alienwar9

I have to say, when LDD gets updated and pieces go missing in MY huge city sections, it really makes me mad, because it's painfully hard to find out what piece went missing (and I now have 7 sections to worry about). That's why I keep a back-up of every LDD version, just in case. Super useful if you worry about what you'll lose. Just keep the LDD "programfiles.legocompany.LEGO Digital Designer" folder and the "users.'your-username'.appdata.roaming.LEGO Company" folder copied in a different location. If you want to go back to an older version, just replace the current contents of those folders with your back-up ones. It's also useful to save the new version, so you can go back to it without having to install it. It's just a little bit quicker (at least for me). Just label the folder you put the back-up in so you know which version is which.

I tried out all 3 programs, and though I probably didn't give either MLCad or SR3DBuilder enough time to get used to, I have to say that building with LDD is the faster method, which is useful if you want to test things. It's really useful for trying out different styles, techniques, color schemes, etc and also for any big creations you want visualized in a program (though LDD has limits too ). I've had problems with the other 2 programs in trying to create anything of really large size without them really slowing down or not working. It's an incredibly fast process, if only because it has the 3D interface and 1-click connection detection placement. That said, SR3DBuilder is incredibly useful if you need more bricks, or use more non-conventional or illegal techniques. As stated its animation features are a HUGE plus, and there are tons of incredibly useful tools (such as my favorite, mirror). But I will say, MLCad, if you are used to it, will probably serve you best in the end. LDD is super easy to pick up, so I'd say try it out, and use it whenever you want to do something fast, or build something really big (I've managed to get 20-40,000 pieces working), and keep MLCad as your standard use program. Use LDD to test ideas, test the look of a creation, etc. It's very useful if you are not a "first try's perfect" builder. I personally use SR3DBuilder to test out the functionality of my builds, using the animation features to see if what I built in LDD actually works. But the only reason I don't use it is because I'm used to LDD and I need to run large builds. So if you try LDD and like the 3D environment, transition to SR3DBuilder. If you still prefer MLCad, just keep both programs for occasional builds and such. Hope my opinion helps!

OMG OMG!! frontpaged?! I feel so happy I might.. Thank you so so much!!!! And thanks for all the nice comments! I'd give my left arm to build this, but its already set to go with my right arm for my city I give full permission though for people to build this...please!

I know it took longer than my "sneak peak" suggested, but here it is! (don't mind the stupid flames, those pieces are just there for effect, they look terrible ) 3 weeks and almost 60,000 pieces later, and my sci-fi scribbled picture turned "reality" is finished I pushed LDD to every possible limit, making 3mb files, 14,000 piece crashes, and thousands of angry mis-saves and and regular crashes (and in the process pushed my patience to the limits too. At one point, it took 10 minutes to move 1 tree....I moved 4...twice each). Its split into 4 sections: Desert, Forest, Nayeli Structure, and the ship Renkitso-NG1 Since everything is so large, but still is better in LDD than pictures, I've included "light" versions that should run easier (less pieces, no flex pieces) I've included almost 125 pictures on my brickshelf, so if you can't open an lxf, want to see different construction stages, or just want to see cool angles go look at them! --> Brickshelf Warning: Regular versions are HUGE LDDs, so they might not work on some computers. Forest Forest Light Sands Sands light Nayeli Structure Interior AND Exterior Nayeli Structure Exterior Only Nayeli Interior Nayeli Interior Light Renkitso-NG1 "light" Renkitso with Sand Burning Renkitso Only (still bigger file than just ship) Here are a few of my attempts to put everything together. Its a nice way to get the overall idea of how its supposed to look. Full Layout Overview Full helpful hint: The smallest files are the sand section (at almost 6000 pieces) and the exterior structure. I went a little beyond my original vision, with the interior rooms, the river, and the large ship, but they ended up being some of the best parts. I wanted to include people and creatures in action scenes, but the files were just too big to do that. I had "alien raptors" chasing down stragglers, plants killing troops, a squad trying to enter the ruins, and sand monsters. I also wanted to have this as a night scene, with glowing lights of the trans pieces in the forest (avatar style), gunfire, and flaming ship. But alas its in LDD only. The forest was also a bit of a disappointment since I just couldn't add as much detail as I wanted (and I was getting tired at that point). I had to take out all the flex pieces, which created the vines and complexity of the jungle. The ground would be covered in foliage and roots. I'd have loved to add real detailing. As it is, its just the large plants on the really nice landscape. But I do like the landscaping. I wanted to create a true forest, with hills, a river that actually flows downhill, and variable height. To give a little break , here are some of the vehicles in SUPER quick moc-ups so they looked nice: Buggy General's Buggy Bulldog AHV Flare-mk6(the crashed ship in the forest) sand crashed ship There is no room in my budget, what with the city I'm building , to build this. But anyone who wants to, go ahead and build it. Seriously, I dare you...I...beg you. Please ? I'd love to see this in real life. (the big ship might be hard to hang there in its current form. Its kinda, ummm, hollow). Hope you all like!

Interesting parts added! I see a lot I could have used in my latest moc, alas, I'll have to add what I can now baseplate 48x48 has been added I think. I don't remember it being in the last one Some category moves make a lot of sense...others, like the mini-fig category make things messy. Don't know how I feel about tiles in the modified plates section. Obvious oddity: That piece sir, does not belong

actually, I managed to "blue screen" my computer with this one . Funny thing, I had not added all the flex pieces yet... BTW, anyone know how LDD could do that?

I finished my plants, and thought I'd share them with you. You'll notice I've used non-real colors, so no, I'm not building this in real life (though it would be fun ) (I've tried to keep the fake color pieces to minimum, so don't have a heart attack!) Once again the colors are terrible in the pictures so....HERE'S the LXF! There's just too much small detail to let it go to waste. Note: It may only be 2714 pieces, but I've used a ton of flex tooling, so be careful!

Just got a little more done since LDD crashed and I lost most of the new work. Here is another sneak-preview: (sorry for the low quality pic, trans pieces don't come out well for some reason. btw, this is very WIP) And you thought it was all desert

I got bored building cities One day on the train ride home, I sketched out a layout and scene I was daydreaming of. Didn't think much of it, but I just decided to build a rough version of it.....I'm building the whole thing now Yes, it's still a huge LDD creation: 10x6 baseplates (32x32 size) so far. But its not a city! Here is a sneak preview of where I am so far... I'll say one thing, there is a desert.

Yes. Here is the fifth of 11 sections of my city project. This was the most fun to build so far (am I saying this every time? ) I just loved throwing things together and seeing how they came out, not having a specific template to fill in or take apart and rebuild. Its also the most confusing build because its so big and varied that I had a hard time keeping track of where I finished and where there were empty areas. I note that once again I hit the limit of pieces, and I couldn't fit the building into the section. I had to take out the entire support again, and even then I couldn't save the model. So what you are seeing here are rare snapshots of the barely stable and short lived build of the wild beast section 5 Here are some higher quality shots of the setup without the building. Its hard to notice, but there is a walkway underneath the highway that also comes out to the waterfront. There are 3 water-fountains (I'm starting to get obsessed with those things ) a gazebo, some vine growth, and a playground. Piece Count: 28,079 Here is building....1, the hotel with a little over 10,000 pieces! This was a really easy yet fun one to build, especially since it didn't slow down or crash Here are a few up close shots of the 1st floor with entrance, middle with rooftop pool, and top with "lighthouse?" Finally, I just wanted to show the elevator mechanism I put in here, since it was the most complex I built yet and I had to fit it into such a tiny shaft. There are 4 elevators here: two that go half way up, one that goes from the half way to the top, and a cargo elevator.

Here is building 31, the second largest building in the city, with almost 14,000 pieces! The complex design was me just mashing ideas together, though it came out really well. The main inspiration came from a picture of buildings at one of the Lego theme parks. The entrance face is designed to give a hotel vibe, with larger windows and variable walls. The riverside has the main round column and exterior elevators. The roof was my favorite, a combination of all the parts of the building, with a neat heli-pad at the top. You can also see the elevator control. And lastly, a few views I like: @Brickdoctor: I was actually just gonna ask people if they wanted to make a few LDD vehicles for the city (since the city itself will be taking up most of my time). But I'm not going to add the vehicles to the LDD city, just because I can't . This section barely saved without crashing, and every other section has crashed. They are the last things I'm building, and only in real life (though I might make a compilation LDD of all the vehicles ).

Here is the fourth of 11 sections of my city project. Finishing this made me the most happy I've been working on these contrast section, as it marks the end of the hardest part of the build. No more super huge buildings; no more painful bridges; no more complex curvy parts and connections. Now only 7 more to go... This section includes the other side of the large bridge (which I had to almost completely rebuild. No copy pasting since its asymmetrical), the second largest building (building 31), and the rest of "lower Wacker" road. My favorite bird's eye views: Piece Count: 21,643 I'd like to thank all those who helped me with the color design for the building!! I'd really be lost without all your help.

:laugh: sorry!!!! I finally figured out what the problem was...and so none of these color choices are good All the colors were too strong and drew away from the shape of the building itself. I completely forgot about legacy grey, so I'm doing a grey/bley striped pattern. It doesn't look great in picture, but it does in the program so...LXF Should I put back the green highlights? opinions?

Thanks guys! I did some recoloring with some of those suggestions (though I can't make the building beige since this is the second largest building, and the largest is already beige...and right next to it). I'm still stuck and I wish I could make a poll numbered 1-11, which one looks the best? Sorry in advance for the picture sizes. Its really hard to get a good idea of what the colors look like with any smaller size. (by the way, no, I did not have all those running in one LDD. Who do you think I am? )

I'm loving the design! But seriously, the command center is so not a feature that should be included in a UCS set (nor the figures, but the MF did it so...) And its waaaaay over priced. Compared to every single other UCS set, this is the most expensive price/piece by far (not counting the naboo starfighter...come on, it had shiny pieces ) I think I'm only getting this if it goes on sale, and I've gotten every single UCS full price. It's about $100 too much. Come on, its all grey Still though, I love the size and pointy-ness and its my favorite ship from Star Wars and I've always wanted it.

HELP! My building is ugly The shape is done, but the color is just awful. I tried to make a good light grey building color, but it just screams blahhhh I need the base color to still be light grey, since that's the only color building I don't have prominently in the city, but any style or mix of colors for the rest can do. ANYTHING is better than what I made. As long as its "realistic looking" Here's the LXF WARNING: its 11,000 pieces (it is my build after all ) Please help! Any ideas are super appreciated!!!!!!!

@Vincent Kessels: Yes, I am going to build this @DLuders: Unfortunately, I have not finished every section in LDD, and until I do, I cannot estimate the cost properly. And I need to figure out how many pieces everything comes up to in order to see if anything needs to be taken out if I'm over budget (especially if I'm way over). I have enough $ to build one section, but I still have to wait. So in short answer, no. nothing is built in real life

Here is the third of 11 sections of my city project. Once again, I decided to finish the entire section before posting . When I said the previous section was the most complex, I was lying. This section had to be one of the biggest pains, only because I expected it to work in LDD 4 and it didn't. The top 6 floors would not save, and with the advanced graphics, I had to delete the entire support underneath AND keep only the first 7 floors. I was left with 14,000 pieces working in advanced, and 22,000 maximum. That is the WORST I've ever seen LDD run, since I've had 45,000 pieces work before in 3.0, and 30,000 in 4.0. It seems like LDD is running worse and worse. Sorry, had to rant there. Anyway, this section includes the largest building from the whole city, building 30. I decided to keep its design (I'm in love with it and don't want to change it) but add an entrance to the first 2 floors. It might be hard to notice, but the entrance is lowered so the sidewalk has a "sunk" part, inspired by the Hancock building's entrance in Chicago. Its all I could fit, so its not that dramatic, but I think it will look better in real life. That was another hard part, as I had to rebuild the support specifically to adapt to the height differences. (and my support is really complicated underneath. It has to be, holding up that huge building ) But back to the section. It includes a parking lot, half of the lower "wacker" street, the highway (lake shore drive), and the double deck highway draw bridge. I wanted to include my favorite aerial shots, because this section has the "best view". I can't imagine how I will get when I get to take these pictures of the whole city in real life Here are a couple of detail pictures. You can get the "feel" of this part of the city with the flower light posts and flags. Finally, The Bridge. Bridge building description (If you don't care how its built, skip this, it'll be boring ) This bridge was the hardest build in the entire process so far. Its unique offset lower deck road, extra wide highway street, and large tile plates made the construction painfully complex. I had to make the bridge extra light, using tile and as little pieces for the lower road. The entire engine sits off the side, and has one less gear set than the other bridge because of the little space it has from "wacker" street. This means that I really have to test this beast in real life and see if it doesn't lean to one side or just fall apart. It also had to meet at 3 different points, as the highway sides were of different lengths because of the "motor". This meant adjusting the pivot point to just the right place and all the pieces so that no pieces would hit each other when raising. Finally, I had to build the lower level to allow it to adjust when raised. This was because as the bridge lifts, the lower level would hit the other side of the bridge, so it needed to pull back. Making is as automatic as I could, the road slides back on its own weight as the bridge goes up, retracting itself, and gets pushed back into place once the bridge closes. The other side of the bridge will also have to be a different length since there is 1 lost stud (making the distance odd stud length), so I can't copy paste. Not that I could anyway, since the lower road is offset....YAY Anyway, here is the bridge (for some reason I only got close ups of it in the up position). My favorite part is the control tower, which I built long ago and thought I'd not have room to place it. Conveniently, since I need space for the actual controls and motor, it sits on the lakefront sticking out. And a cool street view Piece Count: 26,428 Here is a little more detail on the biggest building in the city. Its 15,737 pieces, has a central core of 3 elevators and staircase, and has 20 floors + rooftop. The floors are of varying height and separate just like corner cafe, the first floor is 2 floors high, and there is a engineering/mechanical floor half way up. I also built in gear points to add in working elevators if I get the chance. Here are a couple shots of the upper floor details Here you can see the central core and elevators, and the control floor where one elevator stops. Hope you guys enjoy!

grrr. The timing of this is not satisfactory with me I just finished a section of my city and wanted to post it (after being gone for a few weeks). Can you post pictures from flickr the same way as from brickshelf? EDIT: Nevermind. Brickshelf is back up, lol. Though I probably should eventually get a flickr account (and mocpages for that matter)

Oh my dear lord Makes my city seem like a pea! This is just beyond the most insane thing ever...EVER

oh boy, interesting! By the way, what I meant by more open format is that in the first build, we were limited to 1 house, that fit the corner cafe style. The second build had us limited in size and style of buildings to market village, and we pretty much only built "medieval houses". In this build, the only limitation is classic space styling, and "outpost" with a moon based local...and seriously, what limitation is the word "outpost"? Any size, shape, structure...mining facilities, recreational buildings, hangers, housing, communications, infrastructure, ports...vehicles, moon based sports and entertainment, bars......out of breath

I have a question that relates to this. I've saved a ton of pictures, bookmarks, etc for later reference/use/idea generation. And by ton I mean a TON, over the years. Many of them don't have creator titles or credits, and some are impossible to find the names of the creators for in the first place (unorthodox methods of finding these things sometimes ) To top that off, I've most likely copied techniques/styles/design ideas without even realizing it as it just sort of "stuck" in my head. For my city creation, I've used a lot of this to help me quickly learn or come up to speed on the way city MOCs can be built, and how to get certain looks (not to mention, borrowed, sometimes heavily, on styles or whole builds). I've even had almost direct copies (as best I could from ones sided pictures) of buildings. For any building that is too similar, aka direct copy/style, I am rebuilding it. But my temporary "templates" I've posted use them in screen-shots. I feel like I've made a mess . Exactly what should be given credit? What if you can't give the proper credit? At what point should more than credit be given, and e-mails start being sent? What is considered "common technique" and what is considered "borrowed technique"? Sorry if this is a little off-topic, but it seemed to relate.

PM'd! Hopefully picked! This should be an interesting build either way Seriously though, what with the much more open format, there is no telling how this will turn out! The other builds were much more structured, so this really could go anywhere...oh boy. I'd almost say it would be interesting to have a second (or more) stage RCB to expand the creation, with people that can handle the larger size participating, and still have this part for those who can't. Imagine a multi-section base with mini-tram and pipe-lines connecting the "bases"! And little outposts attached in the distance. It could be a whole moon settlement.

I know what you mean. I fear that if LDD becomes too isolated from real bricks, it will become a niche tool rather than a popular and often used tool by many MOCers. I would think that it would be better to include free colors into secondary RCBs once the RCB has become more "mainstream" and we can easily host 2 builds at a time. That way using LDD as a standalone tool will become its own niche instead of being seen as part of the main use of LDD. I must just be paranoid though I want to see LDD be popular and accepted by the larger AFOL community

I think its safe to say the next build will be space themed Also, more parts, builders, and colors. Someone host! I want to build, I want to build, I want to build We've got so many possibilities within space though...another poll or just let the host decide?