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Stage design templates or ideas?

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December 26, 2018, 11:18 AM
Riley
Stage design templates or ideas?
I’ve seen some stage layouts that were done on a computer but can’t find what was used. I keep forgetting to look at the header or footer to see if it says.

This will mainly be for Rimfire or Steel Challenge, and while it’s easy enough to draw up, I’d like it a little nicer looking and to be saved electronically.




Do not send me to a heaven where there are no dogs.
Step Up or Stand Aside: Support the Troops !
Expectations are premeditated disappointments.
December 27, 2018, 04:24 PM
PCWyoming
Several years ago I used a software/design program for USPSA stages. It had the targets and walls where you could drag and drop into position. I don't remember the name of it, though.
I will look for it as soon as I am in front of my home computer.

PC
December 27, 2018, 05:36 PM
WildSig
A bunch of USPSA stage designers are now using SketchUp.

https://www.sketchup.com/products/sketchup-free

You can download a free version of it and it is available for PC and Mac. The good thing about it is that you can layout stages, change the camera angles and actually do a walkthrough of the stage to see if you have shoot throughs or other issues. It's not perfect but it is pretty good once you get used to it.

I downloaded SketchUp 2017 and played around with it a little bit and there is a learning curve to it but I think if you played with it you'd be able to figure it out.

The last time I looked into it I was able to find tutorials on using it for USPSA stages. I have a copy of USPSA Props that work with it if you want to download it and give it a try.
December 28, 2018, 09:37 AM
PCWyoming
I agree that Sketchup has a sharp learning cure.
I tried this one: https://tridentstagedesigner.com/, but used this one:
http://www.gunracer.com/?page_id=3 which I liked.

PC
December 29, 2018, 06:19 PM
Riley
Thanks all!

WildSig, I may take you up on that.




Do not send me to a heaven where there are no dogs.
Step Up or Stand Aside: Support the Troops !
Expectations are premeditated disappointments.
December 31, 2018, 01:32 PM
JAFO
Here's my Sketchup props template. Feel free to download a copy. When I got it, I made a copy, deleted all the props (leaving an empty bay), then made several copies of that one and sized each to one of the bays at my club. Now I have correctly sized bays that I can draw stages in with relative certainty that they will fit.

https://drive.google.com/open?...sjD0VaFh6SmMxbkpXdlE

Back when I started using Sketchup, there were several very good tutorial videos. If they still have them on the website, I highly recommend watching them to get the hang of things.


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"I drank what?" - Socrates
December 31, 2018, 09:21 PM
cas
With lots of experiance designing stages and not having them look anything like what you thought they would when you go to build them ("oh crap, you can see all these targets from here") I always thought about making a tiny scale model. Little mini targets/stand and steel and walls that you could lay out on a table and get a 3D 360º view of. Big Grin


_____________________________________________________
Sliced bread, the greatest thing since the 1911.

January 13, 2019, 11:15 AM
Riley
Scale models with green army men would be cool. Thankfully, I only need to worry about steel matches that involve no movement or obstacles. School and all that takes the time I need for the fancy stuff.

I’ve been trying to find some Rimfire stages along the lines of USPSA Classifiers but I’m not having any luck.




Do not send me to a heaven where there are no dogs.
Step Up or Stand Aside: Support the Troops !
Expectations are premeditated disappointments.
January 19, 2019, 01:59 PM
Riley
Thanks all! So far I'm using Trident and it's working well for me.

Pretty simple layouts though, just steel from a static shooting box.




Do not send me to a heaven where there are no dogs.
Step Up or Stand Aside: Support the Troops !
Expectations are premeditated disappointments.
January 19, 2019, 06:23 PM
VictimNoMore
Riley--
Here are about 70 steel challenge-style stages, already designed for you.
In case you don't have time to design your own.
http://www.handgunsports.com/AMERICAN-SP.HTM
January 19, 2019, 08:25 PM
Riley
Thank you! I've seen similar, Outer Limits the most recognizable, but haven't been able to find anything.

I wonder what they use for a program?




Do not send me to a heaven where there are no dogs.
Step Up or Stand Aside: Support the Troops !
Expectations are premeditated disappointments.
February 17, 2019, 01:25 PM
randyman
When i would design stages for our indoor USPSA club, I created an Excel template for the range layout. I used standard Excel shapes and bold line to represent vision barriers and targets. Somewhere on my old computer, I have hundreds of stages for our ten-lane indoor range. It wasn't quite to scale, but it was easy to use and made for some good stage designs.