alienwar9

all LDD files at the bottom So once again I find myself distracted from my main project, this time inspired by a mech from a video-game called killzone 3 (named the same too). This started as a simple template for a much larger mech build, that turned into its own distraction. In typical fashion, the version I wanted to build had a foot the size of this one's lower body (after building this, I'm glad I didn't. That would have been a pain of a project and taken too much time). At slightly over 6,000 pieces, the MAWLR would be one of my smallest MOCs. It is built in Mini-scale, and I HIGHLY suggest opening the LDD file, because pictures don't do it justice. (and for once it's not dangerous to open ) Features include a rotating and pivoting head, posable legs, adjustable feet, multiple turrets, rotating main canon, and opening flight engine doors. Yes, its also a spaceship! MOC includes lower control tower for a complete look to seal off leg attachment area. This is a concept model, so I wasn't going for correct colors or building techniques. I do however want to submit the MAWLR by itself to CUUSOO, and wanted to see how many of you would be interested just to get an initial idea. It would be TLG's first fantasy, non-licensed model this big (unless... ). Remember, it is 6,000 pieces. So if you could please let me know yes/no would you want this, and why. It will help me get an idea for future CUUSOO submissions (and if I should try modifying my other MOCs for CUUSOO). Anyway, back on topic, here are a few more pictures of the MAWLR by itself, in attack mode (with Lego special effects! ), and in space. After finishing the MAWLR, I made the laser and some special effects and said, Ooooo this needs land! And then this happened: I made a wasteland where the good guys were struggling to get through, a central power corridor that divided the land, the mechanical city that the MAWLR stands above, and finally a quarter cutout of a disc space bridge (kind of like in the game). Once again there are so many tiny details that if I tried to get them in pictures, I'd have 30 or so more . So if you can, try opening the LDD files of the fields. I promise they are not that big. And if you are really daring, you can try and open the 26,000 piece completed model....with flex pieces!!! The little nougat colored guys are the good guys, and the dark red horns are the bad guys. Details on the disc include a space port, two shuttle launching stations on the outside of the disc, and a walking bridge to the core. In the city, there are multiple buildings, guard towers, vents, turrets and energy piping. In the fields, there are mysterious outcroppings, bunkers, tunnels, bridges, communication towers, sensors, dilapidated buildings, mountainside villages, and hidden paths and features. The good guys have plenty of varied vehicles of their own scattered throughout the fields and flying around. Finally, OVERHEAD SHOT!!!! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OK, so you want the LXFs. For above pictured: MAWLR plain - LXF - 6,000 pieces MALWR battle - LXF - 6,700 pieces MAWLR takeoff - LXF - 6,100 pieces MAWLR fields - LXF -26,000 pieces This is the lower area: fields lower - LXF - 10,800 pieces Upper area with MAWLR: field upper+ - LXF - 17,800 pieces Upper area without MAWLR: fields upper - LXF - 11,000 pieces As always, my brickshelf folder has more pictures in higher resolution. and remember, let me know if you would want. Hope you like!

Hi all, Seems like recently things have been falling apart, and last minute purchasing has become danger zone timing. I have been trying to quickly finish up my MOC in LDD and start purchasing all the pieces, but with bricklink down and then many issues after that, I have only managed to put less than half the orders in (roughly 20,000 pieces). Until the Wanted-list features are back up, there is no reasonable way to purchase the other 32,000 pieces that I can think of. With a little more than a week left until Brickworld, and the Wanted-list supposedly not being fixed until at least late tomorrow, it seems as if this project might not get finished in time. Truly unfortunate, considering I have been working on this for over 2 and 1/2 years. Yes, many things were done too late. Though to be honest I tried my best to get things done as quick as possible while trying to keep good results, but with the obvious hurdles of creating large project MOCs and the many "things that can go wrong will go wrong", the pivotal purchase point came and went, most likely missed. So, with that, I just wanted to share where this project is, maybe hear some other horror stories of things that went wrong in either MOC building, or preparing/setting up for events, and possibly even ask if anyone has any good ideas, tips, helpful suggestions, etc. Not sure if this is the best or right topic location, but since this is for Brickworld, I thought it might be somewhat related. (btw, the display is/was supposed to be part of the city below in my sig).

Blast from the past, here I come! I signed, even if I've been out of the loop for a few years.

LXF Here is the stuff I was working on yesterday (that wasn't saved) that I had to remake. Some stuff is not my design, but I don't know who designed them (I just have pictures). Most I made myself, and then there is just random pieces that are grouped that will be used in my city. This is basically most/all the items I will be using for my city on the sidewalks and alleyways. Some designs are in multiple forms; please let me know which ones you like best Items: light posts street lights garbage bins dumpsters bus stops newspaper boxes railings and walls plant enclosures fences benches wheelchair construction markers parking meter city sidewalk bars bicycle rack mail boxes plants Hope you enjoy! (Tips and ideas are definitely welcome!!)

Hey, back in march I had posted my design plans for a large scale city that was supposed to be a "community build" with donations towards the project going to charity. Since then I've done some work...a lot of work. The donations idea is completely scraped, and currently I'm working to try and get a fundraiser where the model can be auctioned off to companies and most of the proceeds go towards charity. But unlike last time, I'm not going to open my big mouth describing how it will all work because most likely, things will change. For example, I wanted to see if there was any organization as a part of TLC that could work with me on this...not at all. They already have strict standards and rules, which just so happen to rule me out. YAY. I then looked into The Clinton Foundation (which is the charity I most strongly supported) and found out they have their strict rules and don't work with what I'm going for. I looked into charity fundraiser companies, but once again, they mostly support the actual charities and fundraisers they hold rather than people who want to hold fundraisers for charities. online auctions? most items are far below this one's price point and it doesn't seem easy to get company or corporate attention (cause very few people have space and are willing to buy something THIS BIG). So its time to make more phone calls, look into other charities, and maybe see if there is a possibility of getting it donated to a children's museum/hospital/care center/school etc. Why not just donate it? Because I can't afford to donate a $20,000 project, to be blunt and honest. But enough about that. I want to explain exactly where I am in the project itself. The Project Note:This picture is a photoshop of pictures of the 3 parts of the city and done crudely. After months of hard work, I went back to check some pictures from my initial design layouts and found out that I had reached the 1 year anniversary since I started this project. Since I am pretty much finished with the visual concept design, I decided now would be a great time to post where I have gotten in a year. It may seem like I haven't done much, but remember I am also studying hard for a degree and trying to scrap together money for this thing. I decided to move it to the LDD section as so far, it only exists in LDD. After my march post, I decided to completely rework the layout. Everything I had from the initial build was ripped apart (in LDD) and used as ghost parts for the new build. I drew up design layouts to include angled streets, accommodate subways and El-ways, and restructured city blocks to be more realistic and include multiple buildings. I added an entire island to become the "new city" where hotels, beaches, restaurants, and condos were located, and stretched the city in length. Since Universe mode was unlocked, I had a lot more possibilities also. I started building test buildings with actual windows and doors to get a more realistic view of what everything would look like. I built SNOT roads instead of tiled roads, and re-sized everything. I added multi-height roads, built test builds for opening bridges, built the main subway station, added the EL-line, made street-trolleys, created a second river between the island and mainland, re-built the raised highway, and started building more accurate versions of buildings to get piece count down. I found out almost every SNOT road would have to be custom, and not copy/paste. Price By the time I got to 7 or 8 buildings and accurately calculated the average price of a road section, I found out I was way over budget. My initial budget was $15,000. I was at $20,000. I cut out the island. I built some more, used LDD manager and Wanted Bricks to get an even more accurate price estimate, and found out I was yet again over budget. I had given myself an increase to $20,000....I was at $30,000 price tag. So I cut entire roads and rows of buildings. My current and most accurate estimate is at $22,000. This includes a reasonable average price per piece on bricklink, an allowance of $800-1000 for shipping costs, and a small over budget buffer. I'm hoping I can get some deals on bricklink, considering some of the order sizes I'll be making. (more like praying every second). The funny part: this doesn't include "phase 2", the destruction version that I really badly want to do. But, if at the end I can work a little harder and get some money together, I will build phase 2 and then auction off those parts separately. For more info on "phase 2" look at my old city post. Current State Once everything was settled to its reasonable size, I finished the rest of the buildings, built some of the extras mentioned above, and measured. It is 9 feet x 20 feet, with a small middle section that is 10 feet in width. The highest point is around 78 inches, or 6 1/2 feet. The table that everything sits on is 2 feet tall. Through painful effort, I managed to get LDD to put the entire base together to measure. With the current level of detail, the city is broken up into 4 parts (the 3rd and 4th were sometimes stable together), as LDD cannot handle everything together. I am trying to get a hold of a really powerful computer to test if I can get everything together. I will be breaking up the city into probably 8 parts and finalizing everything, though if I include baseplates I might have to break it up even further (unless LDD 4.0 fixes that issue and COMES OUT!) Building the entire city from scratch would have made my head explode, so I decided to borrow ideas, designs, and almost exact builds from other MOCs and pictures. For anyone I might have borrowed from, Thank You! Everything I had to take from pictures, so it wasn't a piece of cake copying a building MOC from a single front facing picture. I also did some design mixing where I took elements from multiple MOCs and merged them into one building. I added some of my own ideas, and came up with what you see. For some of the buildings where I could not find any previous MOC that fit what I was looking for, I decided to go to real life examples (oh the internet). Those were some of the most fun, and hardest to build obviously. For the sake of getting a visual concept design done quickly, I had to make these shortcuts. I needed to see if the aesthetic of the city flowed, and if the colors and styles of the buildings didn't clash. I think for the most part, everything worked out, but I have to study the look of everything some more to make sure. I might move some buildings around, change some colors, change some styles, etc. If anyone can point out some areas that can be made better, or any problems or "ugly" patches, please help me out. Note though that some buildings I took more time with than others, so some buildings are plain. They are not finished at all. As for the buildings that I borrowed a lot from, I will be reworking them to be more original, so to be fair. I don't want to be a copy cat, just inspired. The one building that is the hardest will be the tallest. It is very close in design to a building built at the Lego store in downtown Chicago, and it looks so beautiful that I really don't want to change it. I don't know what I should do. Pictures If you look from the above picture of the whole city, these pictures go left to right. Here is the first section: the industrial area, old town, docks, and marketplace. You will find: street trolley raised highway "San Francisco Style" angled streets a few Lego modular buildings (cafe corner, etc) beginning of bridge and road to island (island not included ) chemical plant (building with black tube) and power station The Middle Section is the main downtown area and park. Many of the buildings here are very rough builds, or gutted so LDD doesn't crash. Stuff in this area includes: diagonal road 3 bridge outlines. 1 double deck bridge "wacker drive" road underneath tall building dipping road beneath highway El-line w/cross through building The Right Section is my favorite, the business downtown district. This Section includes: diagonal road 3 bridge outlines. 1 double deck bridge "wacker drive" road continuation underground parking garage river dock river gate entrance tallest building my favorite, red and black building subway with above ground entrances Finally, here is a shot of the whole base layout of the city, without buildings. And... Here is my brickshelf folder once moderated for some extra pictures of buildings, a wire-framing concept to final build of the EL-line building, a screen-cap of LDD as proof that it ran, and some extra stuff. I will try and get higher resolution pictures up to a flickr account hopefully. If anyone wants better pictures of something just ask. I also will be getting pictures of the subway, double deck bridge, fully built versions of buildings, the island, previous versions of the layout, SNOT roads, and a list of what buildings are posted soon. The size and overall layout are final, and the first of 5 tables for the whole model is built. So you get an idea of real life size, here is a picture of 1 of the tables.

Hello all, Back when the LDD relay builds were going on, I had an idea for the second relay to turn it into a secret mad scientist's evil lair. Since that didn't work out too well, I decided to take a break from my ridiculously large city project and build my own hidden lair. What started out as a mad scientist's lair turned into a composite of a bunch of my favorite ideas to turn into Lego, all in one secret mountain base. The idea spawned from those old toys that opened up and inside were all the contraptions of the evil leader. I wanted to build a base in the desert within a mountain that could open up, but I wanted it to be a cut-away like so many of my favorite mocs that I've seen. And while the theme may have turned more "military base" than "goofy underground lair", the inside is unfinished and I am thinking of making two different interiors for each. It took me almost 2 weeks and countless hours, but I finally finished the outside. The only part that is not original is the use of barrels for the electric posts (I don't know who made it, as its from a random saved pic of a moc). So here it is: separated in 2 parts: rear cut-away of mountain with removable or swiveling doors: Front of mountain with sliding removable "chunks": Side view of main entrance, hanger entrances, and guard tower: Hangar: hidden lifting cargo elevator for vehicles (functional): The mountain parted out into separate "easy" to build sections: There are dozens more features like: the main cargo elevator, mini security elevator, blast doors, mini doors within blast doors, secret entrances, hanger with landing door and helicopter entrance, 3 hidden long range cannons, hidden turret system, hidden anti-air missile systems, transforming gas station sign, rockets and openings at top of mountain, and more. If you want to see more, go to my bricklink page once its moderated. I included the LDD because it's really hard to see some of the stuff with pictures. I warn, it is 13,000 pieces, so only open it if you have a great computer. That, and if anyone wants they can build it in real life because I just don't have the money or time to build it myself (city project took care of that). Btw, using invert selection, select certain colors, hide, and selecting hidden parts makes for really cool views. Sometimes it looks like those really cool wire-frame computer scenes in movies where they show diagrams of stuff.

Hi, This is one of my first projects, one of hopefully many. If you’ve read my “Introduction” post, then you can understand what exactly I am trying to do. Basically, this is a large scale city MOC that I want to build from mostly donations by communities, and that will eventually all go towards charity. I am currently in the process of pinning down the exact way that the donations and charity will work, and if anyone can help me, or if you just want to know how it might work, please look into my “donations” post***. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Update This has now changed to a TEAM build. I am looking for anybody with experience willing to lead the project, and anybody willing to help build. You must live somewhere near Chicago to be able to meet and help build. This is only to see if there are any people willing, and not an agreement or anything like that. For more information, see the update at the bottom of my main post. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ So onto the meat! What is it exactly? It’s an 11 foot x 13 foot mini-fig scale Lego downtown city, complete with building interiors, streets, 6x6 block area, and filled with features. There is also a second “phase” (see original post for more details. see below for this specific project.) where the city is under attack by aliens (including alien monsters), and the military and a secret underground force are trying to stop them. (The second phase is optional, and is yet to be decided if it will be included). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ How did this start out? I started out just wanting to build a city that was based somewhat on the city of Chicago. I wanted skyscrapers, along with smaller corner café type buildings, and have a bunch of different areas. It went through many planning phases with different sizes and I finally came to a set layout with everything I wanted to put in it. The entire piece is 11 feet by 13 feet and the tallest building is 6 feet tall. It all sits on a painful number of baseplates. There are about 52 buildings within a 6 x 6 block area. There is a highway of sorts, a river, a park, and a “lakefront”. There is an industrial district, a market district, and a business district. There are 5 towers, the largest of which has 19 floors. Here are a couple more angles of the city. You can see the lakefront here, along with the river mouth, the skyline, and the industrial docks. This would be the main downtown area. It includes the two corner shaped buildings, and possibly another bridge across the river. A lakefront “highway” runs along the front of the city, and through the industrial district. You can see the light poles all along the way, as well as the bridge, skyway, and angled section. This was one of the hardest parts for me to do, as I am using the tiling method for roads, and so the roads are very thin and don’t have many options when it comes to angles. Through the pain of fiddling with the LDD program’s rotation tool, I got the road to sit on a separate baseplate system on-top of the main baseplates, and connect the walls to either end. The road and central column aren’t actually connected to anything, and are just held in place by the outside barriers. Unfortunately, this method also means that I was left with ugly bumps at the cross points. Here you can see the hotel entrance. I know, the exit isn’t very logical, and I forgot to cut out a piece of the central area for them to get to the opposite side of the highway. This is one area where I was going to ask for help on, as I had no ideas on how to create the curved driveway. You can also see the building footprint in the top right corner. That is the museum, and it has a courtyard in the back there (second picture). Here you can see the industrial district docks. There are 3 buildings here (one small one in the top right under the bridge). The docks would extend out from this area. You can also see the “skyway”, though it is not finished as I was limited to LDD pieces. The basic points of support would be roughly the same size and location though. Here you can see the “shops” area, where all the high class stores, apartments, restaurants, and businesses are located. The street is split, with a decorative center (with trees and stuff). This continues through to the lower section, with a market area, sized with corner café buildings. The right side is comprised of corner café buildings, while the left has slightly larger buildings (because of the slanted road. I will get to that). Here you can notice part of the slanted road, the stairs, and to the right, a smaller side street going through a building tunnel. This is one of the main streets, and is slanted at 2 points. Basically, the road is built on a baseplate and the hangover end is attached to a hinge allowing it to rest at an angle. The river divides the downtown area in half. Here you can see the highway bridge with the sidewalks along the way. These sidewalks would be extra wide and include trees, decorations, or lampposts. At the other end of the river is the tunnel building. It is a 5 story building, with a 2 story bridge over the river. At the left is the connecting building, with its own smaller “bridge”. Inside the bridge are glass floors that allow people to view the river below. From the bottom, more windows sit to let viewers take a look at passing boats. This was an extremely fun part to build. The river curves along the way, cutting from one city block lane into another, and causing the 2 corner shaped buildings to exist. Another bridge could be placed at the bottom end. At the “curving point”, there are a few more details. First, there is the angled wall (I really built it a stupid way. I was up to the morning working on it so my mind was acting up). Then there is a “pad” area. This could serve one of two purposes. It could be just a regular platform; letting underground facilities or docks use it. Or, go along with the “second phase” and become a secret extending “hover launch pad”. The hydraulics were placed underneath to allow the pad to raise up and down; and a vertical take of vehicle would come out the door from the underground base. Here you can see a dock area that leads up to the main roads. Just a little detail I wanted to add. The city is divided into 2 sections, and upper area, and a lower area; where the lower area is actually about 13 bricks lower than the rest of the city. The roads are in a grid form, with the two areas connected by the slanted road. Most roads are 3 lanes wide, and 1 way. I didn’t want the roads to simply be 2-way single lane roads like most baseplate roads are. This is 24 studs wide, with the middle lane being wider than the outside two. I have yet to figure out if all roads will be the same, of if I can get some roads to be both way, 1 lane smaller, etc. I want to fully fill each building and the streets with activity, so there are a lot of interior pieces to be used. This is an example of a rough estimate of one of the taller skyscrapers (second tallest). As you can see in the earlier example, each floor is created for a different purpose: apartments/condos, stores, offices/businesses, penthouses/luxury condos, sky decks, and maintenance floors. Each set of floors has a different height (and brick height number). There are center columns within the buildings where the stairs, elevators, and facilities are located. The elevator area has enough room for 2 elevators, and extra space for equipment, structuring, and inner workings. The base of the building has two main entrances on either side, plus an extra space for a store or restaurant in the front. The rear has either a security entrance, or service entrance (depending on what building it is). The lobby includes the central structure, the store, bathrooms, security/service room, and lobby entrance areas. The two elevator entrances and stair entrance can be seen here (I still have to figure out a door system for the elevators). The front store (4th picture) has 2 levels: the counter, and the second level area for eating or keeping store items. (Yes, a fig won’t hit their head walking up those stairs…I checked). I also quickly came up with a little elevator system with the LDD pieces. I’m sure with a little time a better system could be made, but I think it looks pretty cool. The piece would sit at the top of the building, with the round white knob on the outside (blending in). A lever could be pulled out of the round knob, and the whole unit pushed in to disengage the lock. The string would run around the two wheels and down the center, and pull the elevators up and down with the spin of the knob. The two pipes would run alongside the elevators (for looks). I also built a “mock” building to test out an idea I had. This would be building number 5. I wanted to create a round entrance to a building, and not just a 45 degree face. I already have (and found) better ideas for implementing a round entrance, but this is what I came up with. It is supposed to be a high end retail store, with 3 tall floors, and an open entrance. The side walls are a bit odd, and I couldn’t find a right color for the pieces next to the side entrances (gold and grey, ick). The tile-work is also a bit weird, but once again, this was 4 in the morning after 16 hours of working on the layout, so I was a little out of it. Here you can see the oddly placed windows. Those would go over the entrance door, much like the CC fire station window. Here is the second floor. You can see the open ceiling entrance, with the glass railings. And once again the weird tile work. An odd thing happened with this though. I was building the floor, when I noticed that I had built a white cross in tiles. I had no idea how that happened, but it’s just something that I noticed afterward. Here in the final picture you can see the height that the building would come to, and try to imagine what it would look like (sorry for making you imagine. I didn’t have time to finish it). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The idea for buildings was so far: 1: skyscraper 2: federal/government building 3: bank 4: parking 5: high end store (above) 6: shopping mall (with Lego store ) 7: skyscraper 8: hotel 9: TV/radio building 10: library 11: high end condos 12: mixed 13: skyscraper 14: skyscraper 15: modern art styled business building 16: theatre 17: restaurant/club 18: museum 19-21: mixed 22-24: mixed 25: hotel 26: pub/bar, houses/apartments/motel, stores 27-29: stores and houses 30-33: restaurants/stores 34-36: stores/houses 37-41: mixed 42: Corner Café 43-45: houses 46: Warehouse (secret operations) 47: electrical stations 48: mill/factory 49-51: shipping docks Some other ideas for what would be in the buildings are: Hospital Police station Electronics store Clothing stores Pizza place Nightclubs City hall Movie rental Pharmacy Post office Gun store Sports store Business headquarters I had a few extra plans like for a street underneath the higher level (like wacker drive), that would go under the bridge (making it a double deck bridge). I couldn’t find a good place for it yet though. Another thing I was thinking about was either a subway system, a rail system above the streets, or even a tram/trolley system (or a mixture of them). Finally, with the taller buildings, I wanted to see if I could build them so that they could open like a book, instead of having to take each floor off. One thing I felt wouldn’t be realistic or feasible within the size and style of the city was any form of trains. I felt it would just take up too much space, though any suggestions or ideas that could work them in would be appreciated. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Second Phase The second phase of this one is under consideration. I really badly want to do it, but I also realize that along with donation issues, it increases the piece and price count from an already high amount. Basically it would be an alien invasion scene. This would include all kinds of creatures that the aliens have, including a 3 foot tall monster, and possibly some smaller space ships. The monster would be about 36 inches tall and be holding onto the tallest building while walking around. Multiple different kinds of creatures would exist all over, along with piece built aliens. There would be holes and fires in buildings, people running everywhere, and a fully deployed military trying to fight off the aliens. This would include some tanks, apcs, humvees, a couple fighter jets, helicopters, and par-trooping figs from a plane. Also, since I had so many ideas for it, I wanted to build a secret military unit hidden inside the city, with the semi-futuristic vehicles and equipment that might come with that (including mechs of course). That would include the warehouse staging/vehicle construction base, the river pad, and an elevator system that would come out of an intersection. This would include advanced hover/heli vehicles, armored troop carriers, assault bikes, a hover tank, a few heavy duty mechs, and armed weapon suits. I was also thinking of a small network of underground bases. For the damaged parts of the city, I would have “plates” or removable and swappable parts like wall sections, trees, streets, etc that could be changed with the normal city so that you could turn the city quickly from model city to attacked city. But like I said, this one is under consideration for obvious reasons. It would definitely shift potential auctioneers also. It is something I really would love doing, and would definitely make this model unique (an in my eyes awesome), not to mention give the whole thing a scenic and movie like feel. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, here is the Lego Digital Designer file for the layout, for one of the skyscrapers, and the high end store(includes elevator mechanism). WARNING: The layout is huge, so only open it if you know your computer can handle it. It slows even my system down, and adding any larger piece (like a skyscraper) crashed it or crashed it when I saved. Link to the brickshelf folder Link to the hub post Link to the donation discussion post Link to the LDD issues post ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Where to next? Well, other than the update (below), I am going to try and get the layout transferred to either MLCAD or SR3D builder and see if it can work there, as then I could sectionalize it, allowing me to actually work on it rather than having it freeze, crash, or not save. While I have issues with these other systems (it’s hard to get used to after LDD) I do need the extra pieces, colors, and ability for more complex piece connections. I’m then probably going to add in some of the street details, park, and extras. From there I’m going the “fill” in the buildings, putting up at least their outside walls to get a better sense of what everything will look like, along with picking the color schemes of the buildings. Probably the last phase would be to add in the interior detail, but I’m probably going to wait on that one for the team (maybe just a few buildings). And I’m probably at one point or another going to get distracted, start building some aliens, monsters, or forces, and end up doing a lot of work there (even though it might not be included). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Update (cont) Because of the group aspect, I am redesigning a lot of the layout, design, style, etc of the build. While many aspects will stay the same, building size, complexity, arrangement, will definitely change. I wanted to make the entire city more unique, diverse, and add depth and complexity to it. It needs to have more variety. Angled roads, different types of roads, different building sizes, a different lakefront with buildings on the other side of the highway and a beach, a bit more water in front, some surrounding roads possibly, larger city blocks with more buildings located in a single block rather than “1 building per block”, and maybe a more complex river are some of the changes I want to make. Now is also a great time to give me ideas, as it will be a lot easier to implement them into the design rather than later. Generally, I’m working more on the basic layout and what will be included in the city, so ideas pertaining to that would be the most helpful, but any other ideas are also more than welcome! ________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ Thank you for taking some time to look at my project (and thank you especially if you had the courage and patience to read everything!). Please remember to let me know if you are interested in helping build or lead this project, or if you know of anyone who would be willing to. More information about that, and the other projects I have planned, is in my other post here. Information and discussion about the donation system is posted here I look forward to reading any responses and working on this project with all of you! Suggestions are more than welcome (they are suggested). This is more than a team build. It is a community build, and I want to let everyone have a part in this. And if you liked this, look forward to more work on this and my other projects. (Oh, and don’t worry. I will be working on this regardless of how the team and donation system work out. It will just take a LOT longer) Ok then. I’m DONE! (my fingers hurt)

You might have made my day! If I can figure out how to easily use this, you will have saved me weeks of painful work. I am sort of coming back from the dead after a horrendous experience with bricklink. I had about 9,000 pieces to purchase, with more than 1,000 different types, and I was in a hurry to meet a deadline. It took me 4 days of 16-20 hrs straight with 3 monitors of multiple store pages trying to manually filter for the cheapest prices.... and you can guess how many mistakes that led to. (Granted, I also happened to pick the exact day where bricklink crashed to start all this, so that didn't help). Anyway, I ended up $2,000 over budget, and I had to go back a few months later to recoup and purchase about $300 worth of missing pieces (either from my mistakes, or stores that forgot pieces because I asked for rush service....when bricklink crashed). I'm betting I'm not the only one with horror stories that could have been prevented. That is why I think this is one of the greatest developments for some MOC builders, saving people a lot of time, mistakes, and money. I'd be more than happy to donate or help out in any way (though my coding/programming skills are pretty much non-existant). I still have 5 more stages of my project to get through, so I'm fully on board the idea of this program!

Hi, Just yesterday I finished the last section to the upper half of my large city in LDD and I thought now would be a great time to share it in the town forum. I also thought it would be a great opportunity to get feedback and help in deciding which section should be built first and brought to BrickWorld Chicago 2012. ************************************* Please help me figure out what's the best to take! Vote for your favorite combination of sections that totals 50,000 pieces. ************************************* The entire city, crassly photo-shopped together From the white building in the center, everything to the right is finished in 7 separate sections: (links to original LDD forum postings with additional pictures and information) SECTION 1: (includes 7 buildings, an underground subway station, and plaza with water fountain) SECTION 2: (includes 2 buildings, an underground parking garage, 2 river docks, 1 draw bridge -motorized-, and 1 stationary bridge) SECTION 3: (includes tallest 6 ft. skyscraper, parking lot, half of "lower Wacker drive", and double deck drawbridge with control tower -motorized-) SECTION 4: (includes second tallest skyscraper with exterior elevators and rooftop heli-pad, half of "lower Wacker drive", and double deck drawbridge with control tower -motorized-) SECTION 5: (includes third tallest skyscraper with rooftop pool, angled "Lake Shore Drive" highway, city parks with water fountains, and underground pathway with Lake-walk) SECTION 6 (a,b): (includes 9 buildings, a parking garage, a rooftop terrace, 2 drawbridges -motorized-, a small park, and a diagonal street) SECTION 7: (includes 4 buildings, El-line with station, underground street-car path, "San-Francisco" style roads, El-tracks through building, and multiple building advertisements) Note that this whole part of the city is raised 15 bricks, so supports were built underneath. It is all built in CC style, meaning everything is detachable and every floor separates (even the streets are snot built attachments). Super easy transportation YAY! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STATS Piece count: Section 1: 38,768 Section 2: 17,635 Section 3: 26,428 Section 4: 21,649 Section 5: 28,079 Section 6a: 29,084 Section 6b: 19,924 Section 7: 27,565 Project start date: 9/23/09 LDD start date: 2/11/2010 Contrast work start date: 3/04/11 Contrast half way point: 4/17/12 Original Post with more information --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's Left The lower half of the city, including re-workings of all CC buildings, industrial area, highway, and docks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's Next Brick World is coming up. I have reserved a table. But now I need to figure out which section(s) to take. I can make a total of 50,000 pieces for the event, give or take a few thousand. So any combination that adds to that will work. ************************************* Again, please help me figure out what's the best to take! Vote for your favorite combination. (Preferably sections that are next to each other, but they don't have to be.) ************************************* And to help you out, here is a map of where the sections are: Thanks and hope you all enjoy!

I wanted to do a quick update for everyone on where the project is at. I've just gotten through ordering 52,000 pieces on bricklink, going to multiple Lego stores and butchering the pick-a-brick, and even getting some full stock boxes for the pick-a-brick wall. And if you haven't heard bricklink went down for a day and got hacked. But, for me, it felt like a week, because my pieces were stuck in stasis in the Wanted-List, un-editable (Wanted-list is still not fixed). So I had to go down hard on bricklink manually, and with 3 computer screens, over 20 windows, and over 60 hours of purchasing (47 of those in 3 days), I managed to get roughly 45,000 pieces from over 50 stores. By the way, this was my first time using bricklink...and my first day was the day it got hacked. Just my luck huh? Some of the stuff has already arrived. Some stuff is coming, and some stuff hasn't even been paid for and might not make it in time. I'm hoping all the important pieces come in time, but I have to say, I wish I had another week. Preparation holds no grounds to bad luck. On the bright side, the sections are picked, color corrected, realistically rebuilt for real pieces, and modified for cheaper pieces. I've even built some support pillars and a wall. Anyone want to help build??? Hopefully you will all get to see the finished results at Brickworld, and for those not attending, pictures will be up afterward. Oh, and you'll get to see how I cheated

MANUALLY. That is the word to describe how I just purchased those pieces. Ouch. 47 hours of purchasing, and over 50 stores, but its done. hopefully everything arrives in time. Some stuff already coming. Wish me luck!

Ooo, yay! I kind of felt bad for making the topic in the first place, because the first one was closed so quick after. But I just thought it might be an interesting thing to talk about each other's experiences and get a feeling for how this is affecting everyone. See if anyone had to do workarounds, maybe get tips on handling bricklink withdrawal I sincerely feel bad for Eric having to fix the problems by himself and fix all of bricklink. Has bricklink ever been down or attacked like this before? Or do I have the worst timing in the world, using bricklink for the first time? Oh, and I think I lost some hair. Only half my order has gone through. I'm stuck waiting for the Wanted-lists to be editable so I can remove what I have purchased so far and search for the stores with the most pieces that I have left. Looks like I'm going to spend a lot more on quick shipping By the way, does anyone know how to do a search for a large group of pieces in stores? The query stores check-mark in the wanted list does not hold through multiple pages.

Is it just me, or is bricklink down again? And yes, I know, the old thread was closed. And I'm sorry if this is a little cluttery, but seriously, I need to know what's up. I'm in the middle of finalizing a $2,500 order (half the total) and I've spent the last 9 hours straight with 3 computer screens and 8 windows comparing piece by piece prices. I'm super super scared The twitter feed says they have been attacked. I seriously want to grind whoever attacked the site in very sharp lego pieces. grrr Sorry. Anyway, anyone know what's up?

couldn't.be.worse.timing I'm late like a week for ordering in time for Brickworld, and today was supposed to be an all day sorting of 1,100 lots into their respective stores to purchase, and as soon as I get my 3 computer screens setup (yes, I'm doing row-by-row price checking on multiple stores at once) bricklink happens to be down! I suppose a week of things going wrong should be a sign, but I can't say I saw this one coming. Sorry all, my bad luck has entered the internet Now time to stare at the twitter feed.

I looked through the index, but none of the utilities have the feature that I need. Bricklink's list of wanted-list creator programs also don't have the feature. The only one I've found that comes close is brickstore, since it gathers price data from bricklink. But I'm not sure if the author of Brickstore will reply quickly enough (I think he is from Germany). (The site also hasn't been modified in 4 years ) I've gotten through 5 out of 23 pages of pieces so far though!

Hi, Not sure if this is in the right forum, but I'm running a little low on time and I think it is at least a little bit related. I've finished color checking and gotten the sections of my city ready in LDD for BrickWorld, and used LDD Manager to get it done while also upload the parts to bricklink (thank you so very very much for the wonder that is LDD Manager! ). Unfortunately, it gets really messy once at bricklink. There are 1,965 items or lots in my wanted list, and over 50,000 pieces...and I can't seem to find an easier way to search for the best stores to purchase from (or even an easy way to organize the purchases). I've at least divided the wanted lists into 4 separate sections, based on the city sections, but they all have around 500 lots. Is there any program or option to sort/group items into "store based" wanted lists? Is there any way to check if stores have ALL or enough of the pieces in a lot that you need? (so say you need 300 1x1 black bricks, and the wanted list/by store tab shows stores that have 10 lots that you need, if one of those has the black bricks, can you know if they have ENOUGH?) Is there any way to sort stores by cheapest AND with enough pieces? ...what about also with the highest matching lot count? Is there any way to quickly find the items you need in a store, add them to your cart, and purchase? Is there any way to sort by nearest location? (aka less shipping costs, and shorter delivery times) OH, and is there anyone who would like to help? I am trying to get all this ordered at least in the next couple days, and I have all day long to work on ordering everything, but it needs to be soon so everything has enough time to ship. I've been super crammed with time, and so I'm getting a bit confused and making mistakes like asking this last minute 2 years of work and everything comes down to a few days. yikes Anyway, any help would be greatly, GREATLY appreciated. (I'll give you a part of the city! ...kidding. I'm just kidding.) Thank you!

well, some good news. I converged the separate wanted lists into 1 and now there are only 1,119 lots! I saved many hours of work there

Hello everyone, I'm trying to get a huge order done (over 1,100 lots, over 50,000 pieces), and I'm wondering if there is any way to quickly setup a filter for prices. I have uploaded 4 separate wanted lists of the 4 sections of the MOC, and have gone to the "by shop" tab and sorted by lots (unique) to get the best match for stores, but once I start filling out the cart, I see that many pieces are just overpriced at the specific stores. I want to try and get an average price per piece at $0.12, and I used the program "brickstore" to calculate that reasonable average (at least I think it's reasonable). So I am trying to go for just under the average prices. I also noticed that you can setup a maximum price for the items in the wanted list, but as I have over 9,000 items, and having to click on each piece to check the average price and then set the maximum individually would be a pain, is there any way to quickly set maximum prices on a wanted list, say, to average prices? Or is there any program that will create a wanted-list that sets maximum prices automatically? Oh, and also, I noticed when you auto-fill cart minimum for a wanted list, it adds both new and used pieces, basically doubling the pieces you want. Is there any way to get it to fill up with used and then get the rest new, or do I have to go through every piece and subtract the number of used pieces from the purchase of new?

I have used the program "brickstore" to get an average price for entire mocs, and used it to get an estimate of $0.12 average per piece. But I am wondering if anyone familiar with it knows if you can set a price to every piece (like the average it allows you to set the pieces to) and then upload a wanted-list that INCLUDES those set prices as maximums. Does that make any sense? The reason being that I noticed that you can set price maximums that will constrict the search when looking at stores in the "by shop" view. But with 1,900 lots, searching for the average price and then setting individual price maximums for all of them is a mountainous task. So aka, is there any program that generates xml wanted-lists that can also auto-set price maximums?

@Andy D: This is going in my basement (only place with enough room). Funny thing, the tallest buildings will have to go in between the ceiling support beams . I am planning on finishing it this year and also auctioning it off for charity, so I don't think I have to worry too much about spousal objections . @Legocrazy81: I'm hoping they won't. That's why I plan to actually put LED lights in all the ...lights. Looks like 5 and 6b have been overtaken by 1 and 7. Note though, that unless I take out the subway in section 1 (which I might have to anyway), that would be the only section I could make since it is almost 50k pieces by itself. The only possibility would be section 1 and 2, and it looks like section 2 is not a favorite. I highly suggest taking a look at the original posts for each section to see more pictures (all links are above the section pictures), or just check out the brickshelf folder. I admit that 1 picture is not enough to get an idea of the section. Thank you again for all the kind words ! I have to finish the lower half of the city (what's left) in LDD before I can start ordering parts, but I will keep you updated until that point. P.S. Any good shops on bricklink for large quantities?

Yes. Here is the fifth of 11 sections of my city project. And I should note the word finally. This has been the longest time between sections, partly because of me being so busy, and partly because of me being creatively dry with the city. I didn't like the last building I made, and that really dragged things down. Thankfully, it seems I got my....mojo? back. This also happens to be one of the most dynamic sections, with 3 levels: street level, El-line, and underground street trolley. A staircase brings people to the El-station, and two "San Francisco" style roads lead down to the rest of the city. Also, here is my necessary aerial shot. Here is a great street view, and the second favorite part of this, the El-station. Note that the pieces don't come in that color....so look away if you are weak stomached, but I am painting the pieces. The only time I will do this. I found reference pictures that I HAD to get right, and no piece in the proper color creates the feel that rusty orange colored beams do. (By the way, I created that street lamp and designated it to that street location BEFORE I saw the reference picture. How perfect is that!) Building 7 was the most fun I've had with this in a while, and I think it shows! Designed after the iconic One Times Square building in New York, I melded it together with another creator's inspiration building, and my original narrow bottom design to create a multi-styled building with numerous advertisement,TV, and scrolling text signs (and a neat New Years dropping ball!). (all to be covered in stickers or lit). Buildings 3 and 4 are my most heavily "borrowed" designs, as you might be able to see the similarity. And finally, one of my initially most favorite buildings is finished: building 2. (I really want to make the neon sign glow!) Piece count: 27, 565 On the down side, I've realized I am once again way over my estimate for piece count. I've also been in a bit of a rut trying to get enough money for the project, and I'm scared I might miss my target finish date. Not all is lost however. My near future schedule is going as planned, and I don't have much more to go. The CC town hall purchase no doubt has helped things, and I've got a new partner who might be helping me with everything. OH, and I've decided the city will be ****lit!**** ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ But the BEST PART OF THIS IS ----------> The upper city is DONE! EDIT And with that, I'm going to post I have posted a compilation in the town forums of what is done so far. I've also signed up for brickworld, and plan to bring one section built IN REAL LIFE! Yeah I know, what a crazy concept. Anyway, you can get a good look at all sections and vote for which one you think I should bring. (I might even be able to bring 2). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ As always, more pictures are on my brickshelf; thanks and I hope you all enjoy!

@ Ricecracker: thank you for setting up the poll!!! I had this imagined in my head as a poll and you have made my dreams come true @Legocrazy81: thanks for pointing that out! I cannot believe that I kept all those there . A leftover from a previous design I guess. @prateek: I'm actually praying that I can get some help from TLG or something. The whole project idea is to auction this off for charity in the end. I had a post long ago discussing how I could approach this, but back then I seemed more like a mad-man rambling on a crazy idea, and it was my first MOC so I really looked insane. The idea is to get at least a section done on my own and show it as proof-of-concept or something and see where it goes from there. But I am fully willing and ready to fund this entirely on my own (I just have to work harder this year ) Thanks for all the kind words! So far it looks like section 5 and 6b are the favorites. Any and all feedback are super duper welcome! (the highway is now comfortably lit)

@Brickdoctor: the funny thing is I never intended to build the El-station. It was just going to be the tracks. Now there are 2 stations in the city! A subway station on the other side of the river and this El-line station. The streetcar is a 3rd completely different system running in the city that goes underground here. Unfortunately the way the city is designed and the issues with adding curved tracks and the size it takes up, there is no closed circuit for any train. Alas, little bumper stoppers will have to do @Lego Otaku: yes, it just barely worked and started to slow down with the last additions. I did have advanced shading on and all the way up when I took the pictures but it was stuttering (but piece outlines definitely doesn't work). The key is that everything is in a separate connection. I had to take out the bottom bricks connecting the El-tracks so that there was no connection between buildings. LDD doesn't like large connected pieces. Still, I've managed to get 40k pieces running in this version of LDD, and 51k in LDD 3. @DLuders: I've signed up for table space already, and I'm planning on either having some pictures up of the rest of the city or having a laptop out. Honestly, bringing/moving my computer anywhere is a pain so I never considered it, and the other issue is with loading the LDD files. With the film festival, I don't think a live flyby would fit. also the time it would take to show off all the sections might be a little too long (and I'm not the best camera-man in LDD ). I might bring my computer anyway though, since most laptops can't run the files. (I might need more table space then )

CUUSOO this NOW. I don't care that I'd have to save up for it like the falcon, I would do it! And I think if this would be rebuilt with TLC to be more piece conscious, it could fall into a reasonable price point. Something like a "double CC" extra-exclusive set. While it is not based off a popular franchise or famous landmark, I think it would sell on the beauty alone. It has one of the cleanest facades, incredibly well designed interiors, and is a very fitting size for the modular street considering the building type. Most of the time these buildings end up being too big and out-of-place, but this fits in perfectly. Sincerely, this makes me want to remake my city to fit something like this in there; it's just so beautiful .

Those 1x1s are wondrous pieces! Elevator?! (though open form) and the skylights . I'll give the price a break considering the size and mini-fig count. On a side note, anyone know what the Victorian gothic style building is in the video in the beginning right after R2?