BrickUtils Portable

Toys help children boost their creativity by exploring different scenarios and building possibilities with blocks. LEGO is one of the big players on the market, and not only used by kids, with an open market for enthusiasts and collectors. There are even computer application designed to let you build virtual models, as well as tools such as BrickUtils Portable letting you keep better track of parts you need to assemble different projects.

A neat advantage of the application is that you can keep it on a removable storage device and use it on the go, since it does not need to be installed on your system. There's also the installer version in case you're using it on just one computer.

The main window is organized in tabs, with all of them displaying a list of bricks used in your project, along with details like color, quantity, ID numbers and description. Populating these lists can be quickly done by importing project files created with LEGO Digital Designer, or you can individually add bricks, but this can take a while since you manually need to fill in all details.

You also gain access to some managing options, in the sense that you can tick individual bricks in case they are extra, part of the décor or used as an alternative. There's also the possibility to edit brick details once they are added tot the list either to fill in missing parts.

What's more, the application lets you test out the design in order to see if you can build a model with the bricks used, also displaying extra bricks or possible substitutions. This is based on links that are automatically created and added to a list when importing LDD projects. They can be edited, as well as components to manage color mapping and more.

Unfortunately, you can only obtain a preview using an extra application because there is no implemented panel in this regard, which is really a pity. What's more, it would have been useful to be able to create a quick access point to LEGO Digital Designer for easier importing, previewing and management.

All things considered, BrickUtils Portable is a neat solution for LEGO enthusiasts that use the computer utility dedicated to building virtual models. It's disappointing that there's no preview section or dependency of LEGO Digital Designer, and can get a little difficult to keep track of so many bricks. On the other hand, you can better manage your collection of bricks overall, especially if you plan on purchasing bricks for your creations in real life.