Lalror

Having used the service I can say that I would work overall for making some pieces, but Lego's plastic types and measurements are so incredibly specific that I think it would be hard to make pieces that would actually work with normal minifigs. You might want to ask about this in the Minifig Customization forum also because although this is a digital process, the people there might have more experience in actually using it.

In reply to Calabar, making a lego minifigure in 3d is not too hard as long as you have a good reference. I modeled the minifig below in Blender a while back for similar reasons as gerkenz. Vectors actually need more information than a regular raster image because they need to store information about the paths and shapes, rather than just pixels, and while they look very nice when rendered, they are very difficult to use when doing real time rendering which is what LDD uses. http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7029/6552551247_a1c340501a_b.jpg

The thing with LDD and LDraw is that the actual files are unusable with each other and need to be "converted" before they can be used by the other application. e.g. When you export a LDD model to LDraw, if there are any parts that Ldraw doesn't have, they will be deleted, and the ones that Ldraw does have will replace the ones from LDD, and vise versa. As I have not used Ldraw, I don't know that the UI is like, but to me, it seems that the only reason you would want to transfer files from one program to the other would be so that you can build easier.

Yeah, I noticed that when the 4.2.5 came out. I think that Lego sometimes just casually names their pieces assuming that its not too important, and then later, when those names get publicized, Lego runs into racist issues. Lol, I guess thats why they updated it then.

These are super awesome moc's! Keep em' coming!

I am all for the development of this. I am hearing a few extremes such as "If we break some hidden Lego copyright then they will be extremely offended and take LDD away." This is simply not the case. After talking with a few other members of the forums it seems as if a lot of this has already been done before, but for different reasons. With all that in mind, I strongly ask that this tool be developed more.

Sorry, I wasn't trying to say that its superkalles responsibility its just that the last time I contacted someone at lego over a Eurobricks matter, I was informed that Lego and Eurobricks people, talk on a regular basis and that things like this should be discussed through those contacts. Also, how could asking a question damage the relationship between Lego and the EB forums? If anything I think they would be glad that we asked their permission.

Has anyone even asked Lego if they mind. It would be nice if someone like Superkalle could just contact lego over this matter.

On the contrary, I once asked the 3D manager at Lego about exporting from LDD to other, more popular, digital formats. When he replied, he was very helpful and even said that he would ask his staff and see if there were any fan made solutions to the exporting issue. With that in mind, I think its safe to say that lego is fine with us using there digital pieces as long as we are not using them for commercial purposes. Legally, I don't know what the rules are in this situation, ethically, as long as I am not exploiting Lego in any way, I honestly don't feel that it's wrong, and practically if Lego's 3d staff doesn't mind, then I would say that its ok.

Legal issues set aside, I am very interested in your work. It sounds like you have made some real progress in actually exporting bricks to other software, and I am quite interested. P.S. Make a few more posts so you can become a vassal so I can pm you.

Forgive me for bumping this but it seems that nobody is signing up anymore thus stopping the RCB from happening. Thus hopefully people who missed this the first time will now have a chance to join.

I came across one of your earlier versions and was pretty impressed. I am currently downloading your latest version and hope to try some quick animations with it. I modeled an accurate minifig model a while back but I don't quite have the rigging skills I need to animate it yet. Ok, I downloaded your model and I like it! A little bit of critique though? The arms felt short and when I compared them to a real minifig model I noticed that from a front view they look accurate however, minifig arms are bent in the middle to give the appearance of an elbow, whereas in your model they are straight. If you added a directional ik rig for the elbows that would also be helpful. Over all though, it is the best rigged minifig model I have seen yet. Thanks for posting it here. ~Lalror

Use Blender 3D, it is a very powerful and fast program that will run on almost any computer. As for exporting LDD models I recently asked the 3D manager at Lego about this and he said that there is no current way to export LDD files to other formats even though the LXF (lego exchange format) is used for transferring files between LDD and Lego's Cad add-on for Maya.

Ok, I would first check to see if you can update your graphic card drivers. If that doesn't work then re-download LDD and re-access the Extended Mode. Sometimes you can fix things just by redoing them. Hope this works. ~Lalror

I cannot tell what the problem is from the image you provided. Is your display bad, or is there another problem? If you could be a little more specific that would be helpful. If you are however having problems with the display I suggest updating your graphics card drivers as those will have a direct affect on the way things look. ~Lalror