TRAX2 has closed: how to carry on with your layout

Benjamin | TrackDrawer.com · published 9 November 2026

TRAX2, the online track planner from traxeditor.com, closed on 1 November 2026. Your account has moved to the official successor TRAX3D, and plans you fetched or downloaded as a .trx file before that date still open there. If you also want to carry on in TrackDrawer, you take your parts list with you, enter it as your stock and lay the layout again, by hand or with the Auto-designer.

What happened to TRAX2

The successor to TRAX2 is TRAX3D (trax3d.com), run by Ngongo-B in Amstelveen, the Netherlands. According to the migration guide on that site:

• Your account is in TRAX3D, under the same email address. You sign in with your old password; if that does not work, you choose a new one with "forgot your password".
• Fetching plans from TRAX2 was possible until 1 November 2026. TRAX2 closed that day, and fetching closed with it.
• Fetched plans are in TRAX3D under My projects.
• A downloaded .trx file loads in TRAX3D under My projects with Import a layout.
• What carries over: the track lies in the same place, with the same pieces from the same library, and the tables keep their shape. Walls, doors and objects from TRAX2 are not shown yet, but they stay stored in the file.

If you simply want to keep drawing the way you are used to, TRAX3D is the natural place: it is the continuation of the same product and it reads your old plans. If you did not fetch a plan and have no .trx file, contact TRAX3D directly; only they can say what is still possible.

Step 1: keep what you still have

The one thing you certainly want to keep is the parts list: how many of each part number lie on your layout. With that list you can carry on in any planner, even if the file itself cannot be moved.

• Open your plan in TRAX3D and choose the Parts list tool on the Project tab. It counts every article on your layout. With Save as a spreadsheet file you keep the list as a file that opens in Excel or another spreadsheet program.
• On the same tab, Layout plan as PDF makes a drawing to scale of your whole layout, with part numbers if you tick that option. Keep that PDF: it is your reference when you lay the layout again.
• Also take plain screenshots of the plan, from above and of the tricky parts (turnout ladders, the spot where the track closes).

If you still have old printouts or photos of your real layout, put them next to it. Together with the parts list you then know exactly what you have and how it lay.

TrackDrawer does not read .trx files. The parts list and the PDF are your bridge to TrackDrawer.

Step 2: enter your track as stock

TrackDrawer starts from what you own. When you start, you choose your track system and fill in your stock in one of three ways:

• Starter set or pack: you tick the starter set or extension set you bought, and all its pieces go in at once.
• Count per piece: you look up each article and fill in the number.
• Paste a list: you paste your parts list, one line per article with the part number and the count, for example 24130 x 12. Lines the app does not recognise are shown separately.

That last way is the quickest route from your TRAX parts list: put the part number and the count side by side in the spreadsheet and copy those two columns.

TrackDrawer knows 32 track systems, from Märklin C, K and M, Trix, Roco, Fleischmann, Piko, Kato, Peco, Tillig, Hornby, Arnold, Tomix and LGB to narrow gauge in H0e, H0m and OO9, plus toy track such as IKEA Lillabo, LEGO and Duplo. If your system is not among them, the parts list cannot go in. If there is a box of old track that was not in your plan, add that too; giving your old box of track a second life helps with the counting.

Step 3: lay your layout again

There are three routes, and you can combine them.

Let the Auto-designer make proposals. Give your baseboard size and what the layout should do (a continuous run, several trains, a station and shunting, variety). The Auto-designer lays variants that close, fit on your baseboard and only use pieces from your stock. That is useful if you wanted to change things anyway, or if your baseboard is not the same any more. How it works is explained in the Auto-designer.

Redraw your old plan. Put the PDF from step 1 next to your screen and rebuild the plan piece by piece in the editor. Start at a fixed point, such as a turnout ladder, and work outwards from there. The app shows in red straight away when something does not close, and the parts list keeps count, so you can see whether you use the same number of pieces as before. The method step by step is in making a track plan in seven steps.

Import from AnyRail or XTrackCAD. If you also had the same plan in one of those programs, you bring it along with Pro. XTrackCAD files (.xtc) import directly. In AnyRail, choose File > Export As > JMRI Layout File and import that .xml file. Turnouts, straights and curves are recognised by their shape; anything that does not fit shows up under Notices.

Once the plan is ready, you view it in 3D and ride along in the cab. Without Pro that is 15 seconds a day, with Pro unlimited.

Step 4: print at full size

A plan on the screen is not the same as track on the baseboard. In TrackDrawer you make a PDF to scale of your whole plan, and with the 1:1 print you get the plan at full size, split into tiles on A4 or larger. You print at 100 percent, cut along the dotted line, lay the tiles on the registration marks and put your track on the paper. An overview sheet shows which tile goes where.

Without Pro you get 20 percent of the tiles (rounded up, at least one) as a preview; with Pro you get all of them. If you want to show your plan or look at plans by others, there is the Railfolio, the public collection of track plans that anyone can rebuild with their own track.

Without Pro or with Pro

TrackDrawer runs in the browser on computer, tablet and phone, is available as an Android app on Google Play (an iOS app is in preparation) and works in Dutch, German and English.

Frequently asked questions

Can TrackDrawer open my .trx file?

No. TrackDrawer does not read .trx files. You open a .trx file in TRAX3D, under My projects with Import a layout. From there you take the parts list along as a spreadsheet file and enter it in TrackDrawer as your stock.

Is my TRAX2 account gone?

According to TRAX3D it is not: the account has moved under the same email address, and you sign in with your old password. If that does not work, choose a new password with "forgot your password" on trax3d.com.

Do I have to choose between TRAX3D and TrackDrawer?

No. You can keep your old plans in TRAX3D and at the same time let TrackDrawer design plans from your stock. They are two separate programs, each with its own account.

My track system is not in TrackDrawer. What now?

Then you cannot enter that parts list. The system pages show which 32 systems there are; if yours is missing, TRAX3D remains the place for that plan.

Carry on building

Keep your parts list at hand, enter your track and let the Auto-designer show what your layout can become with exactly your pieces.