Superkalle

Troubleshooting guide - LDD startup and advanced graphics problems

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LDD Graphics and general troubleshooting guide

Part 1 - Turn advanced graphics ON

If you don't see the cool, advanced graphics in LDD 4, try this

STEP 1 - Turn on advanced graphics

If you don't see the advanced graphics (such as brick outlines, see image below) in LDD 4, first make sure you've turned them on. (Edit > Preferences). Outlines on bricks should be checked, and Advanced shading lever should be max to the right. NOTE: If you've got an older computer, you may want to only use the advanded shading and leave the Outlines turned off since outlines seems to be more heavy on the computer.

STEP 2 - Update drivers

If you can't turn on Outlines and Advanced shading because those options are grayed out, your first step is to update the drivers:

a) For Windows - Make sure that your DirectX drivers are up to date as this will also install the latest OpenGL drivers (which is what LDD uses). Download here

b) Update the graphics drivers. This is very important, since many problems are solved with updated drivers. Download NVIDIA here and ATI here. So how do I know which graphics card/chip I have? In Windows, Start > Run. Type in "Dxdiag". Look at the Display tab.

STEP 3 - None of the above works

If it still doesn't work, you've either got a too old graphics card/chip or there is a bug in LDD for that particular chip. Then all you can do is to either update the graphics card or wait for the next release of LDD where hopefully any bug has been fixed.

Part 2 - Turn advanced graphics OFF (because LDD is crashing or not starting)

Q1: I just installed/updated LDD over a previous version, and now LDD will only start for a few seconds and then shut down or will not show up on screen.

A: It may be because you have a line in your preferences.ini-file left from a previous LDD installation that says

UseShadersInScene=yes

UseShadersInPalette=yes

and with the latest versin of LDD your graphics card cannot handle this. So you need to edit the preferences.ini-file and set those values to "no".

For Windows 7 and Vista it can be found here C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\LEGO Company\LEGO Digital Designer\preferences.ini

For Windows XP here: C:\Documents And Settings\UserName\ApplicationData\Lego Company\Lego Digital Designer\preferences.ini

NOTE: If you can't find this folder, the read here how to make it visible

If the above doesn't solve the problem, try this:

1) Exit LDD if it is running and make sure that all instances of LDD are closed (Open Start Task Manager and look at the Processes folder. Close any processes called LDD.exe).

2) Now uninstall LDD, and then delete all LDD files in two places:

a) The above folder (....UserName\ApplicationData\Lego Company\Lego Digital Designer\)

b) "C:\Program Files\Lego Company\Lego Digital Designer" (or "C:\Program Files (x86) \Lego Company\Lego Digital Designer" for Windows 64 bit editions

4) Re-install LDD and start.

6) Still doesn't work? Exit LDD and again edit/add the preferences.ini with UseShadersInScene=no and UseShadersInPalette=yes

5) Still doesn't work? Exit LDD, edit the above mentioned preferences.ini and add CompatibilityModeLevel=100, then re-start LDD.

Q2: I just installed LDD 4 and now LDD will crash whenever I click the brick palette.

A:First to try is to go into Edit > Preferences and uncheck "High quality rendering of bricks in the brick palette". Then re-start LDD. If that doesn't work, follow the instructions above to edit the ini-file directly. If that doesn't work, try increasing the "Compability mode" slider.

post-4755-129016846764.jpg

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Interesting. I already upgraded my graphics driver to the latest version on the Lenovo website, though, so I don't know why the full set of graphical options isn't available to me.

To clarify, I'm on a Lenovo laptop, and whatever the graphics card on it is, IT services at my school recommend I only download graphics driver updates from the manufacturer's website (since the graphics card is apparently custom-tailored to this computer or something like that).

Not that it matters, though-- all the options are available besides brick outlines, and I think screenshots look better without them anyway (even if they're helpful when building). I also disable high quality rendering of bricks in the Brick Palette by choice, since I don't see the point of it and don't want to risk any options that might slow down LDD.

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I don't have high hopes, but I am going to try updating my Nvidia driver to see if anything changes.

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I have managed to make LDD 4 finally work on my computer, but whenever I go the the decoration tool in Universe mode, it crashes completely and ends the program. Is anybody else having this problem, or does anybody have a solution?

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I have managed to make LDD 4 finally work on my computer, but whenever I go the the decoration tool in Universe mode, it crashes completely and ends the program. Is anybody else having this problem, or does anybody have a solution?

Decoration tool you say. Wow, I never heard that causing problems before. I'm not a graphics expert, but could it something with loading a bitmap into graphics card memory. Maybe someone here on the forum with better skills knows?

A question in the meantime; have you updated your grapics card drivers to the latest (accoring to the first post in this topic)?

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I don't know if there's a note about it somewhere in this topic, but make sure your computer can even handle advanced shading before turning it on! My computer is fast but it doesn't have a graphics card, so turning on the fancy shading causes it to lag to hell (making turning it off a hassle).

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A question in the meantime; have you updated your grapics card drivers to the latest (accoring to the first post in this topic)?

Yep! I followed all of the instructions in the first post, but still no luck.

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Just for information sakes purpose, I am under the impression that advanced shader mode is fairly resource intensive. I am currently running LDD 4.0 in WinXP 32-bit with the following custom built machine:

AMD Athlon 64 3500 2.2 GHz

1024Mb DDR2 667 CAS 4 (2x 512Mb running in dual channel mode)

NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400 128 Mb with single display at 1280x1024 @ 75Hz

(NVIDIA Quadro generic driver)

And full advanced rendering slows my computer down to several FPS for rendering... So keep this in mind when trying to run it, because it will tax your machine.

I would report on WINE performance, but I am still having problems getting it to run.

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I'm experiencing a bit of a bizarre problem with trying to open one particular LDD model file of mine. Is this the place to be asking about this or is there a general LDD troubleshooting thread somewhere?

Just in case:

Here is the problem: I was working with a particular file in LDD4 last night and had no problem opening, saving or working with the file. This morning, when I went to open the file, I got this message: "Unable to open file". There was no loading bar or anything--it went straight to that message. Other than this one file, all my other ones seem to be fine. I'm not having computer glitches or anything either.

The only other bizarre thing that I noticed was that the internet connection in my apartment had gone down last night as well--our network crashes all the time around here, but a loss of internet connection is rare. Obviously, since I am writing this now, I have fixed the internet problem, but the problem with LDD remains.

I have since tried renaming the file, but this has not worked.

I have tried running LDD 4 in safe mode, but this has not worked

I have tried re-installing LDD 4, but this has not worked.

I have tried uninstalling LDD4 and installing LDD3, but this has not worked

I have tried running LDD 3 in safe mode, but this has not worked.

I really, really, really want to get this file open, as I spent a lot of time on it and was really happy with how it was going. I have a handful of screenshots of it, but I am not confident that I will be able to re-create my steps just based on those alone. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!

-Mithryl

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@mithryl dlarix

Share your problematic lxf file, so that we can examine it.

Another thing.

You wrote the same message in more topics: that's named "crossposting" and it is usually considered a good thing (when it is not roundly forbidden by the forum rule).

This seems to be the right place, so let's continue here.

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@mithryl dlarix

Share your problematic lxf file, so that we can examine it.

Another thing.

You wrote the same message in more topics: that's named "crossposting" and it is usually considered a good thing (when it is not roundly forbidden by the forum rule).

This seems to be the right place, so let's continue here.

Sorry about the cross-posting. I'm a bit new here still. Speaking of being a noob--how do you share the file? When I tried to attach it, I got a message saying "You aren't permitted to upload this kind of file". Is there another way? I can upload it to bricklink and then share the link if you want.

Here is the link:

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/solusmaximus/LDD-Instructions/00_gundam_instructions_3.lxf

-Mithryl

Edited by mithryl dlarix

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The file results damaged (bad CRC checksum).

Have you got another copy of the file?

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The file results damaged (bad CRC checksum).

Have you got another copy of the file?

Unfortunately, no. Fortunately, I took a few screenshots as I was going, and I have those to go by, at least up to a point. I've rebuilt about 60 or 70% of the model so far. Hopefully I won't lose too much from this (except time). Thanks for looking into that for me. Any idea how that happened in the first place? I'd like to avoid a recurrence in the future.

-Mithryl

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If there is a bad CRC, then rename the damaged file to .zip

Then run a zip-repair tool and see if you can recover any part of the file.

If you can, we may be able to help you from there.

Regarding why it happened - I've never heard of it before, so the corruption most likely happened during a write to disk, a damaged disk sector, or similar.

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That's strange, LDD never failed for me to save a model.

Some hints:

- check your disk: if you use windows try a checkdisk, then a checkdisk -R to repair the file system if there is any damage. If checkdisk -R don't solve the problem, look at SMART checksum and use MHDD to check disk's sectors.

- building a model, save the file every time you complete a part. Then copy the file and maintain it until the model is not finished. At the end, verify the final file works, then make one or two backup copy of it and store that in another disk or computer. Then delete intermediate steps.

EDIT:

@Superkalle

I already tried to repair it with a free zip repair, but without good results.

He could try with other softwares, hoping to be more lucky.

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EDIT:

@Superkalle

I already tried to repair it with a free zip repair, but without good results.

He could try with other softwares, hoping to be more lucky.

Ah, sorry Calabar I didn't know. :blush:

I just thought when you wrote bad CRC it was the message given by winzip.

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Ah, sorry Calabar I didn't know. :blush:

I just thought when you wrote bad CRC it was the message given by winzip.

Thank you guys for all your help. It was much appreciated. In the end, I managed to rebuild the model by looking at some WIP screenshots that I had taken. It is back now and as good as new.

http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/275855

Thanks again!

-Mithryl

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I like your model! Very good.

Do you think to share the lxf file?

(in this topic various users share their LDD MOC).

Ah, sorry Calabar I didn't know. :blush:

Eheh no apologies needed, I didn't told that before! :tongue:

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Hello, I was hoping if someone could help me on this subject. I have tried many times to download the new LDD onto my laptop, but nothing ever happens. Does this mean my old Toshiba laptop won't support the advanced graphics, or is there some trick to making it happen?

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@ Legodac: Does your laptop computer meet the Minimum System Requirements on the LDD.Lego.com download page? What is your Operating System on your laptop? 32-bit or 64-bit?

"Minimum System Requirements for PC

Operating system: Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7.

CPU: 1 GHz processor or higher

Graphics card: 128 MB graphics card (OpenGL 1.1 or higher compatible)

RAM: 512 MB

Hard disk space: 1 GB"

"Minimum System Requirements for Mac

Operating system: OS X 10.5.8 or higher

CPU: Intel processor

Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce 5200/ATI Radeon 7500 or better

RAM: 1 GB

Hard disk space: 1 GB"

Note that "LEGO Digital Designer version 4.1 is not available on PowerPC Macs. To allow PowerPC users access to their models, we have made a special version of 2.3.20 available exclusively for that architecture. This version will not support the option of buying through Design byME, and it is not supported by LEGO. It can be downloaded here: LDDMacInstaller.zip ."

Edited by DLuders

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Forgive me DLuder, you'd think after 5 years of having a computer I wouldn't have to ask this, where do I find that information about the bit size on my pc? Thanks for answering buddy.

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@ legodac: If you run Windows, use this key sequence:

Start-->Control Panel-->System and Maintenance-->System.

The "System Type" should list whether you have a 32-bit or 64-bit Operating System.

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I'm experiencing a bit of a bizarre problem with trying to open one particular LDD model file of mine. Is this the place to be asking about this or is there a general LDD troubleshooting thread somewhere?

Just in case:

Here is the problem: I was working with a particular file in LDD4 last night and had no problem opening, saving or working with the file. This morning, when I went to open the file, I got this message: "Unable to open file". There was no loading bar or anything--it went straight to that message. Other than this one file, all my other ones seem to be fine. I'm not having computer glitches or anything either.

The only other bizarre thing that I noticed was that the internet connection in my apartment had gone down last night as well--our network crashes all the time around here, but a loss of internet connection is rare. Obviously, since I am writing this now, I have fixed the internet problem, but the problem with LDD remains.

I have since tried renaming the file, but this has not worked.

I have tried running LDD 4 in safe mode, but this has not worked

I have tried re-installing LDD 4, but this has not worked.

I have tried uninstalling LDD4 and installing LDD3, but this has not worked

I have tried running LDD 3 in safe mode, but this has not worked.

I really, really, really want to get this file open, as I spent a lot of time on it and was really happy with how it was going. I have a handful of screenshots of it, but I am not confident that I will be able to re-create my steps just based on those alone. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!

-Mithryl

-Mithryl

Please remember this idea is for those who are able to download yet still can't open LDD

Well I can relate to everyone here who has a problem with getting LDD, the latest version.I myself have tried literally hundreds of times over the years to get it too.

Since I joined Eurobricks there have been several who have tried to help me get the older versions, to no avail, but thanks anyways Brickers.

I have always assumed that my graphics card wasn’t big enough to support the updated program,because that was usually what most people would say.

Wait aminute, how can this be? Yes my laptop is about 10 years old, but how come when I go to play a pc game like Lego or Zelda or God of War, I have no problems.It’s because my card is more than big enough to handle a program like LDD andDesign By Me.

So what’s going on I asked myself and others. I can download the program, it says I’m successful, yet it still won’t open.

THE PROBLEM,if not your graphics card, is something else.

I figured this out, while attempting once again, a popup came and asked me to clean my registry, and the scan would be free and safe.

Why not indeed, that’s another story. Though it did tell me my pc had issues, hundreds to be exact. Anyone with a pc or laptop knows that their device has issues.

THE PROBLEM is in fact the clutter on your computer, not allowing the program to open,download yes, open no.

You must teach your computer the correct pathway to follow in order to open.

Here’s what you do,

SPECIAL POINT: These instructions are for those who can download LDD, but still can’t open it. The fact is, if you can download, you can open.

Step one- *Remove all LDD files from your add-removelist*

Step two- *Create a new user account on your pc or laptop* (doesn’t matter who, invent somebody)

This brings your pc back to state like it was just purchaced, in other words, no clutter,no broken paths, no registry errors etc.

Step three- *Don’t log out this new user, just switch back to your self*

Step four- *Download LDD 4.1, when the question asks“download for current user” un-check your username and check “all users”.

Step five- *The last question asked is “do you want to open when finished”, Un-check that box and click finish. The program is now installed. Also somewhat important, make sure you allow the desktop short cuts.

Step Six- *now switch back to your new user, you will see the desktop short cut here, double click it*

Step seven and final- *almost right away the LDD will open to download the bricks, then stall because it takes a long time when you first open it.

There is noneed to finish the opening, simply switch back to yourself and double click the shortcut. It will open, allow some time for it to open.

Congratulations, you have just taught your own pc the correctpath to open LDD.

Edited by legodac

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Hello everyone, I'm new to LDD so have patience with me and/or redirect me to other posts if this info exists there. :blush:

I love that people have taken the time to create versions of official sets for the community's use! I'm sure this post has collectively thousands of hours of hard work!

My questions: I see only a subset of the models have been updated to LDD4 (and not many of the modular buildings, which is what I'm primarily interested in). LDD4 crashes when I try loading these. Short of re-doing the files, are there any options to get these up and editable on my PC? Can I download an older LDD version (link?), and if so, can two LDD versions exist side-by-side on the same O/S?

Thanks for any help you can provide!

--Rob

Edited by Rob Klingberg

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Usually Modular Buildings uses common pieces, so that these sets don't need to be updated to LDD4, LDD3 versions are complete already.

Your problem could came from the size of the sets. Modulare buildings are often very big sets with many pieces.

So your LDD could have difficulties to open that.

One solution could be to disable advanced graphics: perhaps your pc is not able to manage such a big model.

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