SylvainLS

Yes, think about them. How many are they? Actually very few, especially if you compare with how much TLG makes with regular sets and what they could make with LDD. And do you have an idea how much it costs to actually maintain LDD (not just throwing a few new parts once a year)? All the people you need to write, test, code, maintain, support (in multiple languages) the program? You also seem blinded by your own experience as a professional. How many people do you know who are like you? What percentage of the people you know does that make? Or even what percentage of the people you know and who buy LEGO does that make? LDD for professionals is a very little niche, even for AFOLs it’s a little niche. And it’s now in competition with other, free, programs, like Studio which is directly linked to the biggest parts marketplace. Clearly, if LDD were a golden goose, TLG wouldn’t have abandoned it.

How do you know it doesn’t cost more than it brigs in?

Everything is possible but there’re matrices multiplications involved, you can’t just copy and paste the submodels definitions where they are used.

And here I thought you wrote everything in one go with notepad

Update 2019-01-07 Added: 12891 / 12891.dat Animal Bird Seagull 20460 / 20460.dat ~Minifig Leg Left with Boots 20461 / 20461.dat ~Minifig Leg Right with Boots 25975 / 25975.dat Minifig Acoustic Guitar 30841 / 30841.dat Windscreen 2 x 4 x 1.333 42602 / 42602.dat Windscreen 8 x 6 x 4 Canopy with Click Hinge Dual Fingers 61189 / 61189.dat Minifig Helmet SW Clone Trooper Phase I 63585 / 63585.dat Minifig Helmet Floodlight for SW Clone Trooper Helmet 63586 / 63586.dat Minifig Helmet Rangefinder for SW Clone Trooper Helmet Importable: 61190d.dat =Minifig Helmet Rangefinder for SW Clone Trooper Helmet 61190e.dat =Minifig Helmet Floodlight for SW Clone Trooper Helmet Corrected: 3820 / 3820.dat Minifig Hand (more accurate version in Unofficial) md5sum: eea1e6cf7e64831b6e6d58228adb54a8

The models posted here are built by ordinary people. They can’t build a set when they don’t have the instructions. The only way to have intructions is to buy the set or get the electronic version from LEGO. And then they build the set on their own time.

Hi, Actually not a FAQ for Studio The problem is manyfold. First, LDD “names” the decorations with numbers that have, AFAICT, no relation to any publicly available number or ID. Then, LDraw and BrickLink don’t name (all) the printed parts the same way (both description and ID). That means you need to first match the LDD picture with a LDraw part, if it exists, and then match that LDraw part with its BrickLink number to be usable in Studio. All that has to be done manually, decoration by decoration. Also, LDD decorations aren’t always the same as real ones and matching them is not always obvious or useful. I know, I’ve done it (or tried to do it) for lxf2ldr

Select all the parts of one of the instances of your submodel. A button “Create into Submodel” appears in the status line (you need to select at least two parts for that). You can also right-click your selection and select Submodel / Create. Now erase the parts on the other copy of your submodel and replace them with a copy (Clone tool, or select the submodel and type 'C'). You can’t just select the parts and create another submodel with the other copy because, even if they will have the same parts in the same relative positions, it won’t be the same submodel. The submodel will now appear as a part in the Instruction Maker and when you hover over it, a button appears so that you can edit its steps, and in the Page Design, its steps will be shown only once and a x2 (or more) will be added, and (optional) arrows (as many as needed but initially all on top of each other) will help show where to put its instances. Note that if you use/copy the same submodel in different steps, then its steps will be repeated and you won’t have a xN. Also note that if you change the steps for one copy, they will change for the other copies too. Unless you “unlink” them.

Update 2018-12-15 Added: 17010 / 17010.dat Minifig Weapon Blaster with Two Barrels 18826 / 18826.dat Minifig Tool Rip Saw 20877 / 20877.dat Minifig Hair Female Short Swept Sideways 20950 / 20950.dat Minifig Helmet Kylo Ren md5sum: 91a371bb4a724f216d62829164e20136

75937 Plate, Modified 2 x 2 with Bar Frame Octagonal, Reinforced, Completely Round Studs (BrickLink) 75937 Parbolic Ring (LEGO & Brickset)

I’m not sure you actually understand because packing everything in a Zip file to have only one file isn’t a problem at all, it’s indeed very practical. It’s using a password that’s a problem, and not giving the specifications of their modifications/enhancements to the LDraw format. LXF also is a Zip file, with a semi-open format inside (it’s XML and there’s an older version of the specs for LXFML available). We can read the data inside and rebuild the model easily because it’s almost self-explanatory. In 20 or 40 years from now, your grand children will have your AFOL career’s chef d’œuvre and its instructions in a .io file, but they won’t have your old computer, or a copy of Studio, and won’t be able to find one, and they won’t know the password, and they won’t know how to access your model and its instructions, and your work will be lost to them. Or maybe in 5 years, there will be a brand new application you’ll want to use, but it won’t be able to import your .io files, or only the model but not the instructions, or with multiple errors…. Or right now, we can’t make simple tools to manipulate/create Studio models (e.g. generate models, mirroring builds, changing all occurences of one part to another, etc.). We can do that with LDraw. Okay, we could export to LDraw, transform, then reimport in Studio but it’s not direct, and there are conversion problems (for some unknown reason, for some parts, Studio doesn’t use the Official LDraw part but their own, and there are position and orientation problems), and we need Studio. Those are the kinds of problems caused by closed / proprietary / locked-in formats.

The issue isn’t whether you can. Passwords can be bruteforced or more smarly extracted. The problem is BL are unnecessarily hiding things, especially as they are expanding on an already open file format (well, two actually as Zip is open too, which is why you can see what are the files that are stored inside an io file with about any extractor or file manager (but can’t read or extract their contents if you don’t have the password)).

Update 2018-12-09 Added: 18927 / 18927.dat Minifig Cloth Wrap / Bandana with Rounded Top 22407 / 22407.dat Minifig Axe Head Faceted with Bar 0.5L 22409 / 22409.dat Minifig Shield Pentagonal Jagged 29602 / 29602.dat Animal Dog Bulldog Plain 93220 / 93220.dat Minifig Baseball Bat md5sum: cfc2cea5459443230e9f77b918b4aad7

Not only yours

Yes, in Studio, importing a set means importing the parts, unbuilt.

I don’t know the specificities of LDD on MacOS but there are general rules that apply: First, 4.3.11 is the latest version for everyone, and it doesn’t work differently than all 4.3 versions (or even older ones) (besides, I doubt anyone is still using older versions, except maybe a few 4.3.10 hanging around). Then, don’t try to create folders and files if they aren’t already there. If they aren’t there it’s because they are elsewhere or you’re not looking where you should. Also, these personal files are user specific and are created after LDD has been first executed by each user. So, (install LDD and) launch LDD, then quit (preferences.ini is only read at start up anyway, so letting LDD running is useless), then try to find all the “LEGO Company” directories (search for “LEGO,” case should matter but try a “case insensitive” search if you can find it) and preferences.ini in your personal folder / home.

Minifig hair are wigs

Update 2018-11-24 (The “Philo is looking for a new haircut” release.) Added: 20595 / 20595.dat Minifig Hair Long Tousled with Centre Part 21268 / 21268.dat Minifig Hair Short Swept Back with Sideburns and Widow's Peak 21778 / 21778.dat Minifig Hair Coiled 23186 / 23186.dat Minifig Hair Swept Left Tousled 26139 / 26139.dat Minifig Hair Short Wavy with Centre Part 87990 / 87990.dat Minifig Hair with Ponytail and Swept Sideways Fringe 99930 / 99930.dat Minifig Hair Short Combed Sideways Part Left Rematched: 30089a.dat Minifig Camera Snapshot Type 1 Importable: 30089.dat ~Moved to 30089a 30089b.dat Minifig Camera Snapshot Type 2 (aligned on handle) md5sum: 9a364cdb39a63cae99ac4db16184d510

Yes, a restricted palette, restricted subjects, and,even though some were fixed during the contest, there were a few problems with Studio, like hinges and minifigs not posable, no string, hose, and (still) no flexible part (they should have worked on that earlier, it’s really more of a feature than the stability check that no one understands and seems pretty useless anyway). Well, let’s see what will come out of this. Too bad this test run wasn’t done in optimal conditions, but then what does?

This should work:

Some people had problems entering too.

Yes. Hence the usefulness of lxf2ldr (wink wink nudge nudge).

Update 2018-11-10 Added: 29111 / 29111.dat Animal Spider with Elongated Abdomen 33279 / 33279.dat Scala Ski Pole 13L Importable: 28959.dat =Animal Tail md5sum: 7d614e7c5f81abafc398d36add8ee1f1

But then, you can’t make a group inside a group And by the way, and shameless plug, if you want to keep the LDD groups in Studio or LDraw, lxf2ldr can help you:

For LDD, look at the top of the parts palette: there’s tabs. Groups are in the third one. Select some parts and the bottom icon becomes active (coloured). You can make subgroups too. Note that Studio doesn’t import LDD groups.