LDD developer mode

[Zerobricks]

Hi everyone.

I took some time to show you guys how to enable LDD's developer mode and all the tings it can do.

Here are a just a few examples of the things you can do in dev. mode:

You can render bricks in wireframe:

 

You can use the various rendering modes to show the collision objects of the bricks and color them in some trippy colors:

And the best thing of all, you can DISABLE COLLISIONS in order to place bricks in almost any manner:

I made a short video on how to unlock LDD developer mode and all the other things you can do with it here:

I hope you guys find this info useful and save yourself a lot of work when LDD's collisions give you a headache

[StarWars8Spoiler]

I will love you forever for this. Thank you!

[Scrubs]

They are not trippy colours but a representation of the normals in world coordinates :-)

Pure green when face normal is only along y axis. Red and blue for x and z.

[Murdoch17]

It is against the terms of service to use this mode. The LEGO group doesn't like anyone messing around with this stuff, and you could get them to pull the plug on ldd forever..... they already don't update that often, but this is seriously bad stuff. Please pull the video down!

[Saberwing40k]

Before you make these very grave accusations, do you have anything to back up your claims? Have you read all the way through the LDD terms and conditions? Also, this isn't a mod, it's a hidden preference mode, so I see no issue.

[Calabar]

@Saberwing40k

He is true. Developer mode is not something new, and the topic has been discussed time ago.
Superkalle will surely be able to better explain the situation.

[Superkalle]

No problem to discuss this as far as I'm concerned. The information has been available on-line quite some time and DevMode doesn't violate the EULA as far as I know (as opposed to reverse engineering the LIF or program code).

[Zerobricks]

If there is a problem I will remove the post...

Meanwhile here is the shortcut list, which I forgot to post:

Caps lock off
1 yellow shapes
2 violet shapes
3 cyan shapes
Q remove all but holes
R Random color coding pieces
T post processing options
O makes everything glow green
P Black outlines
G Hide all
H color coding connected pieces
J returns view toj origin
K hides studs
C Shows green crosses on parts
V Shows collision elements
M hides everthing but decals

Shift or caps lock
1 yellow shapes
2 violet shapes
3 cyan shapes
Q remove all but holes
W wireframe
R centers view
A opens preferences and communications settings
S shows statistics
G hides grid

ALT GR + T shows all the bricks in pallete

[Calabar]

35 minutes ago, Zero (Zblj) said:

If there is a problem I will remove the post...

It seems there is no problem, as Superkalle has explained.
Maybe when LDD was active and maintained there was a reason to avoid certain hidden settings, but now it seems it is not important.
On my "notepad" I wrote about the developer mode and other hidden settings as "settings TLG don't want to spread", so when I read the topic, I thought it was a delicate argument that needed to be approved before open a public topic.

[SylvainLS]

It may mostly have been a problem with assistance when LDD was active. These features aren’t supposed to be used / available to users and widely talking about them at that time would have caused many problems (Why are my colors all messed up?).

[mocbuild101]

Thanks so much for posting this!

I think developer mode is what Lego designers use...

[Superkalle]

19 hours ago, SylvainLS said:

It may mostly have been a problem with assistance when LDD was active. These features aren’t supposed to be used / available to users and widely talking about them at that time would have caused many problems (Why are my colors all messed up?).

Touché! (as far as I understand at least).

On a general note. You can use the "turn off collision volumes" feature also when you encounter models that have parts removed when opening the file. When LDD removes bricks du to collision errors, it creates a file called "UnplaceableBricksDump.lxfml" which is placed in the "C:\Users\]UserName]\AppData\Roaming\LEGO Company" folder. You can now open that file (first start LDD and turn off collision volumes) and you will see the problematic bricks in red. (or rather...you will see the bricks that were removed in red...it may be those bricks that are the problematic ones, but it may also be the neighboring ones). With the help of the "view collision volumes" you should be able to figure out where the problem is. Naturally, during normal building this should never happen, because collision volumes will prevent you from position bricks incorrectly in the first place, so the feature is mostly useful when opening old models where bricks are suddenly are removed. It could then be that collision volumes have been adjusted and you need to take care of those problems. 

[SylvainLS]

44 minutes ago, Superkalle said:

Naturally, during normal building this should never happen

But it does happen: sometimes, LDD let you put parts but don’t want them anymore and remove them when reloading.

Happens to me often with flexed flexible parts or bars (e.g. the tulips’ stems in Assembly Square: LDD let me put the green bars too far into the red domes’ studs). So I always save and reload after flexing a part or doing something I doubt. It saves time to look for the offending parts 2000 parts later 

[dpkong]

Thanks Zblj. Did not know this "feature" existed.

[Perry]

That is very cool.  I have never heard of this.

On 6/6/2017 at 9:33 PM, Saberwing40k said:

Before you make these very grave accusations, do you have anything to back up your claims? Have you read all the way through the LDD terms and conditions? Also, this isn't a mod, it's a hidden preference mode, so I see no issue.

Yes, it is a hidden preference mod so I don't think it's going to be a huge issue. 

[Jarren]

So I just stumbled across this and thought I would try it on my Mac.

In order to do it you have to do a "Show Contents" on the LDD application, then the .ini file is under Contents>Resources>preferences.ini

In my case the file was empty, and permissions prevented me from editing the existing one. So I had to make a new .ini file with the "DeveloperMode=1" line in TextEdit and replace it the file.

All of the shortcuts work as @Zero (Zblj) described, but interestingly the collision prevention is still enabled. Anybody else with a Mac able to successfully disable collisions?

[Renderbricks]

The Developer Mode seems not to work properly. Some parts can be sticked together. Most parts not. And importing LDraw data is also not working correctly. Many parts will be still removed.

Is there a way to turn of Collision Detection completely?

[Renderbricks]

OK. Found out more.

LDRaw is not supported by the Developer Mode's Collision off for import but "UnplaceableBricksDump.lxfml" will be created what helps to identify the issues.

Edited July 29, 2017 by Renderbricks

[syclone]

I discovered one more shortcut: 

"B" with Caps Lock off gives you XYZ coordinates crosses on the flexaxles , ribbed hoses and tubing . This shows how LDD divides the flexible parts in various sections

Here is a picture showing flexible and non-flexible parts:

Edited August 2, 2017 by Xewyz2001

[BrickmanRus]

Dont work((

[Takanuinuva]

Tried adding DeveloperMode=1 to preferences.ini but it wouldn't let me save it without permission

[kokkie20]

On 11/28/2018 at 6:16 AM, Takanuinuva said:

Tried adding DeveloperMode=1 to preferences.ini but it wouldn't let me save it without permission

what you can do then is copy the file to your desktop (copy -> paste) modify the file on the desktop and then as requested edit and copy -> paste it back to the correct folder :)

For me it works inside the folder itself but this should be a work around for your issue :) 

[Takanuinuva]

3 hours ago, kokkie20 said:

what you can do then is copy the file to your desktop (copy -> paste) modify the file on the desktop and then as requested edit and copy -> paste it back to the correct folder :)

For me it works inside the folder itself but this should be a work around for your issue :) 

That worked. Thanks a lot.

[Takanuinuva]

Help. I was trying to paste with Ctrl-V but pushed V by itself. Now the bricks are weird colors and I can't change it back. 

Edit: Exiting out and back in fixed it. NVM 

Edited March 26, 2019 by Takanuinuva

[SylvainLS]

You could also have typed v twice more, it’s a cycle.