suenkachun

Just installed the latest Custom LDD Update using the latest “20251130_v1.0.zip” Folder and discovered several small issues. First, after opening the “251130.lxf” a number of Bricks and Decorations are missing as shown below, LDD also marked some Bricks as Removed. Next, some of the Sticker Decorations under the Optional “Stickers Rar.rar” Folder are now Misplaced due to Updated UV Maps in this Custom Update, the relevant Bricks for these Decorations at least include 63864, 5091, 5092 and 65676, there might be others too since this Folder remains unchanged in the past few Custom LDD Updates. Lastly, were the contents of the previous “20250822 v1.0 - fix.rar” Dropbox Download been incorporated into any latest Custom LDD Update Releases, since the old “79393_1.png” seems to be the version supplied in “20251130_v1.0.zip” instead of the new one from “20250822 v1.0 - fix.rar”, thanks.

How To Manage And Use LDD Colours This Post will introduce everything Colour-related in LDD on Windows (latest 10/11), including details of Programme Files and how to add Custom Colours into LDD, hope that this will be useful for all and thanks for stopping by. There are three main Colour Palettes for each Mode in LDD plus a Colour Selector Palette in LDD Extended under the “Paint Tool (B)”, all changes are usually only for the LDD Extended Colour Palette (identical to the Colour Selector Palette). Go to “C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\LEGO Company\LEGO Digital Designer\db” to find “Materials.xml” and “CurrentMaterials.xml”, both can be opened using any Text Editor. “Materials.xml” is the backbone File for all LDD Colours, where each Colour has its “Material ID”, “RGBA” Values and “Material Type” listed using the following format (excluding the Blank Spaces in front): “<Material MatID="WWW" Red="XXX" Green="YYY" Blue="ZZZ" Alpha="255 or 150" MaterialType="shinyPlastic or shinySteel"/>”. “Material MatID” is the official TLG Colour ID with 1-3 Dights, “Red”, “Green” and “Blue” are the “RGB” Colour Values always between 0-255, “Alpha” is the Transparency Value set as either “255” for all Solid Colours and “150” for all Colours with Transparency, “MaterialType” defines the type of Colour Material either “shinyPlastic” or “shinySteel”. “CurrentMaterials.xml” defines the Number of current Colours in LDD actively used by TLG, categorised into “Solid”, “Transparent” and “Metallic”. The remaining ones are considered retired by TLG and placed under “Legacy” (first found in the “MaterialSelector.xml” File introduced below), with the following format used (excluding the Blank Spaces in front): “<Material MatID="XXX" />”. “Material MatID” is again the official TLG Colour ID with 1-3 Digits. Go to “C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\LEGO Company\LEGO Digital Designer\Palettes\LDDExtended” to find “MaterialSelector.xml” (also opened with any Text Editor), which further defines how Colours are shown in LDD Extended, as listed using the following format (excluding the Blank Spaces in front): “<Material id="XXX"/>”. Once again, “Material id” is the official TLG Colour ID with 1-3 Digits while some entries hide their Colour Names at the end after two Regular Spaces as follows: “<Material id ="423"/> <!-- Umber Brown -->”. Go to “C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\LEGO Company\LEGO Digital Designer\db” and locate the “MaterialNames” Folder, where the “localizedStrings.loc” File under the “EN” Folder contains all English LDD Colour Names, while the “localizedStrings.loc” File under the “DE” Folder contains all German LDD Colour Names. Both Files should be opened with the programme “Notepad++” (for more information and to download, visit: https://notepad-plus-plus.org/), since it can successfully insert the “NULL” Character used in “.loc” Files (thus no regular Spaces are used except within Colour Names). Each Text starts with the Number “2”, then “NULL”/“MaterialXXX”/“NULL”/“Colour Name”/“NULL”/“MaterialXXX”/“NULL”/“Colour Name”/“NULL”/etc. (always ending with a “NULL” Character), where “XXX” is again the official TLG Colour ID with 1-3 Digits, additional Naming Rules for both Languages are listed below. The initial pair of Colour Name Files provided by TLG were not perfect, with missing entries on both Sides and a few incorrectly translated German Names. Since the release of Custom LDD Updates, both Files have also been updated each time new Colours were added. The most up-to-date LDD Colour Files for the July 2025 Custom LDD Update can be downloaded from Dropbox here, also including a slightly modified version of the “Materials.xml” and “MaterialSelector.xml” Files plus a Change Log File. Simply Download the ZIP Folder and extract all content after opening the “File Properties” of the ZIP Folder and unblock it before use, since Windows might treat Files as harmful ones from other Computers once modified or Downloaded, then directly Replace all relevant local Files. The ZIP Folder is scheduled to be updated soon, after the release of the next Custom LDD Update on November 30, 2025, which will introduce a single new Colour “428 Earth Blue V.3/Blau Erdfarbe V.3” into LDD. Using the current LDD Extended main Colour Palette Layout, the best location to add Custom Colours in LDD Extended is at the end of the “Solid” section on top, with five available spaces at the end of the last Row. First modify the “Materials.xml” File by typing in new entries (also add at least one Blank Row before to make a new Section) after the current ones using the same formats, then set “Alpha” as “255” or “150” and “MaterialType” as “shinyPlastic” or “shinySteel” accordingly, while the “Material MatID” should be set as a random large Number such as “500” to minimise the chances of it being used by TLG in the future. Once complete, modify the “CurrentMaterials.xml” File by typing in new entries (also add Blank Rows before to make a new Section) after the current ones using the same format, otherwise the new Colours will all be automatically placed into the “Legacy” Category by default and not appear in the LDD Extended Colour Palettes “Solid” section. Next, modify the “MaterialSelector.xml” File by typing in new entries (also add at least one Blank Row before to make a new Section) in the first section before “<!-- Legacy -->” after the current ones using the same format. Finally, add the English and correctly Translated German Names of each new Colour into the corresponding “localizedStrings.loc” File, after the final “NULL” Character at the end of each Text add “MaterialXXX”/“NULL”/“New Colour Name”/“NULL”/etc., always ending with a “NULL” Character. Each time a new Custom LDD Update containing new Colours is released, the Updated Colour Files included in the ZIP File “LDD Latest Colour Files.zip” on Dropbox will be merged with the new versions provided within the Custom LDD Update Files, most likely the new entries will be checked for mistakes then fixed and manually added to the Dropbox Colour Files before the new version of the Dropbox ZIP File is released. For any personally added Custom Colours, always install the latest Dropbox ZIP File first, then manually add back all Customisations.

If I am not mistaken, the Colour Selector Palette is the one in LDD Extended under the “Paint Tool (B)”, this should be identical to the main Colour Palette accessed from the base of the LDD Extended Brick Palette, so changes must be made to the main Colour Palette for them to show up in the Colour Selector Palette. I am planning a separate post to explain all Colour-related Menus and Programme Files later, but the following brief information should help for now. Also remember that not all Colours added in each new Custom LDD Update are enabled to avoid both Colour Palettes from becoming too tall, some will simply be part of specific Assemblies and Bricks. If the goal here is to add a new Custom Colour into LDD, the four Colour-related LDD Programme Files need to be modified, then add the Colour’s English and German Names to each corresponding Colour Name File. EDIT: If certain Colours are out of bounds, it’s probably due to the “Display Scale” Settings in Windows. The recommended one is usually “150%” then there is “175%”, which are both too large personally. The next best one is “125%” which is quite ideal, but always set as “100%” to fully display all rows of Colours in LDD.

Here is the SVG Version of the Part 87079 UV Map with bonus Dimensions information listed below. Front and Back Vertical Surfaces: Original Maximum Dimensions 83.2125 Pixels times 952 Pixels, Compress shorter side to 74 Pixels. Two Side Vertical Surfaces: Original Maximum Dimensions 83.3 Pixels times 476 Pixels, Compress shorter side to 74 Pixels. Remember not to change either longer side or crop any shapes, all other Measurements are accurate as listed in the SVG.

This Element is one of many which now decorates multiple surfaces at once, in this case the main surface on top and the four side vertical surfaces as well, so a regular Maximum Square will no longer work. For now check the “UV Maps” Folder supplied with recent Custom LDD Updates and there should be a rough PNG Image of 87079 in there, I can post the SVG version shortly for better exact Pixel Measurements once my Laptop loads (currently replying on Mobile).

Under the “UV Maps” Folder in the Part 5 ZIP File two PNG Images are shown as Plain Black instead of including the actual UV Map Outlines: “79393_1.png” and “98834_1.png”, attempts to manually recreate the Decoration Surface of “79393” using a shape with similar Curved Edges and the only existing Decoration failed as the results did not fill up the entire surface, resulting in border issues (for “98834” the actual Surface is similar to the UV Map Surface thus easier to work out). Perhaps the correctly outlined UV Map Image can explain what I did wrong with the similar shape as there are no external borders to reference, if this Decoration Surface is updated do fix the only existing Decoration too, thanks.

The updated “LDD Latest Colour Files” for the July 2025 Update have just been completed, which can be downloaded from Dropbox here. Basically, the original LDD Colour Files, especially the two Name Files, contain multiple issues such as missing entries on both the English/German sides and mistranslated German Names. Although initial improvements were published officially, the latest version for the May 2024 Update was not, which is why a separate “LDD Latest Colour Files.zip” File is now maintained alongside official Custom LDD Updates. It is highly recommended to download the files and manually replace the local versions with these instead of using those supplied with the latest Custom LDD Update. Please refer to the attached “Change Log” for all details regarding what is fixed, including everything from the previous updated version (details in this old post). Thanks for stopping by and the five changes for this updated version include the following. English Colour Names: Fixed spelling mistake of new Colour 181 Multikombination” to “Multicombination”. German Colour Names: Fixed incorrect Colour Numbers used at the back of new Colours 31 and 32, added missing Space before the “&” for Colour 81, Colour 130 now properly translated as “Farbe Mischung” instead of “Farbenmix” from the original English Name “Colour Mix”.

Yes for No. 2 just save the files elsewhere like the original “db” folder but do not delete them so this is essentially just backing them up elsewhere, in fact it is highly recommended to do the same for all LDD programme files which are replaced with an unlocked version in case they are needed again. Regarding the perfect method to install LDD, there are two simple rules to follow. 1. “LDD Version 4.3.11” will always be the best installer to use (since “LDD Version 4.3.12” removes the Flash Player requirement but has other issues), any old PCs with an existing, unaltered original LDD installation can directly install Custom LDD Updates. 2. On modern PCs, there are now two options. If Flash Player is not available, always use the perfect method. Alternatively, try to properly install Flash Player, then install “LDD Version 4.3.11” and Custom Updates. Without the perfect method or installing “LDD Version 4.3.11” directly, LDD is not listed as a properly installed programme in the Settings or Control Panel and the additional Start Menu Folder and Desktop Shortcut are not generated. Minor issues include missing non-essential programme files, LDD now runs directly from the software executable “LDD.exe” and the need to manually associate “.lxf” and “.lxfml” files with “LDD.exe”. I have not tried the alternative method under No. 2 yet, but there is now a free programme called “Clean Flash Player” on GitHub which aims to bring it back to modern PCs, perhaps “LDD Version 4.3.11” can now be installed directly after also installing “Clean Flash Player”.

Welcome to the forum, here are more details regarding your questions. 1. This is correct, just remember to manually update the “DecorationMapping.xml” each time an LDD Update is installed as this file can be customised to add custom decorations. 2. This is correct too, perhaps just save the two files elsewhere without renaming them, they must now be stored in a separate folder as LDD will always attempt to read any “.lxf” files before any extracted folders. 3. This is correct, it will become a new folder under the “Palettes” folder and is accessed via LDD Mindstorms. 4. For “Aditional, Optional Palettes”, please copy and paste the separate folders inside to the “Palettes” folder, then access them via LDD Mindstorms too. 5. It is quite common to find errors for new LDD Updates upon release, just check back the Update Website and this topic for further news. P.S., there is also a new combined method to fully install LDD on Windows as linked below, which might help solve further issues along the way, hope it will be useful too.

To both: Welcome to the Forum. Do check out the following information as well, which can hopefully make the installation process a bit easier for Windows. Before adding any Custom Updates, the best thing to do first is install LDD properly. There is a new perfect method to do this as detailed in my earlier post linked below, which essentially combines the two installers for both “LDD Version 4.3.11” and “LDD Version 4.3.12” to achieve a perfect installation. Once complete, Custom LDD Updates can be installed. Start with the “Complete Update“ from Dropbox as linked in the Post to receive all new content since 2020, then install the latest LDD Update (January 2025) as well. The easiest way to describe the installation process is to Copy and Paste all Folders and Files into the corresponding locations on the User’s PC, then select “Replace All” when prompted (only after the “db” File has been extracted). The main “db” Folder should be located in “C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\LEGO Company\LEGO Digital Designer”, so everything should be Pasted within there. Remember that most new Bricks will only be added to LDD Extended, so always check here first. P.S., Do check this topic and the main Custom LDD Update Website for further news regarding ongoing issues with certain Parts such as Minifigure-related ones, which require more time to fully address.

Next time remember to post in the partner support topic for questions regarding LDD Updates. For the latest LDD Update this year Minifigure Parts were updated with new UV Mappings which decorates multiple surfaces at once instead of separately, connections between Parts were also modified. However, some users including myself found old connected Minifigures removed due to the new collisions, the new UV Mappings also mean all existing official Minifigure Decorations need to be redone which takes a lot of time The new format will also impact custom Decorations and creating custom combos from the existing Decorations, unless you have access to the original high-resolution Decoration Images/Shapes and know how to edit each UV Map manually to combine Decorations. I am less involved with LDD these days so the best thing I can say now is wait for official news as this issue takes time to resolve or temporarily revert back to the previous Update.

As the latest LDD Update for January 2025 was just made available, the PDF Guide will be updated with new entries and fixes to existing entries due to updated UV Mappings. So far there are around eight new entries to add, four existing entries to update and two new Sloped Bricks to be newly mentioned in the section regarding the six different Base Height of Slopes. Due to newly added Graphics Display options in “Windows 11, version 24H2”, there will now be a dedicated section regarding how to optimise running LDD on Windows, expanding upon the original short paragraph in the existing Guide. These changes will officially launch Version 2 of the PDF Guide, hopefully within the next few weeks as there are far fewer Bricks to add compared to previous LDD Updates.

Thanks for the post as I was completely unaware of the latest LDD Update until seeing this. Just downloaded the three ZIP files from the latest LDD Update and used a “Text Compare” Website to compare the contents of all files with the same file names, so far under both “db” the two “DecorationMapping.xml” and “info.xml” are completely identical, under “Palettes” then “2020NewPreColoredParts” the two “2020NewPreColoredParts.paxml” and “info.baxml” are also completely identical. I guess for now overwrite the local copy with either pair or wait until an official post in the partner topic for an official confirmation in case there were supposed to be differences or some files were misplaced/accidentally included twice, requiring further fixes.

After further checks, no additional changes are required for the PDF Guide and the latest version is the one from December 1, 2024. P.S., “Windows 11, version 24H2” was just released today and so far LDD is running smoothly on my end after the upgrade plus a few Driver updates that I previously did not know of. Concerning the PDF Guide, please note that for one of the programmes mentioned and often used “Microsoft Paint 3D”, from November 4 it could no longer be downloaded from the Microsoft Store but one final update was published afterwards before removal and existing installations will be unaffected, Microsoft recommends sticking with the more basic “Paint”, edit functions within “Microsoft Photos” and “3D Builder” for 3D Models. In addition, starting from “Windows 11, version 24H2” another mentioned Text Editor “Wordpad” is finally discontinued, Microsoft recommends sticking with the more basic “Notepad” or directly switching to “Microsoft Word” (may require a Paid Subscription) to edit relevant files.

Welcome, please post in the partner topic next time regarding any LDD-related questions.Do ckeck out the new perfect method to install LDD on Windows 10/11 before trying to install the Custom Updates, as detailed in my post earlier linked below. Once I have accessto my Laptop later today I will be able to assist further as I am currently using a public PC away from home. Hope this helps for now. EDIT: The link has now been updated to show a preview.