Calabar

No, if you want to move a group, you have to select it before. Go the the "Group" tab, click on a group to select it, then move the selection. What you ask is not possibile because LDD can't state if a you want to move a group or a subgroup to which the brick belongs.

Great work and, again, thanks!

SR3D and LDD are incompatible. SR3D uses LDRAW brick system while LDD uses a LEGO proprietary system. It is possible to convert one format in the other, but results often leave much to be desired. About your request, lxf files are zip files. Try to open the file with an archive manager (for example 7zip) and look at the result. It it is a zip file still, you should find inside the archive a little image and a text file (the XML file containing the your model). If these files are uncorrupted, there is some hope to recover the model. If you share the file we could take a look at it. For the next time, remember to backup your creations periodically and before doing something unusual.

Thanks again for the answers. Again, your quotes in italic dark red: Try a "ctrl-c" when a row is selected in part selection dialog. It should copy the whole text line I tried, but with no success. Maybe I've to try again! EDIT: ok, I've found the problem. CTRL+C works, while the button on my mouse I use for "copy" (it is bind to CTRL+C) don't work. There aren't free Java bytecode to native code, and results aren't so good. Java contains its own JIT compiler (Just in Time). Oh, ok. I used a licensed computer programming tool, as a student. I was not aware there are not free software to do that. I tried to enable antialias: resulting screenshot is better and performance are not so impacted. That sounds good. What about providing a downscaling using an internal higher resolution? Is it feasible? This can be a good fallback strategy. Probably does not requires big changes in BrickUtils. Good for me too! I hope to see it working soon. Program maintain last rotation used for placing last part, it is intentional. If you placed previous brick "upside down", block will be "upside down". Use the button with grid and brush to "clean" grid alignment. I'm doing some try, and still I can't understand how the software manage it. Take two bricks and place them one over the other. Now take the second brick and turn it upside down. Then take the other brick, it will be turned too. I place it over the first reversed brick. Until now, all seems regular (and it is not so bad... it is comfortable sometimes). Now, if I move the second brick I placed, the software reverse it again (now the brick is "straight"), but the last brick I placed was reversed. This is strange, not what I expected. Then I rotate the brick so that it rest on a side, with studs on the right hand. I move the other brick and it is rotated in the same way but... with studs on the left hand (and I never placed a brick that way). There are other similar behaviour moving the bricks, it seems to me that the moving function arbitrarily reverse the moved brick. Maybe a new feature request could be a button to chose the behaviour of the move brick button: use the last rotation or maintain the rotation of the brick you are moving. Both the possibilities could be very comfortable, depending on what you are doing.

I'll try to reply to the main points: Rotation is a bit different from LDD [...] That means there is nothing to do about that? Maybe it will become easier with the use, but at the moment it is a pain to rotate the scene! Reply to this message with a list of needed parts and I can arrange an update for connection database. At the moment I've tried with few parts. So the present list is: - 6028 Animal Dragon Tail - 75174 Animal Dragon Body The two parts don't connect each other. I can imagine that similar connections don't work too (crocodiles, for example). EDIT: it seems that mursten brick 2x1 u8001a bottom part can't connect to studs. PS: it would be useful for reporting if I can copy brick's data from the search list. LDDMC isn't my work. [...] If you mean "like LDDMC", it uses an utility to create a complete installer (including Java virtual machine and libraries), but "inside" is pure Java, so no differences from a JAR, from performance point of view. Oh damn it seems I made a bit of a mess! Anyway I mean to compile the java code and obtain an executable instead than the bytecode. If I'm not wrong, this should be a real executable, not something executed in a JVM. Years ago, in a java project I made, I remember I was able to create simple executables choosing the proper option in the compiler. Obviously the result would not be cross-platform (but for that there is the jar file!). This is a result of a really heavy optimization of geometric structures and rendering engine. Using glMaterials will break this architecture and lead to a significant loss of speed. You mean that all the software would become slow if you add the code for this? Or would be slow only during the use of GL-system calls? I mean, if I've to render a scene for a simple screenshot the speed is not really important, I can wait a bunch of seconds if the result is a good quality screenshot. Maybe that virtually increase resolution and downscale would be enough, maybe with some shadow. I have two options to include wanted list export: [...] A very basic function would be enough (with some options, for example choose if you want new or used parts). What people could want is simply to create something and the buy the pieces. Editing could be done elsewhere. Another chance could be an advanced export that requires brickutils in the same folder: the software automatically pass the data to brickutils and open it, so that you can access to more export feature from there. Maybe this could be achieved with few modifications to both JBrickBuilder and Brickutils. Ah, another thing I miss in the previous post. When I move an already placed brick, the brick is turned upside down. That's uncomfortable because I've to rotate properly the brick from the scratch, instead than simply move it.

Hi Mario, yesterday I spent some minutes with the software, and I noticed: I've difficulties to rotate the scene. I mean, the scene don't rotate as I aspect it would do. Maybe I'm too much accustomed with LDD, or maybe these is something not intuitive in the rotation. It seems it is not possible to place an object where you want in relation to the main grid. For example, if I place the first object, I was able to place it at mid-height of the grill, I've not found the way to place it above or beneath the grid yx plane. Is there a way to fine move a brick using arrow keys with a chosen step? For example I could want to move a brick to the left with half brick step. Is there a way to move placed objects without clicking every time on the "move brick" button on the toolbar? It is very very uncomfortable. I tried to attach a tail to the small dragon figure (the one from the dragon knight series), and I didn't find a way to achieve that. It seems that there is no automatic snap, and I can't find a way to place it manually. I detached a toolbar from the main windows, and then I can't attach it again. A good placement of the toolbars can improve the user experience. Restart the model seems to fix the problem, but what if I would maintain the toolbar detached? PS: in the bottom-left I've now a large green "ready" icon that waste a lot of space (a whole thick line). Is there a way to hide it or place it where it don't bother? When I have to choose a part, I miss a list of thumbnails. A list of names often force me to select one by one many bricks (after a search) to find the one I want. About what I asked above Thanks for planning the option for a better graphics. I think that if graphic setting are too low, it makes difficult to understand the scene and then build the models. It is not only a matter of aliasing, I think: LDD appears to have a better graphics even with low graphic settings and no antialiasing. PS: about performance, do you think that an executable instead than a jar file would help? Something like you did with LDDMC. About the screenshot mode, the idea is that if during the standard workflow you need a certain number of fps to maintain the scene fluid and the software usable, in the screenshot mode it is not important even if you spend even few seconds to generate the frame (a time that could be hundred times greater). The software could temporarily and internally increase the scene resolution and then downscale it, apply shadows, etc... Clearly the memory load could be a limit anyway. About exporting wanted lists... eheh yes, that's why I thought that integrate the function could be very easy, you already have written it! I love the function in Brickutiils (I asked for that indeed!), but having it integrated would be much more comfortable, expecially for unesperienced user. I understand the problem. I hope that in a good performance machine it will be possible to reach the 5-6000 parts limit in order to build any official set. Maybe the suggestion above about generating the exe file could help? Thanks

Thanks to you. Other site are allowed if are affordable and allow not-problematic direct linking for the files. The hosting sites I suggested are affordable and offers the service, so it is preferable to use that. For your further entries, don't forget to adequately size the images!

It looks great. My wishlist for feature request is: easy way to get and add unofficial parts database. a better graphics, the image above seems a bit aliased. a screenshot mode, to create a single hight quality frame in order to get a good-looking screenshot. direct export for Bricklink wanted lists. Maybe an higher limit for parts, in order to recreate all the official sets? Ok, maybe this one could go beyond the purposes of the software.

Good work. I take advantage of this discussion to give you a welcome in the LDD Official Sets topic. You entry is very good, but there is something to fix yet: - The image has not been cropped perfectly. You should remove ALL the borders around the subject. I suggest you to use the original PNG format for the screenshot. - The forum attachment function is not adequate to share the lxf. Use one of the LEGO related file hosting I suggested you above to upload and share both the image and the lxf file. Thanks!

You can create an account on a LEGO related hosting such as brickshelf or bricksafe and then link the files. If it is an official model and the quality of the work is good enough, you can think to post it in the Official Sets made in LDD topic, but be careful to follow its rules while posting (rules are written in the firs post of the topic).

Unfortunately add the "minimum order" voice don't solve the problem. Some vendors, for example, require a "minimum per average lot", that could invalidate the order too. Besides the cost is doped with additional costs (paypal fees, package costs, expensive shipping etc...) that make difficult to state the best shop where to buy. So the program can give only an indicative result, the rest stay to the buyer. About the minimum order amount, the problem has been brought up in the past, if I'm not wrong the problem is that it is not easy to get this data from the database. Let's wait for an answer from mdoupe.

@RoxYourBlox So the start screen loads, but the problem happens when you try to load your file from there. The start screen has some performance problem its own, maybe the huge load causes the crash. Anyway I think that the best solution is to create the empty read-only lxf file and use it to start LDD. It is similar to the option 2, but it is faster because it avoid to load the start screen.

Hi liran1, and welcome in the LDD official set topic. Your entry is fine, but need some fix. Some set's data are missing (surely theme is missing). The image is oversized and not cropped. Please remove ALL the blank borders around the subject and then reduce the size of the image (the maximum size of 512x pixel wide should be fine for this set). Possibly use transparent background and png format for the image. In the meantime I will remove the attachment. The link to the lxf file is not a direct link. I suggest you to use a LEGO related hosting such as brickshelf or bricksafe, that are affordable and allow to host both images and lxf files and share that with hotlink. Don't use the attachment forum function for the image, but use a file hosting as suggested for the lxf file. Please read the rules that you can find in the first page of this topic.

@RoxYourBlox The welcome screen hanging is not an OSX problem only. When you start LDD it loads completely the last files opened. If among them there is big files, the time required to load them could be very long. There are two workarounds: - clear the recently opened files list. - create an empty read-only lxf file and use it to open LDD.

It is the standard behaviour. The LDD mode contains a subset of bricks and colour, so you can find coloured and decorated brick directly in the palette. Extended mode allows you to apply every supported colour to every available brick. So you have to separately choose the brick and select the colour (through the colour palette you show in the screenshot). You can modify the colour later too, using the colour bucket, and apply a decoration (using the decoration tool) if a decoration is available for that brick. The tools are available in the toolbar at the top center. Filters by box is obviously available in LDD mode only, because it implies an association between brick and colour. You can create your own box palette as explained here. PS: the image above is oversized.

Baseplates are bricks with a great number of polygons. In LDD problems arises with a small number of baseplates, imagine with almost three hundred baseplates...

Very good, the software deserve its dedicated topic. A question: a stand alone version is not available anymore?

It is assigned from the staff when you contribute actively sharing your LDD models in this section, especially in the LDD Official Sets topic. Anyway, if you are used to build sets with MLCAD, probably the tag you can expect to receive is the "LDRAW Builder" one.

@mistahfreshone Maybe there is a mistake in the set's number? You reported two times the same 42033. Could you provide a reference for building instructions? EDIT: Thanks for the fix. I'll compact the two numbers, that makes for me easier to add the entry in the index.

Thanks, I'll try it as soon as possible! I noticed that this is not a specific topic for your software (the title is generic too). What do you think to create a new topic dedicated to the software or edit the first post of this one?

It seems that Firefox 35 broke again the script. So, for the moment, you should use it with Firefox 34 or older (maybe the ESR version). I'll post here an update if there will be any news.

Great! It was a feature I was waiting from long time!

Hi Monkey2371, and welcome back in the LDD Official set topic. Your post is very good, but you need to fix the images (images are oversized, especially the small sets, and not cropped). In the meantime I'll convert your images in text link (convert them back in images when you will have fixed that). Otherwise images are quite good, in few cases you should compact the subject to avoid a too scattered scene. Same thing for the "Built-a-Bob" set. @Slyders Don't forget to fix the crop of the image.

Hi Slyders, and welcome in the LDD Official Sets topic. If you want to share a set here, it is required to follow topic rules that you can find in the first post of this topic. Your entry is strongly irregular, as you can easily see comparing it to other regular entries. Please fix your post so I can add your set to the index. Main errors of your entry: - set's data are not complete and not highligted. - error list is not enough precise - the image is irregular: it is so small that the subject is not clearly visible (a 320-384 pixel wide could be good for that set), the subject is incomplete and the borders has not been cropped. - the lxf file is not shared using a direct link. I suggest you to use a LEGO related hosting such as brickshelf or bricksafe, that are affordable and allow to host both images and lxf files and share that with hotlink. Please don't forget to read the rules! EDIT: Thanks for these first efforts. There is something to fix yet. The image is now oversized (as I suggested a 320-384 pixel wide size would be fine), not cropped (you have to COMPLETELY remove the borders around the subject, see other images as example) and you should remove the pixel grille in the background (background should be white or, better, transparent). I fixed a bit the layout of the post, but set's data are still incomplete (informations about theme are missing). I replaced the link to the LEGO site with a link to brickset because it is permanent while the page in the lego site will be removed soon in the future. PS: here you can find a short guide to to take good quality screenshots to use as thumbnails. RE-EDIT: Ok, almost fine. Theme data are still missing. Crop is not perfect. I'll add the set as regular, but please fix it soon.

It is the same function provided by the round arrow button in the center lower part of the scene. ;)