Tweaks to many (most) of the parts to fix a small rendering problem
Some new parts, that were designed but never released by Minibrix
More models in the “Small&rdquo gallery.
There are three groups of changes in this release:
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Tweaks to many (most) of the parts to fix a small rendering problem |
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Some new parts, that were designed but never released by Minibrix |
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More models in the “Small&rdquo gallery. |
Here are the details of the changes.
In “real world” Minibrix, if a door or window is placed against the studs of a brick, it is pushed very slightly outwards. Since the bricks are made of rubber this is completely natural. In Virtual Minibrix, however, no such distortion takes place. If you look very, very closely at the rendering of such a construction, you will see that a little bit of the stud appears to break through the door or window. TO fix this I have made the studs and holes very slightly smaller (which, of course, affects every part in the library) and also made a tiny adjustment to the positioning of the doors and windows. Both adjustments are too small to change the appearance of the models. Here are “before” and “after” pictures showing the problem:
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Before |
After |
In 1939 the Premo Rubber Company (the manufacturers of Minibrix) took out a couple of patents on some new parts. These were never put into production, but as a bit of fun I have added them to the inventory of Virtual Minibrix.
The first patent is for the corbel, a support for a small overhanging balcony or similar structure:
The patent does not go so far as to define what colour(s) it should be produced in, but I have taken a guess that both black and white would have been the natural choices.
The second is for a set of channelled bricks and a
series of long, rigid beams that they clip over to form suspended beams, archways,
doorways etc.. Grooves run along the top (rather than small holes) to take the pips
of doors or windows. The slot underneath fits both the rigid beams and the regular
brick studs. Again, I have provided these in both black and white. The beams are
available in the same 7 lengths as the regular roof purlins, from 4 inches to 14 inches.
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Half Channel Brick |
Whole Channel Brick |
For some ideas on using these new parts, see the Hints and Tips page:
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The gallery of “Small” models has a number of additions. These are the all the Premier Set examples from the 1960 manual. Look for the NEW splashes.
This process can be used to upgrade any previous version of Virtual Minibrix. It is very easy. Just overwrite your current installation with the contents of the version 4.0 release, and make the added parts known to MLCad. All the changes will be automatically applied to any existing models the next time you edit, view or render them.
Virtual Minibrix is packaged as a single self-extracting Zip file. To download it, right-click on the following link, and save the target file to any directory of your choosing.
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Run the downloaded file, either using Windows “Start” / “Run”, or by double-clicking on the file in Windows Explorer. In the dialog box that pops up:
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Change “Unzip to folder:” to the path where you installed the LDraw package |
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Press “Unzip” |
The files will all be extracted to the correct subdirectories, overwriting any old versions.
Start up MLCad. Select “File” then “Scan Parts” from the menu. After a short while a pop-up message will ask: “Write new Parts.lst file?”. Press “Yes” and the new Minibrix parts will be added to MLCad’s parts browser. Close MLCad.
This step is only required if you are updating directly from version 1.0
Because the dimensions of the No. 1, 2, 3 and 4 roofs changed slightly in version 2.0, you might need to make some small adjustments to existing models. This will only be necessary if you have placed a roof with its edge next to a wall, or placed two roofs side by side. If you have, simply open the model in MLCad, and move the offending roof to fit properly, using the Fine grid setting.
The most significant change is a replacement for the colour definition file used in converting MLCad models into POV-Ray images. I have reworked the “clear” definition for the 1960-era windows and doors, which were far too transparent. This brings the version of Virtual Minibrix up to 3.1.
As well as re-rendering the models which used these affected parts, I have taken the opportunity to replace many of the other model images in the Gallery using better camera and lighting positions.
There is no change to the MLCad models. If you want to pick up the new format for the windows, just rerun L3P to convert the model into the POV-Ray input file (the *.pov file).
Another new and large model has been added to the “Lego” gallery. This is of Ordsall Hall in Manchester, reputed to be the most haunted house in Britain. The greatest challenge in creating this model was reproducing the large variety of windows. With the exception of the large, square bay at the front, all the windows have been built “sideways”, using windows, plates and tiles.
Two new and very large models have been added to the gallery. In the “Super” section is a model of Hursley House (now an IBM office – my office!) near Winchester. This model makes extensive use of the coloured bricks from the “Junior” Minibrix set: the green ones to create the flat roof and the blue ones for the dark grey stonework of the real building. In the “Lego” section is a model of Boscobel House on the Shropshire/Staffordshire border, famous for the Royal Oak in which King Charles II hid from the Parliamentary soldiers after the Battle of Worcester.
There are three major updates to the Virtual Minibrix site and package this month:
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I have added a new manual. |
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I have added lots of new models to the gallery. |
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I have completely reworked the Minibrix parts library to provide better support for rendering engines other than POV-Ray. |
I have added a new manual to the collection, the 1948 version. I have also taken the opportunity to replace the page images in all the other manuals with ones of slightly better resolution.
I have added ten new models to the galleries. You will find them in the “Small”, “Large”, “Super” and “Tudor” galleries.
This is really one for the purists, or for people specializing in graphical rendering software. All the parts and sub-parts are now “BFC certified”. That is to say all the surfaces are defined with a consistent definition of “inside” and “outside”, and their vertices are identified as running either clockwise or anticlockwise. If this means absolutely nothing to you then don’t worry – you’re not missing anything. Visually there is no change at all, and it will make no difference to your existing models.
As a result of lots of great feedback on the initial release of this site and the Virtual Minibrix package, version 2 is now available. Highlights are:
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I have added all the “missing” parts to the set – the plain wood and the double-angled Purlins from the 1930s, and the new parts introduced in the 1960s. |
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Prompted by having to create the tiny No.0 roof, I have redesigned all the roofs to match their real counterparts much more closely. |
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Another set of parts that I have tweaked are all the doors and windows, to which I have added the tiny locating pips on the edges. |
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I have redefined the colour of the brown roof tiles to be a much better match to real tiles. |
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I have started a page of more advanced hints and tips for using Virtual Minibrix. |
Here are the details of the changes.
Version 2.0 of Virtual Minibrix contains the following additional parts:
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Plain-wood Purlins in 7 sizes |
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Plain-wood Double-angle Purlins in 7 sizes |
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Black Double-angle Purlins in 7 sizes |
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Black and white Half Bricks with dovetails (in case you need to show this detail for some reason) |
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Modern House Door, Garage Door, Fanlight Window and Picture Window |
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Supporting Pole |
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No.0 Roof in 12 combinations of pitch. |
Many thanks to J.C. Tchang for creating the definitions of these parts for me.
To support the rendering of these with POV-Ray, I have added two new colour/texture definitions: one for the plain wood of the Purlins, and one for the clear panels in the modern doors and windows.
The design for the tiny No.0 Roof showed up where I had previously cheated in the roof designs – using too few rows of tiles in order to make the geometric calculations easier. I have decided to be good, and have redesigned them all properly. As a result, the dimensions of some of them have changed very slightly. They are no longer similar to the real roofs, but are now the same as the real roofs. (But you still can't make all the models look like their pictures in the 1960 handbook!)
I was a little uncomfortable with the colour of the brown Roof Tiles in the original Virtual Minibrix package. I have done a more thorough colour analysis of some real tiles, and redefined the brown colour accordingly. It is now much darker and much less red. I have set up the colour definitions for POV-Ray so that any existing models you may have will pick up the new brown automatically when they are rendered, without having to change or regenerate anything. I have also redone all the pictures in the Tudor Gallery pages to use the new colour.
Finally, I have decided to add the tiny locating pips to the edges of all the doors and windows. Although this generally makes very little difference to the final appearance it does show up if you set a window or door to an open position. Because it slows down rendering of large models even more, this is another feature that will now be disabled if you switch to the “simple” set of primitives.
Following on from the “Using Minibrix” page there is now a small collection of more advanced hints and tips. You can get there directly by following this link:
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Page last updated 2 August 2009 |
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