It's great to see the coverage of 3rd PlanIt in MRH, but the focus seems to have been on going through tools and menus one-by-one, with the exception of the 3D features, which were explained in more depth.

I was disappointed to see the grades discussion in this final installment, which seems to focus only on setting the grades for individual pieces of track. This is a very cumbersome way of setting grade and really shortchanges one of the key strengths of 3rd PlanIt.

Although I don't have time to fully illustrate it now, the best way (IMHO) to set grades in 3rd PlanIt is to create a path, then set the grade (or elevations) for the entire path, which can be any length. This path can include straight sections, easements, curves, turnouts, yard ladders, objects etc., etc. One can choose from starting elevation, ending elevation, percent of grade, etc., and the program does all the work. The user sets any two of the three parameters and the program computes the third, reflecting this in the data window and the 3D view.

I've done dozens and dozens of track plans for folks with complex grades and I have never had to manually set elevations for each segment of track as the author describes.

This is one of a number of key benefits of 3rd PlanIt (indeed, of most fully-featured model railroad CAD programs) that was not covered in this 3-part series.

Version 8.06 also contains some great grade-related features in that the elevation of any point in any object can be marked with a visible call-out just by clicking with the apporpriate tool. A similar tool shows the percent grade for any point. These features (along with the path function noted above) make setting grades in complex plans much, much easier.

Describing a product as complex as 3rd PlanIt is an ambitous undertaking and I am glad the author made a start. But I hope there will be follow-up by users of the program with experience in the most powerful features to fully reflect its capabilities and the capabilities of model RR CAD in general. Perhaps that was beyond the intention of the scope for this series.

All I've built or had room for were relatively small switching layouts, so I have not seen the need to use a cad program, but I'm wondering if it would be worthwhile to have a regular column dedicated to using cad programs for model railroad planning?

As I mentioned in the article it was impossible to fully go into detail with each and every tool and all of what 3rd PlanIt has to offer in this 3-part tutorial series. As a start for some and review for others, it is hard to approach each topic and sub-topic in its entirety and fully. Time and space limitations aside, it is my hope, however, that I will be able to go into more detail with specific topics and present single topic clinics for 3rd PlanIT in MRH in future issues. Among other topics that have been suggested a detail a "Grade" clinic would be among them for certain.

Thanks for your comments!

I noticed in the 3D train running video, some rolling stock (particularly the 89' auto racks) are no longer included with 3rd PlanIt.

I just purchased Version, 9.03 (and upgraded to 9.04) and those 89 footers are nowhere to be found.

Secondly the link(s) to 3pi.info site are ALL DEAD links now. I've googled and binged till i'm blue in the face. The only thing I saw was, apparently, there was an 89' Flat Car at one point, but it was apparently removed due to copyright infringement?

I REALLY would like to get my hands on these rolling stock files.

Anyone??