Custom LDD bricks and fixes

[Stephan]

I am thinking about adding a log file which listst all changes per update. Since I am now combining all updates in the same parts pack.

Would that be (extra) helpful?

[zweifuss]

2 hours ago, Stephan said:

I am thinking about adding a log file which listst all changes per update. Since I am now combining all updates in the same parts pack.

Would that be (extra) helpful?

Yes it would. I know it's a lot of work, we appreciate you being the curator of all this craziness!

I think it would also be helpful using something like Trello for showing tasks and letting people make requests for parts and updates. Then anyone could just glance at it and see if someone is working on a part or not. I know someone already offered to make a google sheets, that would work too. It would be unfortunate if multiple folks are working on the same part at once, now that more of us have the tools to do this stuff. 

[Stephan]

I have this Google Sheets file in use:
LINK
People can request access (to prevend spam) and add what they are working on in the WIP column.

Edited August 6, 2020 by Stephan
fixed link

[zweifuss]

Excellent, that's perfect... the link doesn't work for me, but if I could get access I'd be happy to be a contributor.

It still feels kind of funny updating a discontinued software like this, but the bottom line is that LDD takes less resources than Studio, and it's more user friendly than LDCAD and mecabricks, a very happy medium. It really has that play/toy philosophy that Lego is so well known for, so I continue to use it more than the others.

[SylvainLS]

24 minutes ago, zweifuss said:

the link doesn't work for me,

Try this one.  (I guess Stephan missed the column in https://… , so the forum added http:// in front, which makes it http://https//… and not working.)

(Google Sheets needs you to have an account….)

 

22 minutes ago, zweifuss said:

the bottom line is that LDD takes less resources than Studio, and it's more user friendly than LDCAD and mecabricks, a very happy medium. It really has that play/toy philosophy that Lego is so well known for, so I continue to use it more than the others.

Well said.

[Stephan]

2 hours ago, zweifuss said:

the link doesn't work for me

Fixed 

[zweifuss]

Just wanted to share my progress on the 30116  part (I know only 2 sets ever used this piece, but it's just so dang neat of a part)

I'm still only about half-way done this piece, there are a lot of connections to do...I'm trying to use the smaller dome as a base.

[Stephan]

1 hour ago, zweifuss said:

I'm still only about half-way done this piece, there are a lot of connections to do

Cool! Good luck!

On 8/4/2020 at 10:19 PM, Equilibrium said:

I had some free time so here's small and fast update

Could you make the edge of the fender piece decoratable? Just like the black line use on this part.

[Takanuinuva]

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=32187&idColor=86#T=C&C=86 Would it be possible to update the Technic Driving Ring so it connects to pins. Since that is a connection it can do in real life. Even the Watchpoint Gibraltar set uses this connection. So it must be legal.

Edited August 8, 2020 by Takanuinuva

[zweifuss]

On 8/8/2020 at 4:00 PM, Takanuinuva said:

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=32187&idColor=86#T=C&C=86 Would it be possible to update the Technic Driving Ring so it connects to pins. Since that is a connection it can do in real life. Even the Watchpoint Gibraltar set uses this connection. So it must be legal.

I'm trying to figure this one out... I know that in the case of the Watchpoint Gibraltar set, it connects in this fashion:  but what about from the other side? How far does it stick out? I guess I could go find a real part in my collection...

[Takanuinuva]

8 hours ago, zweifuss said:

I'm trying to figure this one out... I know that in the case of the Watchpoint Gibraltar set, it connects in this fashion:  but what about from the other side? How far does it stick out? I guess I could go find a real part in my collection...

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/mc/technic_driving_ring.png Pretty much like this but it can go in a little more. But it's not a full half pin so probably wouldn't be legal.

The hole is a little bigger than a half pin. Meaning a pin will click into place but a half pin will not. So it wouldn't connect to https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=32002#T=C

[Kuramapika1]

Finaly!!! Here it is my parts https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UiTxhbQRiABJPx72-5y7T1bsh0qEzIy_/view?usp=sharing (the first link doesn't work anymore; I replaced the file with the new one)

Notes: 

1. Maybe most of the parts, if not all of theme, have bad origin center.
2. Part 2552 still undecable (meaning the part are as originaly shared)
3. Part 6642 (complete assembly) have mesh problems with (sub)part 6644: the right section look bad and haven't collisions. It is for these reason that parts 6643 and 6645 aren't collitions in the (sub)part
4. Part 6272 (main part): it's load but when you save the file and load it, it have trouble (apear the messege "1 brick won't load..." or something) but the part still there and can be load normaly, at last for me. I try several time to fix these issiue: deleting collitions, connections and both of theme but the problem persist; so I don't know how to fix it.
5. I forget to say before, so I do now: I fix and add part 52985 (now with collisions) because no one do it before. The problem with the originaly submitted whas the connection: it locked somehow so I do it a "new" one.

These is the best I can do, specialy with collisions and "faces". If you have any trouble just tell me. And please test it before release.

@Takanuinuva in the part 32187 you need to: in the connection "<Axel type="12" length="0.5" grabbing="0" startCapped="0" endCapped="0" angle="90" ax="0" ay="1" az="0" tx="0" ty="0" tz="0"/>" change to "<Axel type="2" length="0.5" grabbing="0" startCapped="0" endCapped="0" angle="90" ax="0" ay="1" az="0" tx="0" ty="0.2" tz="0"/>". If you do it, I think you haven't any trouble.

[zweifuss]

12 hours ago, Kuramapika1 said:

 

@Takanuinuva in the part 32187 you need to: in the connection "<Axel type="12" length="0.5" grabbing="0" startCapped="0" endCapped="0" angle="90" ax="0" ay="1" az="0" tx="0" ty="0" tz="0"/>" change to "<Axel type="2" length="0.5" grabbing="0" startCapped="0" endCapped="0" angle="90" ax="0" ay="1" az="0" tx="0" ty="0.2" tz="0"/>". If you do it, I think you haven't any trouble.

Thanks for the info... but I was able to make it work using these settings: <Axel type="2" length="0.6" grabbing="0" startCapped="0" endCapped="0" angle="90" ax="0" ay="-1" az="0" tx="0" ty="0.1" tz="0" />

The problem with the 4.8 axle connection is that it 'clicks' in only one particular way... you can't slide the pin around in a hole. So this is what it will look like: 

[Takanuinuva]

That will work. Thanks a lot.

[Stephan]

3 hours ago, zweifuss said:

I was able to make it work using these settings:

I will add the change in the new update as well.

[zweifuss]

The only issue with this is that you can't pop a pin in the top and a 1x1 brick on the bottom... is that ever a situation that will arise?

[randombrowser]

Thank you so much for the new pieces - now I can make Speed Champions cars in LDD!

[randombrowser]

Also I noticed that the dev tools don't work on the custom pieces, can u fix that?

[monkeyjay2003]

15 minutes ago, randombrowser said:

Also I noticed that the dev tools don't work on the custom pieces, can u fix that?

Which ones, specifically? Pressing V for collisions works, it's just that many of the pieces don't have collisions.

[zweifuss]

I'm still working on the UFO parts, adding in the decorations. Also collisions is taking a while. But I hope to have something by the end of the week. I know this isn't a full time job but it certainly is becoming a full-time hobby for me, it's a little sad I prefer digital Lego to the actual physical thing. Here is what Alien Avenger looks like now... have to work out the best way to bake the textures so that they look like they belong together. I'm also still having issues with getting those outlines to appear properly, you can see in the image the old 30320 parts from LDD look much nicer than the 30117 parts I imported from LDRAW.

[Jason C. Hand]

3 hours ago, zweifuss said:

I'm still working on the UFO parts, adding in the decorations. Also collisions is taking a while. But I hope to have something by the end of the week. I know this isn't a full time job but it certainly is becoming a full-time hobby for me, it's a little sad I prefer digital Lego to the actual physical thing. Here is what Alien Avenger looks like now... have to work out the best way to bake the textures so that they look like they belong together. I'm also still having issues with getting those outlines to appear properly, you can see in the image the old 30320 parts from LDD look much nicer than the 30117 parts I imported from LDRAW.

Good stuff, friend!

[Equilibrium]

On 8/7/2020 at 8:24 AM, Stephan said:

Cool! Good luck!

Could you make the edge of the fender piece decoratable? Just like the black line use on this part.

Sure. I'll do it with another small update that I'm currently working on.

@zweifuss Very nice work :) Regarding outlines on quarter disc did you try to detach these faces so each pair would be individual? If so then we would need an option to manualy adjust their drawing angle.

[polymaker]

42 minutes ago, Equilibrium said:

Sure. I'll do it with another small update that I'm currently working on.

@zweifuss Very nice work :) Regarding outlines on quarter disc did you try to detach these faces so each pair would be individual? If so then we would need an option to manualy adjust their drawing angle.

His model has some artifacts from LDraw import, like bad topology around studs and holes**, but the top surface has no problems. (** applies to part 30116)
I don't understand why my algorithm has issues with the top because it has a simple enough topology.

About the outlines on each "facets", this is mostly because the algorithm is hard-coded with a 35° tolerance (between the normals of the two face of an edge) to detect "hard" edges to outline.
So in the case of the part 30320, the top surface "facets" looks like they have less than 35° of difference, so no outlines are produced.

I plan to make this value customizeable in the near future.
In fact there is a bunch of other useful settings and parameters that are hard-coded at the moment because I have not come around to finish the settings management system and interface (UI).

Also for the moment my programs always recalculates the outlines but when I'm done it will keeps the original data when a model is imported from LDD, with the option to force an update if the outlines had issues.

Edited August 13, 2020 by polymaker
info

[polymaker]

I was reading through this thread and I found a couple of post where people tried to add materials in the color palette.

I was curious and after a few tries I think I found how it works.

The color palette in standard mode seems to be a distinct list of all material used by bricks in the palette (ldd.lif).
So I added a new material in the file "Materials.xml", then extracted the LDD.lif and added a part with that material in the file "LDD.paxml".
Then in LDD it showed under the label "Legacy" in the color palette. This is what happen when the material ID is not in the file "CurrentMaterials.xml".

For Extended mode, we simply need to add a line with the material ID in the file "MaterialSelector.xml" found in the LDDExtended.lif.

And contrary to what one user said, it works perfectly by just extracting the palettes lif's into a directory.

I know that back when the LDD servers were running, LDD would delete extracted palette folders and re-download the lifs.
I discovered that you could put a setting in the preference.ini to avoid that but since LDD is now offline this behavior has stopped.
So maybe he was referring to that.

Edited August 13, 2020 by polymaker
spelling

[SylvainLS]

24 minutes ago, polymaker said:

And contrary to what one user said, it works perfectly by just extracting the palettes lif's into a directory.

I know that back when the LDD servers were running, LDD would delete extracted palette folders and re-download the lifs.
I discovered that you could put a setting in the preference.ini to avoid that but since LDD is now offline this behavior has stopped.
So maybe he was referring to that.

No, I wasn’t referring to that (the messages are too recent, heck, the whole thread is too recent).  I was just saying what happened in my installation.  The fact that I’m using Wine may have an incidence on that, or not, but for me it doesn’t work in a directory, only in a LIF.

The conclusion is: it’s possible and easy to add colours, and, sometimes, you need to recreate a LIF.

Edited August 13, 2020 by SylvainLS