Alban Nanty

Hi Merkurius, Thanks for proposing you to translate BlueBrick in Swedish. I tried to contact you by private message, but it didn't work. Please tell me your email address in private message and I will send you an excel file containing all the texts to translate. Thanks in advance. Some news about the next release. I've sent yesterday the localization kit to all the BlueBrick translators, which means we are not so far from the release. I've almost finished the edition of the flex track (the last feature to be included into the 1.7 version): I still need to check if I can improve the snapping of a flex move. We are now entering in the test and debuging phase. Stay tuned!

Thanks for this information. I didn't get any monorail at the time I did the parts, neither were the LDRAW files done. We will try to fix it for the next release.

Yes, it seems that it is a common wanted feature. I planned to add in the 1.8 version (so not in the next release but the release after) a new type of layer to handle these kind of measurement needs. You can expect to see some rulers and connected rulers (connected to some parts, such as when you move a part, the ruler expand). But from now, appart from creating a gif, you can also go to the menu "View > General Information", and you will see the dimensions of your current layout. Some news about the 1.7 version: I have my first working version of the flex track. This is still quite buggy, but I think I've finished the most difficult part. Thanks for your patience. The way I chose for the user interface is finaly quite simple: you just need to select the track section you want to move and then double-click on the track you want to drag. If the track section contains some flex track, then it will move. Moreover, the implementation is data-driven, meaning that this system could be reused for sets that have a hinge-brick: you will be able to place your set with the angle you like between the two parts.

Hi everybody. I'm still working hard on the new release. I think I have almost finished the grouping/ungrouping parts feature (this feature was needed for the flex track). The last sprint is to finish the flex feature, and then we will enter into a phase where we will: - testing/debugging the application (specially after the add of the group feature that may have introduce bugs) - update the documentation - update the translation (I will send the new localization kit to the BlueBrick Translators soon). I lost my Italian translator, if you can speak Italian, please contact me!! The French translator also need help. Thanks for your patience.

Yes, I although thought of Photoshop for the undoable selection. I will consider it carefully after getting more feedback from users. Also this will imply quite a lot of code refactoring, so it could not be implemented before 1.8 or 1.9 version. Another good news for you: due to the implementation of the last feature of 1.7 (the flex track), I had to implement another feature needed for the flex track: the grouping feature. So you will have a hierarchical grouping feature for parts and texts in the 1.7 version.

Hi BlueBrick users, I have a question: currently the selection or the change of the selection set is not an UNDOABLE Action, because at first I estimate that a selection change do not modify the layout. I have the feeling now, that it should be an undoable Action: for example if you pick carefully a group of brick and by mistake you click elsewhere which clear you selection. In that case you may want to do an undo to find back your careful selection... What do you think? Do you think the selection should be an undoable/redoable action? Thanks in advance for your feedback.

I've finished the transparency for all the layers. So this feature will be also in version 1.7.

Currently no, there's no way to launch BB in a batch mode to export several BBM file in the same folder. But since in the 1.7 version I now save the export settings in the BBM file, it becomes much easier to implement this feature. However, I'm not very excited by implementing it... please do not count too much on it

Oh!!! That's a great idea! It might not be difficult to do add. I've finished the export setting save, I'm now currently working on the flex feature, the last feature before the 1.7 version release. Stay tuned!

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!

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

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.

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...)

Unfortunatly, that's almost impossible to do mathematically. If you know how it should work, don't hesitate to explain me... 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? Thanks. Thanks! I knew, this question will divide the users... Maybe a good reason for making it configurable then... 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 for this praise, it's always a pleasure to ear it.

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...

Thanks for your both feedback. More feedback are welcome of course.

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.

Thanks a lot! This is very encouraging!

Thanks!

Hi, For the 6370, I would suggest to put the bicycle inside the baseplate to avoid unnecessary transparent margin. Thanks.

Thanks Thomas!! I cannot blame you for being a big kid! Aren't we supposed, we the AFOL, to all be one of them?

That's great! I would recommend to move the little truck a bit more inside the baseplate to avoid the nose to overtake the baseplate for easy-placing in BlueBrick and also for optimization reason. Bye.

Hi, I suggest you to put the tail of the helicopter inside the base plate to reduce the transparent margin (especially for the set 369). It is always more difficult to sort the correct altitude order of the surrounding baseplates, than not having it to do. The less margin you have, the faster you can build your layout without overlapping. Bye.

Actually in the lego track planner, you can adjust the number of flex track between 1 to 4. When you click on the red rotation handle you can make vary not only the angle but also the number of flex track pieces by moving the mouse closer to the opposite attached point. I though this design was quite interesting and easy to implement, since I just need to divide the total angle by the number of pieces used to get the angle of each piece. Of course if I implement this design, I will not restrict the number of flex piece to 4. I can use unlimited number, no matter how far you move the mouse away. What is quite smart in this design is that one side of the track stay fixed while you are bending the other one. However, with this design you can only make a circular curve, and if you want to make a S design, you need to do it in several steps. Actually using spline was my first draft idea for flex track. However, it may not be as simple as that to implement. For example if you want to fill a gap between two tracks randomly placed, there's a little chance that the two tracks are at the exact distance of an integer number of flex track. To succeed to fill the gap you need to add one more flex track and deform the curve in a slight S shape. Using the spline may be a solution but I need to deal with 2 constraints: - The maximum angle that a single flex track can take - A discreet length for the spline: the spline length must be multiple of a flex track length Based on these 2 constraints, will I succeed to write the correct algorithm? Sorry, but I'm not sure... You can start to send me some aspirin... Bye.

Hi, Dear BlueBrick user, I would be very happy if you could go to this URL: http://city.lego.com/en-us/trainguide/trackplanner.aspx and try the edition of the flex track. Please give me your feedback. Do you like the way they implement the edition of flexible track? Do you want me to do a similar edition? Or do you have other ideas in mind? Thanks.