Looking For A New Digital Brick Building Program

[TommyProductionsInc]

I'm looking for a new lego-building program to use for my personal projects. Lego Digital Designer was pretty good, but I found some faults in it that won't be fixed due to it's support being discontinued by LEGO. I was hoping there may be a CAD Lego building software that could help me with my Lego projects and help succeed in the following areas that LDD failed me, including-

1. A more complete index of Lego parts, old and new: I found that not only did LDD not have an up-to-date index on the lego parts of today (because it's no longer being updated), but it also was missing parts from much older sets, like older 1990s pirate ships and space sets. Is there a program out there that is more comprehensive?
2. A counter for how many of each type of piece you're using. I was hoping I could find a quick easy solution to actively keep track of the number and types of parts I'm working with. LDD only ket track of the total pieces.
3. A physics engine that allows for mechanisms to function. I'm curious of there's any kind of program for lego building that can emulate the functionality of various types of technic mechanisms I've wanted to work on.
4. If I were to ever come up with something actually worth selling online or promoting, what program has the most relaxed terms of service for it's usage in marketing? I may be inclined to sell a thing or two, assuming that's even possible for a nobody like me.

Is there a program out there that can fulfill all 4 of these needs of mine? I don't mind having to pay for a program, but my computer is kinda old. I don't know the specs of my computer, but what I do know is that it can run LDD perfectly fine, it just starts up kinda slow (starting up at anything is an issue for this computer, but it can still perform pretty well for me needs). It has a sticker describing it as a "CORE i3 7th Generation" Intel thing. I'm not very computer-savvy, so pardon me if this is lackluster information.

[Darkdragon]

Moved your question to the proper forum.

[Sadap]

Hi TommyProductionsInc (and everyone else reading this)

I'm also looking for a modern digital Lego building software that can simulate physics.

I'm a software developer so I decided to try to develop such a software by myself. I started in October 2020 and put around 600 hours of work in it until today.

But developing a software requires so much work. I think most non-programmers do not realize how much work is needed to develop software. I think there's at least another 500 hours needed until it's basic functions are usable.

It's important to me that my software is open-source. Another important thing for me is that it runs on Linux, Windows and MacOS natively. The software will be free, but sponsors are welcome. The website and the GitHub repository are public, but I want to wait with an offical announcement until the software is usable.

The parts library I'm using is LDraw so the parts are always up-to-date and I don't have to spend time to create new parts etc.

If a fellow dev is reading this: If you have some free time and want to help me you can send me a DM. I'm using C++ 20, OpenGL and Dear ImGui.

 

TL;DR a new software is coming, but you have to be patient

[Calabar]

@TommyProductionsInc

Hi, and welcome in Eurobricks and in the digital section.

I'll try to answer your question, but surely some other user could give you some more detailed answers.

1. LDD is not supported anymore, so the software will not improve. Anyway this community is quite active to improve the brickset, so it is possible to add bricks and decorations to the last valid version of LDD (4.3.11). Take a look at the Section Index for "[KEY TOPIC] LDD New Parts" and following.
2. Probably not possible in LDD. As written above, it is not possible to improve LDD. You could try if it is possible to find some kind of workaround counting selected items or is there some kind of statistics when you generate the list of parts (but I'm not sure it is possible with new parts).
3. LDD don't support phisics. Years ago the reference software was SR3D Builder, but it is old and abandoned now. Mecabricks surely provide some phisics functions and supports animations, but you should try it to understand if it suits your needs. Note that Mecabricks is a browser-based software (no installation, use it from the browser).

In conclusion, I suggest you to give a try to Mecabricks, that seems to me the software that more meets your needs (maybe excluding the 4th point, you should investigate about this) and it is actively developed.
 

@Sadap

That sounds like a good news. I'm curious to see the outcome of your hard work.
Don't forget, when that will happen, to create an exhaustive topic where you introduce your software, and I'll add it to the section index.

[TommyProductionsInc]

19 hours ago, Calabar said:

@TommyProductionsInc

Hi, and welcome in Eurobricks and in the digital section.

I'll try to answer your question, but surely some other user could give you some more detailed answers.

1. LDD is not supported anymore, so the software will not improve. Anyway this community is quite active to improve the brickset, so it is possible to add bricks and decorations to the last valid version of LDD (4.3.11). Take a look at the Section Index for "[KEY TOPIC] LDD New Parts" and following.
2. Probably not possible in LDD. As written above, it is not possible to improve LDD. You could try if it is possible to find some kind of workaround counting selected items or is there some kind of statistics when you generate the list of parts (but I'm not sure it is possible with new parts).
3. LDD don't support phisics. Years ago the reference software was SR3D Builder, but it is old and abandoned now. Mecabricks surely provide some phisics functions and supports animations, but you should try it to understand if it suits your needs. Note that Mecabricks is a browser-based software (no installation, use it from the browser).

In conclusion, I suggest you to give a try to Mecabricks, that seems to me the software that more meets your needs (maybe excluding the 4th point, you should investigate about this) and it is actively developed.
 

@Sadap

That sounds like a good news. I'm curious to see the outcome of your hard work.
Don't forget, when that will happen, to create an exhaustive topic where you introduce your software, and I'll add it to the section index.

Thanks for the warm welcome. So far, I've found lots of promise with Stud.io, but I'll keep your suggestion of Mecabricks in mind.