[Software] Blueprint, a building instruction generator for LDD

[msx80]

thanks kokkie20 :) very appreciated (and yes i'm a sir)

[Malou]

MacOS version is up for v0023 !

http://dl.bbqsoftwares.com/LDD/Blueprint0023.dmg

[supertruper1988]

Awesome! love all the changes!

@msx80 any word on the upper limit of the image size?

[MrGibbage]

Well done! Thanks.

Not trying to sound un-appreciative, but inserting blank pages into the page layout would still be a great bonus.

Not kidding--this is some awesome work. :)

Thanks.

[kokkie20]

5 hours ago, MrGibbage said:

Well done! Thanks.

Not trying to sound un-appreciative, but inserting blank pages into the page layout would still be a great bonus.

Not kidding--this is some awesome work. :)

Thanks.

Just a heads up for you, that will come in future update :) 

[ThinkCleverAndSmart]

Hello,

I have already posted a comment here, but you seem to have missed it. I thought the logo you are currently using is in very low resolution. I have made a new one if you are interested. It's based on the current logo but made in higher resolution and without the blue box around. Please tell me if you like it or not. :)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByoPK0wFutEDWGdPODNjVFI2Uk0/view?usp=sharing

It is in a slightly different angle than your current logo, but I have made one that is at the same angle too. Just tell me if you want to see that one also. :)

[kokkie20]

@msx80 got another request for you :) *if you dont want to its fine*

Is it possible to change als background color of a page? As example when you create a sub model? For 1 project i got going on now i have 3 different parts so created 3 sub models for it.

But the printing shop is not happy if all pages come in yellowish background :p So am now changing it manual in photoshop page by page (Over 200 pages lol)

Thanks anyway for everything you did so far :D 

[kevin8]

8 minutes ago, kokkie20 said:

@msx80 got another request for you :) *if you dont want to its fine*

Is it possible to change als background color of a page? As example when you create a sub model? For 1 project i got going on now i have 3 different parts so created 3 sub models for it.

But the printing shop is not happy if all pages come in yellowish background :p So am now changing it manual in photoshop page by page (Over 200 pages lol)

Thanks anyway for everything you did so far :D 

Having the possibility to zoom in the preview while working on the instruction it should be of great help with big mocs. Is it possible?

[Leg_o_mat]

I just joined this forum to say thank you and to state that I am absolutely stunned by both Blueprint and Bluerender. @msx80 Keep up the great work! I'll post an image of the MOC I'm working on in the Bluerender thread.

If I may make two suggestions:

• Menu items for model rotation and step rotation should not be close to each other: It happened several times that I rotated the whole model instead of the step because I slipped the entry (and then it takes a while for big MOCs).
• Shortcuts (especially for model rotation) would make working much more comfortable. If you want to rotate 20 steps 4 times each, the clicking in the menu becomes a bit boring.

Thanks again for all the work you put into your SW!

 

On 20.2.2017 at 2:35 PM, kokkie20 said:

@msx80 got another request for you :) *if you dont want to its fine*

Is it possible to change als background color of a page? As example when you create a sub model? For 1 project i got going on now i have 3 different parts so created 3 sub models for it.

But the printing shop is not happy if all pages come in yellowish background :p So am now changing it manual in photoshop page by page (Over 200 pages lol)

Thanks anyway for everything you did so far :D 

 

While I absolutely agree that it would be great to have the possibility of changing the background color in Blueprint directly, here's a workaround for Photoshop. No need to replace the background color manually!

Export the instruction's pages as PNG files, then record the following actions in Photoshop:

1) Replace Color ( Image > Adjustments > Replace Color ), select background color and replace with white, for example
2) Save File

Then run the actions you have just recorded in batch mode ( Automate > Batch… ) and define the folder containing the PNG files as input. -> Photoshop will automatically perform the actions on all pages. You might have to repeat the procedure for different background colors, because only the color you selected in action 1) will be replaced.

Hope that this helps (maybe also some other people  )!

[kokkie20]

@Leg_o_mat thank you for the suggestion :) Tough i got a small update for you :) If you update to V23 of blueprint, you now can rotate the model with the "WSAD" keys on your keyboard :) you can find the link 1 page back with the changelog of it :) 

Edited February 23, 2017 by kokkie20

[Leg_o_mat]

On 23.2.2017 at 11:21 PM, kokkie20 said:

If you update to V23 of blueprint, you now can rotate the model with the "WSAD" keys on your keyboard :) you can find the link 1 page back with the changelog of it :) 

Thanks for the hint, must have missed that...

[Dakar A]

@Malou/ @msx80 Thank you both so much for this software! An issue I'm running into is generating from steps with my 3999 piece MOC. I'll click it, get the rainbow spinner (on Mac), and nothing will be produced. Any solutions, or am I breaking the program unintentionally with the size of my MOC? 

[Malou]

You could try running from the Terminal to see the output of what's going on. But I bet it's because of the size of the model. Might need a little more time processing, especially if your computer is older

[Dakar A]

What would the command be for running it through Terminal? And fwiw, it's a 15 rMBP with a 2.7 GHz i5 and 16 GB RAM.

[Dakar A]

On 1/19/2017 at 11:40 AM, ThinkCleverAndSmart said:

Hi!

I have had this issue too, but there is an easy fix!

Scroll through your steps and look for a line between two steps that are thicker than the other ones. Those are usually appearing near a submodel. Now create a new step to the left of this thick line, and move all of the bricks inside of the step on the right, to your new step. The thick line should now be to the left of an empty step. Delete the empty step and you will see the thick line disappear!

It happens that these lines appear multiple times in your model, so check all of it. This happens sometimes when deleting steps inside of a submodel. I have told msx80 about this bug already.

The regenerate button should now work! :D

Nevermind, ThickCleverAndSmart's solution was the key to getting it working!

[Malou]

@Dakar A, you can try this. Just put that file inside the stock Blueprint folder (if it's not already there) and double-click.

On 2016-12-07 at 8:14 PM, Malou said:

For MacOS, you can use this .command file. It should do the same thing as the windows .bat file. You still need Java JDK installed for it to work : 

http://dl.bbqsoftwares.com/LDD/blueprint_MacOS.command.zip

Or you can use this nice (but heavy) MacOS App Bundle that contain the Java JRE : http://dl.bbqsoftwares.com/LDD/Blueprint0022.dmg

 

Edited February 28, 2017 by Malou

[MrGibbage]

One small problem with this update (v0023): When you hit ctrl-s to save, it will rotate the currently selected step.

[legotechnicisawesome]

does it work on mac?

[legotechnicisawesome]

hi, i have downloaded the latest version and it works great! one question: is it possible to create like a luggage bag or something so that it is easier transport parts from step 80 to step 10? right now its difficult to move the parts, its taken about 40 minutes to finish 7 steps.. (111 steps total ) i think this would be great for technic builders as technic instructions need a lot of adusting!

Edited February 28, 2017 by legotechnicisawesome

[MrGibbage]

3 hours ago, legotechnicisawesome said:

hi, i have downloaded the latest version and it works great! one question: is it possible to create like a luggage bag or something so that it is easier transport parts from step 80 to step 10? right now its difficult to move the parts, its taken about 40 minutes to finish 7 steps.. (111 steps total ) i think this would be great for technic builders as technic instructions need a lot of adusting!

To move pieces from one step to another, select the pieces to be moved. Use ctrl+click to select multiple pieces, or ctrl+a to select all of the pieces (these are the windows hotkeys; no idea what they are on Mac). Note that all of the pieces must be in the same step. You can't select pieces in multiple steps. Once you have selected the pieces that you want to move, then you hit ctrl+x to "cut" the pieces (you won't see anything happen on the screen). Then scroll using the horizontal scroll bar to the step where you want to put the pieces and click on it. Then press ctrl+v to paste them. Takes just a few seconds. Once you get the hang of it, you will be moving pieces around like a pro!

[legotechnicisawesome]

On 01/03/2017 at 3:04 AM, MrGibbage said:

To move pieces from one step to another, select the pieces to be moved. Use ctrl+click to select multiple pieces, or ctrl+a to select all of the pieces (these are the windows hotkeys; no idea what they are on Mac). Note that all of the pieces must be in the same step. You can't select pieces in multiple steps. Once you have selected the pieces that you want to move, then you hit ctrl+x to "cut" the pieces (you won't see anything happen on the screen). Then scroll using the horizontal scroll bar to the step where you want to put the pieces and click on it. Then press ctrl+v to paste them. Takes just a few seconds. Once you get the hang of it, you will be moving piecve upes around like a pro!

thankyou! that will really help me! i almost gave up! i think it will just be cmd instead of ctrl..

[legotechnicisawesome]

On 01/03/2017 at 3:04 AM, MrGibbage said:

To move pieces from one step to another, select the pieces to be moved. Use ctrl+click to select multiple pieces, or ctrl+a to select all of the pieces (these are the windows hotkeys; no idea what they are on Mac). Note that all of the pieces must be in the same step. You can't select pieces in multiple steps. Once you have selected the pieces that you want to move, then you hit ctrl+x to "cut" the pieces (you won't see anything happen on the screen). Then scroll using the horizontal scroll bar to the step where you want to put the pieces and click on it. Then press ctrl+v to paste them. Takes just a few seconds. Once you get the hang of it, you will be moving pieces around like a pro!

is there any way of changing the angle of steps?

[supertruper1988]

You can rotate the model (all steps) by right clicking and going to model rotation. If you need just one step, click it and then used the WASD keys to rotate. 

[MrGibbage]

One more feature request: Part description in the steps (in addition to the picture and count). All of my models are technic. It's a pain to have to count the number of holes in the longer beams to figure out what piece it is. Now, I wouldn't want the description on every part in every step. Really, just a few of the longer beams (9, 11, 13, 15) and axles that are impossible to tell what size they are. For axles, it would be really cool if we could print an actual size picture of the axle. Maybe somehow it would need to be editable on a per-step basis??

Also, having the ability to annotate with some text boxes would be really helpful.

Edited March 4, 2017 by MrGibbage

[olesolo]

I'm trying to create a NXT 2.0 instruction here and have a small problem with a motor. For some reason Blueprint break motor on two parts (54725 Output drive, 54715 Main Housing Left). Anyone know how to fix it?