Toadtorrent

Instruction manual cover for my House by the Sea How to MOC the hard way... Well not really...but pretty close. Please be gentle...this is my first real MOC ever and certainly my first real topic posted in a Lego forum so I'm not sure if my style of post is in-sync with how things are done here...but hey, I'll give it a go. I will be the first to admit that I'm not the greatest free builder...but I have fun and that's what it's really all about. What I am great at however, is diving head first into new challenges whenever I can find them and this MOC initiative presented one. I wanted to get a nice thank you gift for friends who are loaning us their house by the ocean and I thought given that there are 2 families involved and both have kids, what better thing to give than a Lego version of their house? Building a model is easy...too easy for me to undertake...so I thought to myself, how can I make this harder for myself...much harder? Step 1 - Triple the Quantity Why build a model once when you can build it three times? Assembling 3 sets requires significantly more effort for gathering parts, bagging, and redundant activities Step 2 - Design Virtually I designed starting with LDD as that's what I first discovered on this forum I quickly realized the limitations of LDD for brick selection I discovered Universe mode thanks to this forum, and that opened up some more doors and made things CLOSER to what I wanted...but thinking I would buy this directly from LDD through Lego, I tried to stick to the basic selection of elements and colours and created a "what-if" parallel model with different coloured elements and a few different bricks "just to see" what things COULD look like to determine if going the Bricklink source for parts was worth it (i.e. whether or not the end product justified 12 orders through BL for used parts that would be a gift) The building started getting confusing and hard to manage with the different layering of parts (e.g. landscaping, base house, roof, furniture, etc) I then discovered *.MPD files and had to reorganize and rebuild the project for better instruction production, and logical model assembly The ordering option through Lego from LDD with the WRONG colour selection priced this kit at over $750 each. OK...I like to think I'm relatively generous, but 3 kits x $750 = a lot of mojitoes!! I discovered LDraw, MLCad and LPub and had helpful responses from folks on this forum and a couple other sites to get me up and running using those tools I decided the benefits of used BL parts in terms of price and design were infinitely worth this route Step 3 - Make the Model Reproducable It's been said before, creating instructions so someone else can build the kit is hard I confirm...it's really time consuming Good instructions require conceptualizing sub-components, and separating and bagging parts for a more enjoyable assembly experience Step detail using LDraw Helper Files Assembling instructions from LDD are easy...relatively...but they kind of suck Assembling what I hoped to be GOOD instructions was quite hard I was inspired by Jurgen's instructions HERE Instruction creation involved learning LDD first, then LDraw, MLCad, POV-Ray, LPub and already knowing apps like Paintshop Pro, Photoshop, etc Once I figured out how to manipulate the images in the CAD environment, I had to do some additional image work using a bitmap editor, and integrating these modified images in LPub The door sample above illustrates the kind of features I put in the instructions to make assembly less confusing Kudos to the excellent LDraw tutorials HERE [*}Super-Kudos to the awesome MLCad tutorial HERE Use of brick painting to make understanding step differences clearer I got feedback from my beta testers (family) that the modular building using lots of white bricks made it hard to see what bricks were added The picture above shows instruction enhancements which involved temporary brick painting of parts Green to show what is added in the current step and how it looks after completion Have to have a couple fun elements in the build ...when nature calls Step 4 - Build it and They Will Come The house without roof parts Trying to create density on the 32x32 baseplate with some sand, rocks, water, grass, and a birdhouse Bedrooms with furniture inspired from some searching on Brickshelf The BBQ in brick vs virtual form Living room and kitchen Front entrance The completed house The model is a pretty accurate repro both in terms of exterior and interior design and colour with some liberties taken with the furniture colour scheme. I hope you guys like it...it's been shipped off to the recipients.

I was intending to mean without actually saying properly that I meant using LDD to export to *.ldr and then open in LDraw/MLCad. Is there a way to go from *.mpd to an xml parts list uploadable to Bricklink? I have no idea how to do that. I'm a virtual tool Noob, so not the best to answer these questions...but have had a good experience with the visual parts list generator on LPub.

I did the BOGO 50% off TRU sale with free shipping and bought the Grand Emporium and the Alien Conquest Mobile Defense HQ. I should have bought the Imperial Flagship as the second set to maximize the discount but I really wanted the Fire Brigades or Diagon Alley but they were all gone...and I wanted the HQ set more than the Flagship. I went back 2 hours later, and no more Grand Emporiums available!

Alternatively, you can use LPub to import the LDD file and use the parts list feature in that. LDraw / LPub Downloads LDraw / LPub Tutorials This software set doesn't give you the XML Bricklink upload capability but will produce a visual parts list similar to a real Lego instruction manual. In LDraw you can also export a parts a list, but it may have different part numbers and descriptions than what LDD and Bricklink uses (maybe 90% are the same).

Here's my latest cup: ...it's not my greatest value cup haul...but it was required to complete a MOC project which needed a bunch of white brick 1x3s...so I figured I would throw in a few extras while I was at it. I didn't do the high density packing except for the 1x3s...just threw in handfuls of stuff for the rest of it. The nice thing is the helpfulness of the staff at the Sherway store to get boxes in the back if you know what to ask for. Obviously the BL colours don't quite coincide with the official Lego names so asking for Medium Blue gets weird looks but a helpful hand when they bring the box out for confirmation. Yup...I don't go to the PAB wall with the kids. The white fences are a great find...very nice!

Crap...I was going to go there today too...went to Crappy Tire instead...

Woohoo...TRU.com in the US has their BOGO 50% off sale on ALL Lego with FREE shipping. Not so Canadian...but I'm going there soon and just ordered a Grand Emporium and Alien Conquest Mobile HQ...not maximizing the discount I know...but it wouldn't let me get 2 Grand Emporiums, and I didn't want to spend the extra for the Imperial Flagship...hey...take what you can get.

WOW...do you just stack in columns, or do you have a special technique?? I have to say though, as much as it is tempting to get some of the 1x2's, unless they are in an interesting colour (and luckily to me, dark red and medium blue are interesting colours), the value on going for 1x2s is low at a BL cost of about $0.08 a piece...only about $60 in brick per cup. The real value is in some of the unusual stuff which has a higher quantity average price. Mind you, it is definitely the most cost effective way to go for large quantities of 1-wide wall grade pieces in colours of interest.

...just picked up a bunch in a cup and some 1 x 3's for my current project. In the back, the store still has ready for the picking: Dark Red Brick 1 x 2 Medium Blue Brick 1 x 2 Reddish Brown Brick, Round 2 x 2 Dark Tan Tile 1 x 2 with Groove Dark Bluish Gray Tile, Modified 1 x 1 with Clip

Bills? Check. Catalogue? Check! ...bamboo at the Sherway store...PAB journey is pending methinks. Sherway PAB Inventory

I'm pretty new at the PAB thing....so I have no experience on what is typical. We have the clear 2x2 slope 45 pieces in Toronto but not the 1x2 clears. Bamboos are something I would like though.

Fun! Like the shisha! In the plate...are those the left hands of patrons used for payment?

Just got another cup: They had a few interesting pieces the other day...namely the tan 1x2 tiles, and the nice coloured brick 1x2. Time consuming? Yes...I find it takes 45mins to carefully stack a cup to get maybe 15% more...which with PAB S@H prices might on average work out to $20-30 worth of bricks (depending on the particular piece)...so it can be worth it...but definitely so, for specific colours. I was happy to get my dark red, trans-clear and medium blue 2x2's in quantity. I did the same for the Toronto store. WOW...so jealous!! The clear slopes are a great find...but the bamboo.

No sweat on the update. I didn't notice the free BAM offer...I was just shy of the amount...had I known about the offer, I'm sure I could have found an additional item or two...but I'm trying to save myself for a trip to the US next month. This was my PAB pickup: I also asked if I could throw in a few minifg pieces and they were cool with that, so I was able to get a couple Series 1 pieces. What's interesting about my load if anyone is interested, is that it's stacked mostly with small pieces which brings the value up a lot...and the Brick 1x2's are not the greatest value except at the S@H price for the trans-clear without the bottom tube. However, looking at the following post which from my reading has the technique for the greatest number of 2x4's packed in a cup at 169: Packing Technique for 169 2x4's in a PAB Cup ...this generates a "stud count" of 8 x 169 = 1352 with proper stacking. With my bulk handful stacking: 2 x 364 = 728...this comprised maybe 50-75% of my PAB cup, with the other bulky stuff comprising the rest (i.e. the DBG containers)...not too bad a mix though...and the Dark Tan tiles will make nice floors when complemented by the Reddish Brown 1x4 tiles from last month!

They still had lots of the Canadian Minifig there today. I just updated the PAB Inventory at BrickBuildr for Sherway today. Thanks for the heads up...had a staff person pull the boxes of medium blue and dark red out of the back for me. The problem with doing this is that I felt guilty about stacking carefully for maximum density with the staff standing by waiting to return the box to the back so I just scooped up handfuls and called it a day. Dark tan 1x2 Tiles...yaaay!! The BAM buckets also had some newly arrived Series 1 parts: Cheerleader (no pom poms) Luchadora (no cape) Spaceman (helmet and trans-clear visor)

Just watched and read...didn't realize there was such a HUGE difference between LPub version v2.x and v4.x. I had trouble with the download of the most recent version as it seemed to be missing a required DLL...but went one version back and that installed fine. Thanks for the reference. I couldn't get Youtube videos at work, so was unable to see this reference before. Brick on!

Hi, I'm a Noob LDD, LDraw and MLCad user and perhaps this is my problem. I have followed tutorials on LDraw.org and holly-wood.it and the steps required to create truly professional looking instructions does not seem to be detailed. MLCad can create ok images using the Steps command, and these can be further enhanced using Helper images as in the following: My House MOC in Question I can't figure out how to get pop-up window showing the required parts for each step as found in Holly-Wood.it instructions or Jurgen's Technic Corner instructions pictured below: I also can't figure out how to generate a parts list like Jurgens listed below either: I tried looking through pinned topics and using the Search function but have come up dry on a solution. Can anyone please help???? Do these images have to be created manually in a photo-editing program (EXTREMELY TEDIOUS), or do I have to use separate software?

This is excellent. The SNOT banner is great...the levels are executed amazingly with the below street level shop access...very clever. I really like your yellow stroller/pram.

Love the paint colour blender thing and girly calendar. Classic. You gotta have a coffee machine in there though.

Nice choice of crew too!! How about adding on a tuna harpooning perch?

Awesome work...thanks so much.

I do like the loader. You wouldn't by any chance have any detail shots of the crane mechanism would you?

:pir_bawling: Boo hoo :pir_bawling: Somebody took all the 1x8 and 1x3 white bricks from the Sherway PAB wall...just when I was working on my white based MOC. Hopefully they'll restock when I have a better idea of quantity required...nicely updated 2 minutes ago!! Sherway PAB Inventory

I laughed...and then I cried... :pir_bawling:

I've read about packing as much as 169 2x4s in a large cup, but that doesn't make it that much cheaper than BL prices and whatnot...BUT, if they have rare colours like dark red or medium blue, it can be cost effective.