roamingstop

I think you have exactly hit the nail on the head. Consider the sketches of the 'Public Transport System' which were used for the Toys R Us exclusives Spot a Lego brick, technic design or actual structural elements... An Architect is not an Building Engineer; one does top level design, one does all the calculations and translates it into implementation. Im not sure the second role exists in TLG. Perhaps the successful interviewees can provide more info? Good luck to all (and I really mean it!). Ps Polywen: I did not mean it as a criticsm, if you read the description of Graphic Designer they actually state comics / cartoons as a good benefit. Pps did anyone notice how the truck in the 'Truck Stop' evolved into the 3221 Lego Transport Wagon and Toys R Us Exclusive?

Without any disrespect intended to anyone... (as there are some excellant Artistic portfolios!) It really seems TLG want people who are primarily artists first, and encouraged to be designers second, rather than people who are designers and implementers and not artists. This would fit more with the 'Graphic Designer' catagory which is looking explicitly for people who can draw cartoon styles. It also matches with the designer of the Winter Bakery who appears to have graduated in Fine Arts (listen to his video). Perhaps the workshop is to be mixed for both groups? It wont stop me designing products for myself / friends, some of which will be released on EB. And the process helped me better understand my career direction. At work, we have a product designer who is responsible for the vision, the packaging, look and feel, and does not worry too much about implementation details (how to get from A to B). We have a product project manager who is responsible for the team goals; and im responsible for making sure the product actually does what it is supposed to do; how it works and that it fulfills the designers ideas. And Im happy with that role; finding a solution, ensuring we hit Unique Selling Points (USP's) and making something work is what I do best.

Exactly what I was thinking on my way to work - but I wont change it until this evening.

The Lego Learning Institute is a foundation which is independant of Lego, but part of the overall structure. Lego Learning Institute To quote from a recent advert The LEGO Learning Institute (LLI) is a part of the Consumer Insight & Experience Innovation department. The purpose of LLI is to supplement consumer insight with academic research, building foundational and scientific insight into the consumer experience. Furthermore, we assist the various LEGO businesses in developing products, services, and experiences firmly rooted in the LEGO idea of systematic creativity. It seems to be aimed at bridging corporate research and academic research projects. There are always ethical problems when a big company sponsors (clinical) research for its products, and independence is the key, as is the freedom of the research team to publish any results - either good or bad (this does happpen from time to time).

Lego Emerald Night file has a problem - the LXF file has about 5 degree tilt from horizontal for all elements, which appear properly for visualisation but is a real pain if using bits in another model. I will contact 'I Like Pi'.

Whoops- fixed now. Illegal Hair File

A possible brick boundary error: Im recreating one of the Cube Dudes for a EB user, and was trying to get the hair right. According to the posted image I have got the 1x4 slope part in the correct positions; but there is a boundary error when it gets too close to the underlying bricks (1x2 slope). Either I have to insert additional green plates, or I cannot get the plates to match. Without a measuring tool I cannot see what is wrong in LDD when it appears to work in practice (although perhaps my construction is also wrong). Original LXF is here [Edit] It is also likely to be due to the 1x1 plate inserted into the 1x1 technic brick (back of the jaw) which causes the alignment issues.

Maybe... Just some quick thoughts in the air: How would a repository (eventually) work when there is also the TLG hosted DbM Gallery? Would it need to be checked with TLG first? It could also work in parallel to everyones advantage. How to keep original ownership of MOC's? With the other thread on 'Plagerisum' this resource would be quickly raided... My suggestion would be that as with the indexing thread, if a file is uploaded it is also associated with the original EB username, with a clear upload date. A "gold standard". Updating, modifying and branching of MOC's does slowly become a nightmare as everyone would also want 'their specific' change to be added (headache). And who would be allowed to upload? The thread has gained a life of its own and is moving in an interesting direction.

Perfectly agree about that as well. However it was more aimed at where the original files are stored; the links and index topics etc can all still be maintained from within EB. I would happily look after 'trains' - if noone else wanted it.

Problem will always be the lack of posting space available for the user... and bandwidth - who will host it? (with Flickr etc it is easier)... But it is definitely worth the idea. What about LDD Respository.Org? My personal webspace (with dreamhost) has acres of space and costs around $9 a month; with not much bandwidth throttling. It also supports repository software (Subversion, wiki's etc) and these also allow easy uploading and tracking - but LXF files are binary (and not source code). Of course you would need the permission of the creator to upload and keep their files - but then it could become a great library / resource.

We have a nice thread for the official TLG models kindly submitted by many nice people and well moderated by Calabar and SuperKalle. Now a more general question: Where to deposit 'semi official' MOC's? I mean here ones which are highly popular, often found on Ebay sites, with instructions widely available on the Interwebs? But these models are not official TLG releases. I start with an example of the Santa Fe B Unit by James Mathis. I have now generated this as a LXF file for an ongoing project I am working on (watch this space in late August) - but felt it could be made available to others. However we should also be clear on the copyright issues (I still need to contact Mr Mathis) before uploading others LXF files (hence mine will only be available when done). What are the general thoughts of the LDD moderators / and those who publish their MOC? Should there just be an index site listing posts back to the original developers? Or would this just become too complex to handle?

The first one is legal if no plate / brick connects the gold to reddish brown brick. In the second example the plate can attach to a technic hole (legal) but a plate / brick cannot go over the top of the technic brick (illegal). It is this second case which is required to make Yoda's ears work; and a grey plate (hair) sits over the top. I guess it is released as the CubeDudes are a custom creation and not a strictly TLG design. As Superkalle mentions the issue is with the light sabre blade hilt fitting into a technic hole - a boundary problem probably also related to the mix of system vs technic. I cant make it work with or without the presence of the hands.

Cant remember if it was mentioned before. A feature in Labview I find useful is to be able to right click the icon and to select alternative function from the same palette group. For example if I place a logic element AND, I can right click it and select 'replace with...' and then get the element palette of 'AND, OR, NAND, NOT, XOR, ...' How it could work: Place a 1x1 brick and right click, select 'replace with...' and get a list of 1x1, 1x1 headlight, 1x1 with 1 stud, 1x1 with 2 studs, 1x1 with 4 studs. Consequences for LDD would be to split up their existing palettes into many more subgroups than now, but in LU mode it might not be a problem. However how to assign what is 'common'? In Labview it is based upon logical functionality - but hey the main functionality in LDD is to be a Lego brick....

I forgot to add- the Western Train Chase has been updated to include Jessie, (Feersome) Rex, and Ham (well Beef).

Work-around is possible. Trust the force to show you. But fear the Bandana. The force will heal you. His light sabre will still not fit onto the leg; there is a conflict between the arm and leg mount; perhaps the arm needs to be rotated back a little. Yoda Dude Fix If people are happy with the fix I can merge it back into the composite file.

The ComicCon Dudes post has been updated with all 5 of them. It was fun to build - and understand the generic techniques being used even if I am not a fan of it.

Yes this would be nice - and somehow similar to the super grouping functions already requested, but perhaps a little easier to implement?

Build a lego snake for picking up in the beak and it will make a magnificant creation a mind-blowingly magnificant creation... It must win a prize just for being original!

It would seem (in the UK) that the Pneumatics Add on set is selling pretty well this year - the schools like the parts, and they can be used at home. (Ahem). Also the new Renewable Energy Add on packs, featuring the E Motors, new Solar Power Cells, Energy Meters etc will be released in August... so may be shipping to lucky people soon. There is also a load of sensors / actuators coming from Mindsensors and HiTechnic, and I wonder if Lego are happy to allow these items to become more (or less) specific target groups, and use the LA in the more main stream sets which require reliability (ahem Excavator... you know who you are) and easy of assembly.

I had started entering the cube dudes on the 'Official Sets in LDD' link. Of the three so far undertaken (C3PO, Obi-Wan and partial Rex) I can say that it is not possible to buy the bits via DBM, although Bricklink might be your friend.

People should also look at the Fluck truck cranes for inspiration of things which lift strangely... http://www.flueck.ag/logistikambau.html Some Pal Finger / Truck types http://www.flueck.ag/grosslkwkrane.html Mobile mini-tower cranes http://www.flueck.ag/mobilbaukrane.html These all feature extendable booms on the first section; with more traditional open crane formats on the jib. Now you know where to send the Zblj designs!.

Thats one of the reasins why I believe it would be useful to allow annotations to be added into model files (a little like the preview capabilities of Adobe Acrobat). It could even be something as simple as adding a custom decoration to a part (e.g.4x6 tile with 12 studs) which lists "Author", "Title", "Date". It could also add to the appeal of the model... If you can annotate the model with a copyright flag, then someone would have to knowingly delete it to make it their own. Whilst some kids would probably not care, it might be enough to make someone first stop and think. Currently it is so easy to download from the gallery, modify and upload again that no-one will think about it. Currently I dont upload models to the LDD gallery - I can keep control of them, order the bits I need from Bricklink, and leave it at that.

Im not sure how the pieces are defined in the dB, and their orientation / translation matrices (I would assume they use the Homogenious type 4x4 rotational matrices) then a mirror would be valid for the mesh of an object - but not for a specific part. E.g. if you do a mirror in Autodesk the mesh of the object is correctly mirrored - but the part is new. To keep with valid bricks, the mirror function would need to know how to also turn elements through 180 degrees and realign with the original bricks. If the part data base was updated with a list of valid 'mirror' objects it could be foreced to work - but then the mirror would only be valid in one or two specific dimensions. E.g. a mirror of a wing along the two straight edges could work (if mirror along plane X, then substitute with part Y) - but an arbitrary mirror would not. There could also be cases where mirror along plane X results in re-using part X, but remembering to rotate it by 180 degrees (e.g. with 2x2 corner brick) AND realign the axes to the other bricks (assuming the origin of the brick mesh is not in the centre of the brick). So short answer: Mirroring sounds easy, would be a great feature, and would give a nightmare for the programmers / implementation team.

San Diego Comic Con 2010 Exclusive - The Clone Wars Edition: SDCC2010-1 ComicCon Clone Wars Dudes Notes: Yoda's ears will not fit as the original model uses an illegal build - i.e. a 1x1 technic brick with plates inserted into the hole. As a result Yoda's hair wont lie flat on the ears. I have temporarily increased the size of Yoda's ears by adding two blue 1x1 technic bricks. Im not sure the best way to resolve this. I have also used tan colour bricks - although from the instructions it could also be flesh coloured. Could some point me in the right direction? Rex has a few issues. The head cannot be rotated (I had to rotate the body, then the whole model back). There appears to be a special 2x2 corner (blue) brick to accept technic studs in the base. However I was able to insert the upside down cheese slopes by connecting them temporarily with this piece. Also his pistols dont exist (so replaced with fire hoses). What was most interesting is that the models were only possible using Universe Mode; I could start building in the DBM / PAB mode but quickly found pieces which did not exist in the correct colours. For those who want specific model, with grouped elements (head, arms, torso) I provide the original files. C3-PO Rex Obi-Wan R2-D2 Yoda Edit Main model updated to LDD 4 ComicCon Clone Wars Dudes

As a mobile crane in the more mini-model series this is great... although the LA would push up the price (if ever available to kids). I really like how the form of the small mobile cranes is kept in a nice compact package; without sacrificing functionality. It reminds me a lot of old 855 model... sigh. Those were the dreams.