Layout Elements

Layout elements

Track

• Straight
• End
• Corner
• Curve
• Crossing
• Left turnout
• Right turnout
• Double turnout

Track elements define the visible railway. Rotation changes their geometric connections. Turnout elements additionally store the physical accessory address and logical closed/thrown mapping.

Control and information

• Sensor — reads a DCC-EX sensor address and can be used by signal rules.
• Signal — displays an aspect and writes an aspect bit pattern to consecutive accessory addresses.
• Block — represents an occupancy/reservation section and can hold a locomotive assignment.
• Route Button — stores an ordered set of turnout element IDs and required physical states.
• Automatic Route — requests a path between start and destination block IDs.
• Label — centered text with offsets measured from the element centre.
• Level Crossing — runtime crossing representation.

Every element has a stable generated ID. Automation references the ID rather than copying the DCC address. Changing a turnout address therefore preserves route and signal references.

Address rules

• DCC accessory elements use linear addresses.
• Signal address length is configurable from 1 to 8; the normal DigiSignal setup uses 5.
• Avoid overlapping signal output ranges unless the hardware is intentionally shared.
• Run the global integrity checker after deleting or replacing elements.