LDD makes it possible to outsource my real-world LEGO collection

[sparkart]

I got back into LEGO right before I hit 40-years-old, after more than 25 years in the dark ages. So, I didn't (and still don't) have a large LEGO collection (relatively speaking). I started building a collection of physical LEGO, but got a lot of enjoyment virtually building with LDD. For me, the electronic style of construction was (and still is) more economical (in terms of money and storage space) and more satisfying because I had access to a larger number and variety of parts via Bricklink.

I started thinking, I should run my LEGO hobby like a production business, limiting inventory to the minimum required to make the product (LEGO MOCs) and using the cheapest labor (me) and tools (LDD) to design the products.

So, now, I'm trying more and more to use Bricklink to outsource my LEGO inventory. I think I have a HUGE collection on Bricklink, it's just separated from me by money and time.

Of course, I'll never refuse free or gifted LEGO, and hoard hard-to-find or very useful parts, but I generally view physical LEGO inventory as a burden to be maintained, sorted, and stored. To me, it's worth the money to send to Bricklink stores to buy their inventory on an as-needed basis, you know, just-in-time inventory.

I'm curious if I'm the only cheap, nickle-nursing AFOL who does this. When I talk to my LUG mates about this philosophy and practice, I can tell by their looks that they are thinking, "Yeah...he's as weird as I've heard." But sometimes, I get the comment, "Huh...that's smart." I don't know if that person is being patronizing or honest. But this is the internet, we can all be honest here, right? What's your opinion? Do you actively limit physical LEGO storage because you can use LDD?

[syclone]

Having a collection of 12000 parts of which only 3000 are technic ones,LDD helps me to design some things I can't do in real life.

Also I have some mocs waiting in a digital stage because of that lack of parts.

I think you really are smart,not all of us can afford having a large enough collection of physic parts or storage space to satisfy us.

[Renderbricks]

Since I started to play more intense with digital LEGO in 2014 I realized how big and amazing the LEGO subculture is. I bought a couple of nice books and when you look on the internet for LEGO for around one hour you need a break before you get mad. It made me speechless what people build with real LEGO. Some people invest a huge amount of money into this hobby. I always knew that LEGO is more than a toy.

But beside the fact that people build huge and amazing MOCs with real bricks it's still a miracle to me how they do this. You need a huge library of all kind of bricks, a lot of time and a lot of knowledge about the existing parts to be able to design the builds. Most of the people are real master builder.

LDRAW and LDD opened the world to more possibilities. While it's different to play and build with real LEGO it helps to design and build in advance and to buy just the necessary parts later.

But digital LEGO also offers another nice option. You can create pictures in 3D which look real. That's a nice option for people who have no budget to build everything or who have designed a MOC worth a few thousands of dollars in bricks. When I started in 2014 with another round to research how to render digital LEGO I got success this time. But the reason why there are not many advanced results by the community is simply the fact that there are not many digital ressources on the internet. We have LDRAW and LDD. LDD has no export feature and the geometry is in a low resolution. But in 2014 I found a webiste called MECABRICKS what was just made for building and storing models online. I got in touch with the programmer and we unlocked rendering digital LEGO in a complete new way for the community. Well, in case you have a decent PC and willing to learn 3D.

To get an impression what is possible today feel free to take a look at some of my results of my personal project called RENDERBRICKS.

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Cheers

Michael

[SylvainLS]

[…] LDD has no export feature […]

LDD can export in LDraw since a long time (pre 2014).

(It can also import from ldraw but collisions are frequent.)

[Lego Otaku]

Transferring between LDraw and LDD is not 100% perfect. LDD tended to have a lot of newer parts not found yet in LDraw, and LDraw usually have lots of old parts that isn't available in LDD.

[Renderbricks]

LDD can export in LDraw since a long time (pre 2014).

(It can also import from ldraw but collisions are frequent.)

You can't export LDD geometry is what I was talking about. But you can capture this through a complicated workflow. Without LEGO logos of course.

LDRAW data is usually hard to convert for good looking results. There are a couple of tools what can export in OBJ, 3DMAX etc. but all this gave me useless results. The only way to import good shading LDRAW data is doing it with BLENDER and a script. But there are some random issues with bad normals of special parts. Decorations are not textures but polygons. Unfortunately the importer is not supporting instances and bigger models will be hard to handle. I rendered a Star Wars Executor with 71K bricks what had to be splitted in LDD in two parts because LDD has a limitation of around 40K parts I guess. To import such model from LDRAW would be extremely time consuming and needs a PC with loads of RAM beyond 64 GByte. I would say: impossible. With MECABRICKS I could do it. But also here this needs patience and a minimum of 32 GB RAM and a good PC.

Edited May 23, 2016 by Renderbricks

[SylvainLS]

Transferring between LDraw and LDD is not 100% perfect.

Yes but the export function exists.

LDD tended to have a lot of newer parts not found yet in LDraw,

With the new pace of LDD updates, that’s less true.

and LDraw usually have lots of old parts that isn't available in LDD.

Which has nothing to do with LDD’s export capabilities.

You can't export LDD geometry is what I was talking about.

Okay. Indeed I understood you were talking about exporting models, not low level geometry. It’s clearer now.

[…] LDRAW data is usually hard to convert for good looking results. […]

LGEO and darats’s STL version greatly help quality. But yeah, that’s also limited to slow as death and difficult¹ Povray….

¹ I mean, it’s easy to tune the options so that you add hours or days to the rendering but so that you don’t add any actual quality at the end.

[sparkart]

LEGO is many things to many people, but I see digital building as a means to an end - a planning tool to get to a real-brick end-product. Seeing 2-D rendering and photos of LEGO is akin to looking at pictures of sculptures, IMHO. There's nothing wrong with appreciating photos and paintings of majestic landscapes, but it's not the same as actually being there, out in nature. I know LEGO uses digital rendering for almost all of its commercial print assets, and these can look better than anything photographed, but it's a preference - I'd rather see LEGO in real-life with my two eyes in stereo vision.

[sckam]

Hello LDD experts,

I am new to the Lego world.

May I know can LDD do animation simulation ?

If can, then I can use it to build a mini factory production process.

Before I actually made the purchase of the real bricks.

[sparkart]

You can make very crudely animated scenes with LDD, but it's a manual, tedious process.

But let's stop hijacking my thread. ;)

I know there are purely digital builders who don't aim to ever buy any brick, or can't possibly acquire the brick to make their models, and are content building in the computer, and/or sharing 2-D renderings. For those that do build in real-life and design in LDD, I'm trying to push the just-in-time inventory idea of leaving bricks in Bricklink, and only buying what you need to build, not hoarding physical brick in your collection, unused. Isn't it more economical in terms of storage and management? I actually prefer buying the elements for a model from a few stores, and letting them pick through their inventory for the parts, rather than me trying to find parts in my "sorted" collection, which isn't as well sorted and organized.

And not all of my LDD models make it into the real world, just the ones that I think deserve to be (or can be) built.

[sckam]

You can make very crudely animated scenes with LDD, but it's a manual, tedious process.

Hi Sparkart,

Thanks for the advice.

But let's stop hijacking my thread. ;)

I know there are purely digital builders who don't aim to ever buy any brick, or can't possibly acquire the brick to make their models, and are content building in the computer, and/or sharing 2-D renderings. For those that do build in real-life and design in LDD, I'm trying to push the just-in-time inventory idea of leaving bricks in Bricklink, and only buying what you need to build, not hoarding physical brick in your collection, unused. Isn't it more economical in terms of storage and management? I actually prefer buying the elements for a model from a few stores, and letting them pick through their inventory for the parts, rather than me trying to find parts in my "sorted" collection, which isn't as well sorted and organized.

And not all of my LDD models make it into the real world, just the ones that I think deserve to be (or can be) built.