Drawing Roads

Road active with two connected spans, the latest span’s shaping handle, and width controls beside the tool rail. Open the image to view it full size.

The tool rail provides Select, Road, and Elevation, plus Place for the element catalog. Switch between the drawing tools by clicking a tool on the rail, or press its hotkey — V, R, or G — while working in Plan. Tool shortcuts do not change tools while you are typing in a field. Press R or G again to return to Select.

Select (V)

Select is the default tool, and the one you’ll spend most of your time in: it’s for picking, moving, and editing whatever’s already on the plan. Click a piece to select it, or Shift-click to add or remove pieces from the selection. Drag across open floor to marquee-select several at once. With one or more pieces selected, drag any of them to move the whole selection together, or hold Alt while dragging to duplicate instead of moving.

Properties opens beside Select when you choose a piece. Edit its dimensions and placement there; close the panel when you need more canvas. Use Place to browse paint, objects, zones, and facilities for your circuit type.

Road properties

For a selected road, Width changes both ends together. Choose Taper width to set Entry width and Exit width separately; Match exit to entry width makes them equal again. Expand Exact dimensions for a straight’s Length or a turn’s Angle and Radius. Positive angles turn right; negative angles turn left. A curve’s More options section contains its apex width. Use Road for shaping the road on the canvas.

A selected turn in Properties, with Width, Taper width, Exact dimensions, More options, and the pin control. Open the image to view it full size.

The pin button, Keep size during road adjustments, protects a road’s size during connected-road adjustments. You can still edit it directly. With several roads selected, the button can show a mixed state; activating it keeps the size of all selected roads.

Rotate the entire circuit

In Plan, choose Select and drag a marquee around all circuit pieces to select them. The circuit is not selected by default. Once all pieces are selected, a dashed rectangle surrounds the circuit. Hover just outside any corner or edge midpoint until the curved double-arrow cursor appears, then drag to turn all roads, markings, jumps, and scenery around the circuit center. A translucent ghost previews the turn while the original stays in place. Release to apply the turn as one Undo step. Hold Shift to snap to 15° steps, or press Escape before releasing to cancel.

Your available space and obstacles stay fixed. Check that the rotated circuit still fits. For keyboard control, Tab to a rotation zone and use the arrow keys for 1° turns, or Shift and an arrow key for 15° turns.

Rotate selected road pieces

  1. In Plan view, choose Select (V) and select one or more road pieces. Drag a marquee across open floor, Shift-click individual pieces, or select an existing group.
  2. Move the pointer just outside any corner or edge midpoint of the selection’s dashed frame. The eight points have small square markers. When the curved double-arrow cursor appears, drag to turn the selected pieces together around their shared center.
  3. Release to apply the rotation. Hold Shift while dragging to snap to 15° steps, or press Esc before releasing to cancel.

A translucent ghost previews the turn while the original pieces stay in place. Releasing creates one undo step, so Undo restores the previous positions and connections. The pieces keep their shapes, widths, and heights. Connections to unselected roads detach so those roads can stay in place. Unlock any locked pieces in the selection before rotating.

For keyboard control, press Tab until a selection rotation zone has focus. Use Right or Up to turn clockwise by 1°, or Left or Down to turn counterclockwise. Hold Shift with an arrow key for a 15° turn. These arrow keys rotate only while a rotation zone has focus; otherwise, they nudge the selection.

Road (R)

Road is how you lay track. Click a start point, then keep clicking to add connected spans. Each endpoint becomes the start of the next road. Drag the latest span’s handle to bend it, and press Escape to finish the chain without removing roads already drawn. Road stays selected, ready to start a separate chain with your next click. Choose Select (V) when you want to leave drawing mode. Hold Alt while drawing to keep a continuation running straight out of the corner it starts from.

Each destination click commits a span. Continue by clicking the next destination; the previous endpoint is already armed. Shaping the latest span keeps that continuation ready. Use Undo to reverse a committed drawing change; Escape only ends the active chain. Read Road feedback if a span is refused, then adjust the destination or width before trying again.

After Escape, Road remains selected and Contents lists the two committed road segments. Open the image to view it full size.

Each piece you draw keeps its own entry and exit width, and the lane widths on offer start from the scale your circuit is built at. With Road active and no roads selected, New road width appears beside the rail; it stops at your scale’s minimum lane width unless you’ve allowed narrower lanes under Circuit menu → Circuit settings… → RC scale — see Scale & Units.

Changing several road widths

Choose Road → Apply road width, or select several roads and choose Apply road width in Properties. Choose Selected roads or All roads, then enter a target width. The preview shows changed roads in teal and their previous edges as dashed outlines. Tapers and widened apexes become uniform.

Locked roads are skipped. A width that would move a centerline, require a larger curve radius, or disrupt a shared join or facility connection blocks Apply. Include connected roads, reduce the width, or edit the conflicting connection separately. Existing lane-width minimums and your narrower-lanes preference still apply. Review any clearance warnings before applying.

Apply saves the whole width change as one undo step. Centerlines, lengths, elevations, and marking attachments are preserved. Cancel discards the preview. If the circuit or account changes while the dialog is open, close it and reopen it for a fresh preview.

Alignment guides

Whatever you’re dragging — a piece or a whole group, a road point you’re placing, an area corner, a facility — lines itself up with the pieces around it, and a guide line shows what it caught. Hold Ctrl/Cmd while dragging to ignore the guides and place it exactly where the pointer is. See Keyboard Shortcuts for the rest of the drag modifiers.

When a dragged piece fits between nearby pieces with equal gaps, spacing guides highlight the matching gaps and show their measurements. For road-attached markings, objects, and zones, guides follow their position along a connected road chain, including across joins. Hold Ctrl/Cmd to bypass these snaps too.

Elevation (G)

Elevation raises or lowers the road at a single point and lets the rest of the run follow: drag a corner up or down to raise the road through it. That’s as far as the tool itself goes — for how steep is too steep, and what Circuit Builder builds to hold a raised run up, see Elevation & Structures.