Future of LDD: Next Lego Digital Designer Update?

[kangmingjie]

LEGO Worlds is a colossal project, so I can understand it taking up a lot of their time, but there are so many new minifig pieces that could be in LDD...

It seems like we have a concrete answer at least.

Edited July 30, 2015 by kangmingjie

[Phoxtane]

Guys...

*cough*

Well, I wasn't expecting that. Oh well. Incidentally, where is that motor? I can't seem to find it the normal spot, or I'm not looking hard enough.

[djm]

It's in the "LDD Extended" theme (menu option View/New themes/LDD Extended). The motor is in red but you can use the paint tool to colour the sub-assemblies.

Regards,

David

Edit: actually, looking in LDD right now, it's also in the "motor" palette in the standard LDD theme. About the 20th item (FUNC. MOTOR 024X6M).

Edited July 30, 2015 by djm

[monkeyjay2003]

I would expect there to be bricks updates, but nothing big, as the emails imply.

Edited July 31, 2015 by monkeyjay2003

[SNIPE]

It's in the "LDD Extended" theme (menu option View/New themes/LDD Extended). The motor is in red but you can use the paint tool to colour the sub-assemblies.

Regards,

David

Edit: actually, looking in LDD right now, it's also in the "motor" palette in the standard LDD theme. About the 20th item (FUNC. MOTOR 024X6M).

Thats an M motor not an L motor..

[Phoxtane]

Thats an M motor not an L motor..

I would like to point out that I was complaining about the supposed lack of the M-motor in the PF lineup within LDD (although the lack of L and Servo motors is irritating as well).

[SearchFunction]

I can understand why LEGO would let go of LDD. It doesn't make them any money and it takes some of their team away from other projects since everything they do with the program is on a volunteer basis.

If it wasn't for LDD, I would never had bought anything from LEGO. I design in it, and aquire parts. Around 50% of these comes straight from PAB. The parts already in it provide a solid base for models, but with all the new parts that have ben released these last few years, it will be difficult to explore new ideas. Some of my best ideas has come from simply browsing through the parts and experimenting.

[kangmingjie]

If it wasn't for LDD, I would never had bought anything from LEGO. I design in it, and aquire parts. Around 50% of these comes straight from PAB. The parts already in it provide a solid base for models, but with all the new parts that have ben released these last few years, it will be difficult to explore new ideas. Some of my best ideas has come from simply browsing through the parts and experimenting.

I use LDD for the same purpose and I hope TLG takes that into account. However, compared to the staggering number of parents and children that buy LEGO directly from the store, I don't think a small amount of AFOLs will make much of a dent when it comes to determining whether or not LDD should be continued.

The email reply from CM labs seems to indicate that LDD will not be completely dismissed, just put on the back burner for a while because it isn't a priority.

Still, I wish TLG would understand how much potential is in LDD and keep it up to date like most of their other products.

[___]

Some of my best ideas has come from simply browsing through the parts and experimenting.

The same here.

[Naijel]

Yes, I think it really is in their interests to keep updating LDD for adults who may not be as enthused about MOCing otherwise.

[Superkalle]

However, compared to the staggering number of parents and children that buy LEGO directly from the store, I don't think a small amount of AFOLs will make much of a dent when it comes to determining whether or not LDD should be continued.

I agree with you, but I also think each business case needs to be evaluated on it's on merits. AFOLs stand for 10% of LEGO's revenue, that's huge money on it's own. The cost for keeping LDD updated is incredibly small compared to this. Also, I'm sure there are quite a few kids out there that use LDD. The LDD Forum at LEGO.com is alive and kicking at least.

[kangmingjie]

AFOLs stand for 10% of LEGO's revenue,

I didn't know that. I wonder if there is some sort of petition we can create to keep LDD up to date.

[Stephan]

And if there aren't going to be many more updates, why does LEGO not make the brick addition open source? Fan can create the bricks and can upload them to a LEGO database where they can be checked. Once a month or so they release an patch with the new bricks/decorations.

[___]

And if there aren't going to be many more updates, why does LEGO not make the brick addition open source? Fan can create the bricks and can upload them to a LEGO database where they can be checked. Once a month or so they release an patch with the new bricks/decorations.

I agree on this fully supporting such idea tho this was already mentioned long time ago I guess with the resulting main reason "why not" stating that there would be a mess of custom made bricks that would be incompatible between each other (you know not everyone is Einstein nor having high degree in 3D & mathematics) and also probs with such indexation, if I remember correctly...

[kangmingjie]

If the brick models are submitted to LEGO to be inspected before they are added to LDD, then that should take care of any incompatibility issues. I think its a great idea as well.

[Darats]

You are actually describing what Ldraw is, a brick library, open source, with regular brick update and constently improving tools.

Why not giving LDD up and switch to Ldraw?

[kangmingjie]

You are actually describing what Ldraw is, a brick library, open source, with regular brick update and constently improving tools.

Why not giving LDD up and switch to Ldraw?

I have Ldraw and love using it, but a lot of my friends are not interested in taking the time to get past Ldraw's learning curve. We use LDD for a few RPGs because it's a little quicker to set up scenes.

[Phoxtane]

I have Ldraw and love using it, but a lot of my friends are not interested in taking the time to get past Ldraw's learning curve. We use LDD for a few RPGs because it's a little quicker to set up scenes.

The learning curve is a bit atrocious - I'm here to do stuff with Lego, not learn how to use a drafting program.

[___]

You are actually describing what Ldraw is, a brick library, open source, with regular brick update and constently improving tools.

Why not giving LDD up and switch to Ldraw?

Hah, because LDRAW is really a pain compared to LDD - that's why, sorry.

If the brick models are submitted to LEGO to be inspected before they are added to LDD, then that should take care of any incompatibility issues. I think its a great idea as well.

I am afraid LDD stuff has no time/will inspecting several or even hundreds bricks of all types and quality daily (checking the size, functionalities, visual exactness etc. of each and every submited brick) when they have less and less time for regular LDD updates itself... ...they would need to hire new stuff, completely change their actual system etc., so this will very probably never happen tho I would be the first clapping my hands if they actually would!

Edited August 4, 2015 by bublible

[Darats]

The learning curve is a bit atrocious - I'm here to do stuff with Lego, not learn how to use a drafting program.

I do understand that Ldraw might be more complicated for beginners than LDD, but as it was discussed above : if someone can create and submit custom parts for LDD, I guess Ldraw would not be a problem for that person... That's only why I mentionned Ldraw here.

[___]

I do understand that Ldraw might be more complicated for beginners than LDD, but as it was discussed above : if someone can create and submit custom parts for LDD, I guess Ldraw would not be a problem for that person... That's only why I mentionned Ldraw here.

Yes, I agree, but most of the ppl using LDD are pure LEGO enthusiasts that do not know anything about brick creating and stuff, therefore for most/average LDD ppl LDRAW would always look like a headache instead of move forward compared to LDD - people want easy learning and right away functioning tool for their virtual builds that do many things automaticaly for them (flexi connections, brick sticking etc.), those who are more skillfull are probably already doing their stuff with some of the LDRAW 3D sw, I guess.

[Lyichir]

Part of my problem with LDraw (apart from generally being less user-friendly than LDD) is that parts from themes I favor (such as Bionicle and Hero Factory) tend to get overlooked in favor of simpler and more basic System parts. While LDD doesn't have a complete selection of older Bionicle parts, it has had a much better track record for adding modern Constraction parts as they're released. That is, it DID, before this year...

I dunno. I hope LDD isn't really being abandoned altogether, and that we might just shift to one update a year instead of two or something. Here I'd been hoping that Lego Worlds would finally provide the incentive to reprioritize LDD's development, due to the cross-compatibility involved. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case anymore...

[kangmingjie]

Since LDD is not a priority for TLG and all those working on it did so on a volunteer basis, would it be possible to put some money together via Paypal and donate it as an incentive to have an update come sooner rather than later? I'd be willing to do that, but I certainly do not speak for everyone else.

[Takanuinuva]

Perhaps a Kickstarter is in order to get LDD to update more frequently

[Umbra-Manis]

Because of LDD's lack of updates earlier this year i took up building in Mecabricks and i love it. The system works great and i learned to use vector graphics so i could add any decorations i'm missing. Still want new updates for LDD though.