zweifuss

I have been pretty busy with home life the last couple of months, and work is busy too, I don't have time to do any updates in the recent future. If anyone wants to continue on from where I left off that is fine, including updating outlines

OK cool makes sense. I love the details in the engine compartment, I think you're right that CAD would choke on it, whether it be LDCAD/MLCAD or LDD. I find any flexible system in Lego designer CAD is always just a bit wonky. The software the internal team at LEGO uses must not have these kind of issues.

Beautiful work! Just curious why you chose the older technic 3873 https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=3873 treads over the newer 57818 https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=57518 ones? I love the design of the new treads, it's a very cool piece. Also impressive you made the bucket not as a 3D print, that's some talent right there.

@GLAP23 actually helped complete the Construct-O-Mech from the original author if you read through the thread, he figured out the rotating mechanism for the torso. But you know, if someone built that in real life, it'd tip over so badly... the weight distribution has got to be whack on it. See this link here:

I can type it with my numpad: ALT+0216, does it show up for everyone here? Ø

Nice work @Kuramapika1! Just some issues with the line generation on some I noticed, and be careful with your XML files... 2997 and 2998 for example, have an illegal character in them (perhaps only used in your country?) so LDD doesn't open them. See here in 2998, the funny characters after 'RIM 81.6' and between '85, W.' <Annotation designname="RIM ؠ81.6 x 34 ZR" /> <Annotation maingroupid="366" /> <Annotation maingroupname="TYRES AND RIMS FOR/TO SNAP ش,85 W. CROSS" />

Oh ok. If you're modeling the dragon's head pieces I can stop, it seems you have more time and motivation to finish it than me.

Are you creating the jaw in a 3D CAD application? Or how are you doing it? Just curious.

Neat. So do you think it's possible to have sails now? Would I do a bone matrix over a sail and then be able to bend that over the pegs on a pirate ship? I'd like to try... And if you're working on the 32201 part, I'll keep mine to myself, yours will most likely be of better quality than mine to distribute to the community. I did manage to achieve this though:

Thanks! I have already played around with the flexible parts, it's a bit daunting coming from someone with very little experience with armatures and rigging, but very cool. I was able to create the 32201 'Flex Rod 14M' now, but I wasn't able to do it by editing the 19M flex rod within Brick Studio. I'm not sure if there is an option there to connect bones to each other, unless I'm missing something. I had to go into Blender, import the 19M, cut out 6 sections, move the axle to the solid section, stitch the mesh up, and re-parent the bones to the existing chain, and then export out the .DAE. I was then able to import the new .DAE file into a new part project and all the bones came in connected, and then was able to create the LDD files. Otherwise, Brick Studio tells me 'boneXX' not linked. SO too long didn't read, look forward to a wiki entry on the flexible parts!

Wow perfect, that'd be ideal! I also like how the program warns you now that you are overwriting existing LDD parts, and it lists the .XML and .G files that it is writing, nice touch there. Looking forward to trying all the new things, now I gotta learn how flexible parts work and bones, that'll be fun to apply to sails, nets, and to the flex tubes that aren't bendable (yet).

Thanks Polymaker! I am playing around with it now, very nice improvements. The line generation is still not quite there, but after a bit of playing around, I was able to achieve this results on the 14x14 dome piece: I realize there are still gaps in the geometry, @Equilibrium, but the way I got those lines to appear was just a trick with BrickStudio: Select the whole object and go to Meshes->Separate meshes. All the panels are then separate meshes. Click on a panel, move it up just a random distance. Do this for all the panels Click on Meshes->Calculate Outlines Move all the panels back to 0 (where they started) Generate LDD files So the outlines are calculated based on it thinking that they are all individual panels floating in random heights, but when I bring them back to the zero positions they still have those outlines that were generated before. I don't know if you had a trick like that, but this is what I did.

Very cool, thanks for sharing this! I think it will definitely be an asset to this project. I'll check it out.

He clearly stated in an earlier post that he is coloring everything red to start and will do the proper colors later. It makes sense, it's a good strategy, if you're focused on getting the bricks right you don't need to be bothered with colors.

They are basically 3D model files, STL is what is used most commonly for 3D Printers. I would suggest reading articles on wikipedia for more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wavefront_.obj_file and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STL_(file_format). So when I finish the part, I will release it in this thread and let anyone 3D print it with their printers. I will also provide the .BLEND file so that anyone can modify the mesh. I just don't have that much free time these days, I have a family and work and home priorities.

You can! When I'm done with it I'll provide an .OBJ file which you can convert to .STL and print it out! Just have some patience, I have many reference shots, it'll get done when it's done. Here is my work in progress so far of the top part, what do you guys think? The nostrils need more work for sure, but I think I got the width of it right because it matches the black 11477 pieces behind it.

I am wondering if any of them know about this thread and that people actually tried to recreate their movie models in real life... I'm trying to model the snout and lower jaw in my free time but it's a high learning curve for me, understanding how meshes work and such. I've been going through a lot of Blender tutorials and here is my progress so far, but I still have a lot more to learn.

@GLAP23 do you think the Animal Logic folks modeled the insides of this mech? I believe they only did the outside and then just imported it into their 3D software (Maya probably), and then added armatures to the model. I seriously doubt they made them all structurally possible.

Any help is appreciated, I'm still a student when it comes to 3D modeling, but I am an eager learner, look forward to seeing a tutorial! The rim on the left, I know I forgot to apply 'smooth surfaces' for that one, I should repost a newer model, but as for the gaps and the lines not generating on low-angle surfaces, that I would appreciate insight on. I think for that saucer piece, I must have moved the UV-surface up just a titch by accident, so that is why the gap is in that one. But I'm not sure why that second rim piece has the gaps, I must have not imported it correctly from .DAT file...

After what feels like a month of work and tinkering, I think I'm ready to release these files. The big saucer part doesn't have proper collisions yet, but the connections should be working. Please test these out if you can. I made decorations too, which was a lot of fun learning about texture baking in Blender. I even did a fake metal texture on these using some basic effects. The files I worked on are as follows: 30116 - 14 x 14 x 2.677 QUARTER SAUCER TOP. 3 Decorations added - UFO Pattern Left, UFO Pattern Right, and Millennium Falcon Pattern. COLLISIONS NOT COMPLETED YET. 30117/30320- 10 x 10 x 2.333 Quarter Saucer Top. 2 Decorations added - UFO Pattern Left, UFO Pattern Right 30118 - WING 4x8x3 1/3 2x4 BELOW. Made the center studs hollow like the real life piece. Added 2 decorations - Silver/Orange/Black UFO Pattern and Silver/Orange/Black UFO Logo Pattern 30119 - WING 4x8x3 1/3 2x4 ABOVE. 1 decoration - Silver/Orange/Black UFO Pattern Here is a zip file of all the contents, including decorations. The 'DecorationMapping.xml' file needs to have the following lines added (I have also added my DecorationMapping.xml file if you wish to use it) <Mapping decorationID="301166" designID="30116" surfaceID="1"/> <Mapping decorationID="301167" designID="30116" surfaceID="1"/> <Mapping decorationID="301168" designID="30116" surfaceID="1"/> <Mapping decorationID="301177" designID="30320" surfaceID="1"/> <Mapping decorationID="301178" designID="30320" surfaceID="1"/> <Mapping decorationID="301198" designID="30119" surfaceID="1"/> <Mapping decorationID="301198" designID="30118" surfaceID="1"/> <Mapping decorationID="301188" designID="30118" surfaceID="1"/> BTW, is there a rule of what we need to call the decorationID numbers? I just kind of made mine up. https://bricksafe.com/files/zweifuss/ldd-new-and-modified-parts/UFO_PARTS_2020-09-02.zip - file to unzip into the 'db' folder. https://bricksafe.com/files/zweifuss/ldd-new-and-modified-parts/UFOS.lxf - File that I worked on to try the parts out

I'm not sure what the ethics are at Eurobricks in regards to Chinese knock-off Lego bricks. I'd be careful... If I'm out of line please correct me, mods...

I think the faceted radii issue has to do with smooth shading or not. When I enable smooth shading on a part in blender, and then you have to auto smooth option. Here is more about the subject https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/19131/how-to-properly-use-face-smooth-shading

Thanks @polymaker it's looking great! BTW, what does the capped/grabbing check boxes mean? I'm guessing capping is for pin holes, and grabbing is for the hooks grabbing the 3.2mm elements?

Ok here is the easiest way I could find on how to do it: Press this button combination on your keyboard: WindowsKey+R (windows key should be between your left CTRL and ALT keys, bottom left of keyboard) Type in AppData\Roaming\LEGO Company\LEGO Digital Designer There should be a file called 'preferences.ini' in there. Double click on that. If you don't have extensions enabled, it'll just look like a file called 'preferences'. In a new line, type in DeveloperMode=1 Magic I'm not sure how much simpler I can explain it... there is a youtube tutorial here too if that helps. Sorry if I seem condescending, I've been a 'computer guy' for 30 years now, so to me this is something trivial. It really is worth it putting LDD into Developer mode, it really opens up the program and shows you some of the inner-workings of how it functions.

You just double-click it, and enter the 'DeveloperMode=1' (without the quotes) in a new line and and pick file->save. That's it! No need to be a computer guy...