Getting started 1: Build and look
The built-in tutorial starts by itself the first time you open Raily. It walks you through the same steps as this page; the best way is to follow both in parallel.
Clicked the tutorial away?
Help → Reset tutorials brings them all back. Then restart the program, or reload it in the browser.
File → Example plans… has, in the Tutorial folder, the plans the following steps use.
Choosing modules
Raily knows the track of many manufacturers. To keep the choice manageable, you work with the modules you have ticked; only their track is available.
The module selection dialog.
You can change the choice at any time, with m or through View → Module selection….
- The star keeps modules you use often at the top.
- The archive box also shows modules that are no longer manufactured.
Track and plan at the same scale
If you reach for track of a different scale than the plan, Raily asks: Change adopts the track's scale for the plan, Keep leaves it as is.
Placing track
The quick-pick bar holds the track of the active modules.
The quick-pick bar with the track of the active modules.
Drag a piece of track from the bar into the plan. Each further piece snaps onto a free end of the track once you drag it close enough.
While the track is still hanging on the pointer, S picks which end docks. On a curve, that decides whether the curve continues to the left or to the right.
The track buttons in the left toolbar jump straight to a kind of track in the bar: Straight track, Curved track, Switch, Crossing, Crossing switch, Flex track, Special track.
The seven buttons for the kinds of track.
There is a faster way for whole stretches of track
With A and Enter, without moving the mouse, see Laying track faster.
Build a circle
Now it is your turn: lay a closed circle out of curved track. You will need it in the next step.
Bringing the whole plan into view
2D view switches to the top-down view and brings the whole plan into view. That is the button that brings you back when you have zoomed yourself away.
With the mouse wheel you zoom, with the middle mouse button you pan; on a trackpad or tablet it is two fingers. The plan overview at the top left shows the plan in miniature; a click inside it takes you to that spot. More under Navigation.
Placing a building
Put a house beside the track with Add Building. The button sits in the left toolbar in the Buildings multi-tool button; the small triangle next to it opens its list, see Conventions.
Track and building from above.
From above that is a fairly dull rectangle... time for the third dimension.
From above to 3D and back
| Button | View |
|---|---|
| 2D view | flat from above, for building and measuring |
| 3D view | in space, the view stays aligned with the layout |
| 3D view (trackball) | the same, but freely turnable around the plan |
The same building in the 3D view.
The rectangle has become a building.
- Turn: press the mouse button and move. On a selected object, dragging would move the object instead; Shift prevents that.
- Center: Alt-click an object to make that point the new center of rotation.
Selecting
- Click selects an object, Ctrl-click adds or removes one at a time.
- Dragging a selection rectangle selects everything inside it, 2D only.
- Double-click selects everything connected to the track, the whole circle for example.
How to efficiently select the stretch between two pieces of track is under Selecting objects.
Saving
Ctrl+S saves. In the desktop app that is a file on your computer. In the browser, File → Save As… saves to the raily.ch server, for which you need to be logged in, and File → Save to Computer… saves locally.
In between, Raily backs up in the background, see Backup and recovery.
Next
See also
- Conventions used in this manual: keys, the right mouse button, and the second click that opens an editor
- Snapping: why one piece of track locks onto another, and when it doesn't
- Module selection