Bluebrick Layout Software

[zephyr1934]

8 hours ago, Alban Nanty said:

Go to menu Edit > Preference... > then tab Appearance > in the group box "Default Text Format". You can edit your preferred font style size and color.

Ah ha! Thank you again for fielding my dumb questions.

4 hours ago, Thai bricks said:

I'm trying to create the pieces for 4DBrix track

Please share if/when you get them working

[ecmo47]

Next question. Why cant I get monorail tracks to rotate? I tested out 9v track and it will works fine. The rotate clock-wise and counter-clock wise options are high-lighted but do not work. I keep getting a "snake" with the curves instead of an arc.

 

[Thai bricks]

I have never used monorail, but I noticed that there is a right and a left short curve. You need to alternate them to get a continuous curve. The quarter curve is symmetrical and will rotate correctly.

@zephyr1934That is the intention, but without help I doubt it will happen. My school maths eludes me now and the connection points aren't quite where they are supposed to be.

[CoNSpiracy]

About the font size in text layers, is it just me or does the text appear very big even with the lowest font size setting (8) in Arial? Much larger than for example the standard text saying "xx studs" when adding a ruler in a ruler layer. I'm trying to add some discreet text to my layout but it looks quite dominant even with font size 8 in Arial.

Also, a feature request: In my train layout I would like to mark where my buildings are located. I know that this could be done by adding each house as a part in the parts library, but this would be quite some work. What I am after is a function (in a new layer type?) where I can create a box/rectangular with an outline (could be a black outline and transparent inside, or, the sophisticated solution could be to let the user define the two colours, including transparent). The size of the box (No. of studs of the 2x two sides of the rectangular) could be defined by clicking the mouse and dragging the cursor, and/or by an input box where the dimensions can be typed in. I appreciate that this would only make it possible to show the outline of rectangular structures, but it would be a very good starting point as most houses and other buildings consists of just one or a very few rectangular ground area(s). It would also allow me to mark my custom made roads (i.e. not using road base plates), side walk etc.

[Alban Nanty]

16 hours ago, ecmo47 said:

Next question. Why cant I get monorail tracks to rotate? I tested out 9v track and it will works fine. The rotate clock-wise and counter-clock wise options are high-lighted but do not work. I keep getting a "snake" with the curves instead of an arc.

 

The short monorail track have 2 different type of connections, therefore you cannot rotate them. BlueBrick prevent you to build impossible track layout. Like Thai bricks mentioned, you should use the other type of short curve, depending if you want a snake or a quarter circle. Note that those two parts are mainly intended to create a snake, because if you want a quarter circle, you can directly use the quarter circle track.

[Alban Nanty]

2 hours ago, CoNSpiracy said:

About the font size in text layers, is it just me or does the text appear very big even with the lowest font size setting (8) in Arial? Much larger than for example the standard text saying "xx studs" when adding a ruler in a ruler layer. I'm trying to add some discreet text to my layout but it looks quite dominant even with font size 8 in Arial.

Also, a feature request: In my train layout I would like to mark where my buildings are located. I know that this could be done by adding each house as a part in the parts library, but this would be quite some work. What I am after is a function (in a new layer type?) where I can create a box/rectangular with an outline (could be a black outline and transparent inside, or, the sophisticated solution could be to let the user define the two colours, including transparent). The size of the box (No. of studs of the 2x two sides of the rectangular) could be defined by clicking the mouse and dragging the cursor, and/or by an input box where the dimensions can be typed in. I appreciate that this would only make it possible to show the outline of rectangular structures, but it would be a very good starting point as most houses and other buildings consists of just one or a very few rectangular ground area(s). It would also allow me to mark my custom made roads (i.e. not using road base plates), side walk etc.

For the font size, don't feel restricted by 8. You can type any number in the box, 1 being the smallest one (but it is barely readable at 1).

For your house feature, I would recommend to use an area layer. You can edit the transparency of the layer, and also you can edit the size of the grid used to draw the area (by default it is 32 studs). If you want different transparency value, you can use several area layers.

Alternatively, if you insist on having only an outline, you can use a ruler layer, and draw ruler lines. Edit the line property to not display the measurement (you can also disable the offset). Once you configured a ruler, right click on it and choose "Use as Template" and then draw the 3 other walls of your house. Once you have drawn the 4 walls, you may want to group them (select them, right click and choose group). That may be more tedious than the area of course...

Which means the feature you want, would be to be able to draw a fully transparent area, but with outline of the border :-)

[Phil B]

Havent used BlueBricks as extensively as others, so forgive me if this feature already exists, but I would appreciate a list sidebar which lists all components in the current layer (maybe even showing all layers) so you can quickly select a bunch of things using shift and ctrl clicks .... basically the same way Stud.io and MLCad work.

Edited March 2, 2020 by Phil B

[CoNSpiracy]

2 hours ago, Alban Nanty said:

For the font size, don't feel restricted by 8. You can type any number in the box, 1 being the smallest one (but it is barely readable at 1).

Ah, thanks I didn't know that. Size 2 seems to work better for me.

2 hours ago, Alban Nanty said:

For your house feature, I would recommend to use an area layer. You can edit the transparency of the layer, and also you can edit the size of the grid used to draw the area (by default it is 32 studs). If you want different transparency value, you can use several area layers.

Alternatively, if you insist on having only an outline, you can use a ruler layer, and draw ruler lines. Edit the line property to not display the measurement (you can also disable the offset). Once you configured a ruler, right click on it and choose "Use as Template" and then draw the 3 other walls of your house. Once you have drawn the 4 walls, you may want to group them (select them, right click and choose group). That may be more tedious than the area of course...

Which means the feature you want, would be to be able to draw a fully transparent area, but with outline of the border :-)

I had actually tested the area layer mode before posting the feature request, but I gave up on it since 8 studs seems to be the minimum grid size. Otherwise it could do. How do I go below 8 studs in area layer grid size?

[Thai bricks]

Try changing the "Grid snapping step", 7th button from the right in the tool bar.

[Alban Nanty]

2 hours ago, Phil B said:

Havent used BlueBricks as extensively as others, so forgive me if this feature already exists, but I would appreciate a list sidebar which lists all components in the current layer (maybe even showing all layers) so you can quickly select a bunch of things using shift and ctrl clicks .... basically the same way Stud.io and MLCad work.

There's the part list window, that list the type of brick used and there quantity. But it doesn't list each individual parts. Also you cannot select the parts through this list.

45 minutes ago, CoNSpiracy said:

I had actually tested the area layer mode before posting the feature request, but I gave up on it since 8 studs seems to be the minimum grid size. Otherwise it could do. How do I go below 8 studs in area layer grid size?

Yes you're right, it can't goes under 8 studs.

I guess the proper way would be to place the building from the city package no?

[CoNSpiracy]

4 minutes ago, Alban Nanty said:

Yes you're right, it can't goes under 8 studs.

I guess the proper way would be to place the building from the city package no?

Yes, but it would be quite some work for me to add all the houses I need to the package. I am creating a Winter Village layout with all the official VW sets plus some mocs.

The area layer paint function could perhaps do the trick for me, if you could make it possible to go down to 1 stud? Otherwise the rectangular outline function I described would be extremely helpful, I think.

[Alban Nanty]

13 hours ago, CoNSpiracy said:

The area layer paint function could perhaps do the trick for me, if you could make it possible to go down to 1 stud?

I'm afraid I prefer not, for optimization reason. The area are not saved as a series of rectangle, but as a kind of bitmap, so that could be very large for 1 stud resolution. I assumed when you plan a layout, you rarely need to be so precise. The way you want to use the area layer is not in its intended purpose.

[Capparezza]

@Alban Nanty Hello Alban! Justed wanted to drop by and express my gratitude to you for making this tool available to us for free.... and still investing free time to add features or straighten out bugs! Thank you very much!

So far I have created lot's of virtual layouts with your software, still waiting for that bigger flat or house to build them in

Edited March 3, 2020 by Capparezza

[Alban Nanty]

17 minutes ago, Capparezza said:

@Alban Nanty Hello Alban! Justed wanted to drop by and express my gratitude to you for making this tool available to us for free.... and still investing free time to add features or straighten out bugs! Thank you very much!

So far I have created lot's of virtual layouts with your software, still waiting for that bigger flat or house to build them in

@Capparezza thank you so much, I really appreciate those nice messages. 

[ecmo47]

What Capparezza said! Thanks for the tips on how to lay monorail track and the other great gouge in this thread. With all your help, I've been able to create this plan for a show this weekend. Now if we can just get TrixBrix to create add-on files for their slip switchs, regular switches and cross-overs, we would really be in business!
 

 

 

[naboo]

Having bought a lot of TrixBrix custom Switches and been using Bluebrick for all my layouts I would really like to have all their parts in the library.

[Mattzobricks]

Naboo, I do understand your request completely, but stay calm. It's only a matter of a couple of weeks until I will publish my TrixBrix library for Bluebricks. In the meanwhile, check www.mattzobricks.com for a sneak peak... :-)

[CoNSpiracy]

3 hours ago, Mattzobricks said:

Naboo, I do understand your request completely, but stay calm. It's only a matter of a couple of weeks until I will publish my TrixBrix library for Bluebricks. In the meanwhile, check www.mattzobricks.com for a sneak peak... :-)

Sounds really good. Will it be a complete library of all the TrixBrix tracks, including the odd pieces such as the buffer stop and short straight tracks (1/16, 2/16, 4/16)?

I have just had a look at your homepage and your YouTube videos. Wow, your setup is really impressive - looking forward to seeing more footage, including some "how-to" videos :-) (In particular, I am interested in the software part, and how you have added sounds)

Edited March 9, 2020 by CoNSpiracy

[zephyr1934]

1 hour ago, Mattzobricks said:

Naboo, I do understand your request completely, but stay calm. It's only a matter of a couple of weeks until I will publish my TrixBrix library for Bluebricks. In the meanwhile, check www.mattzobricks.com for a sneak peak... :-) 

Can't wait for the trixbrix library, in the mean time your automated layout is very impressive and some of your sample layouts are crazy in a good way, with many nice tutorials of what is feasible.

[naboo]

On 3/9/2020 at 1:18 PM, Mattzobricks said:

Naboo, I do understand your request completely, but stay calm. It's only a matter of a couple of weeks until I will publish my TrixBrix library for Bluebricks. In the meanwhile, check www.mattzobricks.com for a sneak peak... :-)

Sounds great :-) and very nice stuff on your website. 

[Evans]

I have issues moving around big layouts in Bluebrick, when these are bigger than 10 baseplates long. There is no other way to move apart of the mouse scroll function. Is there a possibility to move with the right click of the mouse, and the menu would appear only with a static right click.

Also, is there a possibility to show the current interruption of the 12V circuit breaker rail? It would be easier to show the different sections of a circuit.

[Alban Nanty]

8 hours ago, Evans said:

I have issues moving around big layouts in Bluebrick, when these are bigger than 10 baseplates long. There is no other way to move apart of the mouse scroll function. Is there a possibility to move with the right click of the mouse, and the menu would appear only with a static right click.

Also, is there a possibility to show the current interruption of the 12V circuit breaker rail? It would be easier to show the different sections of a circuit.

For the FAQ pan the view: click on the middle mouse button, or SHIFT + Left mouse button

For the circuit break, yes, that's a good idea. I will take note.

[M_slug357]

@Alban Nanty These may be too large requests to be reasonable, but would it be possible to have user rebinding of the controls? Multiple projects open in a single window?

[legoboy3998]

On 3/14/2020 at 1:09 PM, M_slug357 said:

@Alban Nanty These may be too large requests to be reasonable, but would it be possible to have user rebinding of the controls? Multiple projects open in a single window?

You can have multiple instances of Bluebrick running at one time as seperate windows.  On my Windows 8.1 laptop, I open Bluebrick, then right click on the icon in the taskbar and click the Bluebrick .exe in the menu.  If you open the second instance after you open the first file, you can copy and paste from the first instance to the next.

I often have multiple open while working on different shows.

Sal

WFB, WI

[Alban Nanty]

On 3/15/2020 at 2:09 AM, M_slug357 said:

@Alban Nanty These may be too large requests to be reasonable, but would it be possible to have user rebinding of the controls? Multiple projects open in a single window?

Hello M_slug357, yes make BlueBrick multi-document is a too big change for now. The solution as legoboy mentionned is to have multiple instance of BlueBrick running and you can copy paste between instances. You cannot copy/paste a full layer for now, but that's something I would like to do in short term.

You can rebind some of the shortcut keys in the preference, but not the main navigation keys. I thought about it a bit for the previous release, and that was quite a difficult task. I'm not sure how to handle it for now.

So, no chance to see those two requests in 1.9, but I keep them on my todo list.