Bricked1980

Help needed with ordering parts for an LDD Model

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Hi everyone

I have a model set up in LDD and I am now at the point where I'd like to order parts to build the model with real bricks. The problem is that many of the parts are not available in the colours I've used.

Does anyone know of a simple way of showing the parts that are unavailable so that I can swap them out for colours that do exist? Or is it simply a case of painstakingly going through the model and checking each brick one at a time? I wasn't sure if there is a way of uploading the model to Bricklink so that it automatically highlights the missing parts and shows alternative colours that are available instead.

Sorry if this sounds like an obvious thing to most people. I'm a bit of a novice with this though and although I've built lots of models in LDD I've never actually ordered parts for the models before and have quite limited experience of using Bricklink as well.

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You can try importing your model in Stud.io (BrickLink’s editor).  It connects to BL’s catalogue and shows when parts don’t exist (with a “danger” icon in the steps/parts list).  It also shows prices, so you will know when a part exists but is very rare.

You’ll still have to go over each “offending” part one by one but it should greatly reduce your job.

One note though: it won’t help if you chose (or if the conversion chooses) the “wrong” variant, the one that’s not produced anymore or which doesn’t exist in the colour you want.

Checking while building demands the same amount of work but it’s distributed in time, so it’s less painful :wink:

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Once you log in to bricklink, there is also a "Upload" option under the Want menu that will allow you to upload an .LXF file.  It will give you error messages on the offending parts.  If you export a BOM from LDD, you can match up the error messages with the parts in the BOM to know where the issues are.

I have had issues with official parts not being recognized (brickheadz 1x2x1 2/3 SNOT bricks for example) so you may have to look up the parts on bricklink manually to confirm.

upload.png.faacfd569c0b1cabe0e63bac619bd5f1.png

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40 minutes ago, SylvainLS said:

You can try importing your model in Stud.io (BrickLink’s editor).  It connects to BL’s catalogue and shows when parts don’t exist (with a “danger” icon in the steps/parts list).  It also shows prices, so you will know when a part exists but is very rare.

You’ll still have to go over each “offending” part one by one but it should greatly reduce your job.

One note though: it won’t help if you chose (or if the conversion chooses) the “wrong” variant, the one that’s not produced anymore or which doesn’t exist in the colour you want.

Checking while building demands the same amount of work but it’s distributed in time, so it’s less painful :wink:

^^ great advice - you will also have to create a wanted list by uploading to Bricklink and then try and check that all your parts can be ordered and if they can't you will need to look for alternate part numbers until you get 100% of what is needed to build.

Edited by BennyT19

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Hey @Bricked1980 I have created a guide on how to import LDD into BrickLink using ReBrickable. I find the interface on ReBrickable to be very user friendly and easy to swap out parts or their colors. 

You can find the guide here:
https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/159619-guide-using-rebrickable-to-retrieve-parts-list-from-ldd/

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Thanks for all the tips guys, that's really helpful.

10 hours ago, SylvainLS said:

You can try importing your model in Stud.io (BrickLink’s editor).  It connects to BL’s catalogue and shows when parts don’t exist (with a “danger” icon in the steps/parts list).  It also shows prices, so you will know when a part exists but is very rare.

Thanks very much, I have been messing around with Stud.io this evening and that seems a great way of easily showing all the colours that are missing.

10 hours ago, danbush said:

I have had issues with official parts not being recognized (brickheadz 1x2x1 2/3 SNOT bricks for example) so you may have to look up the parts on bricklink manually to confirm.

I noticed this as well, my model has a couple of chain pieces in light bluish grey. When I import the model in to Stud.io it says the parts aren't available in that colour. If I manually search for them on BrickLink though it says that they are available.

10 hours ago, BennyT19 said:

you will also have to create a wanted list by uploading to Bricklink and then try and check that all your parts can be ordered and if they can't you will need to look for alternate part numbers until you get 100% of what is needed to build.

I've had a very quick go at using the wanted list feature in bricklink. I may have done something wrong but It gave me an estimated cost for my model which was far higher than I'd expected. It was showing up as around £140. There are less than 300 parts in the model so I think a lot of the cost was coming from the multiple delivery charges I'd have to pay.

Is it sometimes cheaper to buy the parts directly from Lego using Bricks & Pieces and just having the one postage cost to pay? If so is there a quick way of uploading a parts list like you would do in Bricklink or would I have to manually add all the bricks to the basket one at a time?

7 hours ago, supertruper1988 said:

Hey @Bricked1980 I have created a guide on how to import LDD into BrickLink using ReBrickable. I find the interface on ReBrickable to be very user friendly and easy to swap out parts or their colors. 

Many thanks, I'll have a look at that.

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5 hours ago, Bricked1980 said:

Is it sometimes cheaper to buy the parts directly from Lego using Bricks & Pieces and just having the one postage cost to pay? If so is there a quick way of uploading a parts list like you would do in Bricklink or would I have to manually add all the bricks to the basket one at a time?

I find you have to get creative. Unless you used unobtanium pieces, you should expect at most $0.25 cents per part average. There are also new vs used parts. I would be happy to take a look and give you some pointers if you want to pm me about your model. 

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On 8/8/2018 at 4:48 AM, supertruper1988 said:

I find you have to get creative. Unless you used unobtanium pieces, you should expect at most $0.25 cents per part average. There are also new vs used parts. I would be happy to take a look and give you some pointers if you want to pm me about your model. 

Thanks very much. Now I've figured out how to see all the colours that are unavailable I'm just trying to work out a recoloured version of the model before I order the parts.

The model I want to build is actually my Lego Ideas Traction Engine. https://ideas.lego.com/projects/2a2ec583-9836-4868-8dc7-6b3bb0a2fe80

I did use quite a few unavailable colours in the model but I've been offered the chance to possibly exhibit the model if I can get one built. So I'm just in the process of making a revised version that doesn't look too drastically different to my original model.

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