Brickdoctor

LEGO DesignbyME to close January 2012

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The LEGO Group is closing that part of the Design byMe customization service that allows consumers to order digital models in real bricks. We will be accepting orders until January 16, 2012.

Consumers will still be able to design what they want with LEGO Digital Designer and upload models into a public gallery as before. All existing models will be transferred to a new gallery on the LDD website. Consumers will also be able to download the instructions generated from LEGO Digital Designer.

The HERO Recon Team Hero Creator will be unchanged and consumers will still be able to build and buy their own customized Hero. Bricks can be bought separately, using the Pick a Brick service http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Pick-A-Brick-ByTheme.

This is not the end of customization for the LEGO Group, but a revision. We believe in the future of customization, but the service we offer has to be right for our consumers and Design byME has proven to be too complex for children.

The original Design byMe vision was for a unique customization service, where consumers could design whatever they imagined, display it and get the model sent to in their own LEGO box. Design byMe as a concept attracts several million people each year to build a huge range of amazing creations using the LEGO Digital Designer (LDD) software. Despite this success, the overall Design byMe experience has struggled to live up to the quality standards for a LEGO service.

Over the years, we have also added other simpler customized building experiences like Hero Recon Team. However, the overall Design byMe experience has struggled to live up to the quality standards for a LEGO service. The feedback from Design byMe users has taught us that we would need to rebuild the entire setup of Design byMe to fix this. This would only make the service too expensive.

I sort of expected Universe to close, but DbM? That was unexpected. Thankfully, TLG says users will still be able to upload LDD creations to the official gallery and a replacement is coming for DbM, so this doesn't look like it will seriously impact the future of LDD. Here's hoping that if TLG is striving to let users 'design whatever they imagined', we'll see greater varieties of bricks available in the replacement.

via TBB.

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I thought yesterday when I was sent the press release that more people would be upset with this rather then the loss of LEGO Universe

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I sort of expected Universe to close, but DbM? That was unexpected. Thankfully, TLG says users will still be able to upload LDD creations to the official gallery and a replacement is coming for DbM, so this doesn't look like it will seriously impact the future of LDD. Here's hoping that if TLG is striving to let users 'design whatever they imagined', we'll see greater varieties of bricks available in the replacement.

via TBB.

This is indeed a surprise; I wonder if it is related to reducing the size of the Universe team. However I suspect with a good interaction of the AFOL community (and EB resources) LDD could become a positive boon for people.

LDD also seemed to be too individual - and not a marketplace to buy ideas / instructions from others.

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I wonder what this'll mean for how LDD continues to be updated. On the one hand, the LDD team might face budget cuts seeing as Design-by-me was really the only part of LDD that brought in revenue. On the other hand, seeing as a limited-parts mode like Design-by-Me will be less necessary now that models can't be ordered, perhaps more of the LDD budget can go toward adding new part designs, rather than just those which can be ordered. We'll really have to wait and see.

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I second what Lyichir wrote.

Problem is also that both DbM and LEGO Universe paied for the production of bricks being added in LDD. Who will fund that now? That is most worrying as I see it. But concidering the money TLG is making, I hope they can find some money for this. In my mind TLG is with LDD on the road to a new way of designing and building with LEGO - let's hope they have the stamina to carry on.

One positive side of the DbM/Universe closing is that LDD is now finaly free of all the chains and can release new brick updates as they please (at least theoretically) and add features that are more interesting for us actually designing with LDD.

Anyway, next step I guess is a maintenance release mid January 2012 where they will remove DbM and Universe Mode. I wouldn't expect any new features, but hopefully a bunch of new bricks.

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They do say that it's not the end of customization at LEGO, just a revision of the process, so we may see some variation of DbM come back in the future, but I echo the sentiments that this really shunts LDD into some sort of limbo at TLG. Here are my thoughts that I posted at another forum on the same topic:

With the closing of LEGO Universe and now this, I thought it was surely two nails in the coffin for LDD, but I'm relieved to hear that LDD will continue to be available. I just hope that these occurrences won't stunt the further development of the software.

I can't say I'm too surprised that DbM is being shut down. The piece/color selection was too thin and the prices were outrageous compared to standard sets. I understand that producing essentially one-off sets for people is far less cost-effective than mass-production of official sets, but surely there was a way to fix the current situation as opposed to shutting down operations. The first thing should have been to make the printed box/instructions optional - had I ever used the service, I would have been just as happy receiving my pieces in an online PaB bag and using my computer for the instructions. The printing of a custom box and instructions, while not a huge part of the over-all cost, would easily reduce the cost by at least a bit.

The piece selection is the other issue - as evidenced in the official online PaB, the prices for the pieces are pretty high compared to what you get them for within the production run of the retail sets, and DEFINITELY out of proportion to what you can find on Bricklink - in most cases, even for NEW pieces. If they reduced the profit margin on the pieces and offered pieces in more colors, I think they would make more money in the long-run due to a higher volume of purchases. I would pay a (modest) premium for the ease of designing something in LDD out of ALL presently-available pieces/colors (obviously pieces long out of production would need to be removed from the 'ordering' mode of LDD) and having it delivered to my door lock, stock and barrel as opposed to using third-party software that extracts the parts list from the LXF file into a Bricklink want list-compatible XML file, which then would need to be uploaded to BL and compared and cross-referenced amongst all sellers that have those parts... Oy, that's a PITA. It takes forever.

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They do say that it's not the end of customization at LEGO, just a revision of the process

When I was a lad (cue muted brass band and misty shots of steep cobbled streets) there was a large range of small Lego parts sets available by mail order – not just a box of roof slopes, but things like a handful of trees, some hinges, a packet of fences and gates, numbered oners etc.

If picking individual bricks for individual buyers from a necessarily limited range has proven to be uneconomic and unattractive to the public, I wonder whether a more generic range of small brick packs might be simpler. Lego Stores could stock them, the Lego Site could include them like any other product.

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When I was a lad (cue muted brass band and misty shots of steep cobbled streets) there was a large range of small Lego parts sets available by mail order – not just a box of roof slopes, but things like a handful of trees, some hinges, a packet of fences and gates, numbered oners etc.

Yeah, I remember those. Last time I remember they were available was when KK1 was still around, and they had packs with assorted Castle weaponry and packs with arches and roof pieces appropriate for Castle. Dacta still has something similar in the form of a box of $40-worth (?) of wheels.

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I really enjoy LDD as a design tool to help me visualize ideas and possible connections. I fear that with the end of Lego Universe, the Univers mode will be removed.

Having only access to a limited amount of pieces in a limited number of colors in the "regular" LDD is un-attractive to me. I hope that they keep the Universe mode unlocked/available.

I find myslef to be kind of bummed out by this news but also eager to see what TLG implies by revision ... what does the future hold ....

Pirate

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I really enjoy LDD as a design tool to help me visualize ideas and possible connections. I fear that with the end of Lego Universe, the Univers mode will be removed.

Having only access to a limited amount of pieces in a limited number of colors in the "regular" LDD is un-attractive to me. I hope that they keep the Universe mode unlocked/available.

There's no connection between LEGO Universe and LDD's Extended Mode, which has more parts than Universe Mode, though.

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Its a pity but the service was flawed in two key ways. The first was the limited number of brick types made it difficult to build really great models (although I was frequently astounded by what people were capable of producing). The second was the price made it very prohibitive. I made a couple of models but never bought them because they simply were not worth the cost. I totally understand that the process of selecting the bricks and making up the packaging was going to cost extra but it didn't make sense when you could make the model on LDD and buy the bricks off bricklink (with a much greater parts selection) for a lot less money.

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It's a shame we have two pieces of potentially bad news for LDD in one month and no good news to balance it out. I seriously hope LDD updates continue to be frequent and continue to be significant in content. I also hope that Hero Factory parts available through Hero Recon Team and Pick-A-Brick continue to be added as HRT increases its palette, because that's IMO one of the best things to happen for that theme (besides, of course, the new building system that makes building with those parts either digitally or in real life genuinely a lot of fun).

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Actually I am hoping that this will free up the developers to take some new directions with LDD that they couldn't when they were limited by DBM. I am thinking along the lines of making it more of a better digital tool rather then a way to design what you buy. Still, I wonder why Lego is suddenly shutting down different departments...

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It's a shame we have two pieces of potentially bad news for LDD in one month and no good news to balance it out. I seriously hope LDD updates continue to be frequent and continue to be significant in content. I also hope that Hero Factory parts available through Hero Recon Team and Pick-A-Brick continue to be added as HRT increases its palette, because that's IMO one of the best things to happen for that theme (besides, of course, the new building system that makes building with those parts either digitally or in real life genuinely a lot of fun).

That is a shame indeed. I agree completely with what you said. However, I recently asked Customer Service about DbM's closing after first seeing a reference to it here (they just got rid of the reference though!), and here's the reply I got...

Dear Steven,

*irrelevant LEGO Universe response text snipped*

We're sorry to confirm that we are also closing LEGO Design byME. Though I can't be sure, the design software is a standalone download. It should function after it closes, but will never update and you will not be able to purchase your creations. If it still runs for you, it might be a great design tool to use in the future where you can inventory your pieces as you go and purchase the pieces through LEGO Factory Pick a Brick. (emphasis mine)

The sets that you can buy in stores and build on the floor at home will probably always be at the core of what LEGO creative play is all about, but we have not given up on trying to find ways to replicate that same “systematic creativity” digitally.

Again, we want to thank the fantastic community of players and designers who made LEGO Universe and LEGO Design byME such a vibrant, fun and creative experience.

Thanks for your email and may Imagination be with you!

Amy

LEGO Direct Consumer Services

No more LDD updates? :distressed: Man oh man, I really, really want to see more HRT pieces in LDD...especially if they're going to release all the HF 1.0 helmets next year (I believe they will, given that the 2012 sets use 1.0 helmets)! I want to build a Stormer 2012 to go with my Bulk 2012 LDD MOC! :sing:

Should I suggest to her that there ought to be some tool in LDD that could automatically export a model's inventory to Pick a Brick? I think that would be especially worthwhile, given the text I bolded. :look: What do you think?

-Toa Of Justice

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That would be unfortunate if TLG stopped updating LDD, though I can understand why they'd do it. The official release says they're going to launch a new LDD Gallery on their website, though, so hopefully that means they do have something planned for it in the future, and don't plan to stop developing it and have the gallery just to make the program worth something to the kids.

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I suggest they release it as Open Source then, otherwise it would be a real waist. LEGO also forgets that it is a valuable tool for Education etc. In my highschool we have installed it on all student computers (and we have around 3000 students so quite an impact). I'm not saying they all use it, but also for activities like the FIRST LEGO League, they are able to. That will increase there sales, since if they design something virtually they will eventually need to build it and the easiest way is to just buy some sets in the nearest toy store.

I was just having some email conversations with Philo (Philippe Hurbain), he is a member of the LDraw community. I also used to be involved in that, it would be great if we could merge some of the LDraw advantages with the LDD advantages (like creating instructions e.g.).

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I suggest they release it as Open Source then, otherwise it would be a real waist. LEGO also forgets that it is a valuable tool for Education etc. In my highschool we have installed it on all student computers (and we have around 3000 students so quite an impact). I'm not saying they all use it, but also for activities like the FIRST LEGO League, they are able to. That will increase there sales, since if they design something virtually they will eventually need to build it and the easiest way is to just buy some sets in the nearest toy store.

I was just having some email conversations with Philo (Philippe Hurbain), he is a member of the LDraw community. I also used to be involved in that, it would be great if we could merge some of the LDraw advantages with the LDD advantages (like creating instructions e.g.).

Agreed. Out of curiosity, what do you use LDD to teach?

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It would be nice to have the LDD as open source, but I don't think it makes too much sense.

I think, the biggest advantage of the LDD are the regularily added bricks, not the functionality.

And when it will be open source, it will just suffer the same problems (mainly lack of the new bricks) as the other open source tools and may be they will be even bigger, since brick definition is more complex in the LDD than in other tools.

But if the TLG will continue supplying at least the brick geometries they have, the rest of the brick definition can be added by future the LDD open source developers and it could be developed to a powerfull tool.

Edited by hrontos

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I suggest they release it as Open Source then, otherwise it would be a real waist.

You anticipate me! I thought the same thing.

LDD is an interesting project and, as TLG have lost interest in it, its releasing as open source could even improve the project, adding features that TLG would have never implement in a software linked to their interests.

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Agreed. Out of curiosity, what do you use LDD to teach?

Well, there is more than one things you could use it for. It helps younger student with 3d perspective perception. It also will make the step to other tools easier (you can't just start with a tool like 3d studio max or maya with younger kids). It will also help them realize the advantages of 'think before you act'. Then you could even let them use it for stop motion (although in current LDD that is not too easy since you can't freeze camera positions).

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"several million people each year" is the part which surprised me most. I've never thought that DbM was THAT popular!

Its a pity but the service was flawed in two key ways. The first was the limited number of brick types made it difficult to build really great models (although I was frequently astounded by what people were capable of producing). The second was the price made it very prohibitive. I made a couple of models but never bought them because they simply were not worth the cost. I totally understand that the process of selecting the bricks and making up the packaging was going to cost extra but it didn't make sense when you could make the model on LDD and buy the bricks off bricklink (with a much greater parts selection) for a lot less money.

I completely agree. These are the reasons why LDD+DbM have always been useless to me. My personal choice is LDraw+BLink.

I suggest they release it as Open Source then, otherwise it would be a real waist. LEGO also forgets that it is a valuable tool for Education etc. In my highschool we have installed it on all student computers (and we have around 3000 students so quite an impact). I'm not saying they all use it, but also for activities like the FIRST LEGO League, they are able to. That will increase there sales, since if they design something virtually they will eventually need to build it and the easiest way is to just buy some sets in the nearest toy store.

I was just having some email conversations with Philo (Philippe Hurbain), he is a member of the LDraw community. I also used to be involved in that, it would be great if we could merge some of the LDraw advantages with the LDD advantages (like creating instructions e.g.).

I was thinking more or less the same... when something is appreciated but not commercially viable, it's best for everyone that it becomes open source and maintained by the community. If TLG prefers not to, perhaps in hope to resurrect the project in the future, then at least I hope more people will move to LDraw and support updating its database.

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Hold your horses now everyone. LDD is not being shut down and there are no indications the software will not be updated (the DbM palette will not however, that is true). And TLG have not lost interest in LDD. Why should they?

Also, LDD will most likely never become open source, for reasons discussed several times here in the forum. And even if the software became open source, it's the steady flow of new bricks that is the crucial question.

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This is horrid news. I never used the service as it seemed too expensive to me, but I always planned to do one one day. I better hurry up!

I was thinking more or less the same... when something is appreciated but not commercially viable, it's best for everyone that it becomes open source and maintained by the community.

Perhaps, but preparing something to be open source can take a lot of time and money... and projects often still die (or get forked, which can be much the same thing) regardless.

I don't think LDD is going away anyway.

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Also, LDD will most likely never become open source, for reasons discussed several times here in the forum. And even if the software became open source, it's the steady flow of new bricks that is the crucial question.

I agree, the bricks are the most important part of it and open source will not solve it. And as far a I know, LDD contains licensed code, so it is really very unlikely to become open source.

So I hope, the development will continue (may be not at current speed). If it will come one day to question if it should continue, I vote for continue and if we have to help, I would like to.

When I look at the list of various wanted features for the LDD5, I think most of them are now reduced to one basic common wish ...

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I just found out via a comment on Brickset by Mark Stafford (Nabii) that LDD development should continue. Here's what he said:

Conspiracy theories abound! The real reason this is being shut down is nothing to do with Super Heroes, nothing to do with manual labour, nothing to do with AFOL models being too complex and hard to pick.

It was too hard for younger children to get their head around - build in a computer, buy it by getting parents to put in credit card, and if parents understood the expense was due to manual packing, buy it, wait for manual packing and postage. Receive the parts, find the model in their LDD files, and build it step by step from a computer screen, not always in an intuitive way... It is so much harder then 'be given a box and open it'. It is too complex.

Obviously not for all children, but LEGO sets are sold in the hundreds of thousands or even millions per box, a customizable set project needed to keep children coming back and buying, needed to be hitting these kind of numbers, needed to grow. It was too complex for kids to keep coming back, it was probably too expensive in parents’ eyes (and as this thread shows in AFOL eyes too) and it did not grow to the size that would have made it sustainable, it now goes away. It's a damn shame and no one wants it too but it's been given a lot longer than LEGO Universe and that's what's happened.

I've been told LDD development will continue. (emphasis mine)

Source: Original article on Brickset

-Toa Of Justice

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