Best town layout software

[Salty Balti]

Howdy all,

Brand new member here posting about something that's no doubt been asked a million times before - I can positively hear the Mods and longtime members smacking their heads against their keyboards as I type this. In my defence I have looked back and tried the search option but I'm still getting to grips with the layout of this forum.

Basically I'm after recommendations for a nice simple, easy to use bit of software that I can use to plan a basic street layout for the town me and my partner are planning on building in the near future. I don't need something that can render the models, it doesn't even need to display in 3D, I just want something that I can use to build a nice top-down (bird's eye) layout of our town. I'd like it to have a grid overlay if possible, and the ability to create precisely sized footprint outlines of each of the buildings so that everything's in scale. In other words, I want to create a precision map of our future town.

I have use a 3D Lego modeller before, and while it was useful for the particular model I was working on (an SR-71 Blackbird) it was very fiddly and not very intuitive. I would really like something simple and easy to use that I can tweak and alter the drawing quickly and easily. If it's specifically designed for Lego modelling that would be great, but I'm definitely interested in hearing non-Lego oriented suggestions too.

Any suggestions would be brilliant. Thanks in advance (and sorry again for the inevitable duplicate post).

[Legodt]

I recommend using Microsoft Excel.  I have been using this for years.  You can adjust the colum width to "6" and the row height to "32" and end up with square cells.  I then shade the cells various colors and use borders to delineate various sections.  For example each cell represents 8 studs X 8 studs.  Hope you find this helpful.

 

 

[Lira_Bricks]

7 hours ago, Legodt said:

I recommend using Microsoft Excel.  I have been using this for years.  You can adjust the colum width to "6" and the row height to "32" and end up with square cells.  I then shade the cells various colors and use borders to delineate various sections.  For example each cell represents 8 studs X 8 studs.  Hope you find this helpful.

That only works if you want a city that fits in a grid.

20 hours ago, Salty Balti said:

I just want something that I can use to build a nice top-down (bird's eye) layout of our town. I'd like it to have a grid overlay if possible, and the ability to create precisely sized footprint outlines of each of the buildings so that everything's in scale. In other words, I want to create a precision map of our future town.

Does the city fit in a grid? Because if so Legodt already gave a solution :)

If not, something like GIMP with every building having its own layer might work.

[Withacee]

We use google Sheets (it's like Excel, only better ) and we also dabbled with BlueBrick, which is especially created for this purpose.
It has a lot of predefined modules, like road plates, train tracks and modulars, and it is a bit easier to work "outside the grid".

BlueBrick Home page

[Salty Balti]

10 hours ago, Legodt said:

I recommend using Microsoft Excel.  I have been using this for years.  You can adjust the colum width to "6" and the row height to "32" and end up with square cells.  I then shade the cells various colors and use borders to delineate various sections.  For example each cell represents 8 studs X 8 studs.  Hope you find this helpful.

 

 

 

3 hours ago, Lira_Bricks said:

That only works if you want a city that fits in a grid.

Does the city fit in a grid? Because if so Legodt already gave a solution :)

If not, something like GIMP with every building having its own layer might work.

 

2 hours ago, Withacee said:

We use google Sheets (it's like Excel, only better ) and we also dabbled with BlueBrick, which is especially created for this purpose.
It has a lot of predefined modules, like road plates, train tracks and modulars, and it is a bit easier to work "outside the grid".

BlueBrick Home page

Thanks for all the suggestions guys! Much appreciated.

Legodt - have you built your town yet? That layout example you posted sounds like it's got some really cool features. Would love to see the real thing if it exists.

Lira_Bricks - thanks for the additional suggestions there. It's not going to strictly stick to a grid like an American style city. We Brits don't know how to make streets that uniform ;p. It'll be more twisty-turny lanes and (shock horror) no roads for vehicles, only pedestrian traffic. Me and my partner like vehicles (and there will be a few in the layout here and there) but British homes being as they are, we know space will likely be at a premium so we're working on the assumption that the layout will have roughly the same footprint as a standard double bed. With that in mind we decided not to include roads as there are loads of things we're more interested in including which we'd rather use the space for.

Withacee - thanks for the link. That actually sounds like a good fit too. Guess I've got some trial and error ahead of me.

[El Garfio]

What about graph paper, a pencil and a rubber eraser?

Or better draw every element in the graph paper cut the pieces and play like it was a jigsaw

[Legodt]

"Salti Blati: have you built your town yet? That layout example you posted sounds like it's got some really cool features. Would love to see the real thing if it exists."

Yes, I have built several versions of my town, using Excel.  I use this method for designing my layout at Brickworld Chicago and for my ever-changing town in my LEGO Room.

Here is a photo link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/107972925@N06/49896069068/in/dateposted-public/

[Salty Balti]

On 1/17/2021 at 9:02 PM, Legodt said:

"Salti Blati: have you built your town yet? That layout example you posted sounds like it's got some really cool features. Would love to see the real thing if it exists."

Yes, I have built several versions of my town, using Excel.  I use this method for designing my layout at Brickworld Chicago and for my ever-changing town in my LEGO Room.

Here is a photo link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/107972925@N06/49896069068/in/dateposted-public/

Awesome MOCs there Legodt. Love those big buildings on the along the wall. Are they all Parisian?

On 1/17/2021 at 5:16 PM, El Garfio said:

What about graph paper, a pencil and a rubber eraser?

Or better draw every element in the graph paper cut the pieces and play like it was a jigsaw

I was tempted actually, as it would be easier to correct mistakes. I have done some rough planning on paper. However, I needed something I could share easily with my partner - they live about 30 miles away and the UK is under lockdown.

The solution I settled on was to go back to Bricklink Studio (the one I used to design parts of an SR-71) and use the top down view on that - something I wasn't even aware of the first time I used it. Allows me to plan out a relatively decent sized town to a good degree of accuracy. It's a little time consuming but oddly therapeutic, particularly when you get to grips with the interface.

[Toastie]

 

On 1/17/2021 at 11:00 AM, Withacee said:

BlueBrick Home page

On 1/17/2021 at 11:00 AM, Withacee said:

It has a lot of predefined modules, like road plates, train tracks and modulars, and it is a bit easier to work "outside the grid".

Yes, exactly!

And it has the layer feature, numerous CAD programs and the like have. That is very powerful, as you can simply "blank out" layers to focus on particular items positioned on one selected layer. This makes all the difference for me.

And it allows you to import your very own designs.

Best
Thorsten