Question about LDD part positioning

[Unknown Ninja]

I made Minecraft Steve in LDD and want to put the pickaxe in his hand. I remember when I used LDD in the past it was possible to freely adjust where a part is, even if colliding with something else like a thread on a tank or something like that.. I can't seem to remember how I did that. Can someone explain this to me? Would really appreciate it.

Minecraft Steve.lxf

Edited April 23, 2015 by Unknown Ninja

[Zerobricks]

A bit of scaffolding and you can adjust it. I will give it a try tomorrow.

[Unknown Ninja]

Hmmm... Scaffolding! Will give it a try! Thanks!

[Gnac]

Dunno about the old days, but to do something like that now requires a scaffolding - a temporary construction of bricks for the "loose" parts to snap to. Depending on how complex the model is, this scaffolding might require hinges, clip + bar assemblies... whatever it takes to fine-tune things for LDDs strict (and sometimes unfair) collision detection.

Anyway, after some tweaking, I managed something. Bear in mind that the pickaxe isn't attached to anything, so you'll need to find a way (a scaffolding!) to make LDD treat it as a connected object if you want it to move along with his left arm.

[Unknown Ninja]

That is awesome. Thanks! I found instructions for this model online and I want to adjust the pickaxe so it is the same on 2 sides and I can also make adjustments to the arm so it can hold the pickaxe. I will have some tinkering!

Thanks again!

[gedren_y]

The simplest way to get the arm and pickaxe into the position you want is to replace a few parts so that they do attach. Then you move them into position. Finally replace the attaching parts with the original parts.

[___]

Well, my technique for such task (one like that being done a while ago, now rendering and later today new a bit bigger MOC post will be available where I post my first space base with flying hoover around on which such technique was used) is made by building temporary brick construct consisting of {Technick "perfored" brick(s) + axle(s) + 2 or more 3937/3938 combis + 73603} - with this I am basically able move/slide/adjust any brick to any desired position and angle