Layout Editor

Tutorial

Planning a Scalextric home track. Part 1

Overview

I'm planning to set up a two lane Scalextric track in the spare room of my home. Space is limited, so I'm considering a digital layout, maybe.

Scalextric Home Layout

This tutorial will outline the planning process and will involve...

  • Laying out the room and the space available for the track
  • Designing a first draft of the track layout
  • Planning the table to support the track
  • Producing a full 3d render of the room, the table, the track, and the scenery.

 

Let's get Started

To open the Layout Editor -

  • Layout Editor  ButtonClick on the Layout Editor button in the Left-bar or on the Home Page
  • Views Menu Edit Track LayoutOr choose "Edit a track layout " from the Views list in the Header Menu
  • Or press F9 on your keyboard F9

 

Create a new layout

New Layout

Select "New" from the File Menu to start designing a new track layout, or press Ctrl+N on your keyboard.

Choose your track brand

Select Track Library

In this case I've chosen Scalextric Digital + Sport

Choose Toolbars

In the View menu I'll switch on the Zoom, Room, Autoshapes, Display, Drawing and 3D Camera toolbars

View menu

 

Room Layout

Before I start thinking about my track layout, I'm going to plan the room and the space available. So after carefully measuring the room, I'll use the Room toolbar to set up the plan.

Room toolbar

T shaped room tool My room is T shaped so I click on the T shaped Room button, which enters a room into the layout view.

Room entered

Now I need to change it's shape and size. So first, I grab the corner points and drag, to create the general shape I want.

Room reshaped

Now I can adjust the size.

  • First I go to View > Preferences > Grid and rotation settings and set the Major Grid units to cm or in, for maximum accuracy
  • Then I adjust the corner points until all of the walls are exactly the right size
  • Finally I right click on the room shape and choose Properties or double click on the room . Here I'll add a height to the room of 270cm so that the room is defined in 3 dimensions, which will be used when I come to the 3d rendering later.
  • In the same box I can also double check the overall dimensions in the width and depth dimension boxes. I can make adjustments here if necessary

Room sized

Track Table

Polygon tool The next thing I'll do, is draw in my track table using the polygon tool. Click once at each corner point and double click to finish.

Next I'll double click on the table polygon and set a grey background colour (remembering to untick the No colour:transparent box) and I'll also set a height of 2cm, to represent the thickness of the table material.

Now we start to use the 3d capabilities of Ultimate Racer...

Show Elevations First I click on the Show Elevations tool. This will immediately display a height of 2cm for the table, which is the thickness of the material, which I set above. Elevations are shown inside a blue circle.

Raise tool Then I'll click on the Raise Tool. The Raise tool allows us to elevate either track or objects. A single click raises any object by a single unit (2.5cm), a Ctrl click raises by 5 units (12.5cm) and a Shift click raises by 10 units (25cm). So by using those combinations I'll raise my table to a height of 72cm, which is about the height of an average dining table.

2d/3d toggle tool Now, if I click on the Switch 2d/3d tool we can start to see the 3d shapes emerging....

Room & table in 3d

3D camera toolbar The 3d camera toolbar can be used to change the viewpoint. You can also click and drag anywhere on the screen to pan around the room.

Legs

So the room is an accurate 3d wireframe model, and the table is a solid object with a thickness and which is set to the correct height.

But I want more than that. I want my table to have legs, and I want to have a shelf underneath the table.

So let's put in the legs.

Switch 2d/3d First I go back to the 2d view

Rectangle tool Then I use the rectangle tool to draw in the cross section of my legs. I draw a roughly sized rectangle then double click to open the Properties panel, where I can set a width of say 10cm, a depth of 10cm, and a height of 70cm, meaning it will sit just underneath the height of the table. I'll also set the fill colour to a light brown, using the custom colour pallette.

Now, a word of warning. 3d can get complicated, especially when you're trying to do the work in 2d. Let's take the leg I've just drawn as an example. If I'd drawn the leg in postion, ie under the table, I wouldn't be able to see it in 2d, as it's underneath the table. Nor would I be able to select it, change it's properties or do anything at all with it, unless I moved the table top out of the way first.

This situation will happen a lot, particularly if you get into complex 3d models. It will seem a bit confusing at first, but we'll explore the best ways to work around those complications.

So in this case , I'll draw the leg off to one side, away from the table. I'll then set all of the properties, width, depth, height, colour etc.

Copy tool Next I'll copy the leg using the Copy tool (or Ctrl + C on the keyboard) ...

Paste tool ... and paste it three times using the Paste tool (or Ctrl + V).

I'll also add in two cross beams, and align the four legs and the cross beams together, before selecting the whole lot and moving them into place.

Legs and beams added

Shelf, floor & backboards

Now I'm going add a shelf underneath the table. It's going to be the same colour and thickness as the top and a similar shape.

Copy tool Paste tool So I'll begin by making a copy of the table top, which I'll move away to one side for the moment.

Lower tool Then I'll use the Lower tool to drop the other table top down to the height of the lower cross beam and change it's shape so that it sits just behind the legs. Then I can move the copied table top back into position.

Polygon tool Using the Polygon tool I will also add a backboard and a floor.

Room model complete

 

Save

At this stage I'll save my plan and call it "Room layout".

I will probably work on several track designs, so it's useful to have an empty room layout that I can start with for each separate layout idea.

In the next stage I'll start to design my track layout

 

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