Getting started 6: Leaving the flat
We have mountains now, but our track is flat. In this step we bring it up, and stumble over the same thing twice along the way.
Load File → Example plans…, folder Tutorial, plan tutorial6a: a table with a track on
it.
tutorial6a: a grey band on the table. Look closely at the right-hand end: it floats there.
Hold on... why is the track above the ground?
Because the height Raily stores for a track is not its underside.
The reference point of a track, the point whose height Raily keeps, sits at the railhead. Everything a track has below that hangs under this height: rail, sleeper, bedding. When placing it at level 0, Raily therefore added the build depth; in the example plan the railhead sits at 10.3 mm. And because a track is drawn in 2D as a flat band, that band floats above the table.
Showing the track as a body
Select the track, call up Edit Rail Display… with the right mouse button, and switch on the 3D option under Rendering.
tutorial6b: now with bedding, sleepers and rails, and the body stands cleanly on the table.
The band has become a track, and you can see what was invisible before: under the railhead sits the build depth.
For the whole plan at once, that is available via Track display.
Moving it up
With Translate, or the t key, you move the selection in three dimensions, including upward.
tutorial6c: the track lies up top.
How do you get from the bottom to the top?
The track is up there now, but nothing leads up to it. It needs a gradient.
The r key, or Rotation, would be the obvious move: take hold of the track, tip its front up, done.
Not with the rotate tool
A tilted piece of track is rigid and does not hold the gradient through a curve. There is a dedicated tool for a gradient.
Select the track pieces of the ramp instead, and call up Edit ramp… with the right mouse button. The ramp editor asks for three things:
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Start height | the height at one end of the chain |
| End height | the height at the other end |
| Apply | works the heights out onto the track in between |
The editor can do more: transition, cant, maximum grade. The three are enough to begin with; everything else is under Embankments and ramps.
Enter 0 as the start height and the height you want as the end height, and press Apply.
Oops, now the track is stuck in the ground
tutorial6d: at the bottom, the track has sunk into the table.
The same reason as at the start: 0 is the height of the railhead, not that of the substructure. Start at 0 and you sink the bedding and sleepers into the table.
So the start value has to be the track's build depth. Where to find it: select the track, right mouse button → Info…, row Build depth. It is broken down there: rail + sleeper + bedding = total height. For the Märklin C track in this plan that is 10.3 mm.
Catalogue data, no guarantee
Build depths come from catalogues and measurements, and can be off in individual cases. If your build depends on the figure, measure it on real track; where the numbers come from is under Technical limits.
Open the ramp editor once more, enter 10.3 mm as the start height, and press Apply again.
tutorial6e: the track sets off on the table and climbs from there.
And when there is not enough room: the helix
A ramp needs length. Where that is missing, you turn upwards instead.
Go back to tutorial6b, select the curved track at the end of the track and call up Create
helix…. Raily repeats that curve and stacks the turns.
The selection is the whole instruction: one curve with one end still free. The helix grows out of the free end, and every turn is a copy of that curve.
No Create helix… in the menu?
With several pieces of track, a straight track, a switch, or a curve with track on both ends, the entry is not offered at all.
tutorial6f: a curved track becomes a helix.
You enter turns and rise per turn.
Count the board in
The rise per turn is the distance from turn to turn, and that distance has to fit not only the train, but also the board that the track of the upper turn rests on, together with whatever supports it. Put in only the height of the rolling stock, and you build a helix that nothing fits through in the model.
More on this under Create helix.