Your design is complete and your now ready to lay track. How do you go from the computer screen to the roadbed?

The best way to move your design from computer to roadbed is to print out a full scale copy (or portions) of the layout. During the print process the orientation of the print grid can be adjusted so the printout will line up with the tracks.

If you have cut-sheet printer (like a laser or ink-jet) set the Ignore Page Margins toggle on the print dialog. Normally there is an unprintable margin around the edge of the page and XTrackCAD only prints on the printable area, which means you would have to trim or overlay the pages. Setting the Ignore Page Margins toggle makes XTrackCAD ignore this margin so you can just abut the paper. Also, turn on Print Roadbed Outline and set your roadbed width.

For large scale printouts, the ability of many platforms to print as PDF is very helpful. Commercial printers can oftem print very large strips of paper.

Once you have a full scale print-out of your layout (or portion, if you have a larger layout you don't want to do it all at once) you need to transfer this to the roadbed. Here's two methods that can be used:

• Use a spray adhesive (such as 3M Super 77) to glue the print-out to the roadbed. This is very messy, takes more glue than expected and is very unforgiving of mistakes. You may want to use this method only for small sections of very complicated track-work.
• Tape the print-out to the roadbed then using a tracing wheel (available at Sewing shops), trace the center-line of the track and roadbed outline. At this point consider places when you'll want to widen the roadbed to support signals, switch machines, joints etc.
• Some users have reported that they successfully used the DXF export to get a file into Computer Controlled Machines that can cut out trackbed.