John,

Check and see if Atlas still offers their Right Track Software package from their website. I'm not sure about their libraries but when I got the program It was free and not too difficult to learn.

http://www.xtrkcad.org/Wikka/CurrentRelease

John,

As far as free goes, I think SCARM and Xtrkcad are your best choices unless you use Atlas sectional track, then Right Track.

I have not used SCARM but have heard it is easy to learn. Xtrkcad has a long learning curve at least for me.

Anyrail is ridiculously easy to learn. It sells for about 50 dollars but you can download a trial to see if it is for you. I use it to work out ideas.

3rd PlanIt is probably the heavyweight winner although xtrkcad is considered by many to be as good. Many large layouts are planned with it. For instance that is what Dave Meek uses for the Thunder Mesa.

It depends a little on where you want to go with planning things like spirals and easements or custom track pieces. 3rd PlanIt is much more capable in that area than Anyrail but it has a significant learning curve.

If you are doing one plan for a smallish layout or a sectional track only plan then xtrkcad or 3rd PlanIt are overkill.

I actually enjoy using AnyRail, it has a nice modern interface and is very easy to use. I also own 3rd PlanIt and I am very slowly learning it. I like the advanced features in 3rd PlanIt and can get a better layout from it but until I get there with it, I use AnyRail to play with ideas for a plan.

I know that there are quite a few people using SCARM and it is supposed to be very easy to get running, has a lot of track libraries and is supposed to have many of the more advanced capabilities.

I would definitely check it out if I didn't own 3rd PlanIt.

The latest version of RightTrack is SCARM.

SCARM is the easiest to use.

Harold

Thanks for all the input. I think I am going with SCARM and Anyrail. Think I'll do the free stuff first and then maybe purchase one or the other. I think SCARM is only $39.95 for full package. Not too bad. Thanks again....John

I'm a fan of Anyrail. The developer is very 'customer focused' and I've have used it for several years. Upgrades are infrequent (which is a good thing, because it's very stable), but usually free. Easily switchable between scales, tons of track and structure libraries. And...it will output an .xml file that is recognized by JMRI to use for that system, and of course printable files. A bargain!

Jim