Bluebrick Layout Software

[Alban Nanty]

I just started using this software, it's amazing I have to say.

Thanks a lot! This is very encouraging!

[TypoCorrecto]

So...any status updates on set additions to the software part list?

Edited October 26, 2010 by typo

[Gioppa]

It is a wonderful software,give you the idea and the misure of your layout.

My only problem is where i pass by with the monorail!!

[missouri_bb63]

So...any status updates on set additions to the software part list?

Hi there. Sorry for the complete lack of updates over the past months. With a full time, and an additional part time job on the go, I have no time for anything Lego related at the moment. If you (or anyone else) would like to contribute any GIFs, or LDD/MLCad files which you would like to have made into GIFs please post them here or send me a PM.

Eurobricks user Johnnhiszippy3 very kindly donated a large number of LDDs which I converted to LDRs from which I quickly made these GIFs. I hope you like them. It will be my last contribution for a while though unless more LDD/MLCad donations from other users can be made. The XML files will be uploaded at a later date and all of these files will be included in the BlueBrick 7 release which should be available by the end of the year.

Enjoy!

10013-1: Open Freight Wagon

GIF

10170-1: TTX Intermodal Double-Stack Car

GIF

3740-1: Small Locomotive

GIF

GIF

3741-1: Large Locomotive

GIF

GIF

3742-1: Tender

GIF

10014-1: Caboose

GIF

10015-1: Green Passenger Wagon

GIF

10017-1: Hopper Wagon

GIF

Edited November 1, 2010 by missouri_bb63

[TypoCorrecto]

No apology needed...I was just curious and of course your GIFs are great. I know LEGO's are a hobby for most and hobbies don't pay the bills...Thanks

[Alban Nanty]

Hello everybody,

I'm planning to remove the little offset (shift) added when you copy/paste a brick in BlueBrick. The reasons for that are:

1) One of the BlueBrick user complain about it

2) if you move bricks from one layer to another, you don't want the bricks to move (just change layer)

3) It is an hard-coded shiting value in my code (of 10 studs, not even easy to move back with the grid) and I don't like hard coded values

My question: do you care about this feature? Will you be disapointed to see it disapeared in the next release?

If yes, could you please argue, why this offset is needed.

Would you be happy if I put the offset value customizable in the options of the application? If yes, what should be the default value in your opinion (0 or 8 studs)?

Thanks for your answers.

[FreeBee]

Hi Alban,

Nice to hear from you.

I totally agree with removing the offset from the hard-coded area.

I also would like it to be default 0 and I can't find a good argument to put it customizable in the options.

[peterab]

I can't find a good argument to put it customizable in the options.

As purely a matter of form one should never remove existing functionality completely unless it's very broken, since there may be users who rely on it for some reason. I'd guess a 16 offset might make laying straight track very easy. Changing it to a customizable option is not much more work, and allows both current behaviour and the new requirement; seems like the obvious choice to me, with a default of 0.

BTW I haven't mastered WINE to get Bluebrick running on my Linux system yet so I'm not actually a user (yet) so I'm not likely to be upset either way.

[Alban Nanty]

Thanks for your both feedback.

More feedback are welcome of course.

[Alban Nanty]

For your information, I've already implemented 4 new features for the next release:

- NEW FEATURE (Denis): Feature to search and replace a set of brick type by another one.

- NEW FEATURE (Alban): The connection points are now configurable and extendable in an XML file

- NEW FEATURE (Alban): Display the general info on top of the map (this can be disabled in the option settings)

- NEW FEATURE (Larry): Display the XML exception when BB can not load XML files

And I've fixed 3 bugs.

I'm now working on a new feature to let the application download the language package from my website. This way I will be able to release the next version only with the english version enclosed, and if you change the language in the setting it will download the dll and eventually the helpfile (if it exists). Considering that the help file is 1 Mb for each language and that maybe the next release will have the help file translated in 3 versions (french may be the new one), it can save around 3 Mb.

I plan to make my download center reusable such as the application may also be able to download the missing parts. For that I will add an URL in the XML file and save the list of URL of the bricks used in the BBM file.

BTW, yes, I plan to extend the BBM file not only for this URL list but also to save the export settings (a request from a user), avoiding the user to always re-enter the suitable export setting for the map each time you export the map in an image.

Hope you like what's comming...

[TypoCorrecto]

Are there more sets in the works? Train, Town/City, Creator...

Edited February 16, 2011 by typo

[Snapshot]

For your information, I've already implemented 4 new features for the next release:

- NEW FEATURE (Denis): Feature to search and replace a set of brick type by another one.

- NEW FEATURE (Alban): The connection points are now configurable and extendable in an XML file

- NEW FEATURE (Alban): Display the general info on top of the map (this can be disabled in the option settings)

- NEW FEATURE (Larry): Display the XML exception when BB can not load XML files

And I've fixed 3 bugs.

Hope you like what's comming...

A feature I've felt was missing is to be able to 'flip' the selected area to create a mirror image. Sometimes 'rotate' just doesn't do enough....

I've also had the occasional crash under XP64 so I hope that's one of the bugs fixed.

Great product, looking forward to the next version.

Jonathan

[Teethgrinder]

Alban, thank you for this great piece of software. I've recently started using it to make plans for a new train layout and it's really helpful.

Regarding the offset, pasting a copied item in other imaging software usually comes with an offset, so I'd vote against removing it. If possible, I'd like to suggest to make it configurable for the people who don't want an offset, but to have it default to 16 studs.

Also, would it be possible to remember the last used values in the Export Image Options window ? While desiging the layout I regularly export an image and I have to change the values to my preference on each export. Just a friendly suggestion, I don't know whether you'd like this and if it's doable.

Thanks again, you're doing a great job!

[Alban Nanty]

A feature I've felt was missing is to be able to 'flip' the selected area to create a mirror image. Sometimes 'rotate' just doesn't do enough....

Unfortunatly, that's almost impossible to do mathematically.

If you know how it should work, don't hesitate to explain me...

I've also had the occasional crash under XP64 so I hope that's one of the bugs fixed.

Ah, I've never heard about this bug, but also never tested on XP64. I didn't do anything regarding this, so the crash bug may still be there in the next release. Do you know when it usually happen or is it completly random?

I've also had the occasional Great product, looking forward to the next version.

Jonathan

Thanks.

Alban, thank you for this great piece of software. I've recently started using it to make plans for a new train layout and it's really helpful.

Thanks!

Regarding the offset, pasting a copied item in other imaging software usually comes with an offset, so I'd vote against removing it. If possible, I'd like to suggest to make it configurable for the people who don't want an offset, but to have it default to 16 studs.

I knew, this question will divide the users...

Maybe a good reason for making it configurable then...

Also, would it be possible to remember the last used values in the Export Image Options window ? While desiging the layout I regularly export an image and I have to change the values to my preference on each export. Just a friendly suggestion, I don't know whether you'd like this and if it's doable.

Ok, if you read again my previous post, you should noticed that actually I plan to do it in the next release.

The export settings will be saved in the BBM file (so the value will be also kept even if you send the BBM to a friend).

Thanks again, you're doing a great job!

Thanks for this praise, it's always a pleasure to ear it.

[Teethgrinder]

Oops, I missed the bit about the export settings, but it's great to hear that you will be adding this feature. Thanks!

[Snapshot]

Unfortunatly, that's almost impossible to do mathematically.

If you know how it should work, don't hesitate to explain me...

A pity. Unfortunately my programming days were 25 years ago and not on PCs so I can't assist.

Ah, I've never heard about this bug, but also never tested on XP64. I didn't do anything regarding this, so the crash bug may still be there in the next release. Do you know when it usually happen or is it completly random?

I think usually when moving a selection. I can forward any info given, if it will help. I don't know if it's worth chasing XP64 bugs at this stage unless it's still likely to be a problem in W7 64.

Jonathan

[peterab]

Unfortunatly, that's almost impossible to do mathematically.

If you know how it should work, don't hesitate to explain me...

It's actually not that hard mathematically if I understand what he's asking correctly. It might not be practical for other reasons though.

Imagine a selected area that contains a few bricks that you want to flip in the x direction (around the y axis is another way of saying the same thing). Now choose a co-ordinate system with the origin placed in the position you want to flip around. Negate all the X values of the part descriptions and position of the parts in the selected area. That has the effect of flipping the parts around the y axis, and works fine for parts that are symmetrical around two axis. For parts such as wedge plate you will have to swap from left to right etc. To do this effectively you'll need to know if a part is symmetrical or not, and if not what it's mirror image part is. I'm not sure if the Ldraw library has that info, but in principle you could at least test for the symmetry though it's probably a lot of work.

[Alban Nanty]

It's actually not that hard mathematically if I understand what he's asking correctly. It might not be practical for other reasons though.

Imagine a selected area that contains a few bricks that you want to flip in the x direction (around the y axis is another way of saying the same thing). Now choose a co-ordinate system with the origin placed in the position you want to flip around. Negate all the X values of the part descriptions and position of the parts in the selected area. That has the effect of flipping the parts around the y axis, and works fine for parts that are symmetrical around two axis. For parts such as wedge plate you will have to swap from left to right etc. To do this effectively you'll need to know if a part is symmetrical or not, and if not what it's mirror image part is. I'm not sure if the Ldraw library has that info, but in principle you could at least test for the symmetry though it's probably a lot of work.

yes, actually this is what I meant. For example if you want to mirror a rail circuit containing a left switch point, you have to use the right switch point to be symetrical. Also to mirror a simple quarter circle curve made of 4 curve tracks, computing the position is easy, but you have to rotate all the curve to turn in the other direction.

As you can see the mirror feeture is a great feature, I agree with you, but to implement it, it seems very difficult considering that we are using parts, and not just geometrical figures...

But again, if someone wants to think on the problem and come with an algorythm, I would be happy to implement it. For now, I prefer to concentrate on more feasible features, and leave this feature for a far futur (if you want, it's a bit like the brick connection problem in the LDraw world, it would be nice to have it, but there's so many ways to connect bricks that LDraw fans didn't came yet with a standard to describe connections...)

[Strikeman]

The http://bluebrick.lswproject.com/ isn't working for me, and I can't seem to find a mirror for the software anywhere :(

help ? :)

[Alban Nanty]

Hi everybody,

My website hosting just expired two days ago. I did not succeed to renew my hosting service before the deadline even if I was ready to pay (bad customer support). Therefore, I think I will need to find another place. This will probably takes few more days, but the URL will stay the same (since I have no problem to pay my domain name).

Sorry for the inconvenience.

[Strikeman]

Hi everybody,

My website hosting just expired two days ago. I did not succeed to renew my hosting service before the deadline even if I was ready to pay (bad customer support). Therefore, I think I will need to find another place. This will probably takes few more days, but the URL will stay the same (since I have no problem to pay my domain name).

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Great man, I see the site is up and running again ! Thanks for your super cool software ! Once I'm ready sorting my LEGO I'll make sure to publish some GIFs of the sets I've created in LDRAW to add to the Library !

[Alban Nanty]

Great man, I see the site is up and running again ! Thanks for your super cool software ! Once I'm ready sorting my LEGO I'll make sure to publish some GIFs of the sets I've created in LDRAW to add to the Library !

Yes, the site is now online again. Sorry for the inconvenience.

[lostdriveway]

Hi there,

Any current train / city updates?

Looking for the #7937 train station, #7936 level crossing and the parts from the #7939 cargo train.

Thanks and keep up the great work!

[Alban Nanty]

Hi,

I'm sure some part contributors will be happy to create these sets for you

As for me, I'm still working on the new features for the next release. I also found some bugs in the snapping while I was debugging. So the next release will normally be even more friendly to move group of parts like rails.

I've just finished the electric shortcut check. Here is a sneak pick:

Now I only have 2 more features planned for the next release: save the export settings in the BBM file and implement the flex track. I will start by the easiest one (the export settings).

Plan well!

[lostdriveway]

Hi,

I'm sure some part contributors will be happy to create these sets for you

As for me, I'm still working on the new features for the next release. I also found some bugs in the snapping while I was debugging. So the next release will normally be even more friendly to move group of parts like rails.

I've just finished the electric shortcut check. Here is a sneak pick:

Now I only have 2 more features planned for the next release: save the export settings in the BBM file and implement the flex track. I will start by the easiest one (the export settings).

Plan well!

Thank you good Sir!

I use MAC but also run Fusion and Window's XP on my office iMac so I finally got a chance to sit down and spend some time designing my layout... (helps when the wife is away and I get some me time!). I have to say thanks for all your hard work. It's great to be able to use this kind of software to plan / build and dream about how I want it to look!