Bojan Pavsic

99,9% probability that it wont as there is nothing wrong with the file in the first place.

Glad it's working... Thou u lack some parts and some seriously good features from 4.0 now...

Read my previous post. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the file, so don't worry... (but if you can't work on it in LDD 4.0, downgrade to 3.1).

I loaded the file in LDD 3.x version. Opened without a problem, LDD used up 669 mb of memory (RAM). 4.0 brick definitions take about 2x as much memory. So there's nothing wrong with the file, just LDD 4.0 :)

None of the tracks can be put on a baseplate (studs)... i use a "copy" made out of other parts here: Train station. The curved tracks cannot be put directly on a baseplate anyways, so i didn't bother with making a copy of that anyways, but maybe u can come up with a similar thing for the narrow curved track.

Well, that isn't really an issue. You can still select the new bricks that you want to add and press the "add to the group" button on the group toolbar. But the idea behind lockable groups would be to use the groups as "new bricks" - Like the bug with the new M motor - you can just make a replica with normal parts and lock it, so everytime you move one part from the group, the whole "motor" moves i.e. the group acts as a single part.

- Show bricks (as opposite of the Hide bricks function) It's really annoying if you hide some of the groups then you want to make a tiny little group visible again... Right now you have to Show all and then go hide everything else again. To a degree the Invert Selection function in LDD 4.0 helps here. - Min / Max distance camera clipping / culling mode Make everything visible, that's between the min and the max distance from the camera. Why? You have a LARGE project going on, with max distance, you could hide the bricks that are too far thus useless (but you don't want to go hiding that all the time - after every save). Min distance is very usefull if a brick is too close to the camera, it blocks your vision. For instance, you're making a house, you build the walls, roof, then you go do the insides. Right now you need to hide a wall or something, to be able to put bricks inside. With Min distance, you could come close to the wall (but the camera still outside of the house - thus at a usefull distance) but the walls would dissapear, because they're out of range (to close). - Multiple instance allowed Just the possibility (.ini file parameter or something) to disable the 1 running copy only allowed. - Toogle grid Nothing more to say here. - Lockable groups Groups that could be locked - If you click on any part of the group, the whole group gets selected. You can't work with separate parts of that group unless you unlock it - Making parts that are not in LDD from other bricks and using them as 1 item. That's all for now...

If it's "CUDA" as in Nvidia CUDA, count me out, my graphics card doesn't support (8xxx series+) this as none of the ATI graphics cards do either. So i highly doubt they're picking a Nvidia only renderer for that.

I guess there's a problem in the scene initialization part. Some occasions when LDD dissapears: - on theme selection screen right after LDD start, when switching theme. - on opening a file - on changing theme during work (like working in creator mode, trying to switch to DbM or LU mode for a piece) That's the only 3 occasions. NEVER during work (placing parts, working with palettes - searching / closing / opening ..., rotation, coloring)... Basicly only on scene initialization or theme switch. What does LDD do when you switch theme? Edit: I did a nice little test: 1. OPENED FileOrig.lxf (let's call it like that) - LDD *puff* vanished 2. Opened LDD and IMPORTED FileOrig.lxf - worked flawless 3. Saved the file under FileImp.lxf 4. OPENED FileImp.lxf - no problemo 5. Unzipped both files (FileOrig.lxf and FileImp.lxf) - compared them 6. Brick order info was the same (other then transformation data, because i didn't put the imported object at the same location, but that doesn't matter). 7. Number of lines - data count - was the same, file size was a bit different because of the float values. 8. What poked me in the eye was: LXFML / Meta / Brand tag in the xml, where the name was "Factory" in one and "MakeAndCreate" in the other - with Factory being in the new FileImp.lxf (because i didn't change theme on LDD open). 9. I dared to change the Brand name in the FileOrig.lxf to "Factory" and voila... LDD opened the file without any problem. From which i conclude there's a problem not in the open / import part, but specificaly in the Theme setting part, which then shows up in other operations that use that function. So if any of the TLG developers look at this, please please when u have some free time, check the Theme selection function, what part of it could cause LDD to disappear. Btw, it's the same in all modes, Compatibility minimum, full, with or without shaders, outlines etc... so graphics has nothing to do with it.

First of all, let me get back on my topic about LDD disappearing. I still didn't figure it out why, but it is repeatable (when it happens, it will happen always). It's NOT the language / regional settings, because right now it does disappear on any language (that i tried on). The funny thing is, that right now it does vanish on the file that i'm currently working on when i open it (thus making it impossible to open that file). But! (yea, there's a but). When i load up LDD and do Import File and import that same file that can't be opened, it works (and import never failed, at least for now). What is the difference between Open LDD 4.0 file and Import LDD 4.0 file... Well, that's TLG's part to figure out.

Well, very nice idea, count me in too!

Hey ;) Well, i did try all different graphics detail modes, it doesn't matter. The thing that's wierd is that i can't open old files unless i import them. After that (saved in the new format), they work. I'll try localisation settings.

Ok, after 1 day of testing LDD, let's share my experience: The new features (color filters, angle box in hinge tool, piece count, invert selection, brick outlines, ...) are fantastic! Great improvement comparing to previous versions. Didn't realy check all the new parts, tbh, if there isn't one, i just make something similar with the existing parts, so i'm not realy bothered by that. But let's get to the part that realy annoys me in the new version, which is the magic dissapearing of LDD. It could at least throw an exception or a message... anything, just not "puff", ups, where's LDD?!?! I tried it on 4 computers and it happens in this situations: 1.) Right after starting, on the Theme selection screen: If i click anything else then Free Build, it's gone (2 computers). If i click an LXF that wasn't made in 4.0, it's gone too (see 2.)) 2.) If i open a file made in 3.x, it's gone (all 4 computers). If do an import and load a previous LDD version file and save it, then reopen it, it's ok 3.) Change of the theme. Puff.. gone (sometimes on 2 computers). I'm thinking it has something to do with graphics cards and hardware graphics extensions, thou loading of old files shouldn't be in that domain (as my computers are not that new - none DX10 graphics). Has anyone else experienced something similar? Computers are 2 notebooks IBM T42 & T42p, desktop pc with Geforce 7600gt and desktop pc with onboard graphics.

Not just that :) There's additional data in the 3D meshes (which polygons define the studs, outside of the brick, inside of the brick - the hole from bottom side, etc...), the definitions of all connection points, hinges and so on... And i don't think SR3D detects connections. Unless stated otherwise, i'm pretty sure it has them built in by hand for each piece (but can't say 100%, since i don't know how it does it).

Never gonna happen... And not because TLG wouldn't want, but because it's not possible. LDD's part has lots more information about the part, which does not exist in LDraw brick definition. It's possible to convert LDD part to LDraw, but not the other way around. So for everyone that still waits for an importer or something. Unless LDraw adds lots more info about the part or LDD's parts descend from "smart parts" to 3D meshes only, it's not gonna happen.

Hm, need to check if it still exists... the uncut version looks exactly the same as this one, only the floor is tiled with 2x2 tiles instead of the tiling chaos found here. Nothing special... And tnx for the gz!

The "lens" detail doesn't contain any 3D mosaic, it's just 1x1 plates / bricks on a single plane. If you check closely, no part stands out, it's a normal 2D mosaic.

The quote was changed to 2500 :) But 1500 was really low.

I asked our first prize winners, Bojan and Lgorlando, to write a small article about how they designed their MOCs. Here to start with is Bojans. Lgorlandos will follow next week. You can download Circus Arena in LDD format and examine/follow the different design steps. /Superkalle First of all i'd like to thank everyone that participated and voted in the contest and on top of that Superkalle & Ras 74 that made it all possible. It all started with Lego announcing the Collectable Minifigs (Series 1). After weeks of wondering, what would be the best way to use a couple of them in a MOC, i came up with the idea to make a circus arena. It would provide a "home" for a Magician or two, a couple of Wrestler bodies as acrobats, Circus clowns to cheer up the crowd, a dozen Cheerleaders to put up on the horses, etc... After that, i let the idea age a bit, get some details, color scheme, googled a bit for some images, well, the usual "research" part. At about the same time the EB LDD competition came up, so i thought it would be a perfect time to check out the theme. Then it was time to take everything out of my head and put it into LDD. I imagined that the hardest part to make would be the circular curves that an arena has. Since i'm not that bad with math (don't be afraid, i wont include any formulas...) and programming, i made a couple calculations to find out the right arena circle. The designing process started with the middle ring. I already determined that it will be made with hinges, thus the minimum segment size would be 2 studs long and since i wanted a nice rounded look, i didn't want the segment any larger. I made a small program that calculated the radius of the ring depending on different segment count and filtered out the ones that had 4 points (top, bottom, left, right) exactly or very very close to exact stud position. The best size was 60 segments, that left me with a hinge, that's rotated by 6 degrees. With some easy formula, i could calculate that i get a 6 degrees angle, if i rotate an (about) 19 stud long part by 2 studs to one side , i'll get my angle Then i started to create the arc from both sides, until it joined in the middle: After that, i searched for a couple of studs under this arc to fix it to the baseplate (some were stud on stud connections, others were accomplished by 1x2 plate with 1 stud). Second difficult part was the sitting area. The only way i could think of that would make a "solid curvelike baseplate" for the sitting area were wings. So i tried a couple types (1x3, 1x4, 2x6 wings etc... - that's seen on this pictures: Another aspect of the whole part was the yellow rectangle, for which i used SNOT technique to get the uniform width of it: The steepness of the sitting rows was very much depending on the side wall, that was made with wings: I wanted 3 levels, with first one beeing the VIP sits. The sitting areas are 4, with 2 identical (just rotated) and the other 2 mirrored (because of the steps on one side). The rest was pretty easy (but most time consuming). When i added all the minifigs, i wanted to not just copy/paste them, but make them unique, so i chose a body color, hair, face and all that for each one separately. I wanted to add a little chaos in form of all sorts of minifigs, that would break the perfect circle of the arena. Of course i had the 50 minifigs max rule in mind, so a couple had to go :) Then i wanted to put some "life" into the creation by putting the acrobat on the string (which was done with a supporting bricks that were removed later on: Both jugglers were made prety similar - with supporting parts, that were removed later on. It's really easy to use a minifig torso to put something, that could be put into/onto the hand, into the right position, because of all the rotation possibilities that an arm has: When i was finished, i opened the creation in Superkalle's LDD Manager, "repaired" some non-existent colors and got shocked by the brick count :) I had like 500 bricks too much (i did subtract all 50 minifig parts - 10 bricks per minifig). The only way to lower the amount of bricks was to redo the floor. Initially it was tiled with 2x2 tiles (for a full 64x64 you need 1024 of them). So i started to remove the ones beneath the sitting areas and on the baseplate corners but that was still not enough. The next step was to remove all floor tiling and replacing them with bigger tiles (1x8, 1x6,...). So if anyone wants to make the arena with actual bricks, you need to pay attention to that. With bricks, tiling is important because of the gaps that are not visible in LDD. Well, that's about it. Have a happy LDD designing.

The restriction is that you need 10 posts before you can send messages. Which means, get to work and get 2 more posts

Wow, this was an awesome competition. First i need to thank and congratulate Superkalle for making this happen. A big congratulation goes to Igorlando for his win in LDD + real bricks entry. I'd also like to thank everyone that voted for my Circus, i really didn't expect to get that many votes. Big thumbs up to every single one that took the time to create something in LDD and show that TLG is on the right path with this software. There were really amazing creations in the competition. And i really hope my creation will inspire TLG to maybe sometime in the future to put out a circus theme (and i mean not in Duplo size) to enable us to use lots of Collector series minifigs :D

Ok, lemme add something to this. I've seen you focused your spreadsheet about finding the parts faster - the field LDD location. Ashir, your work is good, but every palette change will make your spreadsheets brick location wrong. I think every LDD update changes the palettes a bit (the last one removed about 15 parts and added about the same amount new ones). Most of you didn't notice it, but trust me, i've seen it... The full count of bricks in LDD is 1800 which means A LOT of work. Again, some like to resize their palette window to have the "non-default" 4 columns per row. Some work in LU mode, others work in Creator mode, again the third use the DbM mode. Your spreadsheet can only work for 1 palette. So i'd rather recommend what Superkalle already stated. Implement a search for a part by name, resulting only category/section/container or whatever it's called. Besides after working with LDD on 2-3 projects, you already know all the parts and know where to look for them.

@Ralph_S I can imagine you sticking to the real bricks. But the time gain is not in the "opening some drawers, putting some bricks together" part. It's the time wasted with sorting all these bricks back to their places or changing some colors in the creation. Switching a brick in a house is not that hard. Imagine a studless technic beam construction where the bricks are put together so that they hold in all 3 directions and then you have to change a beam for a longer one. That might take 2h or even more, requiring you to disassemble the whole thing, because the beam was in the middle of it. LDD is not perfect, far from it. But it has saved me a lot of hours and i can put down ideas on the road, on vacation and anyplace i don't have the bricks but have my notebook with me. The process is usually: create the idea in LDD, make it from bricks, check for structural failures, back to drawing board in LDD to "repair", back to bricks. Sometimes i leave the "back to LDD" part out and just "repair" the things in bricks and update in LDD when it's finished.

Well, at first i saw the advantages of LDD especially in Lego Technic. When u're building something and you don't know everything up front, you can always change a beam or axle in LDD, but in real bricks, the only way is to disassemble the thing (which takes a lot of times). I used it to design a couple of TTs. When i got used to it, i now use it for everything. Sometimes a full design, other times only parts are made in LDD, then i switch to real bricks and finish it. The disadvantages? Well, it makes me spend more Before, i always created MOCs with only the bricks i owned. Now i try to design good looking things and ofc, they contain bricks i don't have in colors i don't have And quite some of the creations i want to have in physical form too, so it's PaB & BL time... There's another disadvantage too, hinges... You really need to be careful about how to use them and u need some time to learn the advanced techniques in LDD. After you master them, it's LDD first, bricks later... always.

Here are my points (why only 3... i needed like 20 at least ): Designer: Saracen EntryID: 144 Name: Irish Troubles All i can say is: WOW, i mean all the details, it's like the MOC is alive! Designer: Odyssey EntryID: 120 Name: H.M.S. Endeavour A bit overlooked MOC, i think you should have included pictures from the insides or photoshop them into your main pic corners. People, download the MOC, use the premade groups to hide the walls and you'll see the whole ship has insides made too. Designer: sunnyx EntryID: 149 Name: BattleCruiser from StarCraft II As a Blizzard fan, i couldn't pass this creation. Very nice detailing. ------------------------- And to mention some others MOCs that i really liked (i know thats like 70% of all that made it into the finals, but hey, they're all good): Bossk - UCS Scaled Anakin's Starfighter -> awesome work, i like the color combo. L-DI-EGO - INCOM T-65 X-WING STARFIGHTER -> another awesome MOC. SolidBrick - Farm House -> I love the roof and the "wood" wall details. Carbohydrates - Wild West doctor's office -> Already have an image of John Wayne in my head. lisqr - Dante's guns Ebony and Ivory -> Great job, but i had to ask google from where they actually were. Captain Blockbeard - Golden Gander SteamPunk Airship -> The way you joined everything to get the "zeppelin" look, amazing. mrblue - Pirate Island Port -> Great pirate theme, very nice. The Lanterne Rouge - HAGA DEFENDER -> another WOW, jaw-dropping moc, all the curves on the MOC, just awesome. LegoLindberg - The Space Widow -> another overlooked MOC, very nice details zeeronemo - Star (Justice) Base Dock -> great and massive creation, too bad you can't really send it into space.. on the other hand, minifigs don't need air either. 187-J4CK4L - Modern Main Street -> very nice detailing, awesome inside decoration /bow. SalvoBrick - Esso Service Station -> oldstyle, maybe a bit too duo color (white/red), but it's very nice. and last but not least Set Sprinter - White Star Bridge -> nice design, could be "lego architecture" theme.