Bluebrick Layout Software

[Alban Nanty]

Hello,

The best way is by email. My email is written on the top of the Bluebrick website (in case I change my email):

http://bluebrick.lswproject.com/

Yours.

[legoboy3998]

@Alban Nanty, I have been using Bluebrick for quite a while now for doing club layouts.  I recently started having an issue opening my latest layout.  I get the following message when trying to open the file.  "Cannot open the map C:\Users\Sal\Documents\Sal's  Documents\BlueBrick\City-Train Area 2018 E.bbm."  "There is an error in XML document (56317, 10)."  I had the file open the day before and did open work in it with no problems, but now, I get the above message.  I did copy some items from one layout into this layout the last time I had it open, so I don't know if that had anything to do with it.  If you can offer any insight into how I can get this file open and what may be causing the issue, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,

Sal

[Duq]

Hard to tell for sure without seeing the file but if you have manually copied stuff into an xml file, chances are there's an element not closed, or an invalid character. Open the xml file in notepad or an xml editor and have a look around line 56317.

[legoboy3998]

12 hours ago, Duq said:

Hard to tell for sure without seeing the file but if you have manually copied stuff into an xml file, chances are there's an element not closed, or an invalid character. Open the xml file in notepad or an xml editor and have a look around line 56317.

Thanks for the help @Duq.  I opened the file with notepad and just deleted that line (from <brick> to </brick>.  Then tried opening the file in Bluebrick and it opened.  it appears a right hand 9v switch was removed and likely the offending part.

Sal

[Alban Nanty]

@legoboy3998 Actually, I have a know bug, that may appears, especially with large files. The bug rely in the way I generate and save the unique Id of each part. Sometimes this unique id is not unique, and two parts with the same ids get saved in the file, preventing the file to be openable later. You can salvage your file by looking at the offending line in the error message, then edit the bbm file in a text editor, and simply change the id number of the part (or delete the part). Then reopen the file with BB.

I've implemented a fix for that bug, but I'm not at all satisfied with the result, this is why I didn't published a new version of BB for fixing this issue. My current fix would also change the file format version, and I would like a fix that can keep the current version. But it is my number one priority for bug fixing in the next patch.

Edited February 19, 2018 by Alban Nanty

[Alban Nanty]

Good news, I think I found a new way to generate those unique ID, which doesn't break the file compatibility. I worked a bit on this issue today, and I think I'm now happy with what I have. That also lead me to find several bugs that I created during my last refactoring.

I will need to test intensively before releasing the 1.8.2, because it is a very sensitive fix. If there are some beta tester volunteers, please contact me at my usual email (can be found in the "About Box" of BlueBrick), especially if you got some unloadable files as @legoboy3998 explained.

[Toastie]

8 hours ago, Alban Nanty said:

Good news, I think I found a new way to generate those unique ID, which doesn't break the file compatibility. I worked a bit on this issue today, and I think I'm now happy with what I have. That also lead me to find several bugs that I created during my last refactoring.

Hi Alban,

I never experienced any issue with your beautiful software, but it is so nice to know that you are further developing BlueBrick!

Thank you very much!

All the best
Thorsten

[gabrielerava]

On ‎19‎/‎02‎/‎2018 at 2:43 PM, Alban Nanty said:

Good news, I think I found a new way to generate those unique ID, which doesn't break the file compatibility. I worked a bit on this issue today, and I think I'm now happy with what I have. That also lead me to find several bugs that I created during my last refactoring.

I will need to test intensively before releasing the 1.8.2, because it is a very sensitive fix. If there are some beta tester volunteers, please contact me at my usual email (can be found in the "About Box" of BlueBrick), especially if you got some unloadable files as @legoboy3998 explained.

Hi Alban, I always appreciated your software. My only complaint is not to have new "renderings" of the lego city or train sets produced after 2014. Do you have any plan to update the inventory of set images?

Thanks

Gabrieel

[kieran]

Hi Alban,

 Just wanted to say thanks for your work on this great software 

[Ludo]

@Alban Nanty,

As you might know, some people and more and more LUG's are using MILS modules.

Is there a way that you can implement a few new connection point definitions (0 = .., 1 = ..., 2 = ... , 10 = MILS Terrain,11 = MILS City, 12 = MILS Track, 13 = MILS Airport ) for those modules?

I'm thinking on Terrain modules, City modules, Airfield runway modules and train modules.

I created almost 100 different xml files for the different combinations of the MILS MultiRoad Modules from Michael Gale, see:

http://l-gauge.org/wiki/index.php/Reference_Instructions

and used the existing definitions for Road modules. 

If you can define them, and implement them in the next update from BlueBrick, does this mean that those connectionpoints will be generic for everyone using BlueBrick worldwide.

If not, it could generate problems when sharing files among LUG's working on a common MILS project.

Those XML files are intend to go public on L-Gauge.org, no release data known yet, as this is totaly in the hands of Michael Gale.

So IF you can do this, i'm going to update the XML files with the 'official BlueBrick' connection points. Defining the connection point colors leave I up to you as you know best whats already in use.

Hopefully I explained it in a way you understand what I mean.

 

[Alban Nanty]

19 hours ago, Ludo said:

@Alban Nanty,

As you might know, some people and more and more LUG's are using MILS modules.

Is there a way that you can implement a few new connection point definitions (0 = .., 1 = ..., 2 = ... , 10 = MILS Terrain,11 = MILS City, 12 = MILS Track, 13 = MILS Airport ) for those modules?

I'm thinking on Terrain modules, City modules, Airfield runway modules and train modules.

I created almost 100 different xml files for the different combinations of the MILS MultiRoad Modules from Michael Gale, see:

http://l-gauge.org/wiki/index.php/Reference_Instructions

and used the existing definitions for Road modules. 

If you can define them, and implement them in the next update from BlueBrick, does this mean that those connectionpoints will be generic for everyone using BlueBrick worldwide.

If not, it could generate problems when sharing files among LUG's working on a common MILS project.

Those XML files are intend to go public on L-Gauge.org, no release data known yet, as this is totaly in the hands of Michael Gale.

So IF you can do this, i'm going to update the XML files with the 'official BlueBrick' connection points. Defining the connection point colors leave I up to you as you know best whats already in use.

Hopefully I explained it in a way you understand what I mean.

 

Hello Ludo,

Since quite a long time now, BlueBrick let you define your own connection types. For this you need to extend the ConnectionTypeList.xml which is located in the "config" folder. However, if you define your own connection for your custom parts, you will also need to provide this ConnectionTypeList.xml file to people, and ask people to override the default one in their "config" folder, which may of course be a bit difficult for some user (or a bit frightening for some other user).

Therefore, I'm willing to add those 4 new connection types, in the config file released with the coming 1.8.2 release (that will come in a couple of weeks).

However, you should not use numbers for the connection type, the original number 1,2,...5 are legacy implementation. But new connection type should have meaningful names. I would therefore suggest: "mils_terrain", "mils_city", "mils_track" and "mils_airport"

I've tested a bit on my side, and choose some colors not to close to the existing colors, and here is the result. Please add the following xml code in the ConnectionTypeList.xml file, and set your connection type to be "mils_xx" in your part xml files, and reload the part library.

		<!-- The following Connection are used for the unofficial MILS parts. For more details visit http://l-gauge.org/wiki/index.php/Reference_Instructions -->
		<ConnectionType name="mils_terrain">
			<ColorARGB>FF8C5C00</ColorARGB>
			<Size>1</Size>
		</ConnectionType>
		<ConnectionType name="mils_city">
			<ColorARGB>FF242EFE</ColorARGB>
			<Size>1.5</Size>
		</ConnectionType>
		<ConnectionType name="mils_track">
			<ColorARGB>FF84FF00</ColorARGB>
			<Size>1</Size>
		</ConnectionType>
		<ConnectionType name="mils_airport">
			<ColorARGB>FFFFC4A7</ColorARGB>
			<Size>1.5</Size>
		</ConnectionType>

You can play/adjust with the color and size or keep it like that, and please send me your feedback with the tuning you like by mail (you can find my mail in the about box of BB, or on the BB website), and I will included in the default xml file.

Yours.

On 2/26/2018 at 4:19 AM, kieran said:

Hi Alban,

 Just wanted to say thanks for your work on this great software 

Thanks, it's always a pleasure to hear from people that enjoy my software.

On 2/24/2018 at 5:40 AM, gabrielerava said:

Hi Alban, I always appreciated your software. My only complaint is not to have new "renderings" of the lego city or train sets produced after 2014. Do you have any plan to update the inventory of set images?

Thanks

Gabrieel

Hello Gabrieel,

This is FAQ, and I often reply the same way: I prefer spending my limited time on implementing new features rather that creating new parts. However, some AFOL have access to the part library, and can add new parts without me, made by them or by other AFOL. It is true, that I didn't see any new parts recently. If you can motivate your LUG members to create the missing set, as a collective effort, I'm sure I could easily include them in the official part library.

Yours.

Edited February 27, 2018 by Alban Nanty

[Alban Nanty]

On 2/20/2018 at 5:52 AM, Toastie said:

Hi Alban,

I never experienced any issue with your beautiful software, but it is so nice to know that you are further developing BlueBrick!

Thank you very much!

All the best
Thorsten

Fortunately for me, the bug is quite rare, and happen for very huge layout with thousand of parts...

The 1.8.2 is mainly a bug fix issue, please don't expect new feature. The only new feature I've implemented in 1.8.2 is "Implement the saving of the "Connection Preference List" when saving a group in the library from the File menu.", but I'm quite sure it won't be any use for you, as it is a quite obscure sub-feature of a feature not so many people use (saving a group in the part library). In total, I've fixed 8 bugs in 1.8.2, including the critical one, the other bugs are mainly bugs related to adding a group on the map, or replacing a part in a group.

The 1.9 release has some interesting and challenging feature, including the so often asked scrolling bars on the map panel.... grrrr... that feature will kill me... :-(

But I don't know when I will start working on 1.9.

[Ludo]

Hi Alban,

Thanks a lot for your fast reply on my question.

Just did a quick test, and made a few minor changes. 

I'll contacted Michael Gale to see if there are still some changes to be made and keep in touch through e-mail.

Best regards, Cordialement,

Ludo

 

[Capparezza]

Hallo Alban! Just wanted to drop a line here as well and send you a very very big Thank you from my side too! At the moment I'm just fiddling with BlueBrick for my private purpose (and still have no permanent layout ), but I'm enjoying it very much. It's so stable and robust. Thank you very much for this beautiful piece of software!

[Alban Nanty]

On 2/28/2018 at 2:58 PM, Capparezza said:

Hallo Alban! Just wanted to drop a line here as well and send you a very very big Thank you from my side too! At the moment I'm just fiddling with BlueBrick for my private purpose (and still have no permanent layout ), but I'm enjoying it very much. It's so stable and robust. Thank you very much for this beautiful piece of software!

Thanks Capparezza. This is really nice from you. 

[Alban Nanty]

Hello, a quick note to tell you that I've released BlueBrick 1.8.2. Still downloadable at the same address:

http://bluebrick.lswproject.com/

Enjoy!

[Jetro]

Thank you for all the work you keep putting into this project Alban!

[tmctiger]

On 28.2.2018 at 7:58 AM, Capparezza said:

Hallo Alban! Just wanted to drop a line here as well and send you a very very big Thank you from my side too! At the moment I'm just fiddling with BlueBrick for my private purpose (and still have no permanent layout ), but I'm enjoying it very much. It's so stable and robust. Thank you very much for this beautiful piece of software!

Hi @Alban Nanty,

I'll also join with a big thank you here. I have used BlueBrick heavily in planning my layout and it would have been alot more difficult without your great software. Since my Layout is "finished", I don't use BlueBrick this often anymore, but I always recommend the software to starters in layouting a Lego-Railway-Layout.

So Thank you and keep up the good work!

BR

[Ludo]

Hi Alban,

Also, once again a thank you for the support and the verry good communication regarding the 'bug' and the implementation of the MILS connection points.

it's a pleasure to 'work' with you. 

Once i'm done with the final review of the MILSMultiRoad pictures & XML files (Generic City & Generic Terrain = 196 files), i'll send them to Michael Gale to publish them on L-Gauge.org

Then it's up to Michael to publish them when it suits him.

Ludo

[zephyr1934]

Thank you Alban, many an AFOL and LTC/LUG owe you a great debt for your hard work

[Alban Nanty]

22 hours ago, zephyr1934 said:

Thank you Alban, many an AFOL and LTC/LUG owe you a great debt for your hard work

Thanks for these kind words.

[antp]

On 29/03/2018 at 2:33 PM, tmctiger said:

I'll also join with a big thank you here. I have used BlueBrick heavily in planning my layout and it would have been alot more difficult without your great software.

Same here, the program has been really useful for me :)

Only thing that I found missing (or maybe I didn't find it?) is the ability to define "walls" of the room in which we draw the layout (or at least marks based on cm measures rather than stud measures)

[Ludo]

Hi antp

You can use marks in meter.

1. Add a ruler layer.
2. draw your line by selecting: Edit | Ruler Tool | Add Ruler
3. once done, double click on the line you just drawed. The Ruler Edition window opens up and you can in the 'Measure Value' frame select the unit you want to use.
4. you have a chooise between:

•  Stud
• LDU
• Straight track
• Module
• Meter
• Feet

you can use the rules also for a "wall", just deselect the 'Display Measure Value' in the 'Measure Value' frame

see the uploaded image.

 

p.s.: will you visit the Brick Mania Wetteren event next weekend?

i'll be there as exhibitor and volunteer.

Best regards,

Ludo

[antp]

@Ludo Thanks for the tip! I hadn't seen that function, it will be useful in the future :)

About Brickmania, not this time, I had several things planned this weekend.

I visit these usually once or twice per year.

[FETT]

Is there any chance to get the new buildings?

Like the Fairground stuff, Modulars.

I want to plan a layout, with train, Monorail and the Fairground Stuff.