Philo

Yes, I'm said to be pretty prolific ;) I converted 64645 and 64651 from LDD and sent you them by PM. These are very raw conversions and would still need a lot of work to convert them to full-fledged LDraw parts. The 95227 doesn't exist yet in LDD, but LDraw part 2560 can make a pretty good approximation.

There is now a tool (3dxml2dat) that gets better quality parts using the same method. It automatically creates edge lines and conditional lines. See http://forums.ldraw.org/read.php?24,1145

The voltage in the NXT and the motor driver chips are the same as the one used in PF IR receiver, so yes, the NXT should deliver the same power as the PF system. @dluders: no, it's not really possible to "reverse" the logic...

Actually these two things are related. I believe that the core engines inside NXT and XL motors are the same, so using them at the same voltage, they should be able to deliver the same mechanical power. But the XL motor is less geared down internally (its output turns at 220 rpm vs. 170 RPM for NXT motor), so the available torque is a bit lower. And less gearing also means less friction, hence the slightly better efficiency. Note that if you need more external gearing to get the proper speed with faster XL motor, you may well end-up with a lower overal efficiency!!! The down gearing of NXT motor and XL motor are also done very differently, with a long chain of gears and pinions while XL uses a two stages epicyclic gear train. This can also explain some efficiency difference.

Looks like this is a bug in MLCad... See http://forums.ldraw.org/read.php?8,688

There is a pretty good one here: https://sites.google.com/site/workingwithlpub/

Grr.... I missed it in Fana'Briques! Time is scarce during exhibits...

I did a write up on my website, basically an English translation of my submission. Enjoy!

There is the excellent LSculpt program from Bram Lambrecht. A tutorial is available here.

It does exist in SR3D, look for Steering or *57515

Weird. Part 2850 IS in SR3D library, but doesn't show up even if you rebuild parts list. If you import the attached LDraw file, you'll get it... (but the part misses studs connections). motor.zip

Looks a bit like mine ;) Philo

This http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=52806 may be a solution too...

Actually you are somewhat mixing things up... LDraw can be considered as a file format and a library of parts that can be used by many viewers (eg. LDView) and editors. MLCad is one of these editors (and I agree that it doesn't evolve much these days!), SR3D which uses LDraw parts is another one. Fortunately LDraw, considered as a parts library, evolves every day, as you can see if you browse LDraw Parts Tracker activity. And it would move even faster if more people joined the team as part authors or as part reviewers!

This part is a lid for pod set container. The orange one is in this set: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemInv.asp?S=4413-1. Colors available: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=47675

I went on this method to get LDraw parts from LDD. I posted a sketch of the process on good old Lugnet. Here is a LDraw part obtained this way.

As mentionned by Bartholomew, it's better to use a wood or plastic stick instead of a dead battery that would leak and ruin your battery box. I have used hot glue rods for a similar (though somewhat opposite) purpose:

Hi all, Yes, reducing voltage is the simplest way of reducing motor speed. Roughly speaking, motor speed is proportional to voltage (for a given load). Using a resistor won't work well: if load increases, current increases so voltage drop in resistor increases, so motor speed decreases... Generally it ends up in a stall! I have photos of PF AA box open, with a method to permanently reduce voltage: http://philohome.com/alimservo/alimservo.htm . The good point of aluminium paper wrapped on stick is that it is reversible! @Bartholomew: Both battery AND motors are over-current protected by PTCs@Blackbird: The motors I opened did have grease in gear train. And the older 71427 is even quieter than 43362! Ah! the ubiquitous paper clip!!! very clever

Bricklink does a fairly good conversion job for many parts. If you type in the 7 digits Item number in the search box, you'll get the part and its design (LDD) number.

That's good news. These shortcuts are so ubiquitous you take them for granted in each and every application. Loosely related I often miss an area selector tool (to select a bunch of elements that may be connected or not, or might me connected to other stuff I don't want to select).

Better to use .LDR (.DAT are reserved for parts files, and .MPD are container files that encapsulate several LDraw files) It does work perfectly with SR3D files... But this doesn't provide per step parts list. The only Application I know that creates them (in graphic form only) is LPub.

You also have my unofficial parts pack, but I have not updated it for a while...

Hi Jetro, Sorry, I updated the page at LDraw but forgot to keep you in touch. Now it would be even better to put your tutorial directly on LDraw website...

Here lies the problem. Looks like there is no cheap converter for 3DXML format. I guess it would be possible to write one since the file format seems documented, but...

Extremely interesting! could be a solution to get 3D parts meshes in LDraw...