djm

The kickstarter page suggests some of this capability will be available but as a "stretch goal". If the funding reaches £140,000, then a profile designer goal will be reached. This is referred to under the title "Funding Milestone" about halfway down the kickstarter page. Regards, David

I'm in. Pledged. Can someone please wipe the drool from my iPad keypad ;) David

For any Kiwis out there monitoring this thread, ToyCo is running a 25% off any Lego they have in stock I think it runs only until July 4th. Unlike their usual promotions which typically exclude the higher priced sets (e.g Mindstorms EV3), this is for everything that is in stock is 25% off. That brings prices down to close to the price of US prices for the Lego online store - especially when you factor shipping into it and the uncertainty of whether or not a shipment from the US will cop GST/duty. Regards, David

The first two work okay - neither have anything at a greater height than the cross rail. I had made a video of the two of them hooked up in a figure of 8 x1.5 (hopefully that makes sense) and running the yellow cargo train sweetly. But when I went to upload the video to complement this post, for the life of me I couldn't find it The third one will potentially be an issue for train with a low clearance. There are protrusions of a stud (4 LDUs) above the cross rail - much akin to the issue with the first version of the diamond crossing. All three of these were precursors to the diamond crossing - they were part of my lessons as to what would and wouldn't work. I'll think about adding the reworking of the third crossing variation to eliminate the protrusions to my "to do" list, though after I've modelled the diamond crossing using LDraw. Regards, David

On my "to do" list is to provide some build instructions for the diamond crossing I posted about earlier. Other than using LDD, that entails me learning how to use LPub to generate a PDF file. I started off with using LPub to generate build instructions for this 90 degree crossing: Standing on the shoulders of giants ... the inspiration for this was two earlier positing x-cross track for PF Trains and MOC custom PF crossroad track. The subtle difference for mine is that the track separation is (should be!) aligned to the actual separation between the tracks (as identified by zephr1934). The build instructions for this are too big to attach to the post but they are available here. I came up with two variations on this theme. One which is a 90 degree crossing with a baseplate + 1 plate elevation: and the other is a 90 degree crossing without any extra elevation: Having come to grips with the fundamentals of using LPub, I hope to use it in the next couple of weeks to create the build instructions for the diamond crossing. Once I have done that, I will update the previous post with appropriate links. Regards, David

Attached to this message is the LDD file for the revised version. There are a couple of connections that are unacceptable to LDD, hence the crossing has been modelled in LDD as being the penultimate step of the construction. This image below illustrates the crossing as represented in the LDD file. The colour coding is meant to assist in illustrating which pieces will need to be joined to complete the build. Red to red, green to green and blue to blue. Hopefully that makes sense. One track piece is included in the file to illustrate the technique to join the crossing to the standard Lego train track. Once assembled, it should look something like the following (though hopefully without the rainbow of colours that were available when I was building it). One desire in providing the LDD file for the crossing is for others to build, critique and suggest improvements to the design. I would welcome any posts to this thread with suggested improvements. I've already got one improvement up my sleeve, which is to amend the design so that it may be able to be used in conjunction with a baseplate. But that is probably going to be more than a month away as I have a pile of paperwork on my desk (underneath the pile of Lego!) that I've been ignoring for too long which needs to be addressed first. Regards, David diamond_40_ldu_height.lxf

Thanks for the reply garethjellis. It made me do a little bit more exploring on other applications. It turns out to be a feature of my mouse configuration in Windows and not LDD after all. Via control panel in Windows, I discovered that a click of my mouse's wheel is defined to be "Magnify". So it's not a LDD capability. Regards, David

Using LDD today, I accidentally clicked my mouse's wheel. It exposed a function in LDD that I didn't previously know was available. I had a browse through this forum and the LDD help file to see whether or not this is a documented feature. I couldn't spot anything (though that may simply mean my search wasn't adequate) so I thought I'd identify what I experienced. [aside: this post also gives me the chance to try embedding photos hosted on Google plus). I'd be interested if someone could let me know whether or not this is a known/document capability of LDD. Photo 1: screen prior to the click of the mouse wheel: Photo 2: "mini zoom" window upon clicking the mouse wheel. The mini zoom window moves with the cursor. Clicking the mouse wheel again removes the mini zoom window. Apologies in advance if this is known functionality! Regards, David

Here's the revised crossing in action. The revision addresses the identified issues in the previous post. I haven't yet built in in LDD but once I do, I'll post the revised design in this thread. Regards, David

Rework progress update (fortunately, I haven't had to resort to a file!). I've managed to restructure things a little and remove the studs that were protruding too high on all fours "arms" of the crossing. The "diamond" in the middle is next but I'm hopeful of retaining most of the original approach. The restructure has resulted in an additional height addition of 4 LDUs, so the resulting crossing looks like it will end up as being the equivalent height of a track on top of two plates. If I manage to find time during the evenings this week, I'm hoping to complete the restructure in time for a trial run on the weekend. If all goes well, I'll upload an updated LDD file early next week. Regards, David

Thanks zephyr1934. My first thought when I decided to try to make it was "that can't be too hard, surely". It was nearly too hard. It took quite a few false starts to make it to the end. The yellow cargo train is my son's favourite, so until I can restructure the crossing to work for it I don"t get to put it on our layout. With the plow coupler on, it does a tremendous job of destroying the crossing!

I can do better than a picture - I've got an LDD file for it, so I'll upload it shortly. Notes about the current design the "between rails" section is too high for some trains e.g. the yellow cargo train's (7939) front buffer has a plow on it, which catches on the studs. For the video, I removed the front buffer (to quote Peter Gabriel, "the generic term for this is cheating") as the run was a primarily a proof of concept test. I've worked out an alternative lower configuration for 1/2 of the "between rails" section using 4x1 fences. I'll have that bit reworked tonight. I've yet to tackle the other 1/2 of the "between rails" section. the "slightly curvy bits" that form two sides of the diamond will also need refinement. They suffer the same "too high" challenge and will get in the way of a train with a low plow. LDD won't allow the modelling of the Technic beams and studs. The LDD file is as close as I can get it to resemble the physical entity. In the real world, push the studs all the way in. The height is odd at 36 LDUs. This requires the attaching real rail pieces to be elevated by 12 LDUs (1 plate + 1 baseplate) The attachment to the real tracks is clunky. It requires refinement. The aim is to address all of these items in a refined design. Regards, David Here's the LXF file from LDD. Edit: LDD file removed due to subsequent uploads using allocated quota. The most recent version of this is version 7, and can be found in the forum with a posting date of November 2014.

Currently a work in progress but it is nearing completion.

Hi David here. I've been browsing this forum for a couple of months, so I guess it's time to say hello. I've got two young kids, 5 and 6. They're my excuse for getting back into Lego! Long, long, long dark age. Regards, David