MLCAD official models & LDD ... which one to choose

[Strikeman]

Hey guys & gals, I'm fairly new here so I'm probably going to ask a few questions which have already been asked/answered. Sorry for that, I just came out of my dark ages (turned 30 this year, so it took me a while) and I have just recently started working with the digital LEGO software.

So far, I've only been using MLCAD and I have a few questions about that.

1. There's a list of official models built with LDD, but I can't find a similar post for MLCAD. Is it not applicable or are the formats interchangeable ?

2. Is there a reason to prefer LDD over MLCAD (or the other way around) ? I find MLCAD to be reasonably enjoyable and I have not tried LDD yet. However, there are 2 drawbacks to MLCAD (only been using it for 3 days so there will probably be more): rendering is a pain due to having to use external programs which half the time totally fubar what I'm trying to achieve (using Win7 64bit probably isn't helping) and rotating parts is a pain in the megablocks. But from what I've read, the (dis)advantage of LDD is that illegal connections will be blocked/deleted on reopening the file ... don't really know if that's such a good idea.

3. Is there an explanation somewhere of how to easily rotate bricks in MLCAD ?

4. Is there some info somewhere on how to properly render (change camera/viewpoint for example). The main problem I have at the moment is that my #include statements always fail (in POV-Ray 3.6), and I have to manually add the path to the LGEO directory to all of them (and yes my environment variables are set)

5. Is there a way to render a specific model in an MLCAD file ? As it is, I'm creating different models all inside 1 MLCAD file (thru multipart -> new model), but I find no way to render them individually ... I need to export them to single ldr files which I can then render ...

Thanks in advance for helping me out here, and as a closing statement I'd like to include 4 renders (with my very basic understanding of the rendering process) of the 4 official sets that I've recreated yesterday in MLCAD. Enjoy :)

6384 - Police station (no decals on baseplate, otherwise 100% accurate)

6541 - International Seaport (only thing that's not ok are the crane booms (see question 3)

7835 - Manual Road Crossing (adapted to a 7-stud baseplate because I wanted it that way, also no decals on the train crossing gate)

and lastly, the gaspump from basic set 720 (I wanted to render from another angle but didn't figure this out yet, see question 4)

Cheers, Andy

[Superkalle]

Hi Strikeman. Glad you came out of the dark ages! And welcome to the Digital Designer forum here on Eurobricks.

I'm sure one of the ML Cad gurus will come by soon and help you with your question

[Aanchir]

Hey guys & gals, I'm fairly new here so I'm probably going to ask a few questions which have already been asked/answered. Sorry for that, I just came out of my dark ages (turned 30 this year, so it took me a while) and I have just recently started working with the digital LEGO software.

So far, I've only been using MLCAD and I have a few questions about that.

1. There's a list of official models built with LDD, but I can't find a similar post for MLCAD. Is it not applicable or are the formats interchangeable ?

There is a topic for Official LEGO sets made in LDraw, but it's a lot newer and has far fewer sets.

2. Is there a reason to prefer LDD over MLCAD (or the other way around) ? I find MLCAD to be reasonably enjoyable and I have not tried LDD yet. However, there are 2 drawbacks to MLCAD (only been using it for 3 days so there will probably be more): rendering is a pain due to having to use external programs which half the time totally fubar what I'm trying to achieve (using Win7 64bit probably isn't helping) and rotating parts is a pain in the megablocks. But from what I've read, the (dis)advantage of LDD is that illegal connections will be blocked/deleted on reopening the file ... don't really know if that's such a good idea.

LDD's building interface is more natural-- you just "pick up" the bricks and "attach" them to other bricks. You don't need to align them the same way you do in MLCAD. The fact that LDD's interface visually resembles the final appearance is also an advantage, although MLCAD's external rendering tools like POVRAY can be a lot more realistic-looking in the final render.

Both LDD and MLCad have incomplete parts libraries. LDD's parts library, though, tends to be more up-to-date in some cases. LDD's colors are also identified with their official LEGO ID numbers (materialID), which I prefer but many other builders tend to dislike (regular green, for instance, is "28 Dark Green," and tan is "5 Brick Yellow", leading to confusion for builders who aren't used to the official names and numbers).

LDD also is an official LEGO product, so anything about it besides details specific to LEGO Universe mode can be handled by contacting LEGO customer service.

Illegal connections most of the time aren't allowed on LDD to begin with. When parts get removed from LDD, it's usually because due to some error, two bricks were placed occupying the same space. For instance, if you attach a 1x1 cone on top of a 1x2 jumper plate, then stick a minifig lance through the cone, LDD mistakenly lets it stick through the solid part of the jumper plate. This is the most recent error I encountered where LDD had to automatically remove a brick. If a connection is possible in both real life and LDD, you never have to worry about LDD automatically removing bricks the next time you load a file.

Haven't used MLCAD in a long time, so can't help you with your last three questions. Hope my first two answers help, though. Overall, I prefer LDD because it is more intuitive to me, but other builders prefer the more manual interface of MLCAD. It's kind of like the distinction between Macs and PCs-- Macs have a simpler interface that does a lot of the work for you, but you have fewer freedoms than with PCs. Might not be a good analogy in this case since I've always preferred PCs, but MLCAD kind of bores me. I'd say LDD's interface feels more like building with physical LEGO bricks, so that could be the reason I prefer it.

[Strikeman]

There is a topic for Official LEGO sets made in LDraw, but it's a lot newer and has far fewer sets.

LDD's building interface is more natural-- you just "pick up" the bricks and "attach" them to other bricks. You don't need to align them the same way you do in MLCAD. The fact that LDD's interface visually resembles the final appearance is also an advantage, although MLCAD's external rendering tools like POVRAY can be a lot more realistic-looking in the final render.

Both LDD and MLCad have incomplete parts libraries. LDD's parts library, though, tends to be more up-to-date in some cases. LDD's colors are also identified with their official LEGO ID numbers (materialID), which I prefer but many other builders tend to dislike (regular green, for instance, is "28 Dark Green," and tan is "5 Brick Yellow", leading to confusion for builders who aren't used to the official names and numbers).

LDD also is an official LEGO product, so anything about it besides details specific to LEGO Universe mode can be handled by contacting LEGO customer service.

Illegal connections most of the time aren't allowed on LDD to begin with. When parts get removed from LDD, it's usually because due to some error, two bricks were placed occupying the same space. For instance, if you attach a 1x1 cone on top of a 1x2 jumper plate, then stick a minifig lance through the cone, LDD mistakenly lets it stick through the solid part of the jumper plate. This is the most recent error I encountered where LDD had to automatically remove a brick. If a connection is possible in both real life and LDD, you never have to worry about LDD automatically removing bricks the next time you load a file.

Haven't used MLCAD in a long time, so can't help you with your last three questions. Hope my first two answers help, though. Overall, I prefer LDD because it is more intuitive to me, but other builders prefer the more manual interface of MLCAD. It's kind of like the distinction between Macs and PCs-- Macs have a simpler interface that does a lot of the work for you, but you have fewer freedoms than with PCs. Might not be a good analogy in this case since I've always preferred PCs, but MLCAD kind of bores me. I'd say LDD's interface feels more like building with physical LEGO bricks, so that could be the reason I prefer it.

Aanchir, thank you for your response. The first one has definately helped me, and your second response made me want to try the Lego designer.

So, I downloaded the program, installed it and followed the instructions on this forum to unlock the universe bricks. And then I tried modelling the next set that I was planning, and I pretty quickly was ground to a halt ... (see a bit further as to find out why)

The program looks pretty nice but I found it a bit restrictive. It does feel a bit more like playing with real bricks, that's for sure though.

The 3 main drawbacks for me to use LDD are probably of no concern to lots of other users, but they are to me:

First of, as I've seen mentioned on the forum, there's a serious lack of old bricks. As you've seen from my renders, I have lots of sets I want to digitally build which come from my childhood, meaning sets between 1985 and 1995. There are a lot of bricks that are just not used anymore, and since I really want to draw the things like they are in my booklets, I've got a real problem here. Even using the universe unlocker didn't help with that.

Secondly, since this program does not seem to like old bricks, it also doesn't seem to like old building instructions ... :) I've already encountered (in a random vehicle) an illegal connection that LDD just didn't want to make :(

And lastly, the lack of old parts apparantly also means the lack of lots baseplates ... that's no good as I also want to use the program to setup a city layout which closely resembles my real life layout, but the program just doens't have the correct baseplates for me :(

I am jealous though of the "bending" tool :) I can't for the life of me figure out how to bend something in MLCAD (like for example the hose in the helicopter from set 6389), while it seemed reasonably easy in LDD (haven't tried it full on though).

The one thing I couldn't figure out in LDD (neither in MLCAD) is to use the "rope" properly (used in the cars in the set mentioned for example).

So again, thanks for the response, and now looking forward to someone who can help me with the other questions about MLCAD :)

[legolijntje]

Aanchir, thank you for your response. The first one has definately helped me, and your second response made me want to try the Lego designer.

So, I downloaded the program, installed it and followed the instructions on this forum to unlock the universe bricks. And then I tried modelling the next set that I was planning, and I pretty quickly was ground to a halt ... (see a bit further as to find out why)

The program looks pretty nice but I found it a bit restrictive. It does feel a bit more like playing with real bricks, that's for sure though.

The 3 main drawbacks for me to use LDD are probably of no concern to lots of other users, but they are to me:

First of, as I've seen mentioned on the forum, there's a serious lack of old bricks. As you've seen from my renders, I have lots of sets I want to digitally build which come from my childhood, meaning sets between 1985 and 1995. There are a lot of bricks that are just not used anymore, and since I really want to draw the things like they are in my booklets, I've got a real problem here. Even using the universe unlocker didn't help with that.

Secondly, since this program does not seem to like old bricks, it also doesn't seem to like old building instructions ... :) I've already encountered (in a random vehicle) an illegal connection that LDD just didn't want to make :(

And lastly, the lack of old parts apparantly also means the lack of lots baseplates ... that's no good as I also want to use the program to setup a city layout which closely resembles my real life layout, but the program just doens't have the correct baseplates for me :(

I am jealous though of the "bending" tool :) I can't for the life of me figure out how to bend something in MLCAD (like for example the hose in the helicopter from set 6389), while it seemed reasonably easy in LDD (haven't tried it full on though).

The one thing I couldn't figure out in LDD (neither in MLCAD) is to use the "rope" properly (used in the cars in the set mentioned for example).

So again, thanks for the response, and now looking forward to someone who can help me with the other questions about MLCAD :)

Welcome to Eurobricks!

I don't use MLcad very much, but I now a tool to make bendable parts in models (never tried it, but it's used often by mlcad builders): LSynth .

About rendering; one of the best renders (I mean people) is as far I now BLAKBIRD (Eric Albrecht) , maybe you can ask him about rendering.

About the official LDraw model topic; I started it a few weeks? ago. But it's not used very often, because the most people here are ldd builders.

EDIT: Maybe this is interesting for you: HERE

Edited December 7, 2010 by legolijntje

[yojeff]

Hi!

I'm new to MLCAD too.

1. There's a list of official models built with LDD, but I can't find a similar post for MLCAD. Is it not applicable or are the formats interchangeable ?

You can find a good list of LDraw files on www.cubiculus.com if you're more interested in playing with the models than in building them.

3. Is there an explanation somewhere of how to easily rotate bricks in MLCAD ?

I haven't found one, but I have noticed that when you change the grid (Corse, Medium, Fine), the angle of rotation for the six "Rotate" button also changes. For the Fine Grid, the angle is 15 degrees. Lower than that, and you probably have to use Edit -> Rotate -> Keyboard, which is not user-friendly and isn't supported by the Undo Function.

If you want to rotate several pieces, you should make a model with them, then import it in the big model, and try to rotate it there.

[xSergio74]

Hi,

maybe SR 3D Builder (http://staff.polito.it/sergio.reano) could be a solution for your problems.

- It has and shares the same part library used by MLCad

- It has a by far easier interface than MLCad even if probably LDD ones is more intuitive

- It works in a full 3D environments

- It allows some kinds of connections normally not allowed by LDD

- It supports all parts (old and new)

- It has advanced animation capabilities

- It has mirror building features

- It has nearly the same file format used by MLCad so you can easily create high quality images using pov-ray the same way

- It has been created by me

But:

- it has no instruction build capabilities even if it could display model on screen and pause while loading

- it requires Microsoft DirectX instead of OpenGL libraries

- it runs only in windows environment (XP-Vista-Seven)

Sergio

[Strikeman]

Guys, thanks for the answers already, you are all being very helpful!

Sergio, I will check out your software soon (hopefully tonight or tomorrow). I've seen some screenshots of your flex part system, and that looks just awesome, way better than what LSynth or MLCADs Flexible Hose Generator can do.

However, I do have to say that I'm growing fond of MLCAD pretty fast. I reserved some time yesterday to fix all the annoyances I had with POV-RAY and that works like a charm now. Still learning about the lightning and camera angles, but it's going better.

I also finally took a better look at how to rotate bricks, and I am pretty comfortable with that too now.

I've tried LSynth, but that didn't work for the part I wanted to bend.

I've started working with MLCADs Flexible Hose Generator and boy that was a pain in the butt until it suddenly hit me how it worked ... I'm now able to use it and have tubes bent the way I want them to bend ! Once the model is complete I'll post it here :)

legolijntje, can I add my sets to the official MLCAD models topic aswell ? I'm really having fun with this and I thought of adding a few models to your thread (for starters the 4 in my first post)

Also, yojeff, any idea if there is a way to add my MLCAD models to that website ? I've seen that the 4 I've created so far aren't on that website either ...

The only problem I have left at the moment is that I'm always loosing track of time while building stuff and I've ended up in bed at 2 o'clock every night for the past week ... :p

[legolijntje]

Guys, thanks for the answers already, you are all being very helpful!

legolijntje, can I add my sets to the official MLCAD models topic aswell ? I'm really having fun with this and I thought of adding a few models to your thread (for starters the 4 in my first post)

Of course you can add your sets to the topic , but you have to link to the model (for download). I recommend brickshelf (if you haven't yet).

[Eric J. Olson]

Try this instead of POV Ray: http://ldview.sourceforge.net/

The parts look more "CADed" than the look of POV Ray, but you can fine-tune the output and make it look pretty darn good. Best of all, it's real-time, so you can zoom/rotate and then take a screenshot. :)