roamingstop

I find the autoplacing of elements in LDD quite infuriating (it never lines up as I want, or jumps forwards / backwards too easily). Having previously used 3D cad products like Autocad, NX, it would be great if LDD had support for 3D mice. Before I go and buy one; does anyone know if LDD already support this feature? http://www.3dconnexion.com/ It would also be great if this support could extend to the connection of studs / holes. I.e. use the 3D mouse to manipulate element shifting by one (or 1/2, 1/3, 1/5) studs. Whenever I try to use existing mice (trackball) the system nearly always autolocks elements to the wrong place because of incorrectly translating 2D movements to 3D workspace. The number of times Ive pulled my hair over trying to do something relatively simple in LDD (gnash). Oh and whilst im at it, it would be great to have the hinge feature such that you can specify connecting studs, and if it is legal, have the angle snap to shape. A similar function exists when defining curves in Corel Draw (and other products)... i.e. define the start and stop points, with the radius calculated by the length of the hinge element.

Boat hulls?... a new background... and rocking motion? (probably a forward leak for later LDD 4.0)

It looks like the universal joint is under stress; pulling the left hand gears down a little. Makes me wonder what else is under stress.

Practical experience in Labview = Yes Practical experience in connecting NXT to PLC = No (sorry). I would look at the website for the Control Laboratory (RWTH) at the University of Aachen - they developed the Matlab NXT toolboxes - and may know others working in this area. http://www.mindstorms.rwth-aachen.de/ Option 1: if you want direct integration then you are perhaps thinking of running a converter cable into the inputs / outputs. Since these run on the I2C format it might be possible to find a converter to the PLC... (A quick google search was not looking positive). Option 2: Control the NXT via the serial interface (USB cable/ bluetooth). I have used the Matlab toolbox from RWTH which communicates with a small firmware module downloaded to the NXT memory. This interface is a simple serial protocol - and with a small embedded PLC it should be possible to send and receive sensor port data in semi-realtime. It is not perfect; (i.e. uses a polling loop to monitor motor positions, so has overshoot) but could provide a quick and dirty hack. There might be other alternative firmware - but this was the most practical / open one (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Mindstorms_NXT_2.0) Feel free to send me a PM if I can be of more help.

Whats better? BMW or Mercedes? In my honest opinion both have techniques have merits; advantages and disadvantages. The best models can seemlessly connect the two styles to achieve an end. Both versions stand alone very well, and when combined can provide unique (beautiful) models.

Actually I wonder whether replacing the top section of the bogey (the axles and pins) with one or two stacked 2x6 technic plates with holes, and tiles for surroundings? This might enable better side plate design for improved greebling. Need to find time... weather too nice.

Really nice solution.... I need to come back to the solution - summer finally arrived and lots of evenings are spent swimming, and with full time job it means little time for designing... but I did make some progress and will report it later. I really like your bogey design... and was heading in the same direction before the summer pause.

I read somewhere about movement to the Railbricks site. The ILTCO library lives here. The original link to the email is here.

The response I got (for PM position) is that the closing date IS end of June... and they will be on holiday for July. Perhaps an automated response; although it is nice to be acknowledged though. Time to enjoy the summer...

This was exactly why I had asked CopMike / Ambassedors about asking TLG to open up PAB to 'Pick a Bag'. I.e. select a bag from one of the larger sets and sell it on its own... via PAB. You could easily take bage 3,4,5 from the Train Set, or Bag 1 for the tram. The request was treated as 'why no seperate Emerald Night carriage' and got short shrift (i.e. trains are not profitable, yada yada yada). Never mind. From a product management perspective: whilst breaking sets sounds appealing it also limits the total volume which can be sold. Many people would be quite happy for Pick a Bag from TLG... but they probably think it is better to allow the secondary market to swallow risks such as unsold boxes, instructions, elements. If I had the upfront cash I would do this as a wholeseller / AFOL and use it to fund my hobby... but it is sometimes outrageous. E.g. I recently saw the elements from the Cargo train sell on Ebay as 107 GBP for the Locomotive + controller, >23 GBP for each of the carriages and freight crane, and this did not include the flexible track. UK RRP: 130 GBP. Resell as subsets via Ebay... >180 GBP. There are people doing this directly on bricklink - but registering the set as 'used, incomplete' and the description as 'new sealed bags for EN carriage' and 'new sealed bags for EN Locomotive'. Alternatively the the 'buy Lego, Custom'. However it does not have a easy search tag...

The castle stuff was sold out by 11:30 this morning... It pays to have an early morning check of the sales site.

Bionicle, Castle, and Indiana Jones models currently on sale on Swiss S@H.

Large discounts on Castle, Bionicle and other models on UK sales site this morning!

Just watched the first two episodes; you can it find if you know where to look. I wont give spoilers - definitely some funny laugh a-loud moments. It should make the fans very happy over the coming 26 episodes.

Yep season six starts soon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-CuAvPgpyU Starting this thursday. http://www.gotfuturama.com/

Supersized Croissant (or Gipfeli Parisian) exist here in Switzerland... and yes they are that big. Typically 30cm long... so nothing wrong there.

Confirmed up again on Switzerland... for 30th July.

Or it needs a Freshwater type upscale!

Last week in Switzerland it had a list date of 7th July... then 22th July... then released on friday it was 'available now'... and now no longer available in your country? Either the release has been pulled... or their initial stocks were highly limited (which I doubt)... or some parts of Europe get it sooner than others. Still listed in US$... as 'Coming Soon on 22 Jul 2010' Even though big label says 'Available June 2010'. So im guessing scheduling issues.

The main issue with individual 'train elements' seems to have been low turn over in the past (but perhaps a steady slow stream rather than initial high volumes) and possible losses on some models (when measured over the 6 months / 1-2 years)... And this bad experience does not help the pricing / product strategy. Some DBM / LDD factory sets which are officially sanctioned would perhaps be a way forwards, but it might also be something which needs the community to do as a first step... i.e. a few designers build the LDD models and release them to 'testers' within the community (who must include young KFOL). Then write reviews; maybe with a small portal website? Finally making models available to the public. Railbricks did something like this with their limited run inaugural models; and there are two or three 'custom set' sellers available on Bricklink (actually with high quality packaging and instructions). If there is a central purchasing point then perhaps that person / team could have exclusive access to additional hard to find elements / sticker sheets for special models. With a coordinated business plan this could work out to fulfil the needs of the AFOL / KFOL community... and provide a business model which could help TLG make decisions about releasing this themselves. However it would need TLG to step in and offer to make parts / packs available at lower prices than listed on the DBM / LDD market otherwise handling / packing costs will break any possible 'profits' (shared amongst the community of designers / testers / web hosting etc). Having model numbers interate with each month will be confusing; especially if a part has to be replaced and you get model xxxxxab etc.

New parts from Bricklink arrived; and the original design of BS Yoto works perfectly. For the connection to the existing track you need a 1x2 tile with stud to correctly offset the bracket. The new straight track can then fit standard stud spacing. Normal brackets can hold the track in place. Unlike my previous solution there is no height difference between the rails and 4 Emerald Night wheels mounted into two 1x8 technic bricks run smoothly over the joints. Cross overs are slightly trickier - but also feasible. As for the points... still work in progress.

When I was in the UK Tesco were offering 'collect 3 vouchers' plus '2.99' packaging to get one of the toy story promotional aliens (30070)... but I never got enough vouchers to make it worth while... but does anyone know if the promotional items can be bought seperately or online somewhere? Here in Switzerland even TRU rarely gets access to the exclusive / hard to find items... :( I checked bricklink and ebay but prices of 20 GBP per set are way too expensive...

Unfortunately none of the solutions above work quite right... I will need to show some photos of the final moc for people to understand. It is not for a competition; but will form a portfolio of work for something... so I need to be cryptic at the moment. Mahjqa and all. I think a small drop of water based glue or superglue strategically placed will be used for the model / concepts. Who knows once released Lego might be tempted to produce the brick anyway. I am not planning on using any of the presented solutions; but would correctly cite them if I did; so dluders et al I will add a reference to 'glued bricks'

For a MOC im building I wanted an axle to run through two 1x1 with hole bricks; with the holes aligned behind one-another. Whilst I can build this normally with two 1x1 bricks I find that any slight twist in their alignment will cause the axle to stick... hence the question Does Lego make a 1x2 brick where the hole runs perpendicular - i.e. along the length? Would this be something to ask Lego for via the ambassadors? Or does someone know of a good trick to stop them sticking (other than plastic type glue). Thanks, RS

First charge for me was about 6-8 hours.