supertruper1988

To be honest, how are you planning to build without color in the instructions?

That is easy in Studio.

They are available in LDraw and Studio. The instructions are also online.

From an automation standpoint, could a sensor be placed under the track point up and then each train is color coded underneath? This would allow for say, a station where you could have a main line and then trains are "sorted" into tracks for loading.

It will likely be compatible with the older coupler bars which are replacements for the current ones. I would think that there would not be enough demand for more than one version.

Same here! I we will have to sell them all fast because all the $$$ we have invested in magnets will not be worth as much soon hahahha

I hope its couplers!

You can play with the build in a program like Studio. You should be able to find a replacement part and you may have more luck using an alternate color scheme

So I have been doing pro instructions for over a year and I do not recommend studio for instructions of a pro-level for anything bigger than a few hundred parts. The layout process and other features are not as flexible as the features in LPub3D. That being said, here are a few tricks I use: Instead of setting the page size by inches or centimeters, You will want to set the page by DPI. For nice instructions that will be digital delivery, I use 150 DPI so 8.5"x11" is 1275px x 1650px. For print, I just use the 2x export option to get 300 DPI pages. Once I have all the pages laid out, I export as PNG with a transparent background color. I bring them into Adobe InDesign to put the images on the page as well as add text, covers, page number, etc. To answer your other questions, the Minifigs are a work in progress and the updates and info from BrickLink is sparse and scattered. There is not "treat as part" option yet. The renderer may be set to use your GPU, which seems buggy so try it with the CPU. There are also bugs in this part as well. Another disadvantage is that you are stuck with the 7 or so page layouts offered, you cannot have a bunch of steps on one page for a small sub-build. There is also no way to have a 2 row callout even tho it is an advertised feature. Ultimately, I recommend that the process of putting the parts into steps is done in Studio because the instruction maker step process is very streamlined, but then I export to LDR and bring it into LPub3D for the layout side of things. If you want to see the quality of instructions produced in this manner, you can download any of the free instructions in the "trackside accessories" section of Iron Horse Brick Co's website linked below. They are the 150 DPI digital versions that I have described above. Also, I know that you have been making instructions for a long time and I would be happy to help you out with any questions. Feel free to PM me if you need more help.

Usually when ballasting track there is also a custom road solution in place. The two more popular systems in which to do this are MILS and Moduverse. The MILS standard is what my LUG and many US based LUGs seem to use. It is a baseplate + 1 brick + 1 plate. It is big money but it allows for a lot of terrain variation. Moduverse is not something I am familiar with but from what I remember it does not us a base plate and is 2 bricks + 1 plate for the ground level.

It is un known for sure. LEGO stated that LDD was no longer in development about 2 years ago. They have since dropped 2 updates so who actually knows. If you havent seen it, you should definitely check out BrickLink's Studio software. it is a much better program and you can check the existence of parts right in the program.

Thanks for your kind words!

That is AWESOME! totally jealous!

Public Announcement: This is, without a doubt, a difficult and sudden announcement to have to make, but after three short, yet successful months, Iron Horse Brick Co. (IHBC) has reached the “end of the line.” The community’s reception to our entrance into the scene was mixed. We experienced both positive and negative reactions, and given Cameron and I’s personal ambitions within the hobby, to share quality designs and promote camaraderie and friendships, we feel IHBC is no longer the best avenue to achieve them. We apologize to those who were looking forward to our future designs, and we thank you all for your support and feedback. Our online store will be open until all of our remaining inventory has been exhausted. Now is the time to purchase! As always, play well!

Private Mocs are called "Custom Lists" now and are found under the "My LEGO" Drop Down. @dentalcorp

I have found that LDView can have issues. have you tried the LDGLite Render? It can be changed in the configuration section.

What technics are illegal that arent worse than the loop itself? Any looping setup is going to put stress on the parts because a vertical loop has to have the loop but in order to have an entry and an exit track, there is some horizontal shift required. Without specialized parts being 3D printed or $$$$$$$$ in tooling to make some custom looping sections, the entire concept of the loop is "illegal"

Studio is a pretty LDraw wrapper so you can make custom decorations by adding them to the part and saving it as a new part and putting it in the Studio progam folder under ldraw/Custom Parts/Parts then it will be in the drop down under master as "Custom parts" I believe that you can use this same trick to have dual molded legs, as they exist in the ldraw library.

Looks awesome!

Its like a 1/4 scale train you see at many amusement parks around the world!

The instructions are pretty cheap and use tons of common parts so a color swap to be SP is very achievable.

Cool little scene!!

That is a pretty cool way to do it!

Those looks great! Thanks for sharing!

I think that @monai has a point. Pick a scale and then build to that scale. LEGO is a very Digital (in the pixelated sense) medium so you will have to make some concessions. It was a little hard to follow your post because of all the abbreviations but I think this was the gist. You model North American rail in 8 studs = 10 feet scale and want other things to be proportional to this? In that case every 6" is one plate. I model in this scale and it produces 7 wide tractor trailers, 5-6 wide cars, some larger rail cars and old steam locos are 12 feet wide which puts you at almost 10 studs wide (8 studs + 4 plates)!!! If you based the scale of the builds solely on track gauge, then you would be looking at 1 stud = 1 foot making 10 stud wide creations. That is a TON of parts! LEGO has compromises so I feel that 1:48 (8 studs = 10 feet) is the perfect scale for minifigs. It puts a minifig at 6 feet tall and 2.5 feet wide lol! I really liked your idea of using rail spacing that is 5 instead of 6 studs to represent narrow gauge. It makes for a much nicer build than the 4 stud LEGO narrow tracks. I hope this somewhat answers your questions!