In his 2-Lane with Tomy Int'l thread, justadrawr, asks:
...Is there or can there be a layout section here? It would be amazing to have ALL these designs in one place, archived and easy to get to so you're not all re-answering these questions each time a newb comes here :)

I think a course design archive is a good idea. I enjoy drawing out courses, and so do several others here. The designs get buried in the post archives, and it's hard for anyone to find them.

I envision something like this:
When a member submits a design image, he gets a form that asks some standard questions with blanks or check boxes:
NAME OF COURSE _____
DESIGNER _____
SOFTWARE _____
SCALE HO, 1:43, 1:32, 1:24, other_____;
MAKE OF TRACK - check all that apply Aurora, Tomy Aurora, Tyco/Mattel, Tyco S, Atlas/Lionel, Marx, Matchbox, Minic, Other HO, Carrera, Ninco, (and so forth), Routed.
LANES - 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, Other_____
APPROX. LENGTH OF RUN _____
STYLE OF COURSE Oval; High-speed; Road Course; Offroad; Hillclimb; Dragstrip; Highway; Trucking; Other_____
SIZE OF SPACE (length in feet X width in feet) Small-24 sq. ft. or less, Medium - 25 to 50 sq. ft, Large - Over 50 sq. ft.
WIDTH (Feet)
LENGTH (feet)
SUITABLE FOR WHAT CARS (check any that apply) - Most Cars, including Modern Magnet Cars (flat track or gradual vertical changes allow minimal chassis clearance); Limited to Non-Mag, early Mag, and Offroad Cars ONLY (bumps or vertical changes require high chassis clearance), Limited to Magnet Cars only (Steep banking, silly damn loops, etc.); Trucking and oversize (high bridge clearances, trailer dropoff points, etc.).
BASED ON ACTUAL COURSE (e.g. Daytona, Le Mans, Silverstone, etc.)? No; Yes (course and date)_____.
ACTUALLY BUILT? Yes, No.
KEY WORDS _____
DESIGNER'S COMMENTS _____
LINK TO MORE INFO OR PICTURES ____

If the contributor leaves a question blank (doesn't want to calculate length of run or whatever) the answer just doesn't show up in the summary info.

Anyone looking for course designs could access a special search window with some of the same questions, plus a blank for any other keywords. The sizes function as Maximum Sizes for search purposes. Anything left blank is ignored. So, if a guy wanted to see HO Road Courses with a width of 3 feet or under, he just enters those three items in the search form, and gets thumbnails/summaries of all the HO road courses 3 feet wide or less.

Search results would display a thumbnail image, with the answers (abbreviated) as summary information.
Example:
{IMAGE} Spa Fonne II by Wallywood. HO 2-lane High Speed Course for Aurora, Tomy/Aurora, Tyco/Mattel track. Medium size, 3 x 9 ft., for Most cars. Based on Spa Francorchamps 1960s. Actually Built? No Keywords: Hairpin, Chicane. Rated OUTSTANDING by 6 readers.

Click the thumbnail and get the full-size image(s) plus Designer's Comments, design software info, and readers' comments. There could be checkbox for a reader who considers the course outstanding for its type.

I see this as being for forum-member designs, since layouts scanned from books or set manuals are available elsewhere on the web, but if people want to include commercial designs, hey, why not? (bandwidth allowing, of course). Just add a "Published Design?" question, list "Aurora" or "book - Louis Hertz" or whatever as Source, and let people specify "Members Designs," or "Published Designs," if they want to limit the search.

What do the other forum members think about this?
What does the guy who'd actually have to do the work think?

-- D

Being a PhotoPost Admin I can tell you all those parameter options can most likely be set up for the Photo Gallery submissions but I don't know if Hank would want to make a separate gallery just for that.

Not sure how fancy you are hoping to get, but the things that really matter to me the most when considering a track design, especially one based on plastic sectional track pieces, are in order of importance:

Organizational Hierarchy for Track Designs:

1) Scale
2) Minimum size of table required
3) Number of lanes

Need to Know Data for Each Track Design:

4) Compatible with brand(s) of track (or custom routed)
5) Detailed inventory of required pieces (if sectional track)

Nice to Know Data for Each Track Design:

6) Length per lane
7) Set purchase strategies that can be used to fulfill the inventory requirements (if sectional track)
8) Whether a CNC compatible CAD drawing is available (for custom routed)
9) Track reference identifier (unique ID)

Low Importance Data for Each Track Design:

Designer, design software (unless needed for CAD purposes), design owner (needed for CAD purposes), suitability for cars (unless it only works with say digital), based on actual course, comments, suitability for landscaping, layout style, etc.

Having an organizational hierarchy in an online forum that follows the first three levels is order would make the most sense to me because it follows my selection criteria. The need to know and nice to know data should be part of the track record. The low importance stuff would rarely factor into my list of selection and evaluation criteria but others may care. I would treat it as optional or omit it altogether if space is a concern.

What's a good FTP site to use? I have an Excel file I am working on that breaks things down similar to AfxToo's needs...

Does this work for anyone to download?

https://secure.filesanywhere.com/v.asp?v=%89ij%88%5D%60t%AC%B3%A9