Software
Timetable
With the timetable, your trains run by the clock: the passenger train to Waldheim every half hour, the goods train into the siding every evening. You create a departure and choose the train, destination and times – LoDi-Aura does the rest.
Where to find the timetable
Open the “Automation” tab and, inside it, “Timetable”. Next to it is “Sequences”, the editor for your own logic (Automation). Above the table are these buttons:
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| “+ Departure” | Creates a new departure. |
| “Train” | Shows only the departures of one train – or “All trains”. |
| “per clock” | One row per departure, just as you set it up – for example “every 30 minutes”. |
| “per departure” | Every single departure of the day as its own row, sorted by time. Past departures are paler, the next one is highlighted. |
Creating a departure
- Create a departureClick “+ Departure”. The “Departure” form opens on the right, and a new row appears in the table – still red, because the train and destination are missing.
- NameGive the departure a name, such as “Personenzug im Takt” (passenger train on an interval). The “running” box is already ticked.
- TrainUnder “Train”, choose the train that should run.
- DestinationUnder “Destination”, choose a block – or a station (🚉). With a station, LoDi-Aura finds a free track by itself.
- ClockUnder “Clock”, choose “Model time — the layout’s clock” or “System time — the computer’s clock”.
- TimesEnter the time under “When”, see below. Underneath, the setting is spelled out in words, for example “Every 30 minutes from 06:00 to 22:00, every day.” – read the sentence to check.
The “Departure” form
Everything is saved automatically. As soon as the train and destination are chosen, the row changes to “scheduled”.
Setting the times
| How the train should run | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Once a day | Fill in only “from”, e.g. 18:15. The departure happens at exactly that time. |
| At an interval | Add “every … min”, e.g. 30. From the “from” time, the train runs at that interval – until the “to” time or, without a “to” time, until the end of the day. Running past midnight works too, for example from 22:00 to 04:00. |
| At random | Click 🎲. The train then runs at random times within the time window, on average as often as you enter under “every … min”. Without a time window, this applies all day. |
| Only on certain days | Click the weekdays. Only highlighted days count; if no day is selected, the train never runs. |
Via points and laps
Under “Via points”, choose blocks or stations the train should pass through – in that order. On open line it runs straight through them; at a station it stops for the station's dwell time and then carries on. The via points are listed in the table below the destination.
Running a lap: Choose the block or station the train is already standing in as the destination. It then runs a lap – by the shortest way or via the via points you set – and arrives back. That way, for example, a train can leave the staging yard, run a lap of the layout and come back, with a single departure.
What the status tells you
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| “scheduled” (no colour) | Everything is ready, nothing is in the way. |
| yellow – waiting | The departure time has come, but the way is not clear yet – for example because another train is running ahead or no station track is free. The train sets off as soon as it clears. Underneath, you can see what it is waiting for. |
| green – running | The train is on its way until it stands at its destination. |
| red | Nothing will run like this. The reason is shown underneath, e.g. “No train selected.”, sequence switched off, no weekday selected, no model time, the train is not on the layout, the destination is locked – or the last run was refused, with the reason. |
Changing and deleting
- Clicking a row opens the departure on the right for editing.
- “Open in the editor” jumps to the matching sequence under “Automation” › “Sequences”. The timetable is only a view of the sequences: whatever you change here then shows up there – and vice versa. That is why a clock that is connected to a route node in the editor also appears in the timetable.
- “Delete departure” is only offered for departures that consist of nothing but a clock and a route. Delete everything else in the editor.
- Untick “running” if a departure should pause for a while.