13 replies to this topic

[ashir]

Hi guys, I don't know if this is somehow usefull or not, but what the heck...

Dissapointed with the tremendous lack of parts in LDD I decided to made a Google Docs spreadsheet sortin all parts present in LDD and relate the LDD name with the Peeron and DBM names and ID's.

What's the pourpose of this?, well, mostly avoid frustrations generated by starting to build a set and find the piece you need is absent in LDD.

Right now I only sort the bricks, the two ? at the end, the baseplates and the cogs. The LDD images are missing, but in the next weeks I'm going to fully complete it.

Now I need to know if is there any interest or not in this idea of mine, because if there is then I will open the spreadsheet to public so anyone can contribute.

Sorry for my bad english...

Cya

LDD Parts Database

* 30/07/2010 Finished Bricks
* 30/07/2010 Finished ?1
* 30/07/2010 Finished ?2
* 30/07/2010 Finished Baseplates
* 30/07/2010 Finished Cogs
* 30/07/2010 Finished Circular

Edited by ashir, 30 July 2010 - 09:29 PM.

[Calabar]

I think a complete list is very useful now, overall for people like me that use to refer to peeron.

I waste a great amount of time to search pieces in LDD, and a table with peeron's numbers and location in LDD would be very helpful.

I think too that a simple list with peeron's number and LDD location would be enough to work properly, no need for description or images (description could be useful too... but peeron's description or DBM one?), and could be added later.

Besides, as LDD allows to resize palette sidebar, it would be useful a variable value in the spreadsheet that calculate line and position of the piece related to number of pieces in a line (very simple to realize).

[Superkalle]

ashir, on 30 July 2010 - 05:39 AM, said:

Hi guys, I don't know if this is somehow usefull or not, but what the heck...

Dissapointed with the tremendous lack of parts in LDD I decided to made a Google Docs spreadsheet sortin all parts present in LDD and relate the LDD name with the Peeron and DBM names and ID's.

LDD Parts Database

As a side comment, LDD Manager I think has what you're looking for. You can use the "BrickFinder function" to filter/find any kind of brick, either as LegoID or as BrickLink-number (which I prefer over Peeron since BrickLink is so much more commonly used). There is also a function to tell you in which LDD category each brick is in.

And no problem with the English . Only thing I'm a bit confused about is when you say say you're frustrated with the lack of parts. You have activated LU-mode, right?

A screenshot of LDD Manager BrickFinder dialog:
 LDDMgrBrickFind2.jpg   140.77K   4 downloads

And here one where you can search by connectivity type, pretty neat when you don't know the number, but only how the brick looks:
 LDDMgrBrickFind1.jpg   136.47K   1 downloads

[Calabar]

LDD Manager is a very useful software, but it has 2 problems for me:
- it is based on BrickLink's database, and I'm familiar with Peeron.
- Requires MS Access (or Access runtime)

So I think the work made by ashir could be very useful for those who has some problem with ldd manager.

PS: does LDD Manager shows brick position in LDD palette?
The aim of this list I think is exactly that!

Edited by Calabar, 30 July 2010 - 10:04 AM.

[ashir]

Calabar, on 30 July 2010 - 08:49 AM, said:

I think a complete list is very useful now, overall for people like me that use to refer to peeron.

I waste a great amount of time to search pieces in LDD, and a table with peeron's numbers and location in LDD would be very helpful.

I think too that a simple list with peeron's number and LDD location would be enough to work properly, no need for description or images (description could be useful too... but peeron's description or DBM one?), and could be added later.

Besides, as LDD allows to resize palette sidebar, it would be useful a variable value in the spreadsheet that calculate line and position of the piece related to number of pieces in a line (very simple to realize).

Yes, that was the original idea: save time and frustrations. Images are needed, specially to contrast LDD images and real piece image. The description... well, DBM doesn't have so...

Superkalle, on 30 July 2010 - 09:36 AM, said:

As a side comment, LDD Manager I think has what you're looking for. You can use the "BrickFinder function" to filter/find any kind of brick, either as LegoID or as BrickLink-number (which I prefer over Peeron since BrickLink is so much more commonly used). There is also a function to tell you in which LDD category each brick is in.

And no problem with the English . Only thing I'm a bit confused about is when you say say you're frustrated with the lack of parts. You have activated LU-mode, right?

A screenshot of LDD Manager BrickFinder dialog:
LDDMgrBrickFind2.jpg

And here one where you can search by connectivity type, pretty neat when you don't know the number, but only how the brick looks:
LDDMgrBrickFind1.jpg

Nice one, but I don't use Bricklink and maybe I'm not the only one who prefers Peeron to see a piece or look for a assambly scan. Besides, LDD Manager only tells you what's the seccion containing the piece, but doesn't tell you exactly where the piece is...

[Superkalle]

Calabar, on 30 July 2010 - 09:57 AM, said:

LDD Manager is a very useful software, but it has 2 problems for me:
- it is based on BrickLink's database, and I'm familiar with Peeron.
- Requires MS Access (or Access runtime)

So I think the work made by ashir could be very useful for those who has some problem with ldd manager.

PS: does LDD Manager shows brick position in LDD palette?
The aim of this list I think is exactly that!

You're right on all points  
And no, LDD Mgr does not show exact position, but it could, since place within categories is decided based on boundary volume. This way the LDD team doesn't have to manually place the bricks every time a new one comes in - it's done automatically. Good for them, not so good for us users, who would like a more logical sorting. Anyway, personally, if I want to find a brick, since I know roughly the size of the brick, it doesn't take so long to find where it is within the category. Just my 2 cents.

And Peeron? No way - BrickLink rules  
No, but seriously, BL and Peeron are in terms of part numbers almost identical, but my feeling is that BrickLink quicker adopts the official Lego numbers. And since BrickLink is used by 100 times more people, it is becoming the de-facto standard. And you can order bricks from BL. Well, that's how I see it anyway.

On the other hand...if we get a "search for brick" in LDD4 in September (which I have heard rumours about), hopefully that will make it sooo much easier to find bricks - and it will solve the problem of finding the bricks in the categories. However, such search function will only support Lego brick numbers and names, not Peeron or Bricklink.

[Calabar]

Superkalle, on 30 July 2010 - 10:56 AM, said:

However, such search function will only support Lego brick numbers and names, not Peeron or Bricklink.

I was thinking about incoming LDD 4... even if search function will be not implemented, a list made now will lose it's usefulness because it will be obsolete soon.
So, if ashir's work is not too complex and if it would be available soon, I'm agree to complete the list. Otherwise wait for LDD 4 is the better choice.

Obviously LDD will implemented search using LEGO official names and numbers. But a simple table of conversion with peeron and bricklink  codes will solve the problem easily.

About using peeron, I've many internal links saved and categorized, and I learned peeron's "slang". Besides, I prefer Peeron's look&fill!
Pass from Peeron to Bricklink is not simple, so I prefer stay with peeron than take confidence with another database.
PS: peeron is linked to Bricklinks circuit too, if you want to buy pieces. ;)

Edited by Calabar, 30 July 2010 - 02:02 PM.

[Superkalle]

Calabar, on 30 July 2010 - 11:21 AM, said:

About using peeron, I've many internal links saved and categorized, and I learned peeron's "slang". Besides, I prefer Peeron's look&fill!
Pass from Peeron to Bricklink is not simple, so I prefer stay with peeron than take confidence with another database.
PS: peeron is linked to Bricklinks circuit too, if you want to buy pieces. ;)

OK, let's agree that we are both right, they have both there strong points  

[Calabar]

Eheh, I didn't think someone could be right or not.  
Simply there are different situations, the one described above is mine!  

Is there somewhere a table with lego codes and relative correspondences with bricklink and peeron codes?

@ashir
Do you think your work can be completed easily and in brief?
Even a simplified version, waiting for LDD4.

[ashir]

Calabar, on 30 July 2010 - 02:09 PM, said:

@ashir
Do you think your work can be completed easily and in brief?
Even a simplified version, waiting for LDD4.

Easily yes, in brief...? As fast as I can. I'll try to make one container a day, but the accesories are going to be a REAL pain in the megablocks... there are too many of them!!!

[Calabar]

ashir, on 30 July 2010 - 07:05 PM, said:

Easily yes, in brief...? As fast as I can. I'll try to make one container a day, but the accesories are going to be a REAL pain in the megablocks... there are too many of them!!!

Do you think to use "relative" positions?
As I told before, it would be much more comfortable.

Instead than write block/line/position you only need to sign block and an ordinal number (if you proceed piece by piece, it is a simple sequence of numbers).
Than a simple formula would calculate line and position using "number of bricks for line" as parameter.

[ashir]

Calabar, on 30 July 2010 - 07:27 PM, said:

Do you think to use "relative" positions?
As I told before, it would be much more comfortable.

Instead than write block/line/position you only need to sign block and an ordinal number (if you proceed piece by piece, it is a simple sequence of numbers).
Than a simple formula would calculate line and position using "number of bricks for line" as parameter.

Hum... relative positions... I shoud said "a pain in the part of my body where my upper legs meets my lower back"?  

About the ordinal numbers and the formula... dude, I have seen lego blocks for the last 7 days at least 18 hours per day, righ now I hear you so much like Charlie Brown's teacher...

Explain me that like a 3 years old kid, right now my brain is fried.

[Calabar]

Eheh... ok.
I'll try to explain (I hope my English is enough clear!)

I've seen you have used a spreadsheet to make your list.
Using spreadsheet is easy to add formulas!

So, before you start to create the list, you have to:
- create a field where you can add the value of number of bricks in a single line (default for LDD is 3)
- create easy formulas that starting from brick ordinal number (1 for the firs brick, 2 for the second... n for the nth brick!) for each group, generate values for group/line/position.

For example:
Group = you set it manually
Line = 1 + integer_part_of( (<group_number> + <brick_ordinal_number> - 1) / <cols_for_line> )
Column = 1 + rest_of( (<group_number> + <brick_ordinal_number> - 1) / <cols_for_line> )

NOTE:
About position of the piece in LDD, I consider that all groups are closed except the one where I'm looking for the brick.
If not, the calculation need a little complication.
Besides, the "line" number starts from the beginning of palette panel.
If you want to start counting lines from the line where the icon of the considered group is, you have to slightly modify the formula.

NOTE:
It would be possibile to automatically determinate groups number.
It would require the use of an array (that stores groups' size), a cicle and an conditional instruction.
Perhaps it is possible to do it with a macro, but I don't know... I should test it!

Download here a little example.

[Bojan Pavsic]

Ok, lemme add something to this.
I've seen you focused your spreadsheet about finding the parts faster - the field LDD location. Ashir, your work is good, but every palette change will make your spreadsheets brick location wrong. I think every LDD update changes the palettes a bit (the last one removed about 15 parts and added about the same amount new ones). Most of you didn't notice it, but trust me, i've seen it... The full count of bricks in LDD is 1800 which means A LOT of work.
Again, some like to resize their palette window to have the "non-default" 4 columns per row. Some work in LU mode, others work in Creator mode, again the third use the DbM mode. Your spreadsheet can only work for 1 palette. So i'd rather recommend what Superkalle already stated. Implement a search for a part by name, resulting only category/section/container or whatever it's called. Besides after working with LDD on 2-3 projects, you already know all the parts and know where to look for them.

Edited by Bojan Pavsic, 12 August 2010 - 01:43 PM.