M2m

I finished a Proof-of-Concept. That means a couple of things are working. But quite allot of things still to-do: LDD and Blender have different axis, Flex parts are floating around, correct grouping of subparts (g, g1, g2, .... files), materials, textures, testing on macOS Anyway this is the state so far:

Yeah I'm pretty much on the same page with you. LDD is still the best tool for building in my opinion. I switched my render workflow to import my LDD builds into Mecabricks and then use it's Blender Plugin for rendering. Mecabricks has amazing materials :)

Thats a nice change. You might also create a pull request in github. I'm not working on the blender plugin or LDD as much currently as i did in the past. But I'm happy to see that its of use to some people :)

I got Lego Digital Designer working on macOS with Apple Silicon (M1 Chip) You need to get UTM https://mac.getutm.app/ and follow this guide to get Windows 11 installed: https://docs.getutm.app/guides/windows/ Afterwards its essential you get the OpenCL™ and OpenGL® Compatibility Pack from the Microsoft Store (https://devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/announcing-the-opencl-and-opengl-compatibility-pack-for-windows-10-on-arm/ ). Otherwise LDD will look garbled and is unusable. Performance is really quite nice.

No as far as I know. :(

I got this part working. The issue was that this parts .xml file has a comment and the plugin didn't parse xml comments correctly. Updated version here (and tested with Blender 3.4): https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sttng/ImportLDD/main/importldd.py You have to un-install the plugin 1st, afterwards restart blender, then install again. Hope this fixed the issue. Maybe you can send the LDD file so I can check ?

Thanks guys !

Can we get this part: https://rebrickable.com/parts/1748/tile-round-1-x-2-half-circle/ I think it's quite a useful one.

Are you on Windows or macOS or Linux ? In fact i don't maintain the plugin anymore. But I might check on your error.

Assuming you use Windows: Assuming you use macOS

To be more specific this one: https://www.brickowl.com/catalog/lego-minifigure-hat-36112-38401 The picture Brickowl themselves put there, seem to be digital. Anyone know, if and where to get it ? Any format (LDraw, LDD, etc) is fine.

Well until I get a real 3D version the pictures aren't helping. I was just guessing that there might be a 3D file out there, based on the rendered pictures. But as the pictures are directly from TLG, only they have a 3D file currently. I'm not good enough / too lazy to create 3D model of this part myself. So basically not much I can do :(

Thanks for the explanation and guiding me into the right direction. It makes sense, and I can even confirm it after some further investigation. You can still pull the graphics if you get the Element ID and use the link below. https://www.lego.com/cdn/product-assets/element.img.lod5photo.192x192/<ElementID>.jpg According to Rebrickable and BrickOwl this part has an Item No or Element ID of 6224507 (https://rebrickable.com/parts/38401/minifig-costume-mask-cat-bright-pink-nose-print/ / https://www.brickowl.com/catalog/lego-black-minifigure-hat-36112-38401). So to pull the graphics from TLG you can use these 2 links: https://www.lego.com/cdn/product-assets/element.img.lod5photo.192x192/6224507.jpg or https://www.lego.com/cdn/product-assets/element.img.lod4photo.192x192/6224507.jpg Mystery solved, but still now 3D version of the part ....

Its not in Mecabricks - thats where I want to get it in ultimately. Interesting know that TLG seems to share the picture with Brickset. And yes for obvious reasons TLG has 3D data of all their parts. So its remains a mystery where the renders come from....

Well I would wonder how Brickowl got the render of this part (from LEGO). I can't find this part on the LEGO Website (neither buy nor broken nor lost) and also I couldnt find a PDF Building Instruction for that minifig. So I indeed would wonder where they got it from - I doubt they get it from LEGO ? Would they ?

Happy 2022 everyone

I think round 1x1 pieces will likely also connect then, because of how collisions work.

First of all thanks for the great tutorial ! Regarding Polygon welding in Blender: I think Blender only assumes 2 Polygons to be connected when these use the exact same vertices of an edge. Example in 2D. Lets say you have these 4 vertices: v1 (0,0) v2 (1,1) v3 (0,1) v4 (1,0) And these 2 polygons: p1 (v1,v2,v3) p2 (v1,v2, v4) Blender will only regard p2 and p2 connected at edge (v1, v2) because the exact same vertices are used. Now if we have the following setup: v1' (0,0) v2' (1,1) v3' (0,1) v4' (0,0) v5' (1,1) v6' (1,0) And these to polygons: p1' (v1',v2',v3') p2' (v4',v5', v6') Blender will not regard p1' and p2' being connected, because even so the edges defined by v1', v2' and v4', v5' are the same coordinates they are different vertices. You might try the "Merge by Distance" tool as part of the "Vertex" menu to merge vertices of a certain distance.

Thanks Stephan for all the hard work !

I finished a Python program that (re)creates a lif file from a folder structure. So basically you can first use LIFExtractor.py (by JrMasterModelBuilder) to extract db.lif, then add mods and new bricks and afterwards repack the modified db folder with this tool (LIFCreator.py). It is tested on macOS 10.14.6 and Windows 10. It worked with LDD 4.3.11, bluerender 0.6 (that is the new added bricks where loaded and rendered) and of course I also tested it with JrMasterModelBuilders LIFExtractor.py (packing with this tool, unpacking with JrMasterModelBuilders LIFExtractor and vice versa). Still I don't guarantee any functionality and suggest you to keep backups (especially of the original db.lif). WARNING: You accept full responsibility of using it yourself ! https://github.com/sttng/LIF-Creator How to: ./LIFCreator.py /Users/your_user_name/Library/Application\ Support/LEGO\ Company/LEGO\ Digital\ Designer/db On Windows type the following into the command-line LIFCreator.exe "C:\Users\<YOUR USER>\AppData\Roaming\LEGO Company\LEGO Digital Designer\db" Below a bluerender test (the leaves are a new custom part):

https://github.com/JrMasterModelBuilder/LIF-Extractor/releases

You can continue to use LDD - thats what I do. It works on Windows 10 (and I guess 11) without issues. On macOS you are more in a pain (I am), because you can't upgrade your OS without loosing it. It does work with Wine however.

I made some adjustments to the collisions of 49311 https://github.com/sttng/LDD-New-Parts/blob/main/Primitives/49311.xml I think this fixes the problem.

I had a quick check at 49311, it works good for me. I surround it with 3001 2x4 Lego bricks and left a hole to fit 49311 in. Thats why I assume the door frame might be the culprit in your example above ?

Done