Lasse D

Thanks for the links Mario. I have learned a lot reading the discussion at the LDraw forum. I'm planning on creating a database where users can submit connectivity in the same way as users submit models to Rebrickable. The aim is to be able to import/export connectivity in the four (five?) standards there currently are while using it to construct building instructions like LDD. I have 3 small projects that need to be finished first, but I will look into this once they are done.

Thanks. I have given a lot of thoughts to your suggestions and made some improvements. The problem with having 3 (or any number) states of buttons is that they are confusing for people who are reluctant to trying out buttons. This is also why I had to change the buttons for selecting construction technique and width/height units. I hope the current solution is both compact enough not to annoy and easy enough for all to use without problems. A "Reset" button has been added as you request - this is a very good idea. I have also changed the sliders so that they all have a precision of 0.01 units. The old precision of "100 states" seemed awkward to use.

Looks great. I can't wait to try this out! It sounds like a lot of work to create the snap database. Something similar was done for SR3D, and of course LDD. I have been working on a system for "crowdsourcing" connections based on the LDraw parts library with all data being open source. With your experience in the field, do you think such a project would be feasible?

Again. Thanks for a round of comments/bugs/suggestions. Good that you pointed it out. I can see how this could be confusing. The check boxes in the filter tab are there for a quick and easy way to remove colors which are rarely used. "Metallic" here covered all colors with Gold, Silver, Copper, Metallic, and Chrome in the names. This was not clear, so I have changed the name of the check box and changed the default color groups to make this more consistent. It would be nice to have better control of the colors in the program, but currently that will have to be a feature for tech savvy users who know how to edit the color_groups.txt file. Clear as daylight. I have played around in my e-mail client and can see that your suggestion is indeed more intuitive, as well as more standard. I have currently added buttons for showing "all" and "none" for all color groups. I will have to work on some clever icons instead of the text, but the functionality should be much better now. I have added functionality for this, as well as better descriptions of how the colors.txt and backup_colors.txt files are handled. Hopefully this will help if any of the loading functions fail without warning. Microsoft would call it a "feature". I have fixed this "feature" by reorganizing the groups and given a better description of the color options as described above. It's me who's thanking. BTW. Press F2 in the latest version for an updated about-dialog.

These are unfortunately some of the problems you will encounter in LDD.As you can see in the submission topic people generally either replace parts with some that exist, leave them out when they don't fit, ant they always make notes about this kind of changes.

Awesome. I'm looking forward to see what you have been tinkering with.

You simply treat your sub-models in your mpd file the same way as the parts. Take a look at this simple lion as an example.

This is because you have to press enter once a value has been typed in a textfield. I can see how this isn't consistent with the behaviour of other inputs, so I'm going to change this. Great find! I will fix this too. Update I have fixed all these things in the latest version. With all your contributions you deserve to be in the credits Classicsmiley - just tell me which name to put in if you would like this.

Oh no! Rebrickable has changed the format of the color list, so the import fails. I have sent you a mail with the correct colors.txt file. I will make an updated importer which is better at detecting changes like this. I will get back form work at 8 and should be able to have a solution during the evening.

It is unfortunately not in the long list here: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=41226 But if you make one, it can be put up and it will be valuable for the next person to ask :)

Thanks to Classicsmiley I was able to locate a mistake introduced while making the "mkv"-files readable. The program has been updated and if you have an earlier version installed, it will update automatically. Any other problems or ideas? Bring 'em on!

Well. That's simply not acceptable and needs to be fixed. Can you tell me what the logs say? In the folder where the exe is saved, a "Logs" folder contains information that I can use to see what has gone wrong. It is especially the files made while there has been problems, as well as anything mentioning "exception" that would help.

Thanks :) It is still available using the same link. I am looking for a way to present it nicely - perhaps with an "alternate download" section? Thanks for not holding back with your opinion in the other topic. Without it I would probably have stayed with the other "installer" and not know how bad having Java as a requirement had become. And thanks for your feedback. I'm looking into the problem. What you describe sounds like garbage buildup (which should have been taken care off by the garbage collector). I will look into it. As this is my first JWrapper project, it is bound to have some initial hickups. This is also why I don't call it "version 1.0" yet. Update Feb 3. 2015 I have tried to abuse the program to the best of my ability by changing filters, create huge (1000x1000) mosaics, etc. etc. but I can't make it crash. I'm using Win 7 so the problem might be Win 8 specific. Unfortunately my Win 8 machine is a surface 2 so apps-only. I will have to wait some time before testing on a Win 8 machine. The speed could be better when editing huge mosaics. This will be the primary focus of further development. That, and bug-fixing, naturally. Update Feb 4. 2015 Added alternate downloads to download page - this includes download with jar and exe files.

New version (0.9.4) January 1, 2018! Go here for the download page. By using JWrapper, LDDMC now runs on both Windows, Mac and Linux, 32bit and 64bit, and without having to install Java. This software has been some years underway. Since I started this request topic, many have contributed with ideas and other input which has helped me developing this mosaic software. Features include - Build your mosaic by either following the instructions in app, by printing, by exporting to LDD or by exporting to LDraw. The in-app building guide (or magnifier) is customizable and can look like this: - Build mosaics using plates, bricks, tiles, and even SNOT. By request I have added a lot of building techniques through the years. 1x2, 1x3, 1x4 and 2x2 plates from top and side are included in the building techniques options menu. Here is how the mosaic looks if you build using SNOT: - Manage exactly which colors you want to use. You can import the latest colors from Rebrickable... or even make your own (if you can work out how the colors.txt file is formattet). You can filter the shown colors using various filters. Here I have filtered out all transparent, old, rare and chrome parts from the color picker: - Change input picture directly to improve the mosaic. You can modify colors, size, building technique, dithering percentage, crop, and even a series of color filters in order to fine tune your mosaic. The changes you make are reflected in the mosaic almost immediately! - Full save and load functionality. You can even export snapshots of the mosaic like in LDD. - Automatic updating to latest version (thanks again to JWrapper) The software is written in Java and the full source is available at GitHub here. If there is anything you want improved, or if you have feature requests, then don't hesitate to either write in this thread or to me directly (lassedeleuran@gmail.com)

You are right. This topic was mainly used to gather information about what a mosaic program would need. I will create a new topic once I make a new release. I will try to remember to include a reference to this topic in the first post.

Thanks Calabar, Since you have been waiting for the feature, I have pushed the LDD export through and uploaded a new version of LDDMC to the website. It can now export fully for LDraw and LDD: I will update the TODO-list in my previous post.

Thanks. I was just about to forget :P It has turned out to be quite the challenge to make JWrapper work with LDDMC so that there will be an installer without Java. The problems are currently centered around certificate issues. It is not easy to obtain a developer certificate for free! Meanwhile, I have begun implementing an export-to-LDD function which saves an lxf file:

I understand you perfectly. While Java was awesome back around 2002, greed and competition seems to have cast a shadow over the language. I am working on using JWrapper for deployment which will fix all Java installation issues for all platforms (or so I hope). I'm currently using launch4j. THis allows the installation to be very small, but only really helps Windows users, and then not those who are vary of Java/Oracle.

Fixed. Thanks for reporting the problem. TODO for version 0.9.4: - Implement ColorBlock to be used in pipeline - Add PipeLine as a controller for picture transformations. - Make statusbar show progress for loading, saving, exporting, printing and updating mosaic. DONE for version 0.9.3: - Make better error messages when files can't be read and written. - Update installation guide for OSX. - Shorten printed text messages that go out of bounds - Export to LDD - Use better pictures for export to LDraw and LDD - Make save dialogs make the user confirm overwritten files - Make left picture float like the right one - Make "show totals" an option - Include new colors when they are added during runtime. - Add toolbar buttons to pack/resize the dialog - Add chart showing color distribution - Add toolbar button to hide chart - Make PrintDialog more pretty (titles and group radio buttons) - Add page flip to print Preview (next/previous page, +show number of pages) - Re-implement logging. - Serializable model using KVFile. - Make model more strict: Report warning when not loading all, error when not saving all. - Separate MainWindow from main program. - Add image as normal part of KVFile (Base64 encode) - Change save-functionality: Display save dialog when appropriate. - Shadow on printed position box. - Use JWrapper

Thanks a lot. I am working on it now (just came home from work) If we are lucky I can soon add LDD export functionality. It would be great if I could figure out the issues Classicsmiley and lego2lego have as well.

And I have a user reporting that a program running from a simple jar file crahes on Yosemite with the latest Java in the other thread. Does anyone know if Java applications are supported on Yosemite? I read elsewhere that Java only works as a browser plugin, but I don't have access to a machine with the OS to test this myself.

Oh dear. Unfortunately I don't have access to a Mac. I make the jar file and cross my fingers after testing that it works on other platforms. Could you perhaps start it from a console and show me the error mesage from there? That would help me a lot. That is. Start a console. Navigate to the folder with the jar file and run "java -jar lddmc.jar".

I'm sorry to hear that. This project was started before I learned C++ and other languages. Are you avoiding Java for security/religious reasons or on a device where there's simply no chance for Java to run (iOS, etc.)? If it is the former, then it might be possible for me to bundle the relevant parts of the JRE and make it standalone executable. The Windows version currently also requires Java, but I found a way to make it help with the installation so you only have to run the .exe. Thanks. I skipped the format thinking it was proprietary and too closed, but I have read up on it and it seems possible to export to this format without too much trouble. I'm looking into it.

(And with much delay) I have now taken all the feedback from this thread and updated the software so that it is now ready for everyone to try out. The name is now LD Digital Mosaic Creator and it can be downloaded here that is, the same place as always. The user interface has received an overhaul and it is my intention to make it as easy and intuitive to use as possible, while still having a lot of functionality. You can read about it, download and see how to run it on Windows/MAC/Linux from the link provided. I have written some of the things where I have tried to make it excel, but if we take the suggestions from this thread, then I have made the following: Colors The program now uses fancy pansy color correction like the best mosaic programs, but I have made some improvements to the speed of how these colors are computed. This makes the program very responsive as long as you don't create some insanely huge mosaic. I have followed Aanchir's advice and made the colors completely customizable. You can choose exactly how you want to display colors. This can be with numbers, RGB values, official LEGO named, Peeron, language specific, you name it. Colors can be updated automatically from the list at Rebrickable, and you can even add your own names! Thanks Aanchir. Algorithms legolijntje has been talking about algorithms. I have implemented some different dithering algorithms, but found that nothing can really touch Floyd-Steinberg when it comes to quality. Floyd-Steinberg is sometimes over-correcting for colors, so I have added a "Floyd-Steinberg percentage gauge" where 0% means solid regions without dithering at all, and 100% means full steam on Floyd-Steinberg. The program has this setting at 50% out of the box, but setting it to different values has turned to be a good way to set the "level of dithering" exactly to your liking. Thanks to all who have pointed out other mosaic software which I have used for testing (and blatantly tried to beat). Printing Printing is now finally working! Now there are at least 3 ways to build a mosaic. You can use the magnifier, export to LDR and print the instructions. SNOT There have been some bugs in my program where the quality when using SNOT has not been as good as I liked it. This has now been fixed, and I have tested it using pictures such as dart board, various ovals, etc. Thanks to mahjqa for pointing out the importance of SNOT, and for giving me some samples to compare with. If you press the "SNOT button" on the mosaic above, then it looks like this: I hope a lot of people will try it out and give me feedback on anything you find. Bugs, errors, ideas for improvements, etc. All contributers will be credited in the About dialog.

Oh wow. The front is very nicely sculpted. It can be a very difficult task at that size. You should consider putting it up on Rebrickable - they support that you can purchase building instructions.