quilkin

Thanks for all suggestions. Tesco have some offers on Friends sets at the moment; they don't interest me but I'll look again at other times. Sainsbury's only seem to sell the small sets. Seems Argos is best when you can catch them.

Every so often Argos has a '3-for-2' offer on all toys, which is a good time to buy sets (If you can catch them in time). Just wondering if anyone knows other UK stores that have anything similar (i.e. ways to buy sets at a discount from RRP, apart from the occasional discount on an occasional set). (oops) just noticed my title has a typo - should be 'UK' not 'OK', I am interested in United Kingdom stores.

I don't have the set, but isn't this mirror just a 4x6 trans-clear window with an added backing? If so I don't see how it helps my door problem!

Thanks for all the responses.... I agree, I only suggested this to get some reaction Now, that looks promising, thanks Yeah, seen that, but a windowed door is usually external, and external doors are usually painted in real buildings. TLG seem to have got this the wrong way round! Also, tried a brick-built door, but it's almost impossible to make them close - see my other thread http://www.eurobrick...howtopic=116941

I'm building a modular house (to replicate my own house) and disappointed by the choice of door colours available for a 'standard' internal 4x6 door (part 60606). Most internal doors in actual buildings are made of wood, and although many are painted many are left as bare wood. So why don't we have any tan, dark tan, brown or red-brown doors? I tried buying some 'flesh' doors but they look garish. Maybe I should just buy trans-clear doors and paint them - anyone tried painting lego parts?

Thanks Rick, that makes sense. I've inspected the Town Hall design (LDD and PDF instructions) and seen how it's done, but this means the doors stand proud of the wall they are fitted to. So I'm still left wondering how to make double doors (or even a single built-up door?) in-line with a wall (as per my LDD file above). As far as I can see, the only way would be to use round bricks for the outer edges of the doors.

Thanks Tim. I'm puzzled why your TownHall LDD allows the doors to close while mine doesn't (I am using 4.3.8). But on closer inspection they almost close - so I would think that the 'real' brick building they would close OK. In my own design (https://www.cubbyusercontent.com/pli/stmawes.lxf/_268d5d1ad7354f62a64a34c40afd8e99) they get nowhere near closing, so I think I need to use a different type of hinge. Some great models on your flickr, by the way,

I have started to make a modular building that has double doors, each 4x6 bricks, so I am making these up from parts (mainly 2x2 frames and panels) so I don't get frames in the centre when the doors are open. The doors are hinged using these https://alpha.brickl...429c01#T=S&O={} and fit into an opening 8 bricks wide by 6 high. But they don't really fit, because they won't both close (without forcing). Looking at the geometry, I can see why. I notice that the Town Hall modular has very similar doors (although narrower, and with different hinges) but the LDD of this I found http://www.brickshel...4_town_hall.lxf also won't allow both doors to close. Has anyone found a solution to this? If you have a Town Hall, do the doors close?

Thanks again, Ron. Some food for thought there, including some parts I didn't know were available in trans-clear. I'll start experimenting and I'm sure I can come up with a solution.

This sounds like the problem. Sometimes, while trying to place bricks, I have 'lost' them and later found them stuck underneath. But I'm surprised that the grid system doesn't always snap bricks into the allowed coordinates.

Anyone know why gaps are appearing in my LDD house build? I didn't really worry about it until I did a POVray rendition, which looks terrible. My house looks like it's about to fall to pieces . Files are here: https://www.cubbyuse...82f231bac528812

I'm puzzled how you took the second screenshot, the secondary toolbar must have appeared at some stage. Are you really sure you're in extended mode? Does it say 'extended' under the 'Digital Designer' title at the top of the brock selection window?

OK, that make sense, so when I add the roof to the upper floor, it won't try to connect underneath the ground floor. Yes, the 'sometimes' appears to be quite arbitrary! That sounds useful as well. Many thanks for the help.

I've prepared two floors of a house design, but now having trouble fitting the first floor back onto the ground floor. I've tested it at various times earlier , and it worked OK before but something has now prevented it going together. Initially I had just one red 2x2 on a corner with the aim of 'fixing' the floors together (which will be replaced with a white tile when everything's completed). When I found that the top floor didn't fit any more, I raised the corner a bit to see if there was something underneath that was catching, but still it won't fit. Maybe it isn't just a problem with fitting on a complete floor, because as the model gets more complex I sometimes seem to be having trouble even fitting single brick in place unless the view aspect is in one particular position. Is this a limitation of LDD or am I doing something incorrectly? If anyone has time to have a look, the file is house-11.lxf, in this folder: https://www.cubbyuse...1011c192a36f432 Thanks. ....[later] Well I have now joined the floors without any problem, just by attempting the operation by 'looking' from the other side of the building. So, is there any 'golden rule' about ensuring that the view is correct to enable parts to snap together?

Thanks, Ron, some nice frames there. When I said 3x3 I was meaning 3 studs wide and 3 bricks high (as per Lego sizing of windows & doors) so a 2-brick-high widow still doesm't look correct. I didn't realy 'choose' 3x3, but in my (real) house there are various sizes of window; some scale pretty well to Lego windows but others look distinctly wrong because tehre;s no near math to the sizing.

Thanks, all, for suggestions. I had thought about a SNOT technique, but 3x3 is the same even on it's side! The idea of using a thicker wall, with the outer hiding part of the window, is interesting but then the frame wouldn't show and it would look unrealistic - unless I am misunderstanding? Transparent clear bricks could clearly make a window of virtually any size but would show all the inner studs, joins etc.- not very see-through! Also, I have moved on now to designing the kitchen. I'm surprised that there only seems to be one size of cupboard - 2x3x2 (apart from some very ancient 2x3x4 - yellow only - and 4x4x4). I would have thought that the continuing success of the modular building series would have led to some new parts of this type.

Hello, I've just started trying to build a house (using LDD to start with) after a few years of technic play. I'm actually trying to replicate my own house, using 4x6 doors as a scaling base. But many of my windows need to be 3x3, and I can't find anything to use - 2x2,2x3,4x4 are all available. Is there a solution or will I have to accept windows too small or too big?

Quick answer, thanks! You must be online 24/7 Not quite sure what you mean by hiding the bricks on top - those are the plates I want to connect to, from underneath. See https://www.cubbyusercontent.com/pl/Models/_8cf9055f99bb4be881011c192a36f432 (house4.lxf) . Trying to get both of the orange 4x10 plates underneath the 8x1 plates. [later] OK, done it now, but somewhat convoluted: hidden the floor and tiles underneath, added a temporary 2x2 plate underneath one ceiling plate, and then the second plate falls into place. Remove temporary plate and unhide floor!

Just wondering if there's a 'how to' guide for LDD somewhere, apart from the basic help file that comes with the software (and this forum of course!). Things that I'd like to know how to do, for example: force a part to be placed underneath another part, rather than on top? (for example I have a model which contains a 4x10 plate correctly underneath two 1x8 plates along its edge. But I need to move the 4x10 plate along by one stud. When I move it, the large plate pops on to the top of the 1x8 plates. I can't just turn the view round so I am looking from underneath, because there are other plates lower down in the structure which get in the way of seeing what needs to be done.) Having saved a group, how do you select it to use again? Having hidden a part, how to you unhide it?

Thanks so much, bublible and SylvainLS. .... but did you have to change any angles to make the eighth side fit in? The hinges were placed correctly for that one at least, and I could match up one pair but the other pair simply wouldn't click. OK, that sounds sensible but then I don't know how to switch a part - did you have to remove the black 2x4 plate each time, or is there a clever way you can point to a part and instantly change it for something else, even though it's sandwiched between other parts? As the construction becomes more complete, it's more and more difficult to get 'inside' it to change parts around. Yes, you're probably correct. Though I had a feeling that when I made the original a couple of years ago, from real bricks, I tried that and because of the three-fold symmetry, something didn't work out correctly at the end. I'll try again though!

OP here again, and I've got further than my original alignment problem and am being more adventurous. I'm trying to make an LDD icosahedron (which I made from real bricks a while ago). It's made up of 20 triangular sections, and the first 7 have gone together perfectly - they need an exact angle of 41.81 degrees (according to Wikipedia). But I can't get the eighth side to snap into the hinges. Any suggestions from those wanting a challenge? The .lxf can be found here (too big to attach)

Thanks for the suggestion (and the help it seems to have given @bublible!) but I don't think I want to make any more balls/spheres - I just chose that because it would challenge my learning curve more than just stacking bricks vertically

OK, in asking my question I have managed to solve it - by turning the assemblies around so the one being added to is lying flat, I can connect the next assembly. Have now finished the 'ball' and added tiles - then watched the auto-generated building instructions - amazing! ballcomplete.lxf

Just experimenting with LDD for the first time and thought I'd try to make a 'ball' because it uses only a few parts but involves quite a bit of turning parts around before joining them, therefore good for learning (I thought). So I have made up the six 'sides' and rotated them to the correct orientations but can't join them, because I need to move two sides a half-brick each to enable the third side to fit between. How do you move a connected group of pieces half a brick? Or have I made a mistake somewhere earlier? LXF file attached - I'm currently trying to join the three subassemblies in the front. Thanks for any help. ball.lxf

OK, thanks. I see that they are in 'Bricks, modified' rather than in hinges. I searched for 'hinge' but then it didn't offer the 'bricks modified' divider. A bit confusing!