M2m

Thanks spambot

Seems the heads collision at the back (neck) need to be adjusted. I will have a look at it. Update: Fixed - get 40389.xml from my repo and I guess it will be included in the next release.

Whats the filename of the assembly? I can't seems to find it :)

For the Triceratops head it seems the assembly was missed to be included in the parts pack (the head is a combination of the skull and the pin part - similar to for example the T-Rex or Carnosaurus head).

I’d say for a part which is not an assembly the process is rather quick: about 5 - 10min max. That’s in case the respective metadata (connections, collisions, ...) come with the part in the unity pack (which is the case in about 90%). In that case the quality review (do connections work correctly) is also quick. Shouldn’t me more then a minute. For the case where meta data is missing or it’s an assembly then the process to get a working LDD part can easily become 1-2h or more. For Ldraw parts creation I have absolutely no experience Edit (a quick and dirty video of the process):

Don’t worry. I’m dual booting to windows. I just have to check in the mouse settings how the 3rd button setting is. For blender to rotate I am using the x-y-z 'hud' thing at the upper right. Not sure how difficult it is to implement this. Also would it be possible to add Platform ID 100 (DUPLO) ?

Oh ok. Now I have to figure out where the middle button is on my buttonless MacBook

Wow this looks like a BIG release. One note the Duck Head (Donald Duck) is a mod of an existing part and not new :) @polymaker I feel kind of silly for asking, but how can I rotate the camera in Brick Studio freely ? I couldn't find out how to do that...

I do think it’s possible but definitely hard. One of the challenges is the fbx format for which afaik only a c++ sdk exists. So you are bound to writing c++. Or you can use blender scripting as an alternative, which then means everyone who wants to use the script has to get blender. The lego fbx files seem to be a ‘best of both worlds’ between LDD and LDraw format logically. For example studs and bottom tubes are based on reusable standard files and are also put in dedicated sub-geometry groups for quite a lot of parts, albeit not all and also not for Duplo parts as far as I have seen. I think the guy who wrote the blender Ldraw importer would be the person who most likely has the best skill set and knowledge to do a task like this. Starting from 0 i assume it might just be quicker to do a manual conversion. With LDD and manual process in my workflow it only takes a couple of minutes per part manually. My workflow as follows: import fbx part in Blender Correct scaling (from 0.01 to 1) export to obj import into parts designer Add basic master data (part number, name, group (system, technic), subgroup (i.e hats, animal parts, ...), bounding, ...) Export to LDD correct collision and connection data based on parts pack data in xml file i'm using blender to import and export the fbx files, because parts designer has once in while problems in reading sub-geometries of certain fbx files. This is because there exist different versions of the fbx file format and I assume the middleware used in parts designer only supports certain versions and feature sets of fbx.

Accurate!

Thanks ! That's helpful. So now I created 2 versions for the Triceratops Body. One is assembly based for the female axle connections. The other one just has this in one geometry with sub-geos. I think the connections for the legs are correct in both files. And also in both files the connection for the head has to be verified - meaning maybe the head - and the connection respectively - maybe has to move a little to the front or maybe back. Both are available in my parts repository. The pure geo based is part 74132 (yellow belly). The assembly is the white belly. Both parts also could benefit from improved collisions.

In that case however I have to move all the connections and collisions as well (together with geometry). I’m case of an assembly connections and collisions move ‘automatically’ with the part.

Ok I got the triceratops body with the above assembly technique done - assembly 65187 consists of 5 x 41140 and 1 x 98037: Working: Stud Connection on top Axel Connections for feet and head Issues: Collisions are very basic You can rotate out the neck / head female connection part (kind of weird) To be checked: height from bottom / feet to stud connections length (i.e. maybe the head needs to be move in or out) I consider this quite a "beta" part. Anyway its now pushed to my repo.

Ok the triceratops body is a combination of parts (picture below as reference): 98073 (for the main body) and 5 x 41140 (the female connections: 4 legs + 1 head) This is (in LDD terms) not an assembly I think, because: no other dino body - for example 98160 (T-Rex body) - treats this as an assembly, but just as one big geometry there is no valid connection data or type which would 'stick' 41140 to the main body 98073 as far as my analysis goes. Anyway I created a preliminary fbx which combines the body and female connector into one file. The connectors are not placed yet at the correct location, which is one of the challenges. For anyone interested this file is here: LDD-New-Parts/1005179 - is 98169 now at main · sttng/LDD-New-Parts (github.com) - 98073_41140.fbx Most interestingly there is an xml file for 41140 (the female connector), but not for the body. Update: OK, I think I got the geometry kind of right. Anyway connections and collisions still pending. Questions: Anybody got the feet width, feet length, and height of this beast ? I guess the feet width is 8 studs (2 studs per feet and 4 studs space below the belly) from left to right and same for front and back ? And how about the length from front toe to back heel ? Is this also 8 studs ? These dimensions are important to get everything correct. Update 2: Over the night I was thinking the most likely it will still be better do create an assembly which consists of the body part and the 5 female connection parts. The reason is, that I forsee it beeing easier and quicker to move the female connectors (part 41140) around in the assembly by editing the lxfml file in a text editor to get them positioned right, compared to do the same thing in a 3D Editor (Blender) and then doing it again for the connection data in the parts editor. By going with an assembly the already existing connection data of 41140 will be just used automatically. I'm going to have a deeper look into this later today or tomorrow I think.

Triceratops head: https://github.com/sttng/LDD-New-Parts/tree/main/1005179 - is 98169 now 1005179_mod.fbx Please note that LDD can not handle numbers with more then 5 (or 6?) digits for parts. Thats why I ultimately renamed 1005179 to 98169. Also as Stephan mentioned the Triceratops body is not available (yet). The body which comes as part of Unity is missing all the geometry for the 'holes' where the legs get connected to and furthermore it comes without any connectivity and collision data. Both of these would have to be corrected to make the body useful. So far this has not been done. I assume head and legs will be in the upcoming parts pack, unless there are major issues with these parts identified. So I think if you wait a littlebit you do not need to (re)create these parts by yourself.

I find Mecabricks super impressive ! Specifically the quality of the render outputs. Building-wise I still prefer LDD, just because I'm so familiar with how snapping works and the whole UI.

You can try to use LIF-Creator to rebuild db.lif including the new parts and mods. Then bluerender and busufl work: You can use the blender LDD import plugin (but it’s very beta): If you talk about about "Export BOM" function in LDD where you generate an Excel (.xlsx) file of a list of all parts and its quantities. This works for me (including list with new parts) in LDD on macOS - didn't try on windows. Example: https://github.com/sttng/LDD/raw/master/assets/Untitled.xlsx

I think the LEGO Star Trek ship has sailed. It would have been a good move in the mid 90s (when Trek was uber popular with in its height 3 shows running in parallel - TNG, DS9, VOY). Now the dominance of Star Wars is too big, so I guess while some of us (me included) would buy Star Trek LEGO out of nostalgia, I do not think it would be a financially very successful move. In addition there are of course all the these licensing issues mentioned above (Star Wars "mon-compete", Mega Construx, etc.). That aside it would be of course nice to get some kind o a "niche" set - like LEGO did with Friends or whatsoever (which of course i also unlikely due to licensing).

I just added it to my part pack. So it should be in the next official parts release.

The light effect is just a mobile phone flashlight I moved from left to right behind it (its open in behind with a technic 1x1 brick with a hole to let light in). I plan to add some LEDs later

These parts are now decoratable in my parts pack, but in LDD the part no are 50746 and 3298 (see the parts at the left border). I added reference to the 3070 flat tile deco (55071.png) and didn't create a new one for 50746 and for the Roof Tile 2X3/25° is used the space logo which also was already there.

Adding deco support to the geometries (.g) files is relatively straight forward. For me the reason I did not do that yet, was more that I would also have to add at least 1 decoration (.png) to make use of it. Currently I find the numbering logic (or lack of logic) for decoration filenames so confusing, that I didn't venture into that area too much.

Love it !

Maybe disclaimer is enough. I don't think the overhead of 2 part packs is necessary. Anyway people can just not copy over the assemblies (or delete them) as they wish. But I guess a disclaimer is good.

Instructions: https://youtu.be/TmZuVdQT6Gk