Model Builder

Model Builder is the only program you need to create buildings. Many customers also purchase Brickyard to get 20 more brick and stone patterns to use with Model Builders 20 patterns.

Model Builder has textures you can make into buildings. The buildings you see in our Gallery were all designed and built by our customers, or by us. You really have thousands of possible buildings that you can make using the 500+ images included with this software. To get started, you can use the 6 included building plans or try starting with the buildings suggested in the Project idea booklet.

When you start Model Builder, you select a scale. Standard Scales include Z, N, HO, S, O, OO, G, 1:32 1:72 and 28mm. We even have some 1:285 micro-armor fans, and 1:300 gaming fans. Custom ratios are always possible.

A great feature of Model Builder is that you can choose a custom ratio for your model structures. So instead of using the set ratios, you can input the exact number ratio that is correct for your scale, either in mm or as a ratio.
Also, if you have designed a building in one scale and want to share it with someone who models another scale, you can just open Model Builder in your chosen scale, then open the file made in a different scale. Model Builder will prompt "this file was made in another scale, do you wish to continue" choose "yes" and the building will open in the new scale.

See our video!! Select a material such as brick, siding, or wood and paint it across the design screen. Use the Scale Feet Ruler to determine the building size in your scale. Select windows and doors, which will default to the correct size for your scale. Resize windows and doors as desired, then move them into place using our group duplicate, group align, group distribute and group send to back or front. Add some foundation material and some trim from their palettes. Choose some cornice, trim, "junk" or utilities to add to your building. When you are finished, save the file and print your design.

Model Builder runs on Windows 2000, XP, XP-Pro, and Vista. Min 512MB memory and min 250MB hard disc space.

We do not have a mac version of Model Builder available yet. With the new Mac capabilities, you can run Model Builder in Windows Emulator mode. We have MANY happy customers running their Model Builder program on their IMacs with windows emulator.

We have a $70 Epson Stylus R260 Photo Printer (Epson has recently replaced the R260 with the R280) that works very well for us. Epson now has a line of Claria Inks for the R260/280 that is fade resistant for 99 years. We also like the HP models. Any decent color inkjet printer will work fine. We recommend matte pphoto Paper that you can buy at your Office Store, for best image results with these high quality images.

Model Builder has over 500 images. Material Catagories inlcude: Siding, Industrial Siding, Metal, Rusty Metal, Wood, Bricks, Block/Stone, Shingles in Asphalt, Wood and Stone, Cement/Stucco. Materials can be "painted" while staying in the chosen scale, cropped, or stretched. Object Catagories include: Windows: Factory, Residential, Miscellaneous, Arched Doors: Residential, Factory, Wood, Arched, Garage. Also Shutters. Objects can be stretched bigger or smaller, many of them can also be seamlessly tiled onscreen. Other Catagories include: Material Trim, Lattice/Grills, Boundary Walls, Store front, Horizontal Trim, Vertical Trim, Utilities, Water Tower, Building Plans, Trees, Junk, Cornices, Building Extras, and Stairs.

Yes. Model Builder can import several file formats: picture formats including .jpg, .bmp, and .gif .gif format is useful when you want to preserve transparency on non-rectangular images.

Yes, Model Builder can import .dxf line drawings and also line drawings saved in .wmf format.

Check our Model Builder Gallery to see what types of things Modelers like you have made so far with the Model Builder program. There are even more pictures, we will be uploading them as there is time so check back too! We are always impressed by what our customers make. There are a huge number of possibilities of what you can build, and with the image import features, there are even more possibilities.

Model Builder has 6 building plans that can be used in any chosen scale. There is a trackside shed, service station, railway station, grain shed, 1/2 quonset service garage and an alley garage. You can also import building plans in .wmf format if you have them. You do not need a building plan to start building with Model Builder, just use the Scale Ruler and start building!

esides a user's manual, Model Builder comes with a Project Idea booklet. The booklet shows how we make a simple quonset hut, two different industrial buildings, a building backdrop, and a service station. There is also a tutorial about making a building on the Model Builder CD. View the tutorial Building a Chipboard Building here.

Yes. Model Builder has been updated several times, all updates to date are free. We always ship the most recent version. We are now on build 1.6.2 Updates within a version number are free. When we update to version 2.0 current users will need to pay approximately $10.00 Version 2.0 is estimated to be 1 year away.

See Model Builder Customer Comments and also Model Builder magazine reviews. Also check out the O Gauge Forum and Model Railroader forum to see what satisfied users are saying about the software.

contact us at: [email protected] and we will add your question and the answer to this page.