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7023 - Police 4WD and Undercover Van - Theme: World City / Police (LXFML-File) LDD 4.3.6 (click for larger image) [Brickset] [Bricklink] [Peeron] [LEGO.com] Errors: Missing stickers, prints and minifig decorations (replaced with most appropriate surrogates where applicable).

As Calabar hinted, there are quite a bunch of decorations in LDD 4.3.6, which are not available via GUI. And sadly, the reference topic thread links to a post that is a bit outdated and thus lacks a lot of the newer minifig decorations. The most easy and convenient way to get a reusable collection of minifig decorations is to download the file "Total.lxf" from this thread and put it into the path "%appdata%\LEGO Company\LEGO Digital Designer\userpalettes" (or the respective Mac equivalent described in that thread): That way you get a custom brick collection you can reuse in your LDD projects -- as long as you don't use the "LDD Extended" theme, where this feature is not available; you may however switch the current theme via the "View"-menu. Another opportunity to apply decorations not available via GUI is to manually edit the LXFML file: Make a backup copy of your LXF file and rename it so that it gets the extension ".zip" (you have Windows to display the file extensions, of course). Then unzip this zip file: You'll get a PNG thumbnail and a LXFML file: The latter are nothing but textfiles containing some XML. The detailed specification is available in the attachement to this post but you only have to care about the "decoration=" string: Parts which can be decorated, but currently have no decoration, contain the string decoration="0" If you replace the "0" with a valid decoration ID number, this brick is decorated with the corresponding decoration. Some bricks may have severeal decorations, such as decoration="0,0" or even decoration="0,0,0" The mapping between IDs and decorations as well as the decoration PNGs themselves are stored in the file "%appdata%\LEGO Company\LEGO Digital Designer\db.lif" Un-/repacking lif-files and extracting or replacing the decorations is a violation of LDD's EULA ("I. GRANT OF LICENSE: [...] You may NOT: [...] (ii) modify, translate, reverse-engineer, decompile, disassemble (except to the extent that this restriction is expressly prohibited by law) or create derivative works based upon the Software or Documentation; [...]") and thus not allowed to be discussed here according to the section rules. In other words: How to build an "LEGO Digital Designer LIF Extractor" is beyond the stuff that is suitable for this forum.

I wouldn't bet that TLG will integrate that feature somewhen soon. If you have a closer look at the current LDD 4.3.6 EULA, it says: I. GRANT OF LICENSE: [...] You may NOT: [...] (ix) use the Software for any purpose related to the manufacture of plastic building bricks. [...] Even if you use some other software than LDD and scan the brick geometry with a 3D scanner, you have to keep in mind that almost every original brick contains the protected wordmark "LEGO". So "replicating" original bricks is most likely a violation of TLGs trademarks. And I guess TLG is quite strict regarding infringing its trademarks. Especially since "homemade" bricks surely won't meet TLGs quality standards. But as long as custom bricks are easily distinguishable from original bricks by not showing the "LEGO" wordmark and as long as these custom bricks are used for private purposes only and not commercially sold, I guess 3D printing shouln't bother TLG too much, although they will be far from supporting or promoting it. I guess, however, that TLG should update its Fair Play Guidelines regarding 3D printing and clarify if using things like the free universal construction kit is OK or not.

You are absolutely right. And I too doubt any of the points I mentioned will be implemented somewhen soon. But as this thread is called "LDD 5, what features do YOU want?", I dare to dream. Who knows, as there are already game engines handling bricks and their physics quite nicely, we might get some byproducts back to LDD...

I double checked it in LDD 4.3.6, brick version 1033: Any sort of holders snap to the frame and the handlebar, round plates snap to the front light, minifigures' lower parts snap to the saddle and a pannier snaps to the carrier - but no plate or brick snaps to the kickstand. Maybe it worked well in a previous version, and this is a regression occuring in the current version? Oh, I'm sorry. I was not aware that this issue was already discussed. I searched, however, only the "LDD bugs" threads and didn't find anything there. Maybe this one is a new bug: As shown on page 31 of the instruction of the 2007er recycling truck 7991, two hinge plates 30383 are supposed to fit between the bars of the sack truck 2495. However, even with scaffolding I did not manage to place the sack truck atop the finger of one single hinge plate, not to mention two of them. Is this built generally illegal or are the bars of the sack truck too close together in LDD, so that it can count as an LDD bug? Has anyone ever managed to do this technique in LDD? In the thread "Official LEGO Sets made in LDD" by the way, the sack truck is put aside.

In LDD 5, the chrome and metallic colours should look more realistic, particularly regarding reflection and mirroring of surrounding elements. One feature I quite miss is the ability to tag parts with a custom string: If I enter this string into the search box, the part list should be filtered to show only the parts tagged with that string. I'd pretty much appreciate a mode, where you can place and rotate any part in a free manner, so that you can easily put a fish and a banana into a dustbin without scaffolding (take a look at this picture to see the expected result). In addition to the printed bricks currently supported, LDD 5 should support stickers, too: At least the official stickers you get with almost every set nowadays, but more preferably custom decorations as well. Another wish of mine are enormous improvements to flexible elements: LDD should not only support these few flexible chains and hoses it currently does, but also flexible strings (including nets, winches and reels), cloth (including sails and capes) or rubberbands. Bricklink currently finds 344 lego "cloth" parts, 130 "string" part, 78 "sail" parts and 73 "rubber" parts; LDD on the other hand has as little as 11 flexible elements. LDD 5 thus should focus on material properties such as elasticity and flexibility. Really cool would be a physics engine with gravity, collision detection and rotation calculations, in combinantion with some sort of storyboard or timeline: Build at least two scenes and let LDD 5 animate the transitions between them automatically, resulting in some nice ragdoll animations or even whole brickfilms. Eventually, it should be possible to make a film like this entirely in LDD 5. If we get a 4th dimension "time", then we need the ability to set a path for the camera to allow dolly shots, pan shots, crane shots and so on, too. Multiple light sources and their adjustability over time make this feature round. And as a cherry on the cake, I yearn for working springs and dampers, spur gears and tooth wheels, pneumatic and electric parts such as light bricks or train engines.

Not sure, if it's a real bug or rather some sort of minor glitch: As seen in a review of the new set "Town Square" (60026), the bicycle (73537 in LDD) is supposed to fit between the studs of an angle plate (I guess it's 44728). However, currently the bicycle's kickstand does not attach to any plate or brick, neither angular nor regular. (click image for a larger version) Although scaffolding does the trick, LDD should support the bike's kickstand snapping automatically to its base, since this technique is used in several official sets for at least 20 years: Apart from the 2013er set 60026, you might think of 3184 from 2012, 7639 from 2009, 1198 and 1199 both from 2000, 9364 from 1993, or even 6411 from 1992. If you want to avoid scaffolding, you might use this blueprint: Copy the code below, paste it to notepad or any other editor, save it as a plain text file, rename its extension to LXFML and import it to your project.

According to bricklink (https://www.bricklin...Item.asp?P=6016), the lattice plate 6016 should fit into the window frames 4033 (which is by the way missing in LDD and should be included, too), 3853 and 6556 (LDD calls the last one "container frame"). In LDD 4.3.6 it does however only attach to the window frame 60594, but to neither of the frames mentioned on bricklink. You can put the lattice 6016 in place via scaffolding by first putting the lattice into frame 60594, deleting this frame and placing either 6556 or 3853 at its position. But as there is at least one official set (the 2003er Police HQ World City 7035), where the lattice plate 6016 is put into the frame 6556 (http://cache.lego.co...9791.pdf#page=6), I assume this to be a LDD bug. [EDIT: older examples are 1998er Stadium Security 3314 http://cache.lego.co...8009.pdf#page=5 1997er Dragon Vessel Time Cruiser 6496 http://cache.lego.co...790.pdf#page=12 /EDIT] Having a closer look at the images on page 6 of the instruction, 6016 seems not to have the correct mold in LDD, too: The LDD mold of 6016 does not have these round corners and is missing the bumps in the middle of the left and right side. Please compare the image at https://www.bricklin...mPic.asp?P=6016 to the piece actually included in LDD. Or is this issue similar to the shield box 2578, where two molds share the same number? Has anyone the physical bricks at hand to determine how 6016 actually looks like? The LDD version of 6016 rather looks like 62113 (http://www.bricklink...Pic.asp?P=62113). Another annoying thing is the fact that although 6016 and 62113 are both included in LDD and of quite similar shape, they have different categories: Enter "lattice plate" into LDDs search box and you see what I mean...

LDD shows an inconsistent behaviour regarding shafts/sticks and technical snaps. Parts with shafts/sticks are for example 87994, 30374, 63965, 4095, 3957, 61184, 76302, 55668, 87618, 4623, 88072, 30043, 2921, 2540, 99021, 4697, 3839, 98284, 2566, 98397, 92099, 48729, 99249, 48723, 85940, 30375, 87617, 71137, [edit: 4599,] 4466 & 4467 and a lot of minifig tools and decoration such as 90540, 3852, 96480, 3900, 3835, 95330, 10050, 58176, 90508, 4528, 3899, 4522, 55295, 55296, 55297, 55298, 55299, 55300, 10187, 58367, 60849, 30035 but also some hero factory parts like 92235 or 92218. These shafts and sticks can be put into some technical snaps but not into others: The parts 2780, 3673, 6562, 43093, 6628, 32002, 4274, 32556, 2714, 30362, 32138, 32069, 30390, 30592, 30526 [edit: ,33299, 6047, 6048] allow shafts/sticks to attach into their technical snaps smoothly. But with parts like 30000, 6232, 2458, 4729, 2460, 2476, 92909, 47455, 48496, 48989, 55615, 47994, 47973, 6558, 32054, 2920, 48724, 40620, 4025, 47501, 30632, [edit: 41532, 30076] or 90630 no shaft/stick can be put into their technical snap, not even using scaffolding. Do the technical snaps really differ that much? Or is LDD a bit buggy here?

The hole of the coupling plate 3176 seems to have pretty much the same dimensions as the hole in the ring 10076 / 11010. The coupling plate even fits on a minifig's hand just like the ring does. So I still don't see the point why 10076 connects with axles but not with pegs. It should fit both. Isn't a round hole where any cross axle fits thru and can be rotated to any anlge per definition a technic hole? Is there any difference between holes for pegs and holes for cross axles? So how do I detect a technic hole and distinct it from a regular one?

I guess TLG should do nothing special about this issue. LDD users however should keep in mind that LDD might crash, if studs are inserted in both holes. I wonder if it's a mistake or done on purpose that a cross axle like 3705 connects to 10067 but a connector peg like 3673 does not. Because the hole in the aforementioned coupling plate 3176 connects to both axles and pegs (and studs, too). Neither Bricklink nor Peeron do know a brick 10067 by now, so I assume it's pretty new. Maybe it will appear in some LOTR sets due this year. I mean, a ring sure would fit to LOTR. If and how it is connected to a stud, an axle or a peg in any real set is something I don't yet know. EDIT: By now I suppose that LDD's 10067 is identical to bricklink's 11010. It appears in all the sets 9472, 79004, 79000, 9470 but on a minifigure's hand. Neither on a stud, nor on a peg nor on an axle.

Cool, new bugs: Take the new "Ring 10067" and attach a 1x1 brick or plate to one side and a 1x1 brick or plate to its other. The ring then allows both studs to intersect, which is usually impossible both in LDD and in real life. As a result, LDD might eventually crash without any proper warning. However, crashing is not properly reproducible: Sometimes LDD crashes, sometimes not. Even if it doesn't crash, the result is obviously an illegal build. The hole in the "Ring 10067" seems to be not a technic one, so I guess this issue is distinct from the one discussed at http://www.eurobrick...showtopic=65126 EDIT: Just noticed, that this behaviour occurs with at least one of the older holed pieces as well: "Coupling plate 3176" lets two studs intersect in a similar way, too. So it's not really a new bug .

You can try to achieve it by creating a custom keyboard layout omitting the F1 key or assigning a different function to it. Although the free Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator 1.4 (http://msdn.microsof...l/bb964665.aspx) does not offer the manipulation of the F-keys out of the box, you might want to tweak its kbd.h file similar to the description at http://forum.colemak...c.php?pid=11103 to get the desired results: If you replace the line #define T3B _EQ( F1 ) with something like #define T3B _EQ( _none_ ) the F1 key should be switched off as long as you use this keyboard layout. This behaviour is not limited to a certain program, but is effective Windows-wide. However, as I appreciate the F1 key's help function, I haven't tried it for myself, so there's no guarantee it'll work as expected.

Additionally, its inverted and mirrored variants (http://www.bricklink....asp?P=3660pb01 and http://www.bricklink...m.asp?P=3660p01) should be added, too.

Today I got an e-mail reply from Claus Stilborg from TLG. He confirms that LDD currently uses outdated libs and points out that it's hard to assess how exploitable these libraries actually are. So I guess there's no imminent danger. To be on the safe side, however, these libs will be updated with the next regular maintenance release due "this winter". It's probably time to sound the all-clear.

Hi and welcome to Eurobricks. The bricks 3298 and 3001 are already in LDD, but unfortunately without these really cool decos. By the way, how do 30474 and 3298 actually differ? Their Bricklink images seem to be rather identical. Is there any noticeable distinction justifying adding 30474? As you are obviously more interested in the decorations than the underlying bricks, may I kindly suggest to post these requests in the separate decoration thread (http://www.eurobrick...showtopic=72201)? Additionally, you may introduce yourself in this section (http://www.eurobrick...hp?showforum=17).

Oh, really? I'm sorry to double-post it. I had deliberately browsed this thread before posting and looked for the string '3960' and did not find anything and thus thought it was a new issue. I'm really sorry. Maybe this one is new? 2350 and 2351 won't slide correctly into each other unless you scaffold them manually.

I'm really uncertain how to feel about this. On the one hand I'm glad that LDD is still alive, at least to some extend, and I feel happy that I can enjoy LDD at all; but on the other hand I'm sort of impatient and await each and every update eagerly, as I really miss some of the older parts and decorations LDD currently lacks of. I accept however that there is still much work to do to get a sellable fullprice product meeting TLGs qualitiy standards: In addition to adding all the missing bricks, one might think of a real physics engine with gravity, rag doll effects and stuff like this, working chains, elastic rubber bands, rotating axels, wheels and gears, physically correct cloth and sails, cannons, nets, strings and winches and so on. Or a really cool movie function, with which you can easily make your brickmovies with. Or some more import and export interfaces to programs like Blender. Maybe a Linux port. Or a mobile app. Or an integrated cloud storage option. Yes, LDD currently is miles away from being ideal -- but I would pay for it nonetheless. Maybe TLG fears another scenario: If everybody uses virtual bricks, nobody buys the 'real' ones. Thus LDD is kept on a low heat to prevent cannibalizing the core business. But before I start getting too off topic now, here's another wish: Crane Basket 2 x 3 x 2 with Non-Locking Hinge Fingers (https://www.bricklin...Item.asp?P=2424) This part is needed to round the already existing 2350 and 2351 up. There is in fact a similar part 51858; but this part unfortunately isn't compatible with 2350 and 2351.

100kb are about 20 A4 sheets of paper with 63 rows à 80 characters. That's quite a bunch. OK, here's another possible one: Round Plate 3960 should fit as a cap ontop of Barrel 4x4 30139. At least it was used thus in set 2126 from 1997 (http://peeron.com/scans/2126-1/9). But maybe it's illegal nowadays. In set 4194 Whitecap Bay from 2011 this combination occures once more (http://www.bricklink...SL/4194-1.jpg), and also in the LOTR set 79004 Barrel Escape from 2012 (http://www.bricklink...L/79004-1.jpg). So we either have three illegal sets or one LDD bug.

And? Don't they want our money? I mean, if I ran a business and offered stuff for free and someone suggested to give me money for it, I guess I knew what to do. So what hinders TLG to offer a LDD Premium? Maybe they should start a pay-per-brick campaign on kickstarter: LDD gets part 4737 back if Calabar (or others too) collect some 10000 crunchy fish fingers or whatever currency they use up in Denmark. Why not add some candy and chocolate and jellies and cookies when sending them the log? Maybe they are bribable . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch8uCOPbH7I No, seriously, please do priorize Door Frame 2 x 6 x 7 (http://www.bricklink...Item.asp?P=4071) & Door 1 x 6 x 7 Barred (http://www.bricklink...Item.asp?P=4611). Calabar requested these parts almost a year ago; and if I recall it correctly, they are the only ones missing to complete Fort Legoredo (6769 / 6762). And as they are needed for Forbidden Island (6270), Eldorado Fortress (6276) and Rock Island Refuge (6273) as well, I guess a lot of LDD pirates would be very happy to finally have them available.

Four brownish flat tiles 4162 put into the slots of two opposing 2653 bricks make some wonderful planks, quays, wooden walkways and so on. I personally use this technique quite a lot for themes dealing with nautical or western settings, but I have to admit that I haven't encounterd any offical set with it. I did however do some research and found out that I was not totally wrong. Well, it's actually none of the tiles I mentioned before, but the Armada Flagship 6280 from 1996 and its replica 6291 from 2004 both use some hinge plates 4315 put into the slots of 2653. You may see it at page 10 figure 17 of the official instruction. While the '96 one is not online, the almost identical '04 instruction luckily is available from Lego.com. So yes, out there exists at least one official set with parts put into the slot of 2653 that LDD currently doesn't support. However, due to the fact that this issue might be easily circumvented, I'd rather rate it a "nice-to-have"-feature than an actual bug. Most sets use the 2653 slot in conjunction with the 1x8 plate with rail 4510 or the 1x2 plate with slide 32028 anyway. And these work fine in LDD. Jabbas Palace 9516 from 2012 on the other hand uses some 30586 gliding groove plates put into the 2653 slots (instruction 1 page 41 figure 18). This isn't supported by LDD either. And it needs a bit more effort to be circumvented, as the lip of 30586 and its groove together are a bit higher than the 2653 slot. But as the lip on its own is low enough to fit in, you can put a 30586 into a 2653 slot, too. It's a pity I'm not yet allowed to upload files to prove it. Anyway, we here have the second official set where a brick is put into 2653's slot in a manner LDD currently doesn't support. As there's enough space and no pressure put on any part, I can't see that we might have some illegal building techniques here. But by now I am increasingly uncertain, if it qualifies for a real bug. I guess you should rather file it as a feature request with a somehow low priority.

Yep, I would appreciate that. As a newbie I'm not yet allowed to browse the member list for TLG representatives myself or send PMs to Superkalle or whoever is in charge. The customer care is at the moment way too busy and must first care for the customers who actually paid something: I got LDD for free, so I shut up, queue up and wait until the others got serviced. I guess I'll manage to avoid suspicious LXF files for a while and hope the next LDD update comes soon. By the way, will there be a January update this year too, or was 2012 an exception? Anyway, for my part someone with the appropriate privileges may close this thread and may merge it with the "LDD 5, what do YOU want" or the "LDD 4.3.5 bugs" topic.

Has someone tried to convince TLG to make a paid version of LDD? I'm quite willing to pay some 20 bucks if I get all the old parts and decorations. It still would be cheaper than crawling ebay for the real bricks.

LDD itself might be niche software, but it relies on commonly used open source libraries. An attacker having already crafted exploits for these widely spread libraries might use LXF files as an additional attack vector with no extra effort. I'll betcha there are already tons of exploits for those libraries, so it won't be difficult at all to adjust them for LXF files as well. I mean, LXF files are nothing but ZIP files with the suffix '.LXF'; fixes for those zlib holes exist for more than seven years. Just do google for 'zlib exploit' or 'libpng exploit' and you'll see that it is not too difficult to use it for malicious purposes at all. 'Arbitrary Code Execution' means that an attacker can do everything with your computer you are allowed to, too: Send spam on your behalf, install keyloggers and backdoors sniffing your online banking accounts, place bogus ebay offers with your account, control a botnet (with your IP address appearing in log files) and so on and so on. I do not understand why a company which is dedicated to quality like TLG does use such insecure libraries for such a long time when bugfixed versions already exist. We are not talking about a week or a month, but about more than 3/4 of a decade. How do I escalate this to TLG directly? The support center says they are crowded with christmas emails and have half of their staff on vacation, so I don't think this is an appropriate channel. Can anyone cut through the red tape and contact the right people informally?