legolijntje

Oops, haha. I missed the "all I want is a 2 stud long piece of 3mm rigid hose... BL part 75c02" part In that case djm is certainly right in that LDCad is probably the best (and easiest) tool for the job. Great explanation @djm, with all those images. I do want to add one thing: I'm pretty sure you don't have to create the part manually to be able to use it in stud.io. The generated part from LDCad contains all the necessary information to be able to use it in any LDraw viewer/editor. It does have extra meta-information added to be able to modify the part in LDCad. Besides, if you choose 'Loose file' at your step 1.3 I believe it is saved a separate part (.dat file) to be able to easily use it in another model. No need to import/export stuff or whatever. But, do note that I haven't used it that way myself so I'm not 100% sure on that.

Nowadays the main software being used to create LDraw parts is LDPartEditor, which can be found here: https://nilsschmidt1337.github.io/ldparteditor/ It's probably not the easiest and fastest software to use, especially not for new users (if only the LDraw format would be modernized... Ah well, one can dream ). It does have a lot of features though, and it's much better than the software that you had to use before its existence. There's a ton of useful information regarding the use of the software on the LDraw forums here: https://forums.ldraw.org/forum-24.html

I believe the preliminary parts list is linked a few posts back. It can be exported to a variety of formats, including bricklink. But... If you wait ~ a few more days I should have a final parts list. :)

To everyone who has collected parts based on the preliminary parts list: the current parts list has changed compared to the first version. I don't have a list of all changes, but they are pretty minor. Things like a few added 1x1 with clips, 2x6 plates, all 1L technic pins are now LBG (an not blue) and other things. Mostly based on great testbuilder feedback by @Theo van Vroenhoven The parts list is still not final, but it should be very close now. And as usual, I cannot guarantee 100% that the parts list is correct compared the instructions until a few people have built the model, but even if there are any errors they should be very minor. Stay tuned guys!

Hi there! Welcome to Eurobricks. Please note that you posted in an over 4-year old topic and we'd rather not have people reviving such old threads. It's better to create a new one, or in your case aks the question in this special topic. Thanks!

Haha, I wondered how nobody else noticed that (or just nobody took the time to report it). Not sure we'll update the instructions for such a small change, but thanks for reporting it nevertheless

You can kinda do that with LPub3D, but it's more of a hacky workaround (which takes a lot of time and makes the LDraw file rather chaotic and messy) rather than a feature in LPub3D. I successfully used it in recent instructions though, including a Star Wars ship which over 1m long, so it does work. The trick is to add a random brick far away from the model, thus moving the relative center of the model. Since LPub focuses the viewport on the relative center of the model and not the absolute center, it also moves the viewport. The thing is that you don't want the random brick to stay there forever and you don't want it in the PLI. So, you have to wrap it in a buffer exchange and a pli ignore. Furthermore, there is some kind of bug or something that makes LPub misplace the assembly image, so you have to move the assembly to the edge of the paper too. And then, repeat that for every damn step you want a moved viewport, partly due to buffer exchange which can't be used over multiple steps (a feature I have asked for for years). Like I said: it's a ton of work. But, it does work and the end result looks pretty nice if I say so myself.

It's great to see so many people building and enjoying the model! I really enjoy all the progress and end-result shots @Raskolnikov of course designed a great build, but I honestly did not expect this much enthusiasm for the building instructions, even a year later!

I haven't sent you the most up to date parts list though (without the expensive magnets)...

You can import LDD files into mecabricks and then use the Mecabricks Blender plugin to create renders or use the (paid) Mecabricks online rendering feature to create renders super quick on their rendering farm. Mecabricks renders are by far the best renders I've seen so far in my opinion.

Nope, you're right. I misinterpreted the software.

I believe it's about 50cm.

That's because I fixed the rebrickable link ;)

You can also build a model in LDD and then import it into Mecabricks. Maybe best of both worlds?

It also feels a lot faster and more responsive to me, but not sure if that's a placebo or not

Sounds interesting! Do you have any more information on that?

https://www.bricksafe.com/pages/afol1969/Instructions

Hmm... I only recently used this technique, but it was on a very big model. I did notice that I had to manually adjust the placement of the assembly image because it seemed cut off a little bit too much. I think it was actually the same problem as yours, but I didn't really experience it as a problem due to the size of the model. And maybe it really isn't a problem with cutting off too much, but only a placement problem (pretty stupid nonetheless). When you place the assembly so that the cut lines up with the bottom of the page, that is the true placement. Then there's a lot of whitespace above the assembly, which means you can place your random brick closer to the model. Move closer until enough of the model is visible. Then move the assembly again so that the cut lines up with the bottom of the page and optionally copy/paste the placement to any next steps. If that makes sense Yeah, that's true. And for me personally, only LDCad and LPub3D have to support it. I don't use buffer exchange in any other programs. That sounds doable to me

Both things can be done with LDCad + LPub3D, but are a PITA to do and are more of a hack than a real 'feature'. For the first one, you can use buffer exchange like you use it with arrows. But, instead of an arrow you add a ring (I usually use ring10.dat from the official library, scaled up). It's very frustrating to place the ring in the correct spot though and it requires a bit of trial and error (and swapping between LDcad and LPub3D) to get the circle in the correct spot. The 'hack' for the 2nd question is a little easier to implement, it just creates a mess in your file. LPub3D always zooms in on the center of the assembly image. So... the trick is to replace the center of the image. To do that you can place a random brick far far away from your model (in the direction you want to move the center of the image). I usually have to place the brick 1000-2000 LDUs away. You obviously don't want the random brick in your parts list or permanently move the image-center, so you have to wrap it in some buffer exchange. Then, the center of the image has been replaced and you can zoom in (scale) in LPub3D. It's pretty easy to implement, but it gets annoying when you want to use this trick on multiple consecutive steps: you have to repeat the buffer exchange for every step. It's not a lot of work (just copy/paste), but it creates a god-awful messy file. If only someone would ever create a new version of buffer exchange, so much things would become easier. The only thing we'd need is something like a 'buffer exchange end' command to tell the software where the buffer exchange ends. Then you could place a buffer exchange in step 10 and retrieve it in step 20 without constantly store/retrieving the same shit on every step. Then the software would know that steps 11-19 aren't part of the buffer exchange. Oh, and cross-submodel buffer exchange would be nice too

Just to make clear to anyone reading this and willing to help out, the problem has already been solved on the LDraw forums

You should be able to (re?)download them from sellfly. But @Raskolnikov knows more about that, so if it doesn't work you should send him a message

Yup, 1.31 is the latest version. And, there isn't any news about the Interdictor yet

That was indeed a problem in the earlier instructions, but it has already been fixed in version 1.3

The old LDD gallery has been closed. You can read a bit more about it here.