Just wanted to share some thoughts on my experience testing several of the Layout software packages that are available.
I have played with the demo version of AnyRail for a year or so. It's fast and simple. If you wanted to so some fast track designs, this would be pretty decent for the basic stuff. I like the ability to change the location of the 022 switch motors to either side. I recently upgraded to the newest version and it works pretty flawlessly. The 50 object limit makes the free, demo software not a great choice for me.
Next I played with xtrkcad, mainly as it was free and would run on my Mac. The learning curve is a bit more and I found placing various track segments frustrating as I couldn't always get them to line up as I wanted. I was able to get my layout down in this software, but it took much longer than Anytrack.
Lately, I've been testing out SCARM. This is package in my opinion is almost as easy to use as AnyRail, but once I got the hang of it, even better. Very easy to do layers and elevations and simple to build objects using the simple shape editor. I've designed several Lionel accessories in less than 10 minutes each. Culver unloader #345, Lionel Station #134, and Switch Tower #445 came out great including doors and widows (in color)! Like Anyrail, you can place the switch motors on either side of the switch. Finally, I love the tunnel builder features, roadway drawing tools and 3D view. In fact the 3D view and tunnels has given me some great ideas about decorating the layout.
I have no affiliation with the software developer, but I did submit several questions to him and received a reply within a few hours.
Anyway, I believe all these products can achieve the same goal, but SCARM is currently my pick for it's $0 investment, flexibility and speed or development. Hope this helps with anyone new to layout software products.
