@DoubleDAZ posted:It's 4.60" in SCARM, but bear in mind that's cutting by eyeball, so it could be slightly more or less when built. I used O-72 because they give you a smoother transition, but if you prefer O-54 for whatever reason, here's what that would look like with 10 cuts as noted and 6"spacing. Note that I replaced the 12.4" straights with 37" straights. The problem is that if you don't want to 37" straights, they are .20" shorter (at least in SCARM) than a combination of all the other straights, so the geometry will change (2nd photo). If you want, I can redo it with 12.4". All that means though is that 6 of the cuts will be different, but there will still be 10 cuts. I attached the SCARM file, but I don't remember if you can open it using the Atlas version of SCARM. Either way, you won't be able to make changes.
I downloaded the free version of SCARM and started playing around with it. If I put 2 O-72 switches together with no filler piece, the distance is 4.55in. Is that "enough" space? I've heard talk of 6in being the ideal spacing. I currently don't have any engines that require more than an O-31 curve (I'm coming from Lionel FT w/O-36 curves), but I do plan to maybe one day get some engines that require either O-42 or O-54, possibly articulated, but obviously nothing too big for O-54.
Edit: 5.5in seems to give me a perfectly parallel curve. Now that I have this software, I can figure out the custom cuts on my own. Glad I downloaded it!
