Mike Walsh's LEGO® Blog » NCLTC

Layout Planning with BlueBrick

Mike Walsh — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 02:24:10 +0000

I have been using TrackDraw for layout planning for years. My friend and former NCLTC member Cary Clark wrote TrackDraw and I authored many of the parts in the TrackDraw library so I had a vested interest in using it. Compared to TrackDesigner, TrackDraw was a huge improvement particularly if you were planning a large layout.

But times change and Cary has phased out of the LEGO hobby and TrackDraw, while it still works, hasn’t been updated in years. At one point I could build it from source myself but about a year ago I tried to build it and was unable to. So the version I have running is from the RailBricks site and includes some custom parts in the library. TrackDraw still has some oddities and will crash from time to time.

Recently while working on the 2010 LEGOPalooza track plan I couldn’t get text to work correctly so on a whim I decided to try BlueBrick. I had looked at BlueBrick about a year ago and dismissed it as it had some real limitations. However when I looked at it again, most of my issues had been addressed and it works pretty well.

I have not tried to create my own parts yet but probably will soon but I do like the layering model in particular. I recaptured the NCLTC layout I am doing for 2010 LEGOPalooza in BlueBrick and did a couple more iterations using it. I really wish the layout area had scroll bars and I really miss the TrackDraw feature to add a bunch of elements using the numbers on the keyboard followed by clicking on the part you want to place but other than that, I don’t have any real complaints.

Participating in LEGOPalooza 2010

Mike Walsh — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:21:52 +0000

Periodically I get asked or see a comment about how to participate in LEGOPalooza. The best way to participate is to join the NCLUG mailing list (which is actually a Yahoo Group) because that is where all of the information is first shared and where just about all of the discussion takes place. Participation is largely to open to anyone who is interested. Each of the coordinators takes on a different tack, as coordinator for the Train layout it I run it like an NCLTC layout which has worked well.

LEGOPalooza 2010

Mike Walsh — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 14:58:31 +0000

This morning I committed to coordinating the NCLTC train layout at LEGOPalooza 2010. LEGOPalooza is an annual public display put on by NCLUG at the Morehead Planetarium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It is a fun couple of days but usually very hectic. Looks like the exhibit space problem we faced last year will not be an issue this year.

Final Layout Plan for LEGOPalooza

Mike Walsh — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 22:10:49 +0000

My area of the layout got tweaked a bit today as we finalize the layout plan. In general the layout is a bit cleaner and it is by far the largest layout NCLTC has ever done. I have a few things to figure out but for the most part, I think I am in pretty good shape. My area looks like this:

School House circa 2001-2002

Mike Walsh — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 23:26:25 +0000

: School House

This is the first building I took apart today.� I built this school house in 2001 or 2002, I am not really sure.� This is actually the second incarnation of it.� It originally sat on a 16×32 baseplate but looked pretty much the same.� I remember when I built this that I was excited to build something with a grey roof.� It took me a while to collect the necessary pieces to build a reasonably sized grey roof.� I actually built this upside down – I built the roof first because I wasn’t sure how the roof would look and how big I could make it.� Once I had the roof done, I built the building under it.� I like the use of the train window glass and train windows – it gives it a slightly different look than most buildings have.

Building different colored roofs was something I tried to do and collecting some of the unusual colored slopes took a while.� I never liked seeing lots of red roofs so I was thrilled when black slopes became readily available.

This second version of the school house fit in with the NCLTC neighborhood standard which dictated two rows of tiles as a sidewalk along street facing edges.