LDD 4.2.5 is out

[primitiv]

I am a big fan of using LDD to create "visions", not necessarily models that can be built. I have noticed a few disturbing things with the new version, concerning the minfigs: one or two wigs seems to have disappeared, and some of the torso designs have been removed from the assembled minifigs although they are still available, which means I have to re-apply the designs to my minifigs... slightly annoying.

By the way, when LDD says "x bricks were not correctly placed and have been removed", is there any chance of finding out which they were? Or do I need to scan my entire build to figure it out myself?

I am also hugely disappointed with the link to PaB having disappeared; I have been busy with a project for quite some time and luckily I put my last order together in an excel sheet last week by using the now removed feature of being able to check if my design is actually purchaseable. It makes it more or less impossible these days to simply design it; you need to actively check each part you want to use if it is available (and in which color) on the LEGO PaB website. Surely their must be a patch "soon" to rectify this? Or an option under Settings, enable/disable this function? (EDIT: this was a suggestion, not a question.)

Then again, as someone said, maybe there is a big task trying to sync LDD with what is available in PaB? But on the other hand, I remember reading something a while ago that the LDD database was not on your computer but a file in cyberspace which means it would be quite easy to manage.

Anyway, glad to see an update to LDD but not necessarily the best one. Oh, and why are some minifig torso designs available only in standard LDD and not in LDD Extended? T-h-a-t is weird...

Edited January 19, 2012 by primitiv

[Superkalle]

I am a big fan of using LDD to create "visions", not necessarily models that can be built. I have noticed a few disturbing things with the new version, concerning the minfigs: one or two wigs seems to have disappeared, and some of the torso designs have been removed from the assembled minifigs although they are still available, which means I have to re-apply the designs to my minifigs... slightly annoying.

Yes, it seems a handful of SW torso decoration have been removed. But no wigs (or other parts for that matter) have been removed.

[AndyC]

I agree that this new look may appeal to newcomers to the program. That does not mean they could not have added a go between mode. LDD would remain as it was, with basic bricks and items available from PAB. Extended modes is what it is, and there would be a "dream mode" in between with fantasy bricks that are in the database but not available to the public. Seems logical to me, but I am one person, not a corporation trying to appease the masses.

My assumption (and that's all it is) is that the PaB selection is likely to change soon (assuming it hasn't already) because that was typically the motivation for LDD changes, as the new DbM palette would be rolled out then. With DbM gone it probably made a lot more sense to no longer have to keep the LDD team informed of what the PaB selection was going to look like and so if it stayed as-is, it would have been out of date anyway. Putting any kind of intrastructure between the two services to allow them to stay naturally in sync somehow is probably beyond the scope of what the design team could risk given there was a fixed deadline that couldn't shift.

I think a lot of credit has to go to TLG for continuing to invest in a product which not only generates no income but potentially competes with their core product line going in any way at all.

[Bricksandparts]

My assumption (and that's all it is) is that the PaB selection is likely to change soon (assuming it hasn't already) because that was typically the motivation for LDD changes, as the new DbM palette would be rolled out then. With DbM gone it probably made a lot more sense to no longer have to keep the LDD team informed of what the PaB selection was going to look like and so if it stayed as-is, it would have been out of date anyway. Putting any kind of intrastructure between the two services to allow them to stay naturally in sync somehow is probably beyond the scope of what the design team could risk given there was a fixed deadline that couldn't shift.

I think a lot of credit has to go to TLG for continuing to invest in a product which not only generates no income but potentially competes with their core product line going in any way at all.

Yeah, I think Lego would've been better to keep it at a low level like in the original Lego Factory. I think Lego could put together a physics program and programmable LDD and sell it and give the original LDD as a Beta or something. for instance, you'd be able to program a hinge to turn when you pressed a key. Of course this would completely put Mindstorms and power functions out.

[Scorpion]

My assumption (and that's all it is) is that the PaB selection is likely to change soon (assuming it hasn't already)

Doesn't it usually change in April?

[ATonOfBricks]

I have to say I'm impressed with the update. I would be part impressed if TLG started manufacturing all of the added parts. I only use parts in my designs that exist. Most of the bricks are discontinued and can be bought through bricklink.

A few things that I don't like is that it takes FOREVER to scroll through it. That's not a real complaint but other than that I'm satisfied with it.

[legoboy3998]

Well, that is the odd thing; because all the parts actually have ElementID's. So I guess at some point in time they were registed in the LEGO part database and assigned an ElementID. Perhaps they were made in small batches for internal testing, or just as placeholders for parts-to-be, or maybe for LEGOLand use?

I've noticed, for the most part, the last 2 digits denote the color. You can easily see this on the PAB site. For example a 1x1 WHITE brick is 300501, the same brick in RED is 300521, the same brick in BLUE is 300523.

Speaking of PAB, I sent an email to LEGO complaining about how difficult it is now to build models and order the parts through PAB and here is the response"

"Dear Sal,

Thanks for your interest in our products.

I'm sorry for the frustration you have been going through! One of the down sides with the original LDD software was the limitation of types of bricks, many people contacted us asking for more. But we could not provide that service because you were able to purchase sets directly from the Design byMe. Now that we no longer have the purchasing from Design byMe we are able to add a larger palette of bricks that we could never have had before!

To be honest Sal, I do understand your frustration and have passes on your suggestion to the web design team for them to look at. I can also tell you that your idea has actually been floating around here, and we are trying to see if we can incorporate it somehow.

Thank you again for contacting us. If you have any further questions, please feel free to reply to this email or call one of our friendly Customer Care Advisors at 1-800-835-4386 (from within the US or Canada) or 1-860-749-0706 (from outside the US or Canada). We are available Monday through Friday from 8AM - 10PM EST and Saturday through Sunday from 10AM to 6PM EST. Please have your reference number handy if you need to get in touch with us: 030245029A

Happy building!

Drew

LEGO Direct Consumer Services"

Sal

WFB, WI

[Aanchir]

I've noticed, for the most part, the last 2 digits denote the color. You can easily see this on the PAB site. For example a 1x1 WHITE brick is 300501, the same brick in RED is 300521, the same brick in BLUE is 300523.

This mostly applies with older parts, and more recent parts (that is, most parts from within the last decade or perhaps some even earlier) have abandoned this pattern.

I notice a lot of people complaining that Extended Mode lacks a lot of decorations, but this has been a problem LDD has had for several versions. The reason for the problem is that the part-to-decoration relationships the decoration tool uses are programmed individually, and the decoration tool has not had a significant update in a long, long time. Even the April 2011 version of LDD had decorated Hero Factory shells that could be accessed through DesignByMe mode but not through LDD Extended mode. This is something I hope a future version will amend, even though it might require changing the decoration interface since even now the many minifig face decorations already available just barely fit on my screen (and on my younger brother's smaller netbook screen the problem is even more glaring, with lots of decorations cut off).

Perhaps a revised decoration tool could make the decorated parts show up on the left-hand side of the screen, which is now unused in LDD and LDDE modes.

[zinfinion]

Decorated parts that are only available in the basic mode can be saved to a file in the basic mode, and then imported to an extended mode file. I tested this quickly with some mini-fig torsos as well as Hero Factory parts, and it worked just fine. Presumably it should work for all other pieces.

[Aanchir]

Decorated parts that are only available in the basic mode can be saved to a file in the basic mode, and then imported to an extended mode file. I tested this quickly with some mini-fig torsos as well as Hero Factory parts, and it worked just fine. Presumably it should work for all other pieces.

Even more easily, just click View>New Themes>LDD Extended in the top toolbars. Then click View>New Themes>LDD to go back if you should so choose!

[Graysmith]

LEGO would be crazy to not integrate LDD with Pick a Brick, and make a ton more bricks available for purchase through there. It could truly become an enormous cash cow for them, if done right. I think A LOT of people would buy their LDD-made MOCs straight through LEGO just because it would be so much easier than trying to find a BrickLink store that has all you need. If you could build just about anything, click a button and automatically order all the pieces in your LDD build, how would that not turn into an addiction? Plus, you'd know that the pieces would always be factory new. Surely it'd most likely cost a bit more than buying pieces through BL, but the ease of being able to get just about any piece and getting factory new ones.. I know I'd be spending myself into debt if LEGO ever made that a reality.

Yeah, they've already been trying with Design By Me and Pick a Brick and perhaps that hasn't been a huge success so far, but the selection of pieces has been terrible unless you're making something very basic. For example, the only car doors you can buy are red, so if you want to build a car that has doors, you can only build red cars.

[James Mathis]

In 2011:

I purchased brick from S@H through both Design byME and Pick-a-Brick.

I also priced-out the same design through Design byME and Pick-a-Brick.

Model piece quantitiy: about 450 pieces.

Design byME cost: around US$90.

Pick-a-Brick cost: around US$60.

Design byME: easy "buy" button, then "walk" through the box design, etc. to shopping cart.

Pick-a-Brick: laborious task of deconstructing the model and "hand" documenting all the pieces used in the model (using LDD picker tool to grab all of same part shape and same part color), then shifting over to Pick-a-Brick website to "hand-enter" all piece shape, color, and quantities. Double-checking bill of materials, wheh!

Design byME: Getting a custom box with nice high-resolution image of the model was pretty cool. Of the sets I bought, only one came with printed instructions, and that had a lot of "hanging-in-space" or "hidden piece additions" constructions that unfortunately could not match the quality of official LEGO in-set instruction books. Result: I either built from memory or loaded the model up in LDD to rotate, hide-bricks, and reverse engineer my own design.

Pick-a-Brick: No instructions here. Just open up the model in LDD... same as I did for the Design byME product.

At the end of the build, either with DbyME or PaB, the models would be the same. With DbyME, I now have an empty box that I will try to preserve for posterity-- especially since the DbyME program is no-more. I guess I have my personal "collectible", as does everyone else who purchased their own model from DbyME.

I enjoyed Design byME. I liked the pairing to the PaB palette. The price premium for the DbyME box was leading me to solely procure the parts via PaB. In the near-term, I may try to print or fill an Excel spreadsheet with the PaB inventory, but that seems a daunting task!

Does anyone have ideas how best to work withe this LDDv4.2.5 and strictly utilize only the PaB palette?

Thanks.

-James Mathis

[AndyC]

Does anyone have ideas how best to work withe this LDDv4.2.5 and strictly utilize only the PaB palette?

Not terribly easily. The best I can think would be to use the template feature to create a template for each individual brick in the PaB selection and then you could use the templates panel as a substitute for the part selector. I suspect that would get rather cumbersome though.

[Paulski]

Can anyone tell me he how to use part(s) 3711?

[MattTheLegoman]

Can anyone tell me he how to use part(s) 3711?

With this gear. But they do not connect in LDD.

[Paulski]

With this gear. But they do not connect in LDD.

Was hoping there was a way to connect them :( I'm hoping that in a future update it will be possible, otherwise I don't see much use in that part...

Edited January 20, 2012 by Paulski

[Superkalle]

Was hoping there was a way to connect them :( I'm hoping that in a future update it will be possible, otherwise I don't see much use in that part...

It's not to hard to wrap them around manually to be honest. And that's how you'd have to to it in other CAD-tool, so you have to view the "connect" feature of all the other 99.9% bricks in LDD of being something out of the ordinary, and the chain+wheel as the standard for other tools

(It might even be a template for the tracks + wheel, but maybe someone else knows)

[DLuders]

@ Paulski: You could look at Aanchir's "Sprocket Wheel Template" methodology at the bottom of this post, and design your own "scaffolding" for the LDD Chain Links wrapping around a 24-tooth gear. Here are pictures of that "Sprocket Wheel Template":

Aanchir wrote, "Sprocket wheels are another hassle on LEGO Digital Designer (obviously, because they are based on clip-and-bar-axles). This file intends to help you make this technique more manageable. There are three parts to this: a tool in Spring Yellowish Green for building a chain of treads, a pre-made chain of treads, and two "loops" of treads around the two styles of sprocket wheel.

"To use the tool, simply place a tread piece or a pre-made length of treads on the part of the tool angled horizontally. Add an additional tread piece to the vertical part, then use the "hinge" tool to connect these two sections. You can then copy the length of tread, move the tool to its original position, and continue expanding the chain as long as you need.

"The loops and pre-existing length of chain are meant to help you incorporate these treads into a MOC or set. Although LEGO Digital Designer does not recognize connections between the treads and the sprocket wheels themselves, you can use these loops as a "starting point" for aligning your treads. Just delete portions of the loops and place a chain of treads in their place to create a larger loop between multiple sprocket wheels. Note that this template is not able to compensate for sets or MOCs where the loop will not be "taut"-- this is a problem I may not be able to deal with at this time." Download LXF File

[MattTheLegoman]

So all that is needed is to make a template for this new brick. We need to 'think outside the brick.

[Paulski]

Thanks for the posts :) I'll try to experiment a little ;)

[MattTheLegoman]

As it has been said before, the new LDD is great for designing and experimenting because of the wider selection of bricks in the normal menu. (Less time spent looking for the right piece compared to Extended mode. But hide colour first.)

[nemo]

Well I’m highly unimpressed.

I think it’s astonishing that no attempt has been made to solve the stupid user interface mistakes reported by prateek here and myself here which simply cannot be worked around.

I called it a SCHOOLBOY ERROR last time, but its persistence is simply SHAMEFUL. I write that as a software engineer of 30 years experience.

The brick range has been updated, and the application skinning tweaked to remove DbM, but no serious software engineering has occurred at all. This is a decision made by somebody at Lego or the software studio, and it can be summarised as “we can’t be bothered, buy a bigger monitor”.

Consequently I’ll document brick errors, but I’m not going to report any further application bugs. There’s clearly no point.

[Calabar]

I think it’s astonishing that no attempt has been made to solve the stupid user interface mistakes reported by prateek here and myself here which simply cannot be worked around.

This release don't carry substantial modifies to the software. No one of the requests about the software has been taken into consideration.

Hopefully these issues will be solved in LDD 5.

[hrontos]

What happened to that web browser pane on the right side? It no longer appears after the update.

[Superkalle]

Well I’m highly unimpressed.

I think it’s astonishing that no attempt has been made to solve the stupid user interface mistakes reported by prateek here and myself here which simply cannot be worked around.

I called it a SCHOOLBOY ERROR last time, but its persistence is simply SHAMEFUL. I write that as a software engineer of 30 years experience.

The brick range has been updated, and the application skinning tweaked to remove DbM, but no serious software engineering has occurred at all. This is a decision made by somebody at Lego or the software studio, and it can be summarised as “we can’t be bothered, buy a bigger monitor”.

Consequently I’ll document brick errors, but I’m not going to report any further application bugs. There’s clearly no point.

I think your critism is just and healty. After all this is LEGO Company we're talking about, so the quality expactations should rightfully be very high! But as Calabar said - there was no software changes planned at all in this release - it was only about removing DbM+LU. That new bricks were added was just a bonus.

About the screen resolution issue - if I were you, I'd write to LEGO Consumer Services and tell them - with screenshots and all, just to make sure it's reported and documented.