Troubleshooting guide - LDD startup and advanced graphics problems

[Tamas Juhasz]

Hello!

I found the minimum system requirements of LDD, but I didn't find the recommended requirements. Is there any information about recommended RAM, processor, video card, if I want to run LDD smoothly (without lag) with large (over 5000 parts) models? I always want to see the outlines of bricks, but no advanced shading.

My specification, with this, models with more than about 1500 parts start lagging:

i3-2120 processor

4 GB RAM

GeForce 8600 GT graphic card with 512 MB video ram

My other question is, what's the most important for LDD? Processor? RAM?

Thanks in advance!

Edited July 10, 2015 by Mbmc

[Gnac]

Always RAM. LDD takes up 410Mb right away on my system, and that can easily exceed 1Gb if I'm messing about building stuff all evening. If there's not enough memory, your OS might try to make room by temporarily moving things into a "swapfile" on your HDD, which can definitely slow things down as it hammers both your disk AND processor to manage the task. Since I put an extra 4 gigobutts in this laptop, it's felt like a new man!

[Tamas Juhasz]

Thanks, I'll upgrade my RAM.

[roland]

If you have 4GB getting more ram just for LDD won't do anything as LDD is a 32 bit program (can't use more then ~3GB)

[Tamas Juhasz]

Thanks, Ok, But Gnac wrote, his LDD became way faster when he put plus 4 GB RAM into the laptop. Is there only 32 bit versions of LDD? If yes, I even don't try to install a 64 bit windows, I would do it just for LDD. (I have now a usual 32 bit windows 7 ultimate)

[Calabar]

@roland

Exactly (except that 32 bit windows can't allocate more than 2GiB for a single process).

There is not a specific hardware you need for LDD. It depends on where is your bottleneck.

As explained above, 4 GiB of RAM could be enough (if you have not too many other processes/services running), so if you want to improve you LDD experience maybe processor or video card can be the problem.

The processor is not extremely "powerful", but I don't think it could be a real limit because LDD is a single theaded software, and a 3,3 GHz Sandy Bridge core is not so bad.

Maybe the video card could be a limit, due to the 512 MB memory. You should check the VRAM with an appropriate tool to see if LDD saturate it.

[Tamas Juhasz]

Now I tested with a half technic / half studded moc with 4000 parts, and LDD consumed 1150 MB of RAM, of course lagged.

So if:

LDD is a 32 bit program (can't use more then ~3GB)

Then it would be much better, if it could use 3 GB for LDD process. I don't run other programs beside LDD, only folders, and the maximum RAM, it can reach is about the mentioned 1100-1300 MB. So if I understand well, LDD can use even 3 GB RAM? If yes, a 32 bit system with 4 GB RAM can't deliver this 3GB amount, but I think, a 64 bit system with 8 or more GB RAM can easily.

My only goal is, to run smoothly LDD with maximum 20000 parts, and they can be all technic parts. I think for this, you can recommend a specific system requirement.

Edited July 10, 2015 by Mbmc

[roland]

@roland

Exactly (except that 32 bit windows can't allocate more than 2GiB for a single process).

Bit offtopic but there are some (compiler) tricks to get it up to 3GiB.

Ontopic To see if the cpu is the bottle neck you could try opening the taskmanager (right click on startmenu bar) and see if the cpu graph of (one of the) core(s) is at 100% or not during rotating/part adding etc.

Graphics wise 512MB should be more then enough as LDD models don't use many textures etc.

[Calabar]

20000 parts is a very large amount.

LDD is not designed for this, and you can have problems even with a super powerful machine (depending on chosen bricks).

PS: according with this link (first row in the table), it seems that is possible to reach 3GiB for a single process in 32 bit Windows.

The limit for a 64 bit system is 4GB for 32bit processes, instead.

[Tamas Juhasz]

Ok, thanks guys, I'll think about it. Yes, 20000 parts are very much, I read all of the polygon and parts limit topics here. Basically, I'd be happy with "only" 10000 parts too, about one time in every five year I need this amount, but if so, then really.

[Mr Johns]

Does anyone know how to fix digital designer from closing suddenly? I know it isn't my computer since it closes randomly he settings are at the lowest. The strange thing is that this used to never happen and was able to handle large projects like twin apartments and train station.

[binuche]

Same probleme here: LDD randomly closes after few minutes of use. Wathever i'm doing, no error message. The probleme appears after i change my computer recently, so it is difficult to know why lt closes. I tried to reinstall many times differents versions, no result. I was on win 8.1 And the probleme still after reinstall of win 10.

Direct x? Graphique card ?

Very irritating.

What is your version of directX, Mr Johns? Mine is 12.

Edited September 4, 2015 by binuche

[roland]

LDD uses OpenGL so it doesn't matter which DirectX version you are running.

You could try cleaning the registry as it might still contain some windows 8 ldd settings. I don't know which keys you have to look trough though.

[binuche]

It seems that desactivate the sound resolve the problem for me. Using LDD since 2 days without crash. I think it comes from the drivers of the integrated motherboard soundcard.

[GoldVillage]

Having no problems to open larger builds (i.e Volvo L350) and no lag what so ever, but after importing some models i found, for parts, (who was not big, but still loaded a bit slow) everything has getting slow now, - every build involved with this has all the suddenly getting slow to both open AND use. Is there a way to get rid of this?

[Lego Otaku]

Problem is with LDD. It wasn't coded to be efficient or to use more than 1 core. It was originally coded for making small project that you could then buy through LEGO with custom made box and manual. That feature was discontinued and LEGO has continued to support LDD since then for free for our pleasure but it still chokes on large or complex project.

My computer waves white flag when I try to open a monster 39,000 part project and my computer (while old) still outperforms the best computer Best Buy and Walmart can sell. I think the record largest file I opened without crashing was 125k parts, it took some 30 minutes just to finish loading and another 30 minutes to finish displaying on screen.

It would be nice if LDD 5 were redone to use more cores. When LDD was first created, computer with 2 cores were just coming out and we now have basic model with 4 or 8 cores plus high end computer that can easily have more than 24 cores. POV-Ray already uses more cores for rendering, why not LDD?

[ms_g_tx]

Windows 10 & LEGO Digital Designer 4.3.8 Installation -- some info y'all may need

I have just spent some time trying to trouble-shoot an installation of LDD 4.3.8 on Windows 10 (on a Think Pad T430 laptop), and I have learned some things that may help others.

I did NOT have any graphics problems, I only had file/directory/internet problems.

The documentation on this software is sorely lacking!

(If this post belongs somewhere else, please tell me, but I think it belongs here because most of my web searches on this quest led me back here.)

This info may help in particular if you have an "Administrator" (vs. everyday users) involved in your Windows 10 setup &/or if you are using PCs on a network, such as a school network (been there, suffered that).

First of all, note that most prior LDD installation info states that the usual directories that are created/used by LDD are:

• C:\Program Files (x86)\LEGO Company\LEGO Digital Designer
  and
  
• C:\Users\[uSERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\LEGO Company
  

...but note the differences and caveats below in my experience with Windows 10.

In Windows 10:

After Installation

After installing LDD, the following files and folders will exist:

• C:\Program Files (x86)\LEGO Company\LEGO Digital Designer\
  which contains:
  

• LDD.exe -- the main LDD application / program
  
• Assets.lif -- the initial parts library or brick database?
  
• preferences.ini -- sometimes this file needs to be edited to resolve problems, but notice that there may be another preferences.ini in the Users directory for each user (see below)
  
• RL278-1000.lic -- the software license
  
• ldraw.xml -- the LDD-to-LDraw conversion rules (some people need to edit this if they are importing LDraw models)
  
• /Help -- mostly graphics for parts of the software interface
  
• /Sound -- sound-effect files, such as the "click" noise when you stack bricks in LDD
  

At First Launch

When a user runs LDD the first time, the application does a few things:

1. Connects to the internet to check for updates (new or updated bricks/parts for the parts library / database).
   (It also does this every time it is launched, and will "hang" if there is any problem with your internet connection, with browser traffic hand-offs, or with LEGO's servers.)
   
2. Starts downloading those updates (while showing "Installing bricks") (and giving the user no choice but to wait, really).
   
3. Creates folders and files per user (for the current user) in:
   

• C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\LEGO Company\LEGO Digital Designer\
  (This could include
  C:\Users\[admin]\AppData\Roaming\LEGO Company\LEGO Digital Designer\
  ...if you run it as admin.)
  and contains:
  
  • db.lif -- the actual parts library or database of "bricks"
    (In my install, this started at 670,199 KB and reached 735,973 KB after downloading 37.68 MB + 39.00 MB + 15.97 MB. Took a while.)
    (In my install it also shows an impossible/wrong date for both creation and modification of this file.)
    
  • /Palettes -- a list of general parts categories, not sure how these are used
    
  • preferences.ini --- See above! Sometimes this file needs to be edited to resolve problems, but notice that this one is in the Users directory and there is another preferences.ini in the Program Files (x86) directory.
    

I am still not sure exactly how the parts/bricks library/data-pile thingy works, but I suspect that the db.lif in each user's folder is initially copied from the Assets.lif in the main program folder, and then checked/updated each time the program is run. This means that every user on a given machine has to sit through the parts-library updates, and wait an especially long time for this when they run the program for the first time.

If you are a sysadmin and you figure out some workaround for this, you could perhaps be a hero (at least to sysadmins that have to work in schools).

Or maybe the LDD developers could be heros by making a few changes in LDD:

• Give the installer some options about where the parts library will be stored (perhaps where it can be shared among users and updated by sysadmin on a schedule?)
  
• Give the user a choice to run or abort that bloody check-and-update at launch.
  
• Allow parts-library updates to be checked/run/downloaded entirely separately.
  

Or, yeah, I could go learn how to use LDraw.

Y'think that's any easier to install?

;-)

Edited November 30, 2015 by ms_g_tx

[jimmynick]

Hiya,

Since last weekend, LDD crashes when I try to "save as". It doesn't happen when I try to "save". I'm not sure whether this is a mac problem or an LDD problem, considering what I've found online regarding this error. I hope somebody can help.

Relevant information:

• I use an early 2011 macbook pro running OS X Yosemite with 4 GB RAM. I use bootcamp to dual boot Windows 7, which I use for a couple of things but at the moment mostly little third-party widgets for LDD that are Windows-only.
  
• I use LDD version 4.3.8. I haven't had any issues with it until this week.
  
• Last weekend I attempted to open, when booting from my Windows partition, a .lxf file that was saved on my mac partition. Apple says it is possible and not a bad thing to open files on different partitions.
  
• The error I get is:
  

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x0000000000000000

• When I "save as" the file is created but I cannot read it with LDD because the file is corrupted.
  
• Googling this error told me that this is an issue with the mac operating system, and that you can fix it by repairing the disc. So this morning I verified that my mac partition was corrupted, booted from the OS installation disc to repair the hard drive, etc.
  
• LDD is the only program I have that crashes when I attempt to "save as".
  

This isn't a critical problem because, if necessary, I can copy an existing file, rename it, delete everything in it, etc.

[Resiphius]

Hi, I'm new to this forum, my LDD recently had starting to fail to connect internet despite the PC is having a good internet connection (say at least 150+Mbps), my PC is running Win10 (post 1703 update) and LDD started kept failing to connect internet a few days ago.

[SylvainLS]

See 

It has happened to everybody. No one knows why (server maintenance, error, or LDD being terminated).

[suenkachun]

30 minutes ago, SylvainLS said:

See 

It has happened to everybody. No one knows why (server maintenance, error, or LDD being terminated).

Thanks for the information. Hopefully it'll be fixed soon.

[JaCor653]

I've just downloaded the new version of LDD, version 4.3.11. Now, whenever I open one of my models that I built in version 4.3.10, I get this message:

Cannot load LDD assets.

Try reinstalling LDD.

See the read me file for help, or go to http://ldd.lego.com/support/

I have Windows 10. The only time I don't get this message is when I open a file through LDD. Whenever I open a file through the file explorer, I get the above message.

What's the problem and what is the solution? I tried reinstalling LDD today, and I still get the message. It's extremely annoying.