Part Image Format

Format

BlueBrick only parses GIF images in the subfolders of the parts folder (see the Folder Organization for more details). The GIF image can contain a transparent color.

It doesn't matter in which orientation you place the top view of the part in the image, but to facilitate the integration of your part with LDraw, I recommend you to use the same orientation as the LDraw part. Otherwise, you will have to add remaping information in the LDraw section of the XML file.

Scale

The scale of the parts is 1 stud = 8 pixels. Since a stud is equal to 8 millimeters in real life, another way to memorize the scale is 1 pixel = 1 millimeter.

Authorized Characters for File Name

The names of the parts are not case sensitive, as BlueBrick converts all the names into upper case when creating its part library. Therefore if you create two parts that have the same name but with different cases, they will be considered as the same part. You can use any authorized character to name your parts (including spaces), but I strongly recommend you to use English characters only to facilitate the share of your map internationally. Also avoid using the period (full-stop) character since this character is used to separate the file name from the extension and is also used by BlueBrick to separate the part number from the color.

However since the filenames on GNU/Linux OS are case sensitive, the ".xml" and ".gif" extensions must be lower case in order for BlueBrick to correctly find the parts on Linux.

File Name Convention

BlueBrick doesn't mind how you name your parts. The only constraint is that the name must be unique in the whole library. You cannot name two parts with the same name even if they are in different folders. Moreover this name becomes a unique ID that is saved in the layout BBM files. So to avoid naming conflicts in the library and to make your BBM files portable, one commonly uses the part or set number. This is just common practice, but I strongly recommend you to follow it. The official BlueBrick library will use this method.

File Name Convention for a Set

Since there are some Lego© parts and Lego© sets that have the same number, to avoid conflicts, the common practice is to add ".set" as a suffix to the set number. Do not use a numerical suffix (like ".1"), otherwise this suffix will be interpreted as a color (see below for more details), and the color information is irrelevant for a set. Moreover Peeron and Bricklink also use a dash followed by a number to differentiate parts from set, and also because different set produced over the years may have the same number. So it is recommanded to use this suffix and use the same numbers as in Peeron or Bricklink.

<SetNumber>.set.gif
<SetNumber>.set.xml

For example the naming convention for the set #2150 is:
2150-1.set.gif

Moreover if you want to split a set in different gif images, you can name them roughly according to what the splitted part represents like:
7945-1.station.gif
7945-1.truck.gif
etc...
And it would be nice to add an xml file to group them, and which you can name *.set.xml, like:
7945-1.set.xml

If you want to make GIFs of the alternative Lego models which can be found in a set, the naming convention should be as follows:
4886-1.set_option_1.gif
4886-1.set_option_2.gif
4886-1.set_option_3.gif
etc...

File Name Convention for a Part

The common standard for naming a LEGO© part is to use the full part number, followed by a dot and then by the color code of the part according to the LDRAW color table, and finally by the extension.

<PartNumber>.<Color>.gif
<PartNumber>.<Color>.xml

For example the naming convention for a Blue Baseplate 32 x 32 is:
3811.1.gif

The LDRAW color table is:
  0 Black               28 Dark Tan               134 Pearl Copper
  1 Blue                29 Light Purple           135 Pearl Gray
  2 Green               33 Trans Blue             137 Pearl Sand Blue
  3 Teal                34 Trans Green            142 Pearl Gold
  4 Red                 36 Trans Red              151 Light Stone
  5 Dark Pink           37 Trans Violet           256 Rubber Black
  6 Brown               40 Trans Gray             272 Dark Blue
  7 Gray                41 Trans Light Cyan       273 Rubber Blue
  8 Dark Gray           42 Trans Flu Lime         288 Dark Green
  9 Light Blue          45 Trans Pink             313 Maersk Blue
 10 Bright Green        46 Trans Yellow           320 Dark Red
 11 Turquiose           47 Clear                  324 Rubber Red
 12 Light Red           57 Trans Flu Orange       334 Chrome Gold
 13 Pink                69 Bright Purple          335 Sand Red
 14 Yellow              70 Reddish Brown          366 Earth Orange
 15 White               71 Stone Gray             373 Sand Violet
 17 Light Green         72 Dark Stone Gray        375 Rubber Gray
 18 Light Yellow        73 Medium Blue            378 Sand Green
 19 Tan                 74 Medium Green           379 Sand Blue
 20 Light Violet        77 Paradisa Pink          383 Chrome Silver
 21 Phosphor White      78 Light Flesh            462 Light Orange
 22 Violet              79 Translucent White      484 Dark Orange
 23 Violet Blue         85 Medium Lilac           494 Electric Contact
 25 Orange              86 Dark Flesh             503 Light Gray
 26 Magenta             89 Royal Blue             511 Rubber White
 27 Lime                92 Flesh

File Name Convention for a Group (which is not a set)

The file name of the group parts (parts made from other parts arranged in a specific, predifined layout) should start with any name describing the group followed by a dot and then the word "group" and finally by the extension. The group parts never have gif file, only xml files. If you want to make a group which actually represents a set (for example a set including many buildings in a predifined layout), use the "set" naming convention instead (see above).

<GroupName>.group.xml

For example the naming convention for a flex track can be:
flex.group.xml