[Software] Blueprint, a building instruction generator for LDD

[MrGibbage]

One more feature request: I wish the step number was visible in the step design. I realize that this is going to change depending on the step options (single step per page; steps that have been inserted/deleted; etc.), so it may not be easy, but maybe put some thought into it. Many times I'll be working in the page design and see a step that needs some work and it means going back to the step design and scrolling around until I find it.

Perhaps an easier solution might be that there could be a hyperlink on the page design which would link to the step design for that page??

By the way, you asked some time ago about page layout desires. I pretty much always use single step per page now. Since I'm not actually printing these, it is easier to just have one step per page.

[Criso]

Really good piece of software. I don't know if it's still in development, but it shuld because it works great.

The only problem is the requirement of JVM. Maybe you could create an exe that embeds it?

Something like this: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13996547/how-do-i-bundle-a-jre-into-an-exe-for-a-java-application-launch4j-says-runtime

Good job!

[jokey02]

I'm still a frequent and satisfied user. Creations with this software published by me on Rebrickable, are often admired. When asked what software I used, I point them to this topic.

However there is one request for an extra very simple (I think) layoutstep-feature : "Add a turnaround picture" like this. So in every step you can choose an arrow, a text or a turnaround picture.

 

[Bob De Quatre]

Hi @msx80. Just got back to using Blueprint yesterday and one thing I'm missing is a way to scale up the "1x" texts in the step parts and part list. Other than that, it works like a charm 

[BennyT19]

I love this for making instructions but one comment I have, if you place say 2 plates that are 1x4 of a DIFFERENT colour on the model in the same step - it highlights both of them as PINK for current parts.  But you dont seem to be able to determine which one was black and which one was white for example.  There are some minor layout issues for larger steps and not being able to push the next number instruction over 1 page and a large gap when you add a submodel as it automatically goes to the next page but these are minor flaws with what it actually achieves overall.  A great effort and highly recommend this program.

[supertruper1988]

Hey @BennyT19! You can do all of that. Be sure to have the latest version and then you can right click on the page to move steps, add pages, and you can drag elements around the page. For the submodels, if they are only a few steps, you can right click and use the "treat model as call out" feature to just have a couple steps shown on the page next to the model instead of a full page. 

 

@msx80 I was wondering if it might be possible to generate data with BluePrint to have BlueRender render the steps? then it could be placed in a video or GIF like the video in this thread.

 

[Bob De Quatre]

One more thing: a way to remove the colored background. I was hoping to just remove them in photoshop, but it turns out that the transparent parts are colored by the background 

[Calabar]

@Bob De Quatre
Try this: click.

[Bob De Quatre]

Thanks @Calabar , I tried it and it worked fine, except page numbers didn't show up, I'll check that tonight.

[msx80]

On 6/7/2017 at 3:23 PM, Quentin Collins said:

@Malou @msx80 hey guys, I was able to get it working with some updates to my system. Thank you so much! This is going to save me many hours of work and stress! The students in my class will thank you too!

 

Thanks, great to hear! :)

On 15/7/2017 at 4:41 PM, Criso said:

Really good piece of software. I don't know if it's still in development, but it shuld because it works great.

The only problem is the requirement of JVM. Maybe you could create an exe that embeds it?

Something like this: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13996547/how-do-i-bundle-a-jre-into-an-exe-for-a-java-application-launch4j-says-runtime

Good job!

Thanks! I've tried some of those programs in the past, but they have their share of issues, in the end it's just better to let user install their JVMs

On 22/7/2017 at 1:33 PM, jokey02 said:

I'm still a frequent and satisfied user. Creations with this software published by me on Rebrickable, are often admired. When asked what software I used, I point them to this topic.

However there is one request for an extra very simple (I think) layoutstep-feature : "Add a turnaround picture" like this. So in every step you can choose an arrow, a text or a turnaround picture.

 

Yeah that would be an idea. If you want to try something similar now, you could use some unicode character such as ?, combined with high text zoom.

On 25/7/2017 at 9:33 AM, Bob De Quatre said:

Hi @msx80. Just got back to using Blueprint yesterday and one thing I'm missing is a way to scale up the "1x" texts in the step parts and part list. Other than that, it works like a charm 

They should scale based on "Text field zoom" value in Settings.

On 25/7/2017 at 9:39 AM, BennyT19 said:

I love this for making instructions but one comment I have, if you place say 2 plates that are 1x4 of a DIFFERENT colour on the model in the same step - it highlights both of them as PINK for current parts.  But you dont seem to be able to determine which one was black and which one was white for example.  There are some minor layout issues for larger steps and not being able to push the next number instruction over 1 page and a large gap when you add a submodel as it automatically goes to the next page but these are minor flaws with what it actually achieves overall.  A great effort and highly recommend this program.

Uh, i'm afraid there's no way around, either put the pieces into separated steps or turn off highlighting :)

21 hours ago, supertruper1988 said:

Hey @BennyT19! You can do all of that. Be sure to have the latest version and then you can right click on the page to move steps, add pages, and you can drag elements around the page. For the submodels, if they are only a few steps, you can right click and use the "treat model as call out" feature to just have a couple steps shown on the page next to the model instead of a full page. 

 

@msx80 I was wondering if it might be possible to generate data with BluePrint to have BlueRender render the steps? then it could be placed in a video or GIF like the video in this thread.

 

I can't see the video now, something like that probably can be done. I'll have to experiment a little.

19 hours ago, Bob De Quatre said:

One more thing: a way to remove the colored background. I was hoping to just remove them in photoshop, but it turns out that the transparent parts are colored by the background 

It should be possible by setting all pages color to white.

[waylander232]

@kokkie20

I also had that problem. Couple of things to check. A) your anti-virus hasn't removed glfw.dll, glfw32.dll and/or lwjgl.dll. I replaced these and excluded them, then B) I had the that I had installed the Java 64 bit version. I uninstalled this and installed the Java 32 bit version. Worked fine after this.

Please note you should be using the dlls from the zip file provided all within the native folder. Don't try renaming similar files as it won't work.

[jokey02]

To msx80

Thanks, the ? is a working solution, just don't forget to reset the text zoom after it, because the arrows will also blown up. Fortunately the unicode stays at the size after decreasing the zoom.

 

[kokkie20]

@waylander232

Thanks for the advice, my Anti-virus didnt removed anything, all files are still there ;) I tried the 64bit thing what you said and still occured. Then i tried another thing (Reinstalling my drivers for graphics card) and guess what... it fixed itself (Dunno how but meh, i dont care i can work further on my instructions now :D )

[MovieMocs]

OH MY GOSH!!! Thank you SOOO Much! You don't know how much easier you have made my life with this program!!!!!

[Void_S]

@msx80, thank you a lot for a great tool! I'm converting the all my MOCs into the pdf instructions since I've found this topic and can't imagine how I lived before.

The only thing that I'd like to suggest (if possible) is to have the same sub-models with x2, x3, x4 (etc.) multiplier. For example, if I assemble a tire and rim into the wheel four times as four identical sub-models, can they be replaced by a only one with "x4" mark, like for repeatable parts? That would save a lot of pages especially for complicate models (I'm a Technic fan  ).

[npt]

I had that problem. I tried V24, 25, 26 too.

 

Operating system detected: Windows
Starting Blueprint v0026.. Good luck!
Current folder: E:\DTT\LegoDesign\Blueprint0026
Initializing database..
Database is located in: D:\Users\NP\AppData\Roaming\Blueprint\database\brickcache.db
Cache is up to date (1x2248.1)
Exception in Application start method
java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
        at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
        at com.sun.javafx.application.LauncherImpl.launchApplicationWithArgs(LauncherImpl.java:389)
        at com.sun.javafx.application.LauncherImpl.launchApplication(LauncherImpl.java:328)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
        at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
        at sun.launcher.LauncherHelper$FXHelper.main(Unknown Source)
Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: Exception in Application start method
        at com.sun.javafx.application.LauncherImpl.launchApplication1(LauncherImpl.java:917)
        at com.sun.javafx.application.LauncherImpl.lambda$launchApplication$155(LauncherImpl.java:182)
        at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
Caused by: java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: Failed to load library: native\glfw32.dll (error code = 126)
        at org.lwjgl.system.windows.WindowsLibrary.<init>(Unknown Source)
        at org.lwjgl.system.APIUtil.apiCreateLibrary(Unknown Source)
        at org.lwjgl.system.Library.loadNative(Unknown Source)
        at org.lwjgl.system.Library.loadNative(Unknown Source)
        at org.lwjgl.glfw.GLFW.<clinit>(Unknown Source)
        at blueprint.opengl.a.<init>(Unknown Source)
        at blueprint.opengl.d.<init>(Unknown Source)
        at blueprint.opengl.b.<init>(Unknown Source)
        at blueprint.b.b.a.a(Unknown Source)
        at blueprint.Blueprint.b(Unknown Source)
        at blueprint.Blueprint.initApp(Unknown Source)
        at a.a.start(Unknown Source)
        at com.sun.javafx.application.LauncherImpl.lambda$launchApplication1$162(LauncherImpl.java:863)
        at com.sun.javafx.application.PlatformImpl.lambda$runAndWait$175(PlatformImpl.java:326)
        at com.sun.javafx.application.PlatformImpl.lambda$null$173(PlatformImpl.java:295)
        at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
        at com.sun.javafx.application.PlatformImpl.lambda$runLater$174(PlatformImpl.java:294)
        at com.sun.glass.ui.InvokeLaterDispatcher$Future.run(InvokeLaterDispatcher.java:95)
        at com.sun.glass.ui.win.WinApplication._runLoop(Native Method)
        at com.sun.glass.ui.win.WinApplication.lambda$null$148(WinApplication.java:191)
        ... 1 more
Exception running application blueprint.Blueprint
Press any key to continue . . .

[kokkie20]

What you can try to do is reinstall your graphic cards drivers (Maybe update it if needed)

That fixed the error for me tough :) 

[kokkie20]

@msx80

Is it possible to save in the .ini file in appdata the settings for when rendering the pages?

Width
Height
Assemblies Zoom Percent
Parts Zoom Percent
Text field Zoom

Have to adjust them everytime and was hoping it could be setted to default one way or another 
Thanks 

[kevin8]

Interesting question. Same for me, but I usually load an old file and then update it to keep settings

[Fiver]

Hey, I've downloaded the program and I'm trying to run it, but I get the error message "GLFW error [0x10006]: WGL: The driver does not appear to support OpenGL"

Bluerender is working though.

I kind of really need to make some instructions right now... Don't have a good plan B, this seems to be the program to use!

Thanks in advance.

- John

[SylvainLS]

You need to provide more info: what OS? video card? versions? …

[Fiver]

Sorry. That would be Windows 10, Blueprint 0026 and Intel Core i3-2130. :) I already checked my graphics divers and they are updated, should support OpenGL.

- John

[Christopher Hill]

@msx80 I am trying to install Blueprint on my device. Its Windows 10, Core i5 and has the latest updates, and I have installed the newest version of Java. But to be honest I have no idea what I am doing, when I try to open the .jar file nothing happens. If you've got any ideas on how I can get it to install that would be amazing! I assume I am just doing something wrong.

Thanks, Chris

 

[Newt96]

37 minutes ago, Christopher Hill said:

@msx80 I am trying to install Blueprint on my device. Its Windows 10, Core i5 and has the latest updates, and I have installed the newest version of Java. But to be honest I have no idea what I am doing, when I try to open the .jar file nothing happens. If you've got any ideas on how I can get it to install that would be amazing! I assume I am just doing something wrong.

Thanks, Chris

 

In the folder you got with all the files - you have a *.bat file in there as well, right? Just run that one.

[kokkie20]

11 hours ago, Christopher Hill said:

@msx80 I am trying to install Blueprint on my device. Its Windows 10, Core i5 and has the latest updates, and I have installed the newest version of Java. But to be honest I have no idea what I am doing, when I try to open the .jar file nothing happens. If you've got any ideas on how I can get it to install that would be amazing! I assume I am just doing something wrong.

Thanks, Chris

 

run the .bat file and it should launch