Help on digital building

[Kmuffin]

Hi guys for all this time when I think of making a moc I never build digitally. Now I think that building digitally first before trying to build it in real life is a good method to start mocs. I have built in LDD once but that was 2 or 3 years ago. Now i want to know what Lego digital building program is the best. I want something to begin with. My choices are LDD or Stud.io or Ldraw . Ldraw seems to be a bit advanced but i don't know that if it is that advance. I might go with Stud.io but I'm slightly not sure if it has technic parts but I am most sure it has While LDD doesn't have some parts ex:- Pneumatics. Tell me your opinion.

 

P.S. Sorry for the bad English

Edited March 13, 2017 by Kmuffin

[DrJB]

LDD does not have ALL parts, however you can build 'look-alike' as in old pneumatic parts. LDRAW is the most powerful of all available, but the learning curve is a bit steep.

Also, LDD is very strict on 'collisions' and illegal builds. That said, it is very interactive and its 'snap' feature makes it my choice for entry level. I'd say start with LDD< and once you've learned of its lmitations, you can then 'graduate' to LDRAW. I haven't trie stud.io yet so can't comment on it. 

[Kmuffin]

  On 3/13/2017 at 3:01 PM, DrJB said:

LDD does not have ALL parts, however you can build 'look-alike' as in old pneumatic parts. LDRAW is the most powerful of all available, but the learning curve is a bit steep.

Also, LDD is very strict on 'collisions' and illegal builds. That said, it is very interactive and its 'snap' feature makes it my choice for entry level. I'd say start with LDD< and once you've learned of its lmitations, you can then 'graduate' to LDRAW. I haven't trie stud.io yet so can't comment on it. 

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Thanks! i'll see through it but for now I will wait for more suggestions.

[Didumos69]

I always make use of LDD when designing my builds, because I like its ease of use and its strictness towards collisions. However, if you want your design to serve as a base for instructions, then you're better off with Ldraw, or at least the LDR-file format. I tried LDCad and Stud.io, but they both don't perform on my laptop. I want the 3D-interaction to be very responsive. LDD works great (with minimal rendering effects) on my laptop. Btw, I use Bluerenderer to make renders directly from LDD-files.

[jotta93]

From my (limited) experience using stud.io I can say it is as intuitive as LDD. It even has in-built rendering software (POV ray I believe). I haven't tried to create instructions with it though.

Also, as @Didumos69 said, you can use Bluerender to make renders and Blueprint to create instructions both directly from LDD files

[1963maniac]

The advice to start with LDD is GOOD! It's easy. When you come to a point where LDD won't do what you need, then learn a new program. I use MLCAD which allows for submodelling and make building instructions with LPUB3D. I strongly prefer technic, especially studless building. Technic building instructions in LDD is oftentimes not logical. Start, with simple small projects.

[Kmuffin]

  On 3/13/2017 at 3:17 PM, Didumos69 said:

I always make use of LDD when designing my builds, because I like its ease of use and its strictness towards collisions. However, if you want your design to serve as a base for instructions, then you're better off with Ldraw, or at least the LDR-file format. I tried LDCad and Stud.io, but they both don't perform on my laptop. I want the 3D-interaction to be very responsive. LDD works great (with minimal rendering effects) on my laptop. Btw, I use Bluerenderer to make renders directly from LDD-files.

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  On 3/13/2017 at 4:11 PM, jotta93 said:

From my (limited) experience using stud.io I can say it is as intuitive as LDD. It even has in-built rendering software (POV ray I believe). I haven't tried to create instructions with it though.

Also, as @Didumos69 said, you can use Bluerender to make renders and Blueprint to create instructions both directly from LDD files

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  On 3/13/2017 at 7:21 PM, 1963maniac said:

The advice to start with LDD is GOOD! It's easy. When you come to a point where LDD won't do what you need, then learn a new program. I use MLCAD which allows for submodelling and make building instructions with LPUB3D. I strongly prefer technic, especially studless building. Technic building instructions in LDD is oftentimes not logical. Start, with simple small projects.

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Thanks for all the advice! I'll start on with LDD. My PC is a Lenovo Thinkpad with intel i5 i'm sure it can handle LDD. As for making instructions I'm not gonna start it now as I am still learning Digital building. I just downloaded LDD a few hours ago today. And I do seem to be intrested in that Blurender program but I don't know the PC requirements for the program so Please let me know. This is just a brief note on what I have to say. Thanks for all the advice like I said and I will also show some progress on my moc later.

[BubbaFit45531]

Overall, I like Lego Digital Designer. I recently used it to copy a MOC from one or two pictures online, did Export BOM to get parts list and used LDD to make PDF build instructions. I ordered the parts in the right colors from Bricks & Pieces.

I also use LDD to make instructions for my MOCs so I can rebuild them if I take them apart.