over terrain shaping feature and it will appear in some of the next versions, hope soon ;)
About the rivers, check the following tutorial in the blog: Rivers and Lakes :)

@RavenKnight21: SCARM is not able to perform automatic full-size printouts of the layouts, but there is a way to do it manually - check the following article in the blog: Print Whole Layout in 1:1 Scale - hope this will be useful ;)

Mixy
 



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