Lasse D

[Software] LD Digital Mosaic Creator (LDDMC)

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New version (0.9.4) January 1, 2018!

Go here for the download page.

By using JWrapper, LDDMC now runs on both Windows, Mac and Linux, 32bit and 64bit, and without having to install Java.

This software has been some years underway. Since I started this request topic, many have contributed with ideas and other input which has helped me developing this mosaic software.

lasse_1.png

Features include

- Build your mosaic by either following the instructions in app, by printing, by exporting to LDD or by exporting to LDraw. The in-app building guide (or magnifier) is customizable and can look like this:

lasse_2.png

- Build mosaics using plates, bricks, tiles, and even SNOT. By request I have added a lot of building techniques through the years. 1x2, 1x3, 1x4 and 2x2 plates from top and side are included in the building techniques options menu. Here is how the mosaic looks if you build using SNOT:

ggg_snot.png

- Manage exactly which colors you want to use. You can import the latest colors from Rebrickable... or even make your own (if you can work out how the colors.txt file is formattet). You can filter the shown colors using various filters. Here I have filtered out all transparent, old, rare and chrome parts from the color picker:

color_chooser.png

- Change input picture directly to improve the mosaic. You can modify colors, size, building technique, dithering percentage, crop, and even a series of color filters in order to fine tune your mosaic. The changes you make are reflected in the mosaic almost immediately!

- Full save and load functionality. You can even export snapshots of the mosaic like in LDD.

- Automatic updating to latest version (thanks again to JWrapper)

The software is written in Java and the full source is available at GitHub here.

If there is anything you want improved, or if you have feature requests, then don't hesitate to either write in this thread or to me directly (lassedeleuran@gmail.com)

Edited by Lasse D
New version!

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Very good, the software deserve its dedicated topic.

A question: a stand alone version is not available anymore?

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Thanks for putting in the effort to use JWrapper!

I downloaded the installer, which in turn downloaded the program, and it launched ok after installation. I noticed that some of my clicks started to lag after I'd been using it for a few minutes. I decided to close and reopen the program. Now when I click on the icon on my start menu I see BrickGraphicsWinLauncher.exe running, but it never launches LDDMC. Also, if I click on the Start Menu icon again, I can start multiple instances of BrickGraphicsWinLauncher.exe.

Windows 8.1 64-bit, 16GB RAM

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Great work Lasse :thumbup:

Thanks :)

Very good, the software deserve its dedicated topic.

A question: a stand alone version is not available anymore?

It is still available using the same link. I am looking for a way to present it nicely - perhaps with an "alternate download" section?

Thanks for putting in the effort to use JWrapper!

I downloaded the installer, which in turn downloaded the program, and it launched ok after installation. I noticed that some of my clicks started to lag after I'd been using it for a few minutes. I decided to close and reopen the program. Now when I click on the icon on my start menu I see BrickGraphicsWinLauncher.exe running, but it never launches LDDMC. Also, if I click on the Start Menu icon again, I can start multiple instances of BrickGraphicsWinLauncher.exe.

Windows 8.1 64-bit, 16GB RAM

Thanks for not holding back with your opinion in the other topic. Without it I would probably have stayed with the other "installer" and not know how bad having Java as a requirement had become.

And thanks for your feedback. I'm looking into the problem. What you describe sounds like garbage buildup (which should have been taken care off by the garbage collector). I will look into it.

As this is my first JWrapper project, it is bound to have some initial hickups. This is also why I don't call it "version 1.0" yet.

Update Feb 3. 2015

I have tried to abuse the program to the best of my ability by changing filters, create huge (1000x1000) mosaics, etc. etc. but I can't make it crash. I'm using Win 7 so the problem might be Win 8 specific. Unfortunately my Win 8 machine is a surface 2 so apps-only. I will have to wait some time before testing on a Win 8 machine.

The speed could be better when editing huge mosaics. This will be the primary focus of further development.

That, and bug-fixing, naturally.

Update Feb 4. 2015

Added alternate downloads to download page - this includes download with jar and exe files.

Edited by Lasse D

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I got it working for a while yesterday after un- and re-installing, and was able to successfully launch it a couple of times. Unfortunately, it's back to not working again today. The launcher program is running in task manager, but nothing else happens.

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Well. That's simply not acceptable and needs to be fixed.

Can you tell me what the logs say?

In the folder where the exe is saved, a "Logs" folder contains information that I can use to see what has gone wrong. It is especially the files made while there has been problems, as well as anything mentioning "exception" that would help.

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Thanks to Classicsmiley I was able to locate a mistake introduced while making the "mkv"-files readable.

The program has been updated and if you have an earlier version installed, it will update automatically.

Any other problems or ideas? Bring 'em on!

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Thanks for the fix!

I didn't see Dark Azure in the color list, so I tried to update the color list from Rebrickable, which seems to have removed all of the colors...

So, what's the best way to update the color list?

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Oh no! Rebrickable has changed the format of the color list, so the import fails. I have sent you a mail with the correct colors.txt file.

I will make an updated importer which is better at detecting changes like this. I will get back form work at 8 and should be able to have a solution during the evening.

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Thanks for the updated list. I replaced the bad one, so now I have colors again. I still can't figure out how to get Dark Azure to display in the color list, though. It's in the colors.txt file, and from looking at color_groups.txt it should be picked up by the Dark* wildcard.

Also, I don't know if it's a bug or not, but I had filled in the "X sets" and "Y parts" fields with 0, and when I tried doing the reload from Rebrickable yesterday, they got reset to 100 and 1, respectively.

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Another bug. There are other colors that aren't displayed in the color group list, but when you click the main group checkbox to turn on all colors in a group they show up in the picture. Using the default car image, you can see it especially with the "Medium" and "Sand" groups. The Sand group only displays Sand Blue and Sand Green, but if you turn on the whole group, Sand Red and Sand Purple show up in the mosaic image.

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Thanks for the updated list. I replaced the bad one, so now I have colors again. I still can't figure out how to get Dark Azure to display in the color list, though. It's in the colors.txt file, and from looking at color_groups.txt it should be picked up by the Dark* wildcard.

Also, I don't know if it's a bug or not, but I had filled in the "X sets" and "Y parts" fields with 0, and when I tried doing the reload from Rebrickable yesterday, they got reset to 100 and 1, respectively.

This is because you have to press enter once a value has been typed in a textfield. I can see how this isn't consistent with the behaviour of other inputs, so I'm going to change this.

Another bug. There are other colors that aren't displayed in the color group list, but when you click the main group checkbox to turn on all colors in a group they show up in the picture. Using the default car image, you can see it especially with the "Medium" and "Sand" groups. The Sand group only displays Sand Blue and Sand Green, but if you turn on the whole group, Sand Red and Sand Purple show up in the mosaic image.

Great find! I will fix this too.

Update

I have fixed all these things in the latest version.

With all your contributions you deserve to be in the credits Classicsmiley - just tell me which name to put in if you would like this.

Edited by Lasse D

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Lasse,

Thanks for the fixes! I've got a couple of wish list/suggestion items regarding color, and maybe another bug...

  • It would be really nice to be able to easily manage color categories, move colors between those categories, and hide certain colors. I've played around with the new filters tab, and I can see how it might work, but I'd rather have more explicit control, so for now I think I'll probably just edit the files by hand.

  • The checkboxes for choosing colors seem just slightly counter-intuitive to me. My personal preference would be to have the color group checkbox turn all of the colors on or off, without remembering what boxes within that group may have been checked. Right now, it doesn't work to turn on an entire group, and then de-select one color from that group. If I want to see what my mosaic looks like with all of the "Dark" colors except for Dark Pink, I have to manually click all of the boxes. It would be nice if I could use the group box to turn all of them on, and then just turn off Dark Pink on its own. Conversely, if I manually select all of the boxes in a group, I'd like the group box to turn all of them off, instead of having to click all of them individually again. I know I'm probably clear as mud here, so please let me know if any of this actually makes sense...

  • I see a new reference to restoring a backup_colors.txt. Is there a programmatic way to save a backup file with that name?

Bug?

The Pearl Gold colors don't show in the Pearl group unless you turn on the Metallic group.

Thanks again!

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Again. Thanks for a round of comments/bugs/suggestions.

It would be really nice to be able to easily manage color categories, move colors between those categories, and hide certain colors. I've played around with the new filters tab, and I can see how it might work, but I'd rather have more explicit control, so for now I think I'll probably just edit the files by hand.

Good that you pointed it out. I can see how this could be confusing. The check boxes in the filter tab are there for a quick and easy way to remove colors which are rarely used. "Metallic" here covered all colors with Gold, Silver, Copper, Metallic, and Chrome in the names. This was not clear, so I have changed the name of the check box and changed the default color groups to make this more consistent. It would be nice to have better control of the colors in the program, but currently that will have to be a feature for tech savvy users who know how to edit the color_groups.txt file.

The checkboxes for choosing colors seem just slightly counter-intuitive to me. My personal preference would be to have the color group checkbox turn all of the colors on or off, without remembering what boxes within that group may have been checked. Right now, it doesn't work to turn on an entire group, and then de-select one color from that group. If I want to see what my mosaic looks like with all of the "Dark" colors except for Dark Pink, I have to manually click all of the boxes. It would be nice if I could use the group box to turn all of them on, and then just turn off Dark Pink on its own. Conversely, if I manually select all of the boxes in a group, I'd like the group box to turn all of them off, instead of having to click all of them individually again. I know I'm probably clear as mud here, so please let me know if any of this actually makes sense...

Clear as daylight. I have played around in my e-mail client and can see that your suggestion is indeed more intuitive, as well as more standard. I have currently added buttons for showing "all" and "none" for all color groups. I will have to work on some clever icons instead of the text, but the functionality should be much better now.

I see a new reference to restoring a backup_colors.txt. Is there a programmatic way to save a backup file with that name?

I have added functionality for this, as well as better descriptions of how the colors.txt and backup_colors.txt files are handled. Hopefully this will help if any of the loading functions fail without warning.

Bug?

The Pearl Gold colors don't show in the Pearl group unless you turn on the Metallic group.

Microsoft would call it a "feature". I have fixed this "feature" by reorganizing the groups and given a better description of the color options as described above.

It's me who's thanking.

BTW. Press F2 in the latest version for an updated about-dialog.

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Those changes look good!

I'm not sure you need to create any new icons for the color groups. If you go back to a three-state checkbox, it should work just fine. Here's how I envision the clicks working:

  • If checked, uncheck and uncheck all items in group
  • If partially checked, check and check all items in group
  • If unchecked, check and check all items in group

So, at most it's two clicks to go from having a group partially checked to completely unchecked.

Oh, and another suggestion/request: could we get a button to reset the image filters back to the default (which looks like 1.0 for each of the values), please?

Edited by Classicsmiley

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Thanks. I have given a lot of thoughts to your suggestions and made some improvements.

The problem with having 3 (or any number) states of buttons is that they are confusing for people who are reluctant to trying out buttons. This is also why I had to change the buttons for selecting construction technique and width/height units. I hope the current solution is both compact enough not to annoy and easy enough for all to use without problems.

A "Reset" button has been added as you request - this is a very good idea.

I have also changed the sliders so that they all have a precision of 0.01 units. The old precision of "100 states" seemed awkward to use.

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The current buttons for select all and select none still seem odd to me. If you don't want to go with three-state, I'd almost rather go back to the normal two-state group buttons. When any of the colors in a group is checked, check the group box. Then, let the group box do the select all/none as per usual.

Also, I just tried out the new filter sliders and reset button. That's much better! Thanks!

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I'm still investigating, but there might be a color or two that don't export to LDD. I just tried exporting a mosaic that contained some medium dark flesh / medium nougat pieces, and those pieces are missing when I open the file in LDD.

[Edit:] I opened up the lxfml file, and couldn't find any reference to material 312, so the pieces aren't being exported for some reason.

Edited by Classicsmiley

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The current buttons for select all and select none still seem odd to me. If you don't want to go with three-state, I'd almost rather go back to the normal two-state group buttons. When any of the colors in a group is checked, check the group box. Then, let the group box do the select all/none as per usual.

Also, I just tried out the new filter sliders and reset button. That's much better! Thanks!

It is good with a little dilemma. On one hand I have a user who is completely confused by multiple-state buttons - on the other hand I want to mimic expected behaviour so that it doesn't feel strange to more tech-savvy users like you. I have made some changes which hopefully captures both ideas - If you press a button twice, it changes the selection back to what it was before pressing.

I'm still investigating, but there might be a color or two that don't export to LDD. I just tried exporting a mosaic that contained some medium dark flesh / medium nougat pieces, and those pieces are missing when I open the file in LDD.

[Edit:] I opened up the lxfml file, and couldn't find any reference to material 312, so the pieces aren't being exported for some reason.

That is strange. My LDD is happy to open models with the dark flesh color.

From the LDraw.xml I have the line:

<Material ldraw="86" lego="312" />

This matches the line from colors.txt, that is, from Rebrickable:

86|Dark Flesh|#7c503a|209|24|2004|2014|BROWN|86|91|DkFlesh|312

My LDD, and hence LDraw.xml claims to be updated to the latest version. You can try to import your own LDraw.xml to see if this helps, but I doubt it.

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It is good with a little dilemma. On one hand I have a user who is completely confused by multiple-state buttons - on the other hand I want to mimic expected behaviour so that it doesn't feel strange to more tech-savvy users like you. I have made some changes which hopefully captures both ideas - If you press a button twice, it changes the selection back to what it was before pressing.

That is strange. My LDD is happy to open models with the dark flesh color.

From the LDraw.xml I have the line:

<Material ldraw="86" lego="312" />

This matches the line from colors.txt, that is, from Rebrickable:

86|Dark Flesh|#7c503a|209|24|2004|2014|BROWN|86|91|DkFlesh|312

My LDD, and hence LDraw.xml claims to be updated to the latest version. You can try to import your own LDraw.xml to see if this helps, but I doubt it.

Thanks for your willingness to try things, but I'm not sure the change to the checkboxes really helps (maybe only me?) much at all. :classic:

There's something going on with the colors. The color I'm talking about is LEGO Medium Nougat, which should be LEGO ID 312 and Ldraw 84. Colors.txt shows 312 being associated with Ldraw Dark Flesh (86), which is LEGO Brown (217). Colors.txt has a -1 for the LEGO ID for Md. Dark Flesh. Also, it looks like there's a bug with ldraw.xml (even the most current version from http://gallaghersart...d_the_ldraw.xml ) It matches 312 with 86, not 84.

Edited by Classicsmiley

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Thanks for your willingness to try things, but I'm not sure the change to the checkboxes really helps (maybe only me?) much at all. :classic:

The "check all" box works just like the old one did, so hopefully it will make you not miss the old one. Now the fields are not locked, so hopefully there is some kind of improvement for most types of users. We will see.

There's something going on with the colors. The color I'm talking about is LEGO Medium Nougat, which should be LEGO ID 312 and Ldraw 84. Colors.txt shows 312 being associated with Ldraw Dark Flesh (86), which is LEGO Brown (217). Colors.txt has a -1 for the LEGO ID for Md. Dark Flesh. Also, it looks like there's a bug with ldraw.xml (even the most current version from http://gallaghersart...d_the_ldraw.xml ) It matches 312 with 86, not 84.

I can't see any good solution for this. LDraw.xml might fall behind, Rebrickable might update the format of their list, Peeron hasn't updated since 2011, and the Rebrickable API only gives the Rebrickable/LDraw connection.

I am tempted to start my own colors site where people can suggest changes, while also supporting uddates from LDraw.xml and Rebrickable. Perhaps I should start a new thread for this - get some input with pros, cons and design hints.

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Thank you, I will try it

(I tried it) - I know it sounds silly, but how do I export .jpg files (or any picture extention) of model?

I am preparing a big project for a big client, and if the idea goes, I would like to give some percent to the designer of the program - can I get some contact?

Please note I will be in Skaerbaek, so we can discuss this there

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14 hours ago, Angeli said:

Thank you, I will try it

(I tried it) - I know it sounds silly, but how do I export .jpg files (or any picture extention) of model?

I am preparing a big project for a big client, and if the idea goes, I would like to give some percent to the designer of the program - can I get some contact?

Please note I will be in Skaerbaek, so we can discuss this there

Hi Ivan,

Lasse D is no longer a member of Byggepladen, and will probably not show up at Skærbæk. Try a pm instead.

 

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