How to use RailSnap

The same help as under Help in the app's menu. Keyboard shortcuts are shown beside the actions that have one; on a Mac, use Cmd for Ctrl.

Building

Pick a family: Lists its pieces: straights, curves, turnouts and so on. With several libraries, pick the library above the families first.
Drag a piece from the list: Drop it on the canvas. Near an open end (orange dot) it turns and snaps into place.
Tap a piece in the list: Adds it at the active end (blue arrow), so you can build a line tap by tap.
Tap an open end: Makes it the active end.
FlipF: Joins the selected piece by its next connector: curves bend the other way, turnouts turn round.
Connect two endsC: Tap two open ends: the app lists track that joins them without overlapping other track, exact routes first, then routes within the track system's tolerance. Between ends at different heights a route climbs evenly; its grade is shown. Tap a route to preview it, then Add track.
Systems: Only ends of the same system join: C track to C track, Laser-Street to Laser-Street. Transition pieces, such as 24922 from C to K track, have an end of each, and a level crossing has track ends and road ends. Pieces in the list that do not fit the active end are faded.

Streets

Road pieces: Faller's Laser-Street lanes, Vollmer's road plates and Noch's road film are placed, snapped and raised like track. Two Laser-Street lanes side by side make a two-lane road.
Flexible road: Road film is cut to fit: it joins road of any system, so it can meet a level crossing. Connect two road ends to fit it between them, or select it and shape it by length and turn.
Level crossings: Where road meets track, use a level crossing such as Märklin's 74920, or take the road over the track on a bridge, or under it in a tunnel. The check reports roads that cross track, meet other roads, or come within a track's clearance.
Car System parts: Select a Laser-Street lane to fit stops, branches, parking spaces and sensors on its guide wire. The parts list counts them.

Symbols

Direction arrow: Pick Symbols in the list of libraries, then drag the arrow onto a track, or tap it to put it on the selected piece. Trains on its track portion, the pieces between turnouts, buffer stops, open ends and separations, then run only the way it points. Arrows both ways let them run both ways, as on track with no arrow. Small arrows show the way along the rest of the portion.
Separation: Put it on a track, as an arrow, where trains leave the track and come back in, as at the edge of a fiddle yard. The direction check takes the track as cut there, checks the track on each side on its own, and lets trains leave at any separation and come back in at any separation of the same track.
Editing a symbol: Tap it to select it; a selected arrow outlines its track portion. Drag it along the track to move it, Flip (F) turns an arrow or a signal round and Delete removes it.
Signals: Pick Märklin signals or Trix signals in the list of libraries: light, semaphore and Start up signals, by article number. Drag one beside a track: it stands on the side you drop it, facing the trains it is on the right of, as German signals stand. Flip (F) turns it round where it stands, and Other side (L) moves it across the track. On the plan the foot stands beside the track and the head points the way its trains run: red for a main signal, yellow for a distant signal, white for a shunting signal, and an arm for a semaphore. Signals are in the parts list and the inventory, and the 3D view shows them.
Checking the directions: On joined track, trains must be able to get from every point to every other, and out and back in where there are separations. The check lists where they cannot: where they can run from one track onto another but not back, between two tracks neither way, out at a separation but never back, or in but never out again, and one-way track with no way back. Trains turn back only on track that runs both ways. Letters on the plan label the track each problem is about.

Heights and slopes

Set heightH: Puts the selected pieces level at a height above the baseboard. Pieces added to raised track continue at its height.
SlopeS: Tap where a slope starts and where it ends, open ends or joints: the track between them climbs evenly. Set the heights at the two ends, or the grade.
Check layoutK: Lists track that overlaps, roads that cross track or each other, ends that do not fit, slopes steeper than the layout allows, steps in height where pieces join and track the direction arrows keep trains from. Set the steepest grade allowed for track, and for roads, there. Overlaps are also marked on the plan in red.
Bridge (B) or tunnelT: Puts the selected pieces on a bridge or in a tunnel, or back on the ground. Track or road crossing over other track or road needs one or the other: the upper one on a bridge or the lower one in a tunnel.
View in 3D3: Shows the layout on its terrain: track on the ground on embankments and in cuttings, bridges on piers, tunnels under hills, and signals beside the track. Drag to turn it, drag with two fingers or the right mouse button to move it, pinch or scroll to zoom.
Show heightsShift+H: Labels the height of each joint and the grade of each slope.

Measuring

MeasureM: Tap two join points, open ends or joints: the app shows the distance between them, how far along and across the first track the second one is, and the angle between the tracks. The figures follow the layout as you change it.

Parts and inventory

Parts list: Counts the pieces the layout uses, by article number. Copy it, or export it as a CSV file for a spreadsheet.
Inventory: Count the pieces you own, family by family, road film in strips and the Car System's parts too, or add a layout's pieces once you have bought them. The inventory is kept on this device for every layout; export it to keep a copy or move it to another device.
What to buy: With an inventory, the parts list shows how many of each piece you own and how many to buy, and the check says whether your inventory covers the layout. Show pieces to buy marks in purple the pieces you do not have yet.

Saving and printing

SaveCtrl+S: Saves the layout as a file. With a subscription, or where none is needed, the app also keeps your work between sessions without saving.
PrintCtrl+P: Prints the plan on one page, turned to fit the paper, with the scale it is drawn at.
Subscription: In the App Store, on Google Play and in the Microsoft Store, saving, printing and keeping your layout between sessions need a subscription; everything else is free. Subscribe, or restore a subscription bought on another device, from the menu.
Language: The app speaks the language of your device if it knows it: English, German, Italian or French. Pick another one from the menu.

Editing

Tap / click a piece: Selects it. Shift, Ctrl or Cmd adds to the selection.
Double-tap a piece: Selects everything joined to it.
Drag a piece: Moves it, or the whole selection. Dragged near an open end, it snaps.
RotateR / Shift+R: Turns the selection by 15°. While dragging, turns the dragged pieces.
DeleteDel / Backspace: Removes the selection.
Undo / Redo: Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y (Cmd on macOS).

Viewing

Pan: Drag empty space, use two fingers, or drag with the middle or right mouse button.
Zoom: Pinch, scroll the mouse wheel, or use + and −.
Fit0: Shows the whole layout.

FAQ · Support— Not answered here? Look in the FAQ or ask in the forum.