# 2.1.3 Hand-laid Turnouts

Hand-laid turnouts are created by specifying 3 values:

- Position of Frog
- Angle of Frog (the frog number)
- Position of Points

First select the position for the Frog (Section B.2) on an existing track and then Drag away to specify the angle of the Frog. The angle in degrees and equivalent frog number is displayed on the status bar. When you release, the line indicating the angle jumps to one side of the track to show you the center line of the new leg of the turnout.

Next Click and Drag to position the Points (Section B.2) for the turnout. As you Drag, tracks will be drawn showing the turnout. When you release the turnout is created.

You cannot place the Frog or Points on a turnout, circle or helix. However, you can create overlapping Hand-laid Turnouts.

There are constraints on where you can place the Points in relation to the Frog. You cannot place the Points too close the Frog. When placing Hand-laid Turnout on a curved track you may get unexpected results, especially when placing the Points a long way from the Frog. Try changing the Frog angle to get different results.

Note: the drawing is an approximation to show the location of the Points and Frog. The piece of track considered (by XTrackCAD) to be a Hand-laid Turnout is a short section of track located at the Points and extending toward the Frogs. Other track segments are created between the Points and Frog and a short straight segment is drawn after the Frog. These other segments are independent of the turnout and can be removed or modified, although this is probably not a good idea.