Bluebrick Layout Software

[Alban Nanty]

Well I rarely design parts myself, but if someone has done those parts, I hope you could share them.

[supertruper1988]

5 hours ago, FETT said:

Is there any chance to get the new buildings?

Like the Fairground stuff, Modulars.

I want to plan a layout, with train, Monorail and the Fairground Stuff.

Alban has kindly published how to make parts for this software. You can generate your own images using many of the tools out there and make some parts for your layout. 

[gabrielerava]

On 5/22/2018 at 4:48 PM, supertruper1988 said:

Alban has kindly published how to make parts for this software. You can generate your own images using many of the tools out there and make some parts for your layout. 

Hi, where it has been published how to make parts for on your own?

Thanks!

[supertruper1988]

1 hour ago, gabrielerava said:

Hi, where it has been published how to make parts for on your own?

Thanks!

You can find it on the left side of his website under the "How to extend the Part Library" heading

[gabrielerava]

Thanks!

[CoNSpiracy]

Hi, I am new to designing lego train layouts and am in doubt about which software to use for my digital layouts. BlueBrick is mentioned many places, but the latest version I can find online (official homepage? http://bluebrick.lswproject.com/) is v1.8.2 from 2010. It seems to work fine under Windows 10, but I was wondering if this is still the software to use, or if any newer/better tools have come up since then?

[supertruper1988]

Thats still the software of choice for many of us. I recommend downloading the extra track packs from L-gauge.org

[CoNSpiracy]

Ok thanks

[Alban Nanty]

14 hours ago, CoNSpiracy said:

Hi, I am new to designing lego train layouts and am in doubt about which software to use for my digital layouts. BlueBrick is mentioned many places, but the latest version I can find online (official homepage? http://bluebrick.lswproject.com/) is v1.8.2 from 2010. It seems to work fine under Windows 10, but I was wondering if this is still the software to use, or if any newer/better tools have come up since then?

Hello CoNSpiracy,

You will be pleased to know that I'm working on the version 1.9 right now. I expect a delivery in one month or two.

If you have some all time wanted feature, this is the moment you can speak by replying to this thread. 

Yours.

[supertruper1988]

Just now, Alban Nanty said:

Hello CoNSpiracy,

You will be pleased to know that I'm working on the version 1.9 right now. I expect a delivery in one month or two.

If you have some all time wanted feature, this is the moment you can speak by replying to this thread. 

Yours.

Its small but can the default export be updated to be png instead of BMP? 

[Alban Nanty]

5 minutes ago, supertruper1988 said:

Its small but can the default export be updated to be png instead of BMP? 

Sure.

[supertruper1988]

One other thing. I cannot get Mono to work with this. Have you tried any of the wine variants on mac?

[Alban Nanty]

Just now, supertruper1988 said:

One other thing. I cannot get Mono to work with this. Have you tried any of the wine variants on mac?

No, I didn't try, and unfortunately, it seems Mono is less supported on Mac and Linux recently, to the point that I'm afraid the next version won't even work at all...

[supertruper1988]

Just now, Alban Nanty said:

No, I didn't try, and unfortunately, it seems Mono is less supported on Mac and Linux recently, to the point that I'm afraid the next version won't even work at all...

Ahh ok thanks.

[zephyr1934]

A menu for favorite track (or whatever parts) would be handy, I typically use 5-10 different track pieces but have a menu of 20+ (BlueBrick is indispensable BTW)

[Alban Nanty]

2 hours ago, zephyr1934 said:

A menu for favorite track (or whatever parts) would be handy, I typically use 5-10 different track pieces but have a menu of 20+ (BlueBrick is indispensable BTW)

Hello Zephyr,

You can actually do it in a certain way with the current version. Create a "Favorite" folder inside the "part" folder of your BlueBrick installation. Then move (do not copy, but move) all the part you like (gif+xml) in your "Favorite" folder, and relaunch BlueBrick. You will then have a tab with only the part you like. Don't worry, you will still be able to open a BB layout from someone else, or send you layout to someone else, because BlueBrick doesn't care about the folder of the parts, the BBM file only contains the part ID which is the part name.

Then in the preference of the application, you can also set your "Favorite" category as the first one of the tab list, if you wish.

However, I understand that it is not a straight forward way to filter your part library. So to do it from inside BlueBrick, I should add a "favorite" feature, where you could tag which part is your favorite across all the library, and display all your favorite parts in a favorite tab, and keep them also displayed inside their original package.

That's a nice feature, I will add it to the todo list, however, not sure that one will hit the next release 

[Thai bricks]

Has anybody made a parts list for the 4DBrix tracks yet?

[aawsum]

Hi Alban,

Good to hear that there will be a new version. I would say, do not change to much as it works super as it is already. If you need some additional help you know where to find me like the previous time.

[Henry 991]

Hi,

I just started using the software. Good first impression, I got stuff done with almost non-absent learning curve.

However, how do you draw Lego Grand Curves? Those wide radius curves using only straights?

 

[Alban Nanty]

16 hours ago, Henry 991 said:

Hi,

However, how do you draw Lego Grand Curves? Those wide radius curves using only straights?

 

Hi Henry,

The software does not support by default "illegal moves" technics, like building large curves with straight tracks not fully connected.

However with a minimum of effort you could achieve it: you should copy and paste the straight xml file and gif with a different name. Then in the xml file, you should modify the connections angles, to give a slight angle (360° divided by the number of straight you want to use to do a full circle).

Not straight forward, requiring some effort, but doable 

Yours.

[zephyr1934]

On 2/22/2020 at 4:17 AM, Alban Nanty said:

You can actually do it in a certain way with the current version. Create a "Favorite" folder inside the "part" folder of your BlueBrick installation. Then move (do not copy, but move) all the part you like (gif+xml) in your "Favorite" folder, and relaunch BlueBrick.

Ah, excellent, thank you

And another variant to get a similar functionality as the idea of a "favorites" tab, being able to add a star to my favorite parts and have those always be at the top of the given folder (sort by star, then sort by the current priority)

 

[Henry 991]

23 minutes ago, zephyr1934 said:

Ah, excellent, thank you

And another variant to get a similar functionality as the idea of a "favorites" tab, being able to add a star to my favorite parts and have those always be at the top of the given folder (sort by star, then sort by the current priority)

 

Indeed, this is a smart move.

Thanks a lot.

[Alban Nanty]

4 hours ago, zephyr1934 said:

Ah, excellent, thank you

And another variant to get a similar functionality as the idea of a "favorites" tab, being able to add a star to my favorite parts and have those always be at the top of the given folder (sort by star, then sort by the current priority)

 

Actually that would be a bit easier to do, since there's already a sorting mechanism implemented for the part library.

[CoNSpiracy]

On 2/22/2020 at 6:27 AM, Alban Nanty said:

Hello CoNSpiracy,

You will be pleased to know that I'm working on the version 1.9 right now. I expect a delivery in one month or two.

If you have some all time wanted feature, this is the moment you can speak by replying to this thread. 

Yours.

That sounds very good! I have now started using v1.8.2 and one thing I have noted is that the zoom function is a bit tricky. I can zoom in and out with the wheel on my mouse, but once I have zoomed in I cannot move the "canvas" to see the parts of my layout which are not on the screen. To see these parts at the same detail (zoom) level, I have to zoom out again and focus the zoom-in place to the exact right spot on the canvas. It would be great if there were a button somewhere (e.g. an icon with arrows in all four directions), and when clicked you could move the canvas with the mouse directions, until "released" (by a mouse click)

[collectormania]

i used the ncontrol program from 4dbrix to design my layout, and it is really interesting, and they have listed of course all of their custom tracks, just a problem for the multi level layout...

this is a copy of my 2 levels layout, it was really easy to do with ncontrol :