Glossary

Aisle. A straight walking route with a minimum width, reserved in the room plan.

Armed. A catalogue piece is armed once you have clicked it and it is ready to place on the board.

Assembly. A saved selection of objects that can be inserted into any layout. Saved on your Mac.

Baseboard. The surface the layout is built on. Made of one or more board sections.

Board section. One piece of a baseboard, with its own name, outline and cutouts.

Calibration bar. A 100 mm line on every printed page, used to check the printer's scale.

Catalogue. The drawer on the left of the window, listing track and scenery to place.

Centreline. The line down the middle of the track. Lengths and radii are measured along it.

Code. The height of the rail in thousandths of an inch. Code 100 rail is 0.100 in tall.

Compound path. A flexible run made of several arcs or straights joined smoothly, produced by Flex Construction.

Connector. A point at the end of a piece of track where another piece can join.

Cutout. A hole in a board section, such as an operating well.

Diverging road. The curved route through a turnout.

Embedded library. A track library stored inside a layout file, so the layout opens correctly on any Mac.

Flexible track. Track that can be bent to any curve, sold in standard lengths.

Gauge. The distance between the rails.

Group. A named set of objects that is selected and moved as one.

Handedness. Whether a curve or turnout goes to the left or the right.

Headshunt. A short dead-end track that lets a locomotive shunt a yard without fouling the main line.

Inspector. The panel on the right of the window, showing details of the selection and the layout.

Layer. A set of objects that can be hidden or locked together.

Minimum radius. The tightest curve you are prepared to use. Tighter curves are flagged.

Offcut. What is left of a length of flexible track after a cut.

Page map. The first page of a tiled print, showing how the tiles fit together.

Prototype. The real, full-size thing a model represents.

Reach zone. The part of a board you can reach from the edges you can approach.

Reference. An image placed under the layout to trace over.

Registration mark. A cross printed where tiles overlap, used to line them up.

Sectional track. Track sold as fixed straights and curves that fit together, as opposed to flexible track.

Snap. Placing a piece so that its connector meets another exactly.

Spans. A scenery object that passes over the ground, such as a bridge, so track can run beneath it.

Standing clearance. The clear floor you need in order to stand at a board edge.

Sweep. The angle a curve turns through.

Tile. One page of a full-size print.

Toe. The end of a turnout where the two routes are one.

Track library. A catalogue of one manufacturer's track system.

Turnout. A piece of track where one route divides into two. Also called a point or a switch.