Bojan Pavsic

Then your computer doesn't support shaders or they aren't recognized by the software. I have the same thing (my desktop works on both cards - geforce 7600gt and radeon HD3870, but on my notebook, the options are disabled because it doesn't support openGL shader extensions).

Was that option available to you in 4.0?

There is a problem with a track part (16M, straight rail), refID 2701... Here's a working version without the track: http://www.pavsic.com/kocke.si/LDD/mnrr_m7.lxf

Totally agree with Brickaroo. My little girl will be 3 years old this year and her favorite Lego set currently is the Toy Story 3 train. Took us about 2 days to put it together (she did all the work, i just pointed her to the right direction when she just started to build on her own). After she was done, first thing she asked was "where's the remote"... So yea... had to MOD it to PF. Right now i don't really allow her near this train station as you probably know how little kids are near stuff like this. She almost put a minifig on top of the roof (and if she'd press down a bit too much, well, we all know what would be left...). With her growing up, i'll try to build as much of a full city as possible, ofc with her. And btw, i'm from Maribor, Slovenija :)

No, the platforms are long only as much, as the roof is. I might extend them a bit more, sometime in the future, but right now i'm working on another building, so this one is for now staying as it is.

Well, you know what they say: "Where there's a will there's a way" :) Took me some time too... It actually started out as a pass through station, with the building at the side of the tracks... Then it evolved into a double sized project as it is now :)

Really A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!! I was toying with the idea of opening doors on a train, but i always ended up with a non-lego solution using an micro servo motor... But this... /bow

I put together some of thoughts. World - tile based design (multiplier of let's say 16). - top down or iso view with prerendered data inside a browser. - multiple LODs (level of detail). If you'd zoom out max, you'd see multiple towns. Community towns in the middle, user owned towns on the outside rim. You could zoom into a town of your choice. If it's a community one, you'd be able to build there otherwise just check it out. You'd only see a user town if it's marked public or the owner invites you. 3D World - to see and walk through the 3D version of the town, one would need to download a viewer. - i'm not sure what measures would TLG take if db.lif would be used for displaying the LXF files in the scene. - it would be nice to be able to embed both LXFs and LDRs in the scene (and the files from Sergios' editor which are basicly compatible with LDR. One would need to have the libraries installed thou (LDD to display LXF objects, LDraw libraries to display LDRs). If the library would be missing, instead of real 3D building, there would be a box with textures of each view (which would be ugly but at least better then nothing). - everyone could make his own custom minifig and it's location could be sent to the server and then to all other "connected" users - similar to an mmorpg, just without all other bells and whistles, maybe only with a chat. Building - a user can "buy" land (free of course, but it means that it's reserved for the user). - max number of tiles in building is fixed (like an area of 4096 studs, which is equal to 64x64 or 128x32 or 4 properties sized 32x32 or any other combo - doesn't need to be square or connected - multiple smaller projects in working). - when the build is complete, it's flagged as finished and can't be edited anymore unless a request for re-building is issued. That's when the max number of tiles in building applies again. - the purchase goes as following: user selects some free area to buy it. He can download a base LDD file that's generated with the baseplates in the proper configuration / orientation (or just start a new one with the same configuration - but he'll have to adjust the orientation when he uploads the design). - the owner can add multiple users to his design - i.e. community build. The only thing is that the design would be "flagged" by only one user at a time as "in edit". It's just convenient that 2 users don't edit the same file at once as it would cause overwriting the design and additional work for the owner. The server would use some sort of versioning system so if someone uploads an empty design, the owner would still be able to revert it. There would be no automatic merging or any other "high tech" stuff... If two users would edit the same file and re-upload it, the one that was uploaded last, would be the active one. The owner can download both versions and merge them by hand if that's his wish.

This is a very nice idea (i loved games like Transport Tycoon, Sim City, OpenTTD until WoW came along ), but things that come to my mind thinking about it: - tile based design pros: easier to implement (everyone builds within their own borders) cons: limitations for the design (considering the road is made from road baseplates, the who would take care of the pavements, would overhangs, balconies over the "tile-baseplate" borders be allowed, etc...) - non user definable things like roads, town growth, train tracks, even monorail etc... (who would do that? some sort of administrators? What about checking & approving every uploaded design. Maybe user suggestions that would be approved by admins?) - prerendering of the buildings. If we'd focus on LDD designs, how many know how to render an LXF without LDD (it should be automatic, not downloading LXF). LDraw designs are a bit easier, since the data is public knowledge. Another "problem" is that prerendering makes moving through the 3D town (as a minifig or something like that) kinda impossible, you can't prerender everything from every viewpoint. Diablo style is probably not that useful either since everything is seen only from 2 directions (iso-view). - real time rendering... in browser? Probably not... Separate app? Requires LDD instalation (db.lif) for rendering LXFs in the scene (and there's the "minor" thing with TLG's copyright for the db.lif data) and LDraw parts library for LDRs. Even if the thing would be implemented in a browser, it would probably need some sort of plugin installation or something. I'm definitely more open for a normal application (which in turn is again harder to code, if the thing would need to run on multiple platforms like Win / OSX or Linux) - why would this be made in the first place? As a showroom for static buildings? Maybe as a tool to enable people to design their layouts for the next Lego show? The thing is that if it supports a virtual world (as in town), it can easily be blown up into sim city style of multiple towns (private - seen only by the owner, public - multiple contributors, readonly - private town made by one but can be seen by others) - a site like this takes quite some bandwidth. I know many have fiber@home with fast upload connections and probably even private servers. I already hear many shout out "i can host everything", but what about in a year, two or if a component in the server brakes down, backups etc... Will you still be interested in free hosting for everyone else? Another option is a payed hosting but who's gonna pay for it. ... This are just some of the things... there's a lot more to think about if the project would really take off.

Thanks again for all the replies. I still feel that it's somewhat empty. It's quite a big MOC and i'm not very good in the "final touch details". I think there should be a lot more going on in there (more minifigs, all kinds of - workers, train station employees, maybe even some conductors that went for a meal while the train is stopped, passengers of all sorts). I might switch the DBG roof plates over the station building with the trans-blue ones, to allow a bit more light inside and to make people notice, that there's something going on under the roof too. The idea with retractable roof is sadly not an option. At least not like this. The roof construction is not sturdy enough to allow it to be "opened". It relies on the pillars on both sides which keep it together. If they would tilt ouside, the whole roof would fall into itself. The only option would be a technic beam connection from one end of the arch to the other, but that would somehow ruin the appearance. I'm playing with the idea to make a new similar station with the option of retractable roof. We'll see... i need to finish my skyscraper hotel first :)

@Rach Hm, my DCLTrace.txt has this lines: Elapsed(631) RecentModels setup. Elapsed(765) SoundPlayer setup. So after your line "RecentModels setup" comes SoundPlayer setup. Maybe there's some sound issue with your LDD? Do you have any problems with playing audio in your other applications?

Jasper just moved to 1st place on my favorite software developers. Thanks Superkalle & TLG. Yes, the new version works. Flawlessly! I'll keep 3.1 around for a week (just to be sure), but right now i couldn't reproduce the Exception.

I included a link to (partly incomplete) LDD file of this (in the original post), that i used for the design. You can check how the roof construction is made. The problem with the roof is that the pillars have to be sturdy enough. If the stretch out, the roof straightens as the axles are pulled out of the connectors. If i'd use the technic beams 9L, it'd be really sturdy, but it wouldn't look so nice. About the show, yea, it caught some looks, but the main problem was that hardly anyone saw, that there's stuff inside of it. So i'm looking into some lighting of the interior or something, just to make it a bit more visible.

@crabboy329 Well, since it got damaged during transport back home, i need to fix it. I'll try to take it apart a bit more and take pictures of the insides, but it's no promise :) The problem with the roof studs is that there aren't any big tiles in trans colors (8x16, 6x6,...). Even big trans plates are pretty rare.

Hey, might be a good time to show another MOC that i've made. (Thanks to a friend that made the pictures) I made this train station for a local LUG show. It's a mix of many train stations around the world (mainly European ones and some might recognize the similarities with Gare du Nord train station in Paris). The roof is similar to the Berlin station etc... The dimensions of the main building are 48 x 51 studs (so a little bigger then the large LBG baseplate). I couldn't fit it exactly into 48 studs width because of the roof configuration. The waiting platforms are 64 studs long (3 of them) and fit 3 train tracks. The roof over them is made out of technic parts to simulate some real-life girders. It's covered in 8x8 trans blue plates (ordered in 7 segments, 8 pcs long). The insides of the main building are in 3 levels: - ground floor (front half of the building, featuring a shop, ticket & info counter and a hallway with some stairs onto the waiting platforms. - waiting platforms (about 3 bricks off the ground) have some vending machines, train timetables and some benches. From here, minifigs can use the escalators to get to the balcony. - the balcony has some more benches, a restaurant and a nice overview of incoming and outgoing trains. I used SNOT extensively to make interesting walls, especially on the front side of the station. The side walls of the platforms are mostly SNOTted too. Some info: ~ 6 kg ~ 7500+ parts ~ 800 DBG 2x2 tiles ~ 300 black cheese slopes ~ 100 trans panels 1x2x1 - 56 trans-blue 8x8 plates ... Here's some pictures: Front side of the main building: Waiting platforms, roof configuration, balcony, vending machines... Side view (full length is 112 studs ~ 90 cm) Since the train station is pretty much covered and it was pretty hard to get decent pictures of the insides without breaking it apart, i included some LDD generated pictures of some things that might be interesting. Waiting platforms: Elevators: Link to the LDD file (without interior and baseplates... i used this file to get the parts with LDD Manager - tnx to Superkalle). http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/bpavsic/MyMOCs/TrainStation/design_-_ts2_parts.lxf

Hey Superkalle, can you forward this to Jesper: "You're my hero :D" I've been waiting for half year for this LDD version. Since i'm a programmer myself and i have a good understanding of computer software, i usually have a good eye for random bugs (the ones that are hard to spot) and repeatable bugs (the more "friendly" ones). I managed to pinpoint the thing that plagued my LDD since 4.0 came out to an error (or probably some sort of sw/hw incompatibility) in the theme switching procedure. I did publish that here in some other threads on EB and i hoped it'll be fixed in 4.1 (which sadly wasn't). This dump version of LDD confirmed that something in the theme switching code generates an unhandled exception which in turn makes the LDD magical (in way that it disappers without a warning and not in a nice David Copperfield way). I sent you the DCLTrace.txt (which doesn't show anything unusual and only includes "Caught exception, stack trace saved..." line at the end. I included the Crash dump file (.mdmp) that was generated and hopefully it'll show, what's wrong.

I had some time yesterday to check the new version out. I've seen some new elements (technic frames, differential), the rotation (hinges) is smoother then it was (probably has something to do with the new gfx engine), all in all nice to work with (because of the parts, better then 4.0). But... (yea, there's a "but"). The magical dissapearance when switching themes is still there. The same thing that "plagued" 4.0 is still there, so i guess it wasn't a gfx engine thing, but simply a bug or hw/sw incompatibility with my (and some others) computers. I did manage to switch themes when i open LDD and switch from DBM to NXT and then LU and LDD extended. If i directly switch from DBM to LDD extended or LU mode, LDD still *puff* vanishes. Similar thing was in LDD 4.0 and then after a couple of days even that didn't work anymore. We'll see how LDD 4.1 turns out end of the week. So... my verdict... It's nice, looks great, but i'm still gonna have to use 3.1 for design and 4.1 for rendering.

@Toastie Yea, exactly. I put some isolation tape between the power pickups and the motor. Then I took a PF extension cable (50cm), cut it in half (so i gained 2 cables for 2 motors). Power pickups where then soldered to a Gretz Bridge (or 4 diodes - I took the 1A one) and the output to 5x 100 uF capacitors (i couldn't fit in 1 bigger one, so just soldered a couple smaller ones in parallel) and cable 9V/Gnd. The C1/C2 lines of the cable were soldered to the motor. The IR receiver has all 9V/Gnd lines on the input cable and both outputs connected, so it can power from the output. That's why you just plug the motor onto one of the outputs and it already works. I added the Gretz Bridge so it doesn't matter in which direction you put the train on or how you connect the power to the tracks... I don't know how exactly the IR receiver works, but i didn't want to feed it +/- the wrong way. Not sure if the capacitors are needed, but i just added them so the IR receiver wouldn't reset too fast if there would be a mometarily power shortage somewhere on the tracks.

@Toastie Hm... something like this?

I had the same issue... I did have 3.1, upgraded to 4.0. It worked for some time, then all of a sudden, it stopped with the symptoms described (loading in background, filling up memory, then disappearing from process list). After a "fresh" reinstall, it started to work again. It may be connected to the fact, that i run 3.1 + 4.0 at the same time, because of my issues with the 4.0 (can't change the theme, because LDD vanishes immediately). I have created another user "LDD31" just for LDD 3.1 on my computer and installed 3.1 as that user. Then i log on as my normal user. When i want to run 3.1, i right click on the 3.1 icon and press "Run As.." option and run it as LDD31 user. This way i can have two projects open at once and build in 3.1 (which is quite faster on large brick count projects) and preview them with the edges and shading in 4.0.

I had the same problem as you. All of a sudden, i couldn't start LDD 4.0 anymore (it "kinda" worked before... kinda as in ran with the problem of vanishing on very specific functions). When i ran it, nothing happened... LDD.exe was starting to fill up the memory (as you described) up to about 500 mb (same as yours) then dissapeared from process list. I did manage to repair it by simply deleting everything connected to LDD (\Program Files\LEGO Company\LEGO Digital Designer, \Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\LEGO Company). After a "fresh" install of LDD 4.0, it started to work again. The wierd thing is that after reinstall, when i work with LDD 4.0, i get the FFDShow icon in tray (might be connected with the default settings - LDD has by default enabled sound). When i disabled the sound, the icon disappears.

Sadly after a while 4.0 stopped working again. So that's no answer... But what puzzles me is why LDD works for quite some hours after reinstall then suddenly stops working. I created a checksum of all the files right after reinstall and checked them when it stopped working (my theme switch problem) and the files were the same. So nothing changed in LDD. It's a bit offtopic, but it could be something connected to this. While installing and using Win7, i have this problem: http://www.sevenforums.com/themes-styles/123845-theme-issues.html During Win7 installation (had to install them "blindly") and UAC window, the screen is unreadable, but if u print screen it, it's ok :D So basicly the graphics card puts out a different screen on the monitor that it has in memory. The only thing to get it work in Win7 is with 5+ years old vista drivers (version below 92 or something) - but LDD 4.0 doesn't support them, so it's a no-go. Switching back to XP and everything (except LDD until a couple of hours after reinstall) works flawlessly. Well, anyways, i stopped finding a solution (the obvious one is buying a new computer) and installed 4.0 and 3.1 at the same time so i can use 4.0 in DbM mode and 3.1 for everything else (placing bricks, recoloring, changing theme to DbM to open in 4.0 again).

Hey, just found this thread so i'll join the discussion. Well, as you all, i'm interested in automation of Lego trains. I actually sold all my 9V train stuff (motors, tracks...) and fully switched to PF, but i'm quite active in the local Lego LUG that has 1 or 2 lego exhibitions every year. So i decided, i'll make the trains a bit smart. I don't have a working solution yet, but i ordered some stuff and i'll keep you posted on the results. Some (the Lego purists) wont like this, but since TLG doesn't give us the complete solution, i guess we have to use some non-lego elements. The idea for the whole system is: Fixed 9V, high current power supply on the tracks. Every PBrick (trains, lights, switch points, crossings, ...) should (idealy) get the power from the tracks. Power: 1.) Modification of 9V motors (to break the direct power connection from wheels to motor), 2 cables out (one for the power supply from the wheels, other for getting the power back to the motor - PF cable) 2.) Power pickups (similar to 12V motors) for getting the power of the tracks (XL / M / PF train motors) 3.) Battery box onboard (XL / M / PF train motors) - not really much point in this, since it's basicly the PF system... All three should be interchangable (the "PBrick" or how to call it should have some sort of power input and power output, preferably in 2x2 standard / PF connector). Functions: 1.) Wireless Transceiver 2.) PWM powered H-Bridge for motor control 3.) Servo motor output(s) 4.) Light output(s) 5.) Sound output 6.) Some other sensor input (read below) "PBricks" 1.) Train brick - Wireless - Motor control - Light outputs - Sound outputs - Camera input (1x2 / 1x4 tiles on the tracks with printed "barcode", read with the sensor taken from a cheap optical mouse) 2.) Switch point - Wireless - Servo control - Light outputs - optional 3.) Crossings - Wireless - Servo control (multiple or all 4 servos connected to the same output) - Light outputs - blinking lights - Sound output 4.) Lights/Semaphores - Wireless - Lights (multiple) 5.) Master brick - Wireless - USB / serial interface (opt) - Bluetooth (opt) - WLAN (opt) The parts that i ordered: Servo motors: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=14839 Dimensions: 8mm x 16mm x 18mm - if you cut off both "wings" (do the measures remind you of something :) - hint 1x2 brick/plate) Was thinking of cutting the friction parts of the switch points but now i'm planning to use thread + spring or rubber band to control the inner part of the switch point (as seen in JopieKs post). Wireless: http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9582 Wireless receiver / transmitter (both ways) with microcontroller interface. Camera: http://www.trust.com/products/product.aspx?artnr=16257 - optical sensor taken out from a 2€ mouse (if i got the specs right, it's a simple 18x18 ccd sensor with serial digital output). As you probably noticed, i'm trying to keep the cost low as possible, while not making my life to complicated with building everything from scratch. Every "PBrick" will have an Atmel AVR microcontroler, dimensionwise i'll try to keep everything inside a 3 studs x 4 studs x 4 bricks box, made out of plates & panels, glued together. The mats price of each train brick should not exceed 20€, other bricks are capped at 10€ (that's after i figure everything out, the prototypes will ofc cost a bit more). The servos are so small and cheap enough (and if they work as i hope they will), that they can be used in train passenger cars to open the doors, in the city part of the diorama to make some of the minifigs "alive" etc... LDD version of the powered switch point: Design: http://www.pavsic.com/kocke.si/Smart9V/kretnica1.png Taken apart: http://www.pavsic.com/kocke.si/Smart9V/kretnica2.png (the black "thingy" is the actual size of the servo motor mentioned up there - ok i didn't account for the cables, but that's a minor thing) I'm thinking of gluing a 1x2 brick / tile at the bottom - vertical position or 2x2 brick / tile at the side - horizontal position. Working idea (in the ideal world ofc, we'll see how it turns out in the Lego / real world): Every PBrick will have an address, when they got something to send, they'll transmit a send request, if multiple try to send at once, the one with lowest / highest ID will have priority. Since they all transmit / receive on the same frequency, they'll be able to "talk" to themselves. Example: Train drives over a barcode, transmits "Train X drove over Barcode Y" and slows down. On the other side the crossing will respond to that like this "If some train over barcode Y, lower the gates, turn on the blinking lights and sound". On the other side of the crossing, there will be another barcode, which will make the train go fast again and send the position to the crossing which will open the gates and turn off the lights & sound. Similar applies to semaphores, etc... This would be the automated mode. Another mode would feature the Master Brick, which would be just a gateway between a notebook / netbook / NXT brick / cell phone or any other bluetooth / usb / WLAN device. The bricks would work in the "slave" mode, which would be "send all info, wait for commands" mode. In this mode the Master brick would receive all messages from the PBricks and forward them to the controler screen and vice versa. Well, this is basicly it, i'll work on the protocol, address space (8-16 bit, not sure yet) and everything else after i receive all parts and try them out separately (connect each of them to an atmel, make them work. I'll need to make a DC-DC converter to power the chips (3.3 - 5v max from 9V supply with some capacitor power backup), PCB antennas for the wireless part, maybe some shielding - not sure how the RF part will react to motors connected to the same microcontroler. Lots of things to try and figure out, but my goal is to make something small enough to not worry how it will "break" the whole Lego MOC design but durable enough to work 8h straight on a Lego convention.

Hehe, pretty easy... just put some bricks on the original one, then put the plates on it and when all where there, just moved them off the original. That way i had the right positioning. Then i just put some cliptiles on and those lightsabers, to get the feel of the curved track.

Read again what i wrote and check this out: http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/bpavsic/LDDStuff/ldd_fake85976.jpg I was just pointing u to be creative. If some part is not in LDD or is broken, make a fake one yourself. It does not look as good, but it surely works as one.