Superkalle

No problem, glad to be of help!

If you want to use the hinges in your example and at the same time avoid the "locking effect" when closing the doors, a solution is to place the hinges on the "inside". Two examples:

I take my hat off for Legostein! I love those kinds of quality posts where great effort was put into explaining something. And as icing on the cake, you're a microscale man. Respect!

Hi Ambassadors, There is a discussion over here on the the different pricing on Grand Emporium in various countries: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=39427 Is that something any ambassador could bring up with TLG, so that we can get a good picture on what the deal is (no pun intended )

Last year there was a huge price increase in Pick-A-Brick, and Lego then realised they made an error in judgment - perhaps they can be persuaded to review the pricing also on Grand Emporium (and other sets as indicated in this thread)? Also, the fact that Grand Emporiom is so expensive in certain counties (Sweden etc) actually creates a private import from other countries (like Germany or US). This in turn further reduces the sale to Sweden, thus creating a shift in sales statistics that could possibly give Lego executives an incorrect picture of where sets are sold. Could that be a contributing factor to the higher price in Sweden (...we don't sell so well to Sweden, so we don't have to be as carefull in our pricing to them)?

Now THIS is an interesting discussion. We had a similar one in the swedish SweBrick forum, and the discussion then was: On the one hand, we fans are Lego-puritans who detest clone brands. Right? Yet, at the same time, we open our hearts to small, independet, fan-driven manufacturers like BrickForge and , Chromebricks. Haven't we by opening the doors to these type of bricks, also opened up to other brands? Or is it because BrickForge and Chromebricks are so small companies and driven by community people that they are accepted? What if these companies decide to start making more standard bricks of the same or BETTER quality than Lego. Would that be OK? In the same way, we Lego fans are most often very sceptical to modified bricks (sawing, carving, painting), but at the same time there is now a big interest with Custom Minifigs (and acceptance it seems, there even a separate forum here at EB). If it's OK to make your own Minifig accessories, is it then OK to make your own (modded) Lego bricks?

Well, I think we can all agree that Lego hasn't put a lot of effort into protecting the data structures. On the other and it sure took the community a long time to get around hacking it, so in that sence I guess it was secure enough . Also, since LDD is updated on-line, it's easy for Lego to increase the protection only when the files have been hacked (like now). Regarding "QSDK" - haven't they changed from Qube to Havoc now since 3.0? And even so (I'm not an expert), but what does the graphics engine have to do with reverse engineering the db.lif.

So, alienwar9, if even MLCad won't cut it, I guess your back to square one. Could you find a way to mail me the file and I can see what kind of performance I get. Then we'll know if it the model or your PC that is the bottle neck. @Sergio -Out of curioisity. can your software import LDD or MLCad-files?

I'd have too agree. For a build with over 25 000 pieces, LDD is not the right choice. Try to export it to MLCAD from within LDD, but expect a lot of conversions problems. Also, the learning curve for MLCad is kind of steep. There is also this tool for just the conversion that you might want to try. http://www.digital-bricks.de/en/ Actually, you can do that with LDD too. Instructions are generated within LDD, and creating a part list and uploading to BrickLink can be done with WantedBrick http://www.nolberger.se/Lego/Wantedbricks/Default.htm

And speaking of LDD, here is for your reading pleasure a public document from Lego that descibes the structure of the LXF-files. You can use this information to for example analyse LXF-files (like Anders has done with the excellent WantedBricks). Or maybe write a piece of software that create LXF-files programmatically - like maybe a mosaic from a photo (anyone up for that challange?). LXFML_Tags_5.zip

You're probably right about that!

I understand that you did not aim your hack for children, but if you read my post carefully I was simply replying to your question why not all elements are available in the public/official version of LDD. That said, I can't help but to be impressed by your programming skills and that you managed to de-compile the db.lif-file. @ Siegfried - it's actually not simply an XML-file. The db.lif file is a compiled XML/binary file - that's why I'm taking my hat off for Bojan. However, the file format for describing a model (the LXF-file) is indeed an XML-file, maybe that was what you were thining of?

Some comments on the posts by Bojan.... "All the bricks where in LDD anyway...." I can respect the nobel cause Bojan, but at the end of the day, it's still illegal to reverse engineer/decompile/disassemble software. There was a discussion on Lugnet some years ago, but the decision was then not to go through with the de-compile, simple because it's not legal. (see here: http://news.lugnet.com/cad/ldd/?n=139) "Why did not TLG release all the parts if they are in LDD anyway..." LDD is a tool supporting a business - to sell bricks via DesignByMe. That's why LDD is made available for free. Allowing full access to all bricks would just make the target group (children) use even more bricks in their models that they cannot buy later on, hence making them more annoyed. There is a trade off point, which can be seen in the "Check Buyability tool" and is manifested in that most "non-buyable" elements are just color variations of existing DesignIDs (molds).

@alienware9: I have a test model with 16000 elements. It takes a 1 min and 20 seconds to load. Once loaded it will rotate in an even motion witout any hickups. If I make a selection of about 2000 elements, and move them around there is about a 2-3 second delay for each nudge or rotate movement. 3-4 minutes sure seems very slow. How large is your model? And what kind of computer do you have (CPU, memory, graphics card)?

Thanks for info on the set numbering ILikePi EDIT: follow up question. I couldn't help but to notice that these SW-sets in the 30000 series are sold in stores: http://www.brickset.com/news/article/?ID=550 . Shouldn't these be 1-9999 series then? Especially since for example this set http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=7802-1 is sold in stores in the same way and has a 1-9999 numbering. I'm not sure, but I guess my question boils down to: what is the definition of a promo set (30000 series).

Does anyone have any more info on these promo sets? Currently, there is only one shop that has them on BrickLink, and they are a hefty 15 USD per bag - way too much. Also, does anyone know about the 30000-series in general? What is the purpose, target market etc?

I was kind of wondering what was going on. Suddenly everyone was called FangyRas, RasShadow, CopMike74, RasVelte... If I could change my name it would be to SuperRas as a tribute to a super guy....or maybe Ras-da-man for that groovy reggae feeling In any case, have a good one

Yepp, in that sence it's a limitation in LDD.

No prob, glad to be of help

The simple answer is (like you've discovered) that you can't use them separated in LDD. To understand which pieces can, and which cannot be used separately, we need to have a look at some Lego system logic. We have the following cases: 1) Parts that are joined from factory and cannot be dis-joined (example: steering wheel to base) 2) Parts that are joined from factory and can be dis-joined (example: lever) 3) Parts that are not joined from factory, but are not meant to be separated once connected (example: turntable) All of the above type elements cannot be used as separate pieces in LDD, and the reason is that LDD quite strictly follows how bricks can handled by children (the basic norm at Lego), and thus how elements would be used in official Lego sets. I know that the turntable base was used in 10189 Taj Mahal, and therefore could be seen as "legal", but I guess that's the exception that confirms the rule.

Try this: http://www.nolberger.se/lego/wantedbricks/ And yeah, the search function is not working very well. I've pointed it out to admin twice, but haven't heard anything...

I made it myself. The bricks are collected from various sources over a long time. Some cheating though. For exampel with the 1x2 tiles, since I couldn't find them in 2x2. Also, I made an excel-sheet with all the colors and their corresponding short name that I used to make small name stickers. I have attached it if you want to download it. Lego_Colors_to_EB.zip

Aha, you mean this:

In LDD, which uses LXFML (a Lego XML format), the numbers (1-312) are called "MaterialID's". This would imply a wider scope than just colors. If several types of materials (plastic, rubber, cloth etc) are included, it would explain why the number series is up to such a high number as 312.

No prob. Glad to be of help