djm

Thank you Roland. I was using 4.1. After installing 4.2 beta 1, the issue has been resolved. Regards, David

I believe that there are no additional metas etc. This is the complete content of the ldr file: 0 Untitled 0 Name: motor_58120.ldr 0 Author: David Manley 0 Unofficial Model 0 ROTATION CENTER 0 0 0 1 "Custom" 0 ROTATION CONFIG 0 0 1 71 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 58120.dat 0

I'm in the process of creating the build instructions for Akiyuki's Cup-to-Cup GBC module (refer to this forum post). I appear to have encountered an issue with the LDraw PF Medium motor, which is causing LDView to crash. I'm wondering whether someone would be willing to take a couple of minutes to run the following simple test to see whether they see the same behaviour and post their outcome of the test. Obviously the real build instructions are more complex than just a medium motor! I have simply distilled the build instructions down to the point to identify the part that appears to be causing the issue. My machine is running Vista (Business), SP2 Build 6002. 1) Use MLCAD to create an ldr file that contains only a PK medium motor (part # 58120). 2) Open the ldr file from step 1 in LDView. A screenshot of mine is show below: 3) Exit from LDView. It is at this point that I am seeing LDView crash: Any feedback will be appreciated. Regards, David

For those who may be interested, Toyco (http://toyco.co.nz) are having one of their LEGO sales in which all of their LEGO is reduced. Often the more expensive items are excluded but this sale is one of the ones where even those have been reduced. The sale ends tomorrow (Wednesday July 22nd). Regards, David

Another trawl through the Bricklink catalog turned up a couple of other possible alternatives (for investigation later on); (1) Brick, Round 2 x 2 x 1 2/3 Dome Top - Hollow Stud, 30151b (2) Brick, Round 2 x 2 Dome Bottom, 15395 I have a couple of (1) and one of (2). I can use them to trial whether or not they work as desired. The GBC ball fits into (1) better than into (2). David

I did do a trawl through the BrickLink parts catalogue to try to find an alternative part to the dish. The only thing that I found that might work is the 2 x 2 x 2 barrel 2489, though this is simply supposition. The throat of the barrel is a little smaller than that of the dish but the ball does seem to sit in it. (Yes, Mr Saddo has some of these barrels, so I just went and checked to see if it would fit). It would be nice if the barrels did work, as they are in plentiful supply but I want to get the building instructions completed (cracks whip) before I head off on a tangent. David

So as an early heads-up on quantities for less common parts, the build takes; 11x x85 http://www.bricklink...=x85&colorID=22 4x 64782 http://www.bricklink...64782&colorID=3 4x 62531 http://www.bricklink...62531&colorID=3 1x 87086 http://www.bricklink...87086&colorID=3 Everything else are reasonably everyday parts. Regards, David

This is my first attempt at reverse engineering/building a GBC module. Under the circumstances, it seemed sensible to pick a less elaborate one so that it remained in the "do-able" domain. When I contemplated doing this, I did search doctor-brick for build instructions. The thread I searched was http://www.doktor-br...hread/?pageNo=1 but I did not find anything for the Cup-to-cup module. If I missed it, I'm looking in the wrong place or you are aware of somewhere that the build instructions are available, please provide a link to them as it will save my time and effort on doing unnecessary work. I'm in Auckland, so wasn't planning on going to the Christchurch show. I must try to hook up with the Auckland LUG though as I know they have a display scheduled for August and a show over Labour weekend. Indeed. The elegant motion of the balls moving from cup to cup is what caught my eye. Well thanks back to you. Both your and "The Rebrickable"'s effort on Akiyuki's Ball Factory are orders of magnitude greater than my effort for this. I was of a similar mind that it would be great to have a library of build instructions for Akiyuki's masterpieces. I'm glad to be able to be contribute. Regards, David

Inspired by the recently posted video and build instructions here on Eurobricks for Akiyuki's Ball Factory, I have reverse engineered Akiyuki's Cup-to-Cup GBC. It has been built with parts which I had available at the time, so it is a mixture of colours at the moment; The next steps are 1) model it using MLCAD to produce an appropriate LDraw file 2) use BrickLink to obtain the appropriate parts (to reduce the colour mixture) 3) create build instructions using LPub and test them using the parts bought in step 2 4) make the build instructions available for others It will likely be a few weeks before I get to step 4 but once I get there, I will post appropriate links in this topic. Regards, David

Yes indeed.

I think that buyers are accepting that "... as little work as possible ..." extends to creating/naming their own wanted list. Although the step-by-step process creating the wanted list provides the place to paste the XML and saves it in the "main" wanted list, a user can subsequently move them to a differently named wanted list. Take a look a few posts down at this thread http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=109841 which contains XML appropriate for use in a Bricklink wanted list. Regards, David

If anyone attended the Railbrick's community presentation, would they care to share the gist of the discussion? Regards, David

As a fellow Antipodean (on the other side of the ditch), I share your pain. You're not getting stiffed, the international postal charges are high in a lot of countries. The UK's are available at http://www.royalmail...-March-2015.pdf which, for your particular order comes in at GBP 8.45. Because of the freedom that BrickLink allows each seller to specify their store terms, I would think it is infeasible for BrickFiciency to work out anything other than the raw part cost. I tend to start off with a preliminary list of potential stores in BrickLink but then have to check each of the store's terms to look out for the gotcha's e.g. minimum average lot price, minimum shipping charge, etc. If you are looking for a small number of parts, I have found that sometimes Eastern European shipping costs can be lower and France too. But expect a delivery time of 2+ weeks. Regards, David

You may want to try the First Time User's Primer. It's purpose is to provide a gentle introduction for new users (like me!).

Given BrickLink's policy of purging forum posts after 6 months of inactivity, I'm re-posting the essence of the original BrickLink posting here. That way, it is more likely to preserve the link to the template spreadsheet for the future. I find that managing Wanted list items is okay when you have a small number of items and small quantities. However, if the number of items on the list is too big or has a large quantity and needs to be split over multiple stores, management of the list becomes a little cumbersome. For example, the wanted list for Akiyuki's Ball Factory is a bit horrendous. I have used BrickStock and Brickficiency to alleviate the list management / store selection process but I find myself wanting something with the capabilities of Excel. Now while I can get BrickStock and Brickficiency to create reasonable output for use in Excel (the BSX files), neither include the image of the part as part of the export. As a result, I set myself a little exercise of creating an Excel spreadsheet to assist in the management of wanted list items which includes the image of the parts. I have completed the first cut and thought that it may be of use to other BrickLink users. The spreadsheet is written in Excel 2007, which I would expect will cover most versions of Excel still in use on people's machines. If you are interested in taking a look, it can be downloaded from Google Drive. The spreadsheet is a template with macros. What that means is when you double click the file in Windows Explorer, it will create a new instance of a spreadsheet based on the template. As it contains macros, you will likely get a security warning about running macros from an untrusted source. As of the VBA code for the solution is fully visible, you can always not enable the macros and inspect the code beforehand to give you peace of mind about what it is doing. Also, as the VBA code is not hidden, you can always fold, mutilate or spindle it to your hearts content. I haven't used the spreadsheet extensively in anger, so if you do use it and encounter what you think is unexpected behaviour, please drop me a PM and I'll take a look at the problem. Hopefully someone else will find this useful. Regards, David

About 6 weeks ago, I built the maze for my kids based on the images and videos available online. They tried it with a Zamor spheres, a soccer ball and a basketball. The Zamor sphere didn't really work as part of the sphere is flat (take a look by looking at the larger image link available on the BrickLink Zamor sphere catalog page). When the Zamor sphere was used, there were times when it would sit of on the flat part of the sphere and not move. I would hope that the soccer ball and/or basketball make it into the set. David

Take a look at this BrickLink forum posting for a solution by me. This helps to explain why I was struggling to find the original post on the BrickLink forum - it was here! David

First draft of version 11. Fully LDD legal. I'll try the actual build perhaps within a week, stress test it and, if all is good, produce the build instructions. David

This is a legitimate LDD build which provides for the separator and the connection to the track a la version 10. I'll need to integrate this back into the straight section but on (digital) paper it's looking promising. I am now also wonder if it can be leveraged to eliminate what would be the only remaining "illegal" LDD part of the build - the separator on the "straight through".

I put some flesh on the bones: That was fairly straight forward. Now to think about tweaking the separator (the bit circled in red) to allow the connection to the normal track part.

So it looks like I've got another itch to scratch: This is a legitimate build in LDD. It achieves the necessary 112.5 degree angle with two hinges, eliminating the Technic connector altogether. A deeper exploration of this will be required but I fear that the itch may result in version 11. Dang.

A fair point. So if anyone has a spare EN which they were wondering what they should do with, I'm willing to spend my time trialing it on the Diamond Crossing. Drop me a message and I'll provide you with the shipping address. And I promise I'll post back to this thread about whether or not the trial is successful. Oh, and I'll assume that you won't want me to return it to you

Refer to this picture (generated using mecabricks.com) combined with the explanation below, The bracket attached to the fence gives a 4 LDU offset. I needed another 4 LDU offset to fit the tile. I achieved this by using the 8 LDUs under the stud on the Brick, Modified 1 x 2 with Studs on 1 Side, and using the hole on headlight brick rotated by 180 degrees to turn the studs back towards the centre. This then gives 8 LDUs on which the tile is placed. One of the reason wanting to make the build instructions available is to gather improvements for them. I've got no ego attached to the design (hopefully!) and welcome suggestions for improvements. It will help to have other people's eyes other than mine looking/critiquing the design. Regards, David

If someone has (a) the Emerald Night and (b) the parts to make the crossing, I'd appreciate it if you would trial the crossing with the Emerald Night. My "stress" testing of the crossing was done with the 7939 Freight train and the 60051 Passenger train. My understanding from a few sources is that the Emerald Night can be sensitive to bumpy track. It would be nice to know whether or not the crossing is too bumpy. If you do trial it, please post your diagnosis to this thread. Regards, David

Given the build instructions are a PDF file, provided below is a parts list suitable for use as a BrickLink Wanted Items list. The list can be copied and pasted into BrickLink if desired. 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<ITEM><ITEMID>63864</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>8</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>32065</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>86</COLOR><MINQTY>2</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>3794b</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>16</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>99206</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>86</COLOR><MINQTY>4</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>2431</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>8</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>32017</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>4</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>2420</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>8</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>3623</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>10</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>15092</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>4</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>99207</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>86</COLOR><MINQTY>4</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>4274</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>86</COLOR><MINQTY>14</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>85984</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>4</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>3022</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>10</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>3004</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>6</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>4070</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>4</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>11477</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>2</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>3069b</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>4</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>61678</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>2</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>11211</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>86</COLOR><MINQTY>2</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>99781</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>86</COLOR><MINQTY>2</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>6636</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>2</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>3021</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>6</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>15100</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>11</COLOR><MINQTY>2</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>32062</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>11</COLOR><MINQTY>8</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>3460</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>2</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>32028</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>2</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>44302</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>4</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>32013</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>4</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>30383</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>4</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>3666</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>2</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>32530</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>4</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>61409</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>2</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>32015</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>10</COLOR><MINQTY>2</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>44728</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>2</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>3020</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>2</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>3937</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>2</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>32000</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>2</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> <ITEM><ITEMID>2444</ITEMID><ITEMTYPE>P</ITEMTYPE><COLOR>85</COLOR><MINQTY>2</MINQTY><NOTIFY>N</NOTIFY></ITEM> </INVENTORY>