Official Acceptable Tolerance

[teknix1]

Hi,

I've been having a lot of fun designing my own creations in LDD. But in order to make things nice or more realistic you have to try and get 45 degrees or odd angles going. Obviously the grid pattern does not lend itself to much to that. As you are probably aware, unless your happen to stumble upon the magic lengths that are all exact numbers (see Pythagorean theorem) your pieces won't snap together. Although LDD allows you to make these connections when they are "close enough", very often they are so far off that such a connection shouldn't be attempted with real bricks. I have been doing my own calculations to try to find lengths that would allow me to snap at 45 degrees, unfortunately there is rarely a match. Now my question is, what is the acceptable tolerance used by TLG for making such connections? Or do they even allow any at all?

Thanks

Nic

[anothergol]

I don't think there's any tolerance, but there are parts that allow to join what shouldn't be joined, mostly the rubber stuff:

I'm not an expert in Technic sets, but it's possible that Lego designers allow themselves more freedom there, because Technic builds can bend a lot. With studs, it's normally zero tolerance.

And yes as you found out, better not trust the LDD for that.

Edited January 26, 2016 by anothergol

[rollermonkey]

hinges.

We have plenty of sets with 45-degree angles.

[teknix1]

Thanks for the replies.

I'm a bit surprised to find out there's no tolerance, LDD allows connections well outside of what I would think acceptable. I've even tried in real life some of these connections (not the worst ones I've seen in LDD) and to my surprise they work rather well. I"m still thinking there must be an allowed margin of error, the software should be able to tell me when it's not perfectly right.

I've used plenty of hinges, but many of my designs require me to snap both ends of a 45 degree wall and that's where the problems lie. Would you mind pointing out a few sets?

Thanks

Nic

[anothergol]

It's good that the LDD is a bit loose, because it would, as a result of tiny offsets due to its inaccuracies, reject many connections that would normally work well.

Really, with studs I wouldn't try to do what you want to do, but with technic parts you can always join stuff by not fully inserting axles. Or try your luck & bend axles, they won't break (maybe beams will), but studded parts will.

[Sven F]

There is a pdf by Lego designer Jaimie Berard explaining legal and ilegal connections, many of which are due to tolerances, but i am on mobile now, so hopefully someone else can dig up the link. Mind, most are system parts though.

Edit:

https://www.google.hr/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://bramlambrecht.com/tmp/jamieberard-brickstress-bf06.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwi2seKascfKAhXD6CwKHQgdDEIQFggcMAA&usg=AFQjCNEjbfabBWTPoV_6G17FvvN4Rw5P9Q&sig2=hrMSdRgfIY3TQnJhaWtloA

Edited January 26, 2016 by Sven F

[teknix1]

It all makes sense. I had seen that PDF before, you can clearly see that they are not promoting any imperfect connections. I guess I was hoping for a little versatility here...

Thanks!

Nic

[spirogero]

There is a pdf by Lego designer Jaimie Berard explaining legal and ilegal connections, many of which are due to tolerances, but i am on mobile now, so hopefully someone else can dig up the link. Mind, most are system parts though.

Edit:

https://www.google.h...fIY3TQnJhaWtloA

Useful presentation. Thanks SvenF (and Jaimie).