Superkalle

Update: It seems it's not 30385 (crystal rock) that should be in these Monsters sets. I tried to place the 30385 on a technic x-axle (with physcial brick), and it didn't work. So then I had a closer look at the BI, and it looks like it's a new gem elemement (not the crystal rock).

Well spotted 30385 should not be used there, it's a new piece that should be used. first error probably an illegal build from the TLG designers as it seems the design will bend the stack of bricks outward. 30385 should not be used there, it's a new piece that should be used. Reported before, but still good find. first error (i.e. using anti-stud cavities) is very unusual design, but I've seen it before. Strange TLG designers didn't use 3L bars instead. Anyway, as we know, LDD does not support using those cavities....yet.

The render is amazing. But what happened to that one plate in the top right corner. Is the position variance playing a trick on us? (or put otherwise - maybe the position variance should somehow be a function of the size of the brick too?)

Even though a great lookin' model, this kind of topic fits best over in the Town forum. For it to be in the Digital Designer forum a topic has to be of particular interest from a tool perspective, or otherwise interesting to other LDD users. Moving this to Town Forum.

Thanks for letting me know, I'll look into it

Ldraw part library update For all users of Ldraw based CAD tools, it's christmas when a new part library is released. And now it's christmas. Download here (thanks to EBs' own Ldraw indexer legolijntje for pointing this out)

I think you can start new topics for these kind of newsflashes. Old news will then automatically fall down in the list as they get...well older.

That's the spirit I guess I just wanted to shed some light on the subject, specially in this topic since it's one of the very few places where it is actually any meaning to talk about design rights. I guess I'm just believer that an inventor should always get what he deserve - due credit for due work and all that

As I have understood it as roughly as follows: Trademarking is one thing - it can be done after many years, when a product brand/logo/design has become synonymous with a certain product (like the LEGO logo) . Intellectual property right is something you get automatically as innovator/creator (like a piece of music). A Patent, also a design patent, however is something else; It must be new and previously unknown. I investigated some more and found for EU: "Designs may be protected if they are novel, that is if no design identical or differing only in immaterial details has been made available to the public;". This is mentioned here (which interestingly mentions LEGO as a case ) @1974 - it doesn't matter if they are CAD:ed out a long time ago inside TLG if they are unknown to the public - it is the first that claim the patent that wins. TLG example of US patented individual brick: http://www.google.com/patents?id=dVfRAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract#v=onepage&q&f=false (there are plenty more examples like it).

Well, the thing is that if an idea (or design that can be design protected) has been shown in the public domain (for example published on the internet, presented at an open AFOL-event or whatever), then it is by definition not possible to patent it. You need to file for a patent BEFORE you show it to the public. Well, to be honest, you can file for a patent, but if it later comes up facts that shows that the idea or design was already known, the patent will fall and you will have lost all the money you paid filing for it.

One thing I've been thinking about with all cool part design ideas in this topic, is that they actually prevent TLG (or any toy maker) from applying for a patent for that design. So in some respects, with CUUSOO, TLG have somewhat opened Pandoras' box when fans around the world suddenly start publishing their part ideas. And once an idea is published, it is not possible to patent it. Part design ideas are also different from MOC designs, in that a unique part design can be patented, but a MOC more rarely can (at least to my knowledge). Now, the question is: is it good to upload part designs ideas to CUUSOO or not? I'm not sure, but I guess that if you don't upload them to CUUSOO and merely publish them in this topic (or anywhere else), they become public, and cannot be protected by TLG (or anyone else for that matter). This means that if TLG decides to take up the idea of that part design, you will get nothing. On the other hand, if you upload to CUUSOO, you will at least get 1% royalty.

Gotta agree with Prateek. Must be the smallest set in the history of this topic.

Interesting finds. I also tried with some manual editing the LXFML file, but to no avail. Seems to be some kind of snapping error, since the x-axle doesn't quite snap all the way to the end.

Works for me too now. Problem before was that the folder had not been approved/moderated by the Brickshelf team, and hence was not publicly available. But now it is. EDIT: I was too fast. The link still doesn't work for the B-model of the tractor: http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/PatrickvH/LDD/9393/9393b.lxf EDIT2: And now a couple of hours later it works...

Thanks for the feedback David. Much appreciated! I'll look into the version number. The F1 key was never implemented, but maybe it should. That the StartLDDManagervbs is the old one doesn't matter. It's still the same functionality. EDIT Hm, looking at the version issue, I can't understand what the problem is. My version says 1.0 for LDD 4.2.5 Also, the file on Skydrive is a 40Mb zip (but expands to 80Mb) Can you check if the new feature with brick thumbnails works? If not, try to download again, and make sure you overwrite the previous version.

OK, a new version is now out, version 1.0 (yes, a bit illogical I know) The most important news is that the BrickLink-to-LDD mapping is updated, and the color reference table is completely refreshed. I've also added a "brick thumbnail" pre-view feature. It's designed kind of nifty because all the brick images are stored in the database - no images are retrieved from Peeron or BrickLink. The images are semi-transparent PNG's containing only the brick shadows and outlines. To get the different colors, images are simply overlaid with the RGB values for the particular brick. The result is a very compact brick image library that still allows all colors to be shown. Many thanks to Martin H for helping with some tricky coding problems. There is also a new on-line version check that will notify you when there's an update LDD Manager version. (the check is only done every two months to minimize any disturbance). It works by downloading a HTML page (the Skydrive page where I host LDD Manager) and compare with the installed version, so no data is transmitted from LDD Manager whatsoever. If you don't have any internet connection, it will pop up a message instead, reminding you to check for new versions manually. OK, that's about it. Let me know if you bump into any problems. Download version 1.00 from here

P4trickvH, I can seem to download your LXF-files - can you deeplink?

Welcome to the forum and a good first start

This is a forum for adults. We require you to start sentences with a capital letter and to use proper punctuation.

What is real these days? LDD2PovRay is a brand new tool from Martin Hronsky (Hrontos) that allows you to create stunning, photo realistic renderings directly from LEGO Digital Designer. Click here for more samples Click here to download And finally here to discuss

@bmollema Welcome to the forum Whichever BI (building instructions) you decide to re-create, please be aware that it's considered good practice to ask the original creator for permission first. In the Nico Jeep case, Nico71 himself already made the model available with full instructions, but even so, if you plan to make a digital model out of it and make that it available for download (like you have done with the L3B file), you should still ask for permission for that. PS: When you make a reply to someone elses post, please make it a habit to convert the picture to links (removing the tag), since they otherwise take up unnecessary real estate. Thanks (I did it for you this time).

Here is the same picture, but with a tad less saturation. It's just a tiny amount, but may give the effect that the photo was taken "at home". (not sure though, just thinking out aloud). winter_village_2732x1536_mod.zip

It looks amazing The lighting is good. And the colors are coming out really good now I think. The Reddish brown is possibly coming out a little bit too strong and might need some adjustments in the future. What still gives it away as a render is the whites (for example the 6x10 plate with the bench/cat). The shadows makes the white look a bit "dirty". In the other colors, the dark shadows gets camouflaged better, but for white there is something unnatural. Real LEGO white is a tad more transparent and has a more "milky" white color (don't know how to explain it). Maybe the white color needs a bit more yellow in it to compensate? Or maybe the material can be just a tiny bit translucent? EDIT: Come to think of it, the color of the entire scene look a tiny bit too saturated, like a Photoshoped product photography. Is the image straight out of POVRAY or have you enhanced it?

For Mosaic creation I use Bricksaic to create LDR files, which I then import into LDD. Works like a charm.

I'm working on a new version, and was wondering if there are any requests. At the moment I have done the following 1) Thumbnail preview images of bricks 2) Better "Generate LXF" file - now packs the bricks better 3) New on-line version check. Checks for new version every other month. 4) And naturally all updated data from BrickLink and also updated mapping between BrickLink ID's and LDD ID's I'm now looking at a pick-list report that can be printed (with brick thumbnails)