TrainDesign vs minical
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
TrainDesign
Design and plan your model railroad tracks with ease. This app allows you to create custom layouts, modify track segments, and adjust curves to your specifications. Unleash your creativity and build intricate routes with intuitive touch controls.
- Plan model railroad tracks
- Create custom track lines
- Modify track segments (orient, stretch, shrink)
- Adjust curve width, angle, and radius
- Determine track altitude
- Intuitive touch controls
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TrainDesign is born with the purpose to plan your model railroad track. In a few minutes you can create lines of any kind. Using a set of tracks you can choose the type of binary-to-use, orient, stretch or shrink it. The curves can be modified to width angle and radius of curvature. TrainDesign stands out for its ease of use and the versatility, giving space for creativity. You will learn that it is very easy to edit lines, determine the altitude, change every single piece in an intuitive and simple manner. With only the use of your fingers, you can create small or large tracks, focus on building a single part using the touch or see the route as a whole.
minical
Consolidate all your events from linked calendars, iCloud, and system calendars into a single, color-coded view. See your entire month at a glance, get event countdowns, and utilize home screen widgets and lock screen wallpapers to stay organized without opening the app.
- Unified event display
- Month, week, day views
- Home and lock screen widgets
- Auto-refreshing wallpaper
- Natural-language quick add
- Two-way calendar sync
- Apple Watch app and complications
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Every event at a glance — that's all minical does. linked calendar, iCloud / iOS system calendars, and minical's own events — wherever they're created, they all land on one screen, color-coded. What's on today, how the rest of the month flows, all visible without scrolling. ■ At a glance • Today screen — next-event countdown, ongoing, what's left, what's done • Month view — the entire month in one grid, color patterns visible at a glance • Widgets — today + tomorrow without leaving the home/lock screen • Shortcuts — your lock screen wallpaper becomes today's schedule • Apple Watch — at a glance from your wrist ■ Core • iOS 26 native Tab Bar — Today / Calendar / Agenda / Search / Settings • Month · Week · Day views — Month uses vertical paging with magnetic snap. Tap the year/month title to jump anywhere • Two-way linked calendar sync — add / edit / delete writes back to linked calendar immediately. Multi-account • Recurring events — daily / weekly / monthly / yearly with end conditions. Editing a series instance asks: this event only or the whole series • Natural-language quick add — "tomorrow 3 PM meeting 1 hour" • linked calendar's 11-color palette + brightness tones — long-press for shade variants • Read-only iOS system calendars (iCloud / Exchange) blended in • Multi-alarm (10 presets, stack as many as you want) ■ Full widget lineup Home screen • Up Next (Small / Medium) — bold when one event, compact rows when many. Long-press to filter calendars • Today List (Medium / Large) — today first; tomorrow only when today has room to spare • Month grid (Large) Lock screen • Inline (one line above the clock — timed events first) • Inline Long (multiple events compressed) • Rectangular (single event large, multi-event compact) • Circular (today's count) Apple Watch • Native Watch app — quick view + quick add • Four complications (Inline / Rectangular / Circular / Corner) ■ Auto-refreshing wallpaper via Shortcuts • "Generate Today Wallpaper" Shortcut — chain it with the system "Set Wallpaper" action and a daily 7 AM automation, and your lock screen refreshes itself with today's plan • "Save Today Wallpaper to Photos" — single-action variant • Three styles: Gradient / Minimal / Dark ■ Promises • No ads. No account required (linked calendar sync is optional). No tracking. No IAP. • All data stays on-device. calendar account tokens live only in Keychain. No analytics or ad SDKs. Scattered events on one screen — today at a glance.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: minical at 100% against TrainDesign's 33%. minical also leads on price (Free vs $1.99) and rating (5.0 vs 2.3). TrainDesign's advantage is ratings volume (15 vs 1). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
minical is free to download; TrainDesign costs $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
minical holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 2.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: TrainDesign has 15 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 33% of TrainDesign's written reviews are positive against 100% of minical's.
TrainDesign ships an update every 4 months, minical every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | TrainDesign | minical |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 2.3 (15 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 33.3% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 15 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 16 MB | 14 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Kind of Blue | Lim Sangjin |
Customer experience
TrainDesign
minical
Bugs and requests
TrainDesign
Reported bugs
18 issues- App locks up after selecting first track
- Saving changes to existing layouts results in original disappearing
- Cannot move selected track
- Rotate icon greys out after one rotation
- App crashes on load
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- Editor does not work, cannot rotate pieces
- Cannot place track where desired
- Small graphics on black background make components hard to see
- Zooming is sketchy, losing track
- Cannot switch red dot to continue with different track
- Pinch gesture sends track work out of view, becomes unselectable
- Turntable not available as shown in demo
- App keeps freezing
- Switches are not calibrated correctly
- Layout limited to about 5’ X 5’ for movement
- Zooming in/out is problematic outside the 5x5 zone
- Flex track shaping is difficult
- Simple oval has misaligned track pieces
Requested features
11 requests- Add more track libraries (e.g., Rokuhan Z, Hornby, Lionel Fastrack, Realtrax, Fleishmann profi ho)
- Improve track connection and alignment
- Fix rotation and movement issues for track pieces
- Add a 'save as' function for layouts
- Include inch/feet measurement options
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- Add a tutorial or help screens
- Allow using track from multiple manufacturers in one plan
- Add models of coaches to visualize train appearance on curves
- Improve zooming and panning functionality
- Add print function for plans and parts lists
- Support for Mac
minical
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
TrainDesign
No in-app purchases
minical
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is TrainDesign free?
Is minical free?
Which has better reviews, TrainDesign or minical?
Do TrainDesign or minical have ads?
Which is updated more often, TrainDesign or minical?
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