Open and share WinTrack, AnyRail and XtrkCAD plans interactively in the browser

You have put months into your track plan. It sits as a file on your computer, and when you want to show it to someone, you take — a screenshot.

That is where the trouble starts. A screenshot is a picture: nobody can look at the plan from the side in 3D, open the parts list or zoom in to see which turnout is actually there. And anyone who wants to join the discussion in a forum ends up asking questions the plan answered long ago — they just cannot get at it.

Now that has changed: Trackplanner reads your original file.

Six formats, no conversion

You export nothing and re-save nothing. You drag the file into the window exactly as it is:

• WinTrack (.tra) — including double slips, three-way and curved turnouts, heights, gradients and levels
• AnyRail (.any) — both format generations, flex track with its real curvature, heights and gradients
• XtrkCAD (.xtc) — track, turnouts and flex track from the open-source classic, with heights and levels
• Raily (.arf) — track, turnouts and hand-laid track with its real curvature, plus the baseboard and drawings
• 3rd PlanIt (.3pi) — track with heights, turnouts, levels and labels; freehand curves become flex track, and the terrain comes across as an approximation
• Trackplanner 1.0 (.glp) — the old Windows version from 2005. Files over twenty years old open again.

That last one is my favourite. I built the first Trackplanner as a sixteen-year-old. That the plans from back then now open in a browser — which did not exist in this form at the time — is not something I expected.

The plan is rebuilt, not traced

The import does not trace your picture. It reads which part sits where and rebuilds the plan from real catalogue track — with your manufacturer's exact geometry and with article numbers.

That is why you get a parts list that adds up, and the software can calculate: radii, gradients and, soon, usable lengths. And because it matches part by part, the import also tells you when something does not work.

Because not everything comes across. Accessories and scenery come across only partly, depending on the format. Whatever could not be matched is counted and shown to you before you save — as a number, not in the small print. An import that stays quiet would be worthless: you would find out when you start building.

Sharing by link

After the import the plan gets a link. Whoever opens it does not see a picture but the plan: zoom, orbit in 3D, open the parts list. Viewers need neither an installation nor an account, and it works on a phone too, in the middle of the club room.

This is what that looks like — go ahead and click in:

You can put the link in your build thread, in your signature, on your club's page. It stays where it is, even as you keep building.

What happens to your plan — and what does not

• You remain the author. Your name stays with the plan.
• In the free account plans are public. That is the deal: you get permanent hosting and a link, the community gets your plan to look at. If you need private plans, choose Premium.
• You can delete any time, no questions asked.
• Other people's plans do not belong here. Before your plan goes public you confirm that it is yours. Plans from magazines or by other authors need their permission.

The full answers are on Show your layout — where you will also find a page each on AnyRail, WinTrack, XtrkCAD, Raily and 3rd PlanIt with the details for that format.

Not keen on learning a new tool?

Understandable. Then send me the file at info@trackplanner.io, subject “Plan import”. I will import it by hand, set up the profile with your name and send the finished link back. Free, no strings attached, and on one word from you it is gone again.