Problem with LDD "DesignByMe" sidebar shown on startup.

[ghyde]

For some time now, LDD has had the problem on my system with the "DesignByMe" sidebar displayed on startup being positioned on the right side of screen. However, the subsections that are shown with a + next to them do not appear fully on-screen, they are partially hidden. I work with LDD on a 1024 x 768 desktop, why can't the designers of LDD get this sidebar system sorted out properly so that it displays correctly? Please see the below image hosted on majhost for a screenshot of the problem!

Edited October 6, 2010 by ghyde

[prateek]

Interesting... I guess they made it on a widescreen so that's why it's like this. Plus, if it showed the whole thing, there would be no space for the actual grid.

[ghyde]

Interesting... I guess they made it on a widescreen so that's why it's like this. Plus, if it showed the whole thing, there would be no space for the actual grid.

I think they should have made those models in that pane available as models in the "starter models" section on the left when in the "DesignByMe" startup mode.

Instead of a sidebar, they had several much better options they could use:

1. Make models available in "AtlantisByMe" section available as default models.

2. Make the model selections appear using overlay techniques above the LDD screen instead of popping out of an already crowded sidebar, thus avoiding entirely the problem of obscuring the view of the model pane. If you can see one of these models you can click on it, and the pane automatically moves back so you can see the model, but my problem is that I want to read the text associated with each model so I can understand what the designer is trying to communicate about the model itself, not get a model to work with. I would think that most people using LDD would want to understand what the designer is communicating here, too. An overlay above the LDD screen would work way better than the current implementation.

3. Make horizontal and vertical scrollbars appear on the menu that is partially hidden at least that way people could read the text but still not as easily.

4. Make the models available directly via the DesignByMe website so that people can see the models, read the exact same description they are seeing part of in LDD itself, and download their .lxf file, too, if they want.

[Aanchir]

Interesting... I guess they made it on a widescreen so that's why it's like this. Plus, if it showed the whole thing, there would be no space for the actual grid.

Yeah, I have the same problem. My computer is normally widescreen, but since the beginning of this year I've had it set to 1024x768 so that it works properly with my tablet (which automatically configures to match the aspect ratio of the screen, despite having an invariably 8.5"x11" drawing surface). And because of that, I have this same problem.

I'm hoping LEGO will fix that with the next version, but if not it's not as though I ever use that sidebar anyway. Only thing I've ever considered using it for is the button that filters out Atlantis bricks, and you can do that just as easily by hitting the "Filter by Boxes>Atlantis" button on top of the brick palette.

[Superkalle]

For some time now, LDD has had the problem on my system with the "DesignByMe" sidebar displayed on startup being positioned on the right side of screen. However, the subsections that are shown with a + next to them do not appear fully on-screen, they are partially hidden. I work with LDD on a 1024 x 768 desktop, why can't the designers of LDD get this sidebar system sorted out properly so that it displays correctly? Please see the below image hosted on majhost for a screenshot of the problem!

I'll send a mail to the LDD team, and we'll see if they decide to fix it (or if the have the time before 4.0 is released).

[ghyde]

I'll send a mail to the LDD team, and we'll see if they decide to fix it (or if the have the time before 4.0 is released).

Okay, thanks! It would be even better if one of their designers could respond here directly! I don't know if they would have the time to though!

[Superkalle]

Okay, thanks! It would be even better if one of their designers could respond here directly! I don't know if they would have the time to though!

Well, they know about the forum, so that's not the problem. I guess they may be really busy. Or TLG has some policy about employees participating in forum discussion in their professional capacity (as private persons is naturally another matter - we have quite a few TLG employees here at EB). It could also be that they know about this issue allready.

[ghyde]

Well, they know about the forum, so that's not the problem. I guess they may be really busy. Or TLG has some policy about employees participating in forum discussion in their professional capacity (as private persons is naturally another matter - we have quite a few TLG employees here at EB). It could also be that they know about this issue allready.

They might know something of this issue. I had reported it to them a while back. But I don't know if they keep records of everything. And I'm not sure they understood what the issue actually is.

I found something interesting about this sidebar recently, there are tabs under the rotating model images and not all of those tabs under the models are accessible directly. I could switch into a much higher resolution to get to the tabs, but for models such as these it's not really worth the extra effort to go and investigate them all in a higher resolution.

I did also find that changing my graphics card settings could make some more of the sidebar appear, but still not all of it - the only thing that made all of it appear was to change up into a very high resolution. At least 1280 x 768 pixels. I'm not sure if I want my video card driving at resolutions this high, as the LCD monitor itself I'm on here displayed a message that read "nonpreset mode". I'm not willing to force my monitor into a mode it's not designed for or used to for extended periods of time.

I'm therefore hoping they would take the relatively easy route of simply making the models available on the website directly as a download. That wouldn't take them much time at all, and it's something they're familiar with, as they've done that before. If you could pass this onto them as a request perhaps they would do it. After all, it's not going to further delay the LDD 4.0 release if done this way.

As for TLG themselves, have they not heard of a "public relations" department or position in their company?