Project and backup

A project is your whole layout: track plan, devices, locos, trains, stations and everything learned. This page shows how to create, open, save and back up layouts – and which basic layout settings to make before you draw the first track.

Where the project is stored

A project is stored as a folder on the layout computer. Its backup is a file with the extension .lodiaura. It contains the track plan, interfaces, locos, automation and all specialist modules. Everything is managed under “System” › “Project” on the “Load & save project” page.

Single file or project folder

Older layouts are often still stored as a single .lodiaura file. Under “My layouts” they carry the “Single file” badge and the “Convert to folder” button.

After converting, the layout, operating state, learned data and log are kept in separate files, and a train run only writes kilobytes instead of the whole project. The previous file stays where it is as an archive.

Loading and saving the project

Current project

• Save: “Save now” or a click on the save tile in the header. With a single file, LoDi-Aura keeps the previous version next to it as a .bak file. A project folder saves its files individually and only what has changed.
• Rename: “Rename” opens the “Rename project” dialog. The new name appears in the interface, in the start window and in the next export.
• At the top right, the card shows “saved” or “unsaved”.

Import and export

• “Export backup” downloads the current complete state as a .lodiaura file.
• “Import layout” brings in a LoDi-Aura project file or an older LoDi project file and takes it on as a layout of its own.

When importing, LoDi-Aura first checks the file and shows what's in it – interfaces, locomotives, tracks, blocks, signals and routes – before it is loaded. The file is placed in the projects folder as a layout of its own and opened; the layout you had open before stays as it is.

1. Choose the fileClick “Import layout” and choose the file.
2. CheckThe “Import layout?” dialog shows the contents. Under “Name in ‘My layouts’”, enter the name the layout should appear under.
3. Decide if the name already existsIf the name already exists, choose “Create as new layout” or “Replace existing layout”.
4. ImportClick “Import and open”.

My layouts

“My layouts” shows all projects in your layouts folder on this computer. Here you open layouts, create new ones or save the open one under a new name.

Creating a new layout

1. Open the dialogUnder “My layouts”, click “New layout…”.
2. NameEnter a name under “Layout name”. The dialog rejects a name that already exists under “My layouts” – a new layout never replaces an existing one.
3. GaugeChoose the “Gauge”. The default is “H0 · 1:87”.
4. CreateClick “Create”.

You can choose from Z · 1:220, N · 1:160, TT · 1:120, H0 · 1:87, 0 · 1:45, 1 · 1:32 and G · 1:22.5. LoDi-Aura uses the gauge to convert km/h into cm/s. You can change it later under “System” › “Track plan” (see “Scale first”).

When you switch layouts

When you open another layout, create a new one, import one or restore a version, LoDi-Aura starts with a clean slate:

• First, LoDi-Aura disconnects the devices. The layout is then offline.
• A pressed “🛑 STOP” is released – it applies to the layout on which it was pressed.
• Signals set by hand, the lighting state, a running calibration run and running turntable sequences are gone. Driving orders from the previous layout no longer apply.
• Model time, calibration run measurements and learned RailCom directions come from the new layout.

Simply saving doesn't trigger any of this.

Versions on this computer

LoDi-Aura keeps a history of your layout on the layout computer – like a time machine. You'll find it under “System” › “Project” in the “Versions” card. You need neither a sign-in nor an internet connection for this.

If the open layout is replaced by “New layout…”, an import or “Save as…”, LoDi-Aura creates a version first. The versions are stored in the layout's folder. They are no substitute for a backup on another drive: still export your layout now and then, or back it up online.

Backing up online

If you are signed in to LoDi-Aura with your Lokstore account, LoDi-Aura also stores versions of your layout online. For this, the row of the open layout under “My layouts” has two small buttons with a database cylinder. The arrow shows the direction: up to back up, down to fetch.

Backing up automatically

Once the layout is set up online, LoDi-Aura backs it up automatically every time you close it – that is, when you open another layout, create a new one or import one – and when you quit. Backing up never holds up quitting.

The info line of the open layout tells you the status:

Setting it up when creating a layout

If you tick “Back up this layout online” in the “Create new layout” dialog, LoDi-Aura sets the layout up online straight away and backs up the first version. If a layout with this name already exists online, for example from another computer, the dialog refuses: choose a different name or download the existing layout. If the portal can't be reached at the moment, the layout is still created; the info line then says “not set up”, and you make the first backup by hand.

Restoring a version

“restore” replaces the open layout with the chosen version. Beforehand, LoDi-Aura asks you, stores your current version as a file in the projects folder and takes the layout offline.

On another computer, layouts that only exist online appear under “My layouts” with the “online only” label and the “Download” button. It fetches the most recent version to this computer, creates it as a new layout and opens it.

The same layout on several computers

If you work on the same layout on several computers, LoDi-Aura notices at startup and when opening if another computer has backed up a newer version in the meantime. A notice appears, and the layout shows the tag “⚠ newer state from …”.

Clicking it – or a refused backup – opens the choice:

• “Fetch state from …”: your version is first stored as a file in the projects folder.
• “Back up mine anyway”: your version becomes the most recent; the other one stays in the list of versions and can be restored.
• “Later”: do nothing.

Basic settings of the layout

Under “System” › “Track plan” you'll find the settings that apply to the whole layout: scale, display, speed defaults, RailCom and safety. They apply to the track plan and train control and are saved in the project.

The page is arranged in seven sections: Layout, Display, Driving, Feedback, Safety, Operation and At startup. Each row is explained behind a small expander, and the “Search settings …” field finds a setting even by a word from its explanation.

Settings marked “Administrator” can only be changed by an administrator.

Scale first

Set the gauge before you draw anything. It isn't cosmetic – it's the calculation anchor of the whole train control: it converts prototype km/h into layout centimetres per second. If it's wrong, not a single speed or braking calculation will be right afterwards.

Display

Speed defaults

The “Driving” section contains the speed defaults: standard values in km/h that can be overridden locally – at the turnout, at the station, on the train. There are also two settings for turnouts.

To put all turnouts in their home position at the push of a button, use “🧰 Tools ▾” › “↺ Turnouts to home position” in the track plan. You set each turnout's home position in the inspector (Turnouts and signals).

RailCom

Protection and short circuits

Automation

Driving and Automation explain how the automation drives.

Program start