Axles won't fit on old technic model

[LDDtechnician]

Hi there

Im trying to upload my first Lego Digital Designer model (a .lxf file) for help and comments but I havent got the proper permissions. Can anyone help?

Printing the instruction with a pdf-printer makes a 40Mb file!

kind regards

LDDtechnician

EDIT by admin - I moved this topic to the LDD forum since it was mostly of technical/how-to character. Also changed the title to better reflect the subject.

[Zerobricks]

Hi and welcome! You need more posts, to upload files :)

[roamingstop]

Hi and welcome! You need more posts, to upload files :)

Or you can upload to a flickr / mocpages account and link into that in the post. Or find some nice person to host it for you.

What is the question - maybe someone can help without having to see everything.

[LDDtechnician]

Hi and welcome! You need more posts, to upload files :)

Well then here is a post :-)

I Uploaded the file to my livespace hoping that some of you with more experience may tell me why the axels dont fit.

http://cid-18c5ff9fba7a1cbd.office.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/Technic%20model%20850%20Forklift.lxf

[DLuders]

OK, I downloaded your "Technic model 850 Forklift.lxf" file, and opened it in Lego Digital Designer. The vertical spacing of your holes was a bit off. Here's what I did to get your long axles to slide through the holes:

1) Using the Control key and the left-click mouse key, I selected all of the bricks and axles on the upper-center portion of your forklift. Then, I lifted that assembly off of the stack of 2x2 bricks, and placed the assembly onto the baseplate to get it out of the way.

2) I removed one of the 2x2 plates from the central stack, and added a full 2x2 brick in its place.

3) I drew a box around the assembly that was placed off to the side, and plopped it on top of the central 2x2 stack.

4) The two long axles now easily slide into the holes, all of the way through the entire upper Technic Bricks.

If you want me to send you the "repaired" LXF file that I saved on my computer, just send me an e-mail at LudersDG@MSN.com and I'll e-mail it to you.

[Blakbird]

OK, I downloaded your "Technic model 850 Forklift.lxf" file, and opened it in Lego Digital Designer. The vertical spacing of your holes was a bit off. Here's what I did to get your long axles to slide through the holes:

This brings up a nice bit of trivia that Roland Melkert and I discovered while making the video below in his LD4D Studio. It turns out that a careful look at the LDraw file (which you can get from Technicopedia) reveals that the vertical beams which support the forks do NOT line up with the holes at the top and bottom. If you count the height of the stackup, it does not come out to an even division of holes. When you build the model, you'd never notice because there is enough compliance to get the parts to line up over that length, but you can tell in the computer. The result is that the entire vertical frame has to be tilted very slightly in the actual model to get the upper axle with the pinion gears on it to go through.

The following two pictures show the problem:

Edited September 1, 2010 by Blakbird

[Plastic Nurak]

I had the same problem building it with SR3D. I had to eliminate grey pins at hte bottom, so upper axles could enter in the holes.

Edited September 1, 2010 by Plastic Nurak

[LDDtechnician]

I had the same problem building it with SR3D. I had to eliminate grey pins at hte bottom, so upper axles could enter in the holes.

These are alle wonderfull posts to me! I was gettiing nuts: I followed the printed manual very carefully - and it just didnt work. I follewed DLuders instructions and made it work. Then I counted the distance in measure of plates and made sure that it was right.

What a wonderfull video of my first ever technic model!

LDDTechnician

[LDDtechnician]

These are alle wonderfull posts to me! I was gettiing nuts: I followed the printed manual very carefully - and it just didnt work. I follewed DLuders instructions and made it work. Then I counted the distance in measure of plates and made sure that it was right.

What a wonderfull video of my first ever technic model!

LDDTechnician

Now I have finished the Technic 850 fork lift in LDD. I found out that the "top/bottom" alignment of the fork itself was a bit off. The lxf-file

http://cid-18c5ff9fba7a1cbd.office.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/850%20technic%20fork%20lift.lxf

shows both corrections to the original model in green and my way of making the fork itself fit the model is indicated with the red support bricks.

Thanks again!