NewportRod
Western Thunderer
A number of companies are offering services where they cut ply placed on the output from Templot. This is an excellent service which I've used in both 4mm and 7mm and saves a lot of time. I have just noticed a little "design feature" that some of modellers, especially those working in the pre-grouping era might like to be aware of.
When I drew the plan on Templot I, perhaps naïvely, thought that all I was have to do to ensure that the sleeper length was set to 9’ and everything would be ok. And indeed the TIMBOUTL layer (dark blue here) does reflect a sleeper length of 9’.
But, I hadn’t taken account of another layer on the plot, SLEEPEND seen here in red, which puts a line across the sleeper 3” inboard of the end.
It appears that the cut for Crindau Pill used the SLEEPEND to define the sleeper length rather than TIMBOUTL so I’ve ended up with 8’6” sleepers, not the desired 9’.
In the pic above you can see 8'6" sleepers I got (those with chairs) alongside the 9' length I had hoped for.
I expect that deleting the contents of the SLEEPEND layer might be a satisfactory workaround but I cannot verify that, though I imagine a chat with the laser-cutting service provider will come up trumps.
I'm not writing this with any criticism of any of the companies that provide laser-cutting services, nor indeed plot, whom I believe never intended to be used in this way .
When I drew the plan on Templot I, perhaps naïvely, thought that all I was have to do to ensure that the sleeper length was set to 9’ and everything would be ok. And indeed the TIMBOUTL layer (dark blue here) does reflect a sleeper length of 9’.
But, I hadn’t taken account of another layer on the plot, SLEEPEND seen here in red, which puts a line across the sleeper 3” inboard of the end.
It appears that the cut for Crindau Pill used the SLEEPEND to define the sleeper length rather than TIMBOUTL so I’ve ended up with 8’6” sleepers, not the desired 9’.
In the pic above you can see 8'6" sleepers I got (those with chairs) alongside the 9' length I had hoped for.
I expect that deleting the contents of the SLEEPEND layer might be a satisfactory workaround but I cannot verify that, though I imagine a chat with the laser-cutting service provider will come up trumps.
I'm not writing this with any criticism of any of the companies that provide laser-cutting services, nor indeed plot, whom I believe never intended to be used in this way .