Advanced tools
What else there is, and what it's for — without step-by-step instructions.
Module editor
Tools → Module editor… (Shift+M) edits track systems instead of plans: create your own, or change a bundled one.
Create Module sets up an empty module, Select Module loads an existing one. Add New Rail builds an element from a basic shape (straight, curve, switch, crossing, turntable, bumper block …) complete with segments and connectors; for more freedom, use individual segments and connectors from the editor's toolbar. Make Element Drivable turns the geometry into running paths — for a switch, with several named positions.
Draw Polygon adds decoration such as a platform, a pit or a buffer: click its corners and double-click to finish. A new polygon is closed and filled, like nearly all of the catalogue's. The stroke and fill colour buttons in the toolbar set the colours of the selection and of what you draw next; the tool window sets whether a polygon is closed and filled, and a double-click on it lets you move its corners.
New Path and New Rectangle draw decoration a polygon cannot: curves, holes and hatched areas, set in the tool window. Raily 4 does not show such decoration.
New Regular Polygon… draws a circle or an arc as decoration: it asks for the radius, the arc and the number of corners, and a click places the polygon. With 360° the corners are spaced evenly; a smaller arc puts a corner on each of its ends. The dialog remembers the last values.
Mirror horizontally and Mirror vertically flip the selection, or the whole element when nothing is selected. Create Mirrored Counterpart…, next to the element list, adds a copy of the current element mirrored lengthwise under a new ID: a left switch becomes a right one, decoration included. Mirroring a plan then uses it. Mirror image in the element details names the mirror image by hand: another element of the module, or the element itself, turned.
Next to the module name sit the buttons for the metadata (manufacturer, scale, system, catalog
status …), the Track Profile, the Module Diff against the saved version, and the
download as .arf.
A change applies to every plan that uses the module from now on
A module belongs to its name, not to a plan. Plans already saved keep their own version, and Raily asks when opening which one should apply (see below). Delete Element removes the track piece from the module; the dialog tells you what that means for plans.
A module loaded into the editor is only in your library after you save it. Until then you edit a copy: Discard leaves the module as it was.
A note on the module says where it comes from. For a module from your library, next to it sit Earlier versions…, which brings back one of the last ten saved versions (the current one goes to the trash in turn), and the way out: Use Raily's version… for a module that replaces a bundled one, otherwise Remove from my library….
Module library and reconciliation
If a plan brings along a module that differs from your library, Module in this plan appears.
- If you don't have it: Use for this plan only or Add to my library.
- If you have your own version, the dialog shows the differences and offers Keep both, Replace my library version with the plan version, or Use my library version.
Replacing can remove elements from your library
The dialog names them and asks for a second confirmation. Keep both changes nothing and is the default.
Raily remembers your answer for exactly these two versions: the plan asks again only once one of them has changed. Use my library version reaches the plan file with the next save.
The way back to the bundled version is described in Module selection.
Object repository
Insert → Object repository… offers ready-made objects from bundled collections: stations, trees, bridges, buildings, signals. If the scale doesn't match, From scale and To scale work out the factor.
The geometry is scaled, not the level of detail
After conversion, an H0 house has the size of an N-scale model, but not its wall thicknesses.
Primitive shapes and solid operations (CSG)
Insert → Scenery and life → Add 3D shape… places a box, sphere, cylinder, cone, pyramid, torus and more. They become a custom part once you combine several of them: a wall with a niche, a pipe with a bore.
Select two or more solids. The CSG context menu and three keys do the same thing:
| Command | Key | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Subtract | - | A without B |
| Union | + | A and B as one solid |
| Intersect | / | what A and B have in common |
B is whatever you clicked last. Holding Alt also leaves B standing. The calculation runs in the background; the status bar shows it.
The result remembers what it's made of. Mesh → Create mesh in the context menu turns it into a solid triangle mesh, for example for the 3D export. The same keys also combine two drawn paths.
Editing the parts of a body
Click a combined solid a second time and the Parts strip opens: a tree of every part, nested bodies included, with a sign in front of a part that says what it does — a plain minus for one that is cut away, nothing for one that is added. Choose a part in the tree, in the flat views (Ortho views) or in the scene, and the editor stands on that part: move and rotate it with T and R, drag it, delete it, or change its values in the properties panel. Something inserted meanwhile becomes a part of the body. The strip's arrows change the order of the parts, which is what decides what is cut from what; Take out (Shift+O) lifts a part out of the body it sits in. Esc closes the strip.
The element groups
At the bottom of the left toolbar, and in the Insert menu, sit the same four groups: Railway, Buildings, Building parts and Scenery and life. What's in each one is shown by the list itself. Two rules decide where an element ends up:
- Almost everything under Building parts attaches to a surface, as does a lamp on a wall bracket.
- Pole and signal bind to a track.
Both are explained by Snapping. Every element is adjusted the same way; see Shaping a building.