LDD removing bricks upon opening a file

[Cara]

I have the file for the dream house, but everytime I open it up LDD removes every brick that ends in a pin (feathers and the like) from my file. As it says they are not placed properly and have been removed.

When I place them they have a green outline, the program lets me place them (in my case into a 1x1 round plate with hole that is in turn attached to a cone or plate) and the program saves, all without any complaint.

So how to I prevent it from removing bricks when I open the program? Is there some option I can turn off, currently it doesn't give me an option it just strips them and it is very frustrating.

[Calabar]

The problem is due to the fact that LDD, when opens a file, check brick connections stricter than during the building process.

So bricks that pass the check when you are building your creation could be removed when you later re-open the file.

Note that if a brick is removed there is a collision error or same kind of illegal building, unless we are faced with a bug of LDD.

You can try a fine tuning of the part (see the LDD Tricks topic) in order to avoid the collision error, if possible, or you can simply try a less extreme solution for your building.

[Cara]

I will have to make it behave then.

I tricked it by using a clip to hold the feather from behind and then removed the clip and put the plates and cones back and it is happy now.

[pbat]

I have the file for the dream house, but everytime I open it up LDD removes every brick that ends in a pin (feathers and the like) from my file. As it says they are not placed properly and have been removed.

When I place them they have a green outline, the program lets me place them (in my case into a 1x1 round plate with hole) and the program saves, all without any complaint.

So how to I prevent it from removing bricks when I open the program? Is there some option I can turn off, currently it doesn't give me an option it just strips them and it is very frustrating.

On startup LDD checks if there are any collision error. Unfortunately the check routine is not very nifty when it checks connections: If you craft connections that are not 100% neat, there is a good chance that brick will get removed on loading that file. If you don't know, which bricks were actually removed, have a look at the file %appdata%\LEGO Company\UnplaceableBricksDump.lxfml: Open that file with a text editor, even Notepad is enough: Bricks that are OK contain the string materials="24", unplaceable bricks materials="21" instead. Have a look at the designID in the same line to get an idea of the brick number and enter that number into the parts search box on the top left side of LDD. Place that part slightly different, e.g. by putting it farther into the hole or by using a slightly different angle. Pins put in hollow studs are less likely to be removed if they get reinforced with one or two 85861.

There is little you can do about it: Save and reload the file quite often when dealing with problematic parts. It's a matter of trial and error. Eventually you'll get a feeling what might work and and what not.

[Cara]

Thank you very much for the help. That is great.

[JM1971]

That is annoying when it happens, there is usually a work around like you found, sometimes you can build it a different way or use something like a levered 15 beam to move the part a tiny bit.

[Superkalle]

If you want to, you can send me the file Cara, and I can have a look at what's causing the problem. Normally, it's supposed to be that if can place the brick during normal work in LDD, it should stay there even if you re-open the file.

The majority of the cases when you open a file and and a brick is removed, is when you open a file that was created in a previous version of LDD. This is then because sometimes the definition of the brick (collision volumes, connectivity etc), has been corrected or fine tuned. So a case like you explained (when you create and re-open in the same version) is kind of unusual (even though it does happen)

[pbat]

The majority of the cases when you open a file and and a brick is removed, is when you open a file that was created in a previous version of LDD. This is then because sometimes the definition of the brick (collision volumes, connectivity etc), has been corrected or fine tuned. So a case like you explained (when you create and re-open in the same version) is kind of unusual (even though it does happen)

Several parts are a bit buggy in the very current version, so such errors are quite reproducible, even without upgrading LDD. Especially the feather 30126 is indeed problematic: When put thoroughly into a hole and touching the surface of a stud (even a hollow one), there's a good chance that it'll get removed. Example.

[Superkalle]

Several parts are a bit buggy in the very current version, so such errors are quite reproducible, even without upgrading LDD. Especially the feather 30126 is indeed problematic: When put thoroughly into a hole and touching the surface of a stud (even a hollow one), there's a good chance that it'll get removed. Example.

I didn't know about that one. Thanks for explaining

[Cara]

That example is exactly one of the occurrences, thank you.

[bak318]

I know this problem.

When you place a thing like that feather, look close and you will see that you can move it when it lits up green.

Place it at the outer part of the brick when it is still green lighted.

Than it will accept the brick without removing it when you re-open the file.

If you're not sure if you placed it right you can save it and directly re-open it.

[Cara]

That is what I have been doing and the feathers are no longer a problem.

Now the only real annoyance is when I build a row of a wall from either end in to the center that has an arch or window in the middle, my two ends of the wall are refusing to meet. I can pan around the scene and see that some how one or more bricks are a hairs breath out of line, even though I'm placing bricks over two studs. So when I try to place that brick in the center of the row it is greyed out even though every thing is perfect for a real life build.

I kept having to remove bricks back until I find the brick that isn't placed 100% square. And I have no idea why LDD is not placing them perfectly.

[bak318]

When you build that part of the wall stand alone, dou you have the same problem?

When i ran into those problems, i build first stand alone, than place a small plate under it and shift until i find the problem.

Is it correct that you put things like that feather in front on the wall?

You can try out to place first a row of 1x12 (or what ever) under the roof and than place it on the spot you want.

Perhaps it's not a horizontal but vertical problem.

[Cara]

This is what I'm having problems with at the moment

I don't know why the bricks go out of alignment. Eventually they twist so much I can't connect the next brick in the row.

I took down the wall in question and rebuilt it. Sometimes when placing a brick there is the option of having it perfectly match or it will let me place it what looks like one pixel askew. This is when placing a 1x2 brick on top of two studs of a brick on the row below. What I wanted to figure out was if that askew option is a bug or what causes it so that I may prevent it in the future.

[bak318]

Thanks for the pic!

That expains a lot.

Is it correct that somewhere on your building you made something with an angle?

A sign, decoration, flag or something.

When you twist a part that is connected in this case to your wallpart, not only the selected part makes the angle.

When it's hard to make the angle, the opposite part gets a slight angle too, very slight.

You can correct that but that's a lot of work.

When it's much work to re-build you can give it a try to place (more than 2 studs connecting) a large brick and put that twisted wallpart on it.

Sometimes it corrects itself.

When it's not so much work you better re-build it.

Don't use parts of the twisted wall!

That angle will come back.

I had it often building construction machines with a lot of hinges.

I will look it up if i have an example of it and how to fix it.

Must be somewhere in my files.

[Lego Otaku]

Any chance you used hinge align tool? It can warp the entire project and knock a few pieces off by a mm or 2 while trying to line up 2 pieces.

[JGW3000]

I had this issue as well, the only cure was to start over, making sure any hinge or hinge-align operations were done on small sections, usually in separate lxf files, and then combined.

[bak318]

There's one thing i forgot to say.

If there are hinges in it that are for moving things, wait with that twisting until you've got your model as far as needed build to make them attatched.

Once i build a dumptruck and couldn't resist to open/close it- open/close, it looked so real that i couldn't stop opening it.(playtime).

It worked great but when i was done there was the problem.

I noticed it when i build all pieces together and try to close it.

Than i had to start all over because it's too hard to fix it and you have no idea what part is twisted.

This happens specially when you have two or more hinges that operate in the same time.

[Gnac]

When things stray from the orthagonal way of building, I find that the quickest way to fix a wonky assembly is to place a lone brick, then drag the misaligned parts onto that brick. Since the newly-placed brick will be perfectly aligned with LDD's grid, the assembly has no choice but to line up with it.