Custom LDD bricks and fixes

[Jason C. Hand]

8 hours ago, M2m said:

I don't think LDD2POVRAY is aware of the db folder instead of the db.lif file (I guess it works with a repacked lif file). Just give it a try I guess. Would be nice if the original developer open-sources it or provides an update to support mods (aka reads from the db folder if available).

Just got done trying this (again). An error message popped up, saying "Unable to generate necessary includes. Unsupported LIF format. The db.lif I created with LIFCreator works with LDD okay. Was there something else that needed to be done while creating the new db.lif file??

[M2m]

7 hours ago, Jason C. Hand said:

Just got done trying this (again). An error message popped up, saying "Unable to generate necessary includes. Unsupported LIF format. The db.lif I created with LIFCreator works with LDD okay. Was there something else that needed to be done while creating the new db.lif file??

Did you get the latest version of lifcreator ? Can you try to extract it with lifextractor ? 
let’s continue discussion in the lif-creator topic 

[SNobleJr]

Hello; I've been following these unofficial updates for some time, and I'd like to say you're all doing great work. It's really nice to see LDD being updated with new parts again, and I'm looking forward to any future additions.

There's one odd error I've noticed lately that I'd like to point out: part 30037, the Exploriens cockpit piece, has a strange collision issue on one of its studs, and that one stud only, but it also prevents windshields pieces from being placed properly between the two struts. I've linked some screenshots below to illustrate where exactly the collision error occurs, maybe they can help you figure out what's wrong.

Screenshot 1

Screenshot 2

Thank you for your work on this project!

[GeorgeVB]

Hello. 
Would it be possible to allow connecting to 3873 for parts like 3710?

 

[mdogg]

When I access Users/[UserName]/AppData/Roaming/LEGO Company/LEGO Digital Designer, I get a db folder and not a db file .plz help. And also, I do not see any update parts pack (rar file) in this post

Edited December 5, 2020 by Calabar
Post moved to the proper topic. "this post" above refers to the [KEY TOPIC] LDD New Parts.

[Sebiron]

21 hours ago, mdogg said:

When I access Users/[UserName]/AppData/Roaming/LEGO Company/LEGO Digital Designer, I get a db folder and not a db file .plz help. And also, I do not see any update parts pack (rar file) in this post

If your LDD works properly there is necessarily a db.lif File somewhere. Try to find it ^^

[SylvainLS]

If you have a db directory instead of a db.lif, then you have already extracted the lif and moved or deleted it….

[mdogg]

In order to install separate parts (since the batch folder of parts to download had been deleted) do I just download the.xml and.g file into the primatives and LOD0 folders respectively? 

Edited December 6, 2020 by Calabar
Note that it is the second time I move your post from the LDD New Parts topic. Please read the large red sourrounded note at the start of that topic.

[mdogg]

On 11/29/2020 at 4:13 PM, anders67 said:

A big big super thank you for bringing LDD to live again!

The instructions how to install and update with new primities was easy and work like a charm!

Can you please explain how to do it? I downloaded a. G file for a part into th LOD0 folder but I just get a line of code on github on the. Xml part and I don't know how to move forward from there 

[SylvainLS]

@mdogg The “problem” is that XML files are text files while .g are binaries.

So, when you follow the links and select a .g file on the repository, GitHub doesn’t show its contents, and you have a nice “Download” button to download the file.

But when you follow the links and select a .xml file on the repository, GitHub shows its contents.  But at the same location for the “Download” button for .g files, there’s two buttons, “Raw” and “Blame.”
The button you want is “Raw.”  And it can be used two ways:

1. If you click it, the file will be shown in your browser, you’ll then need to save the file (right-click then “Save as…”; or Ctrl-S).
2. If you right-click it, select “Save as….”

 

Another way is to download the whole repository as a Zip file: on the first page, there’s a green “Code” drop-down button with a “Download ZIP” option.  You can then pick up the files you want from the downloaded ZIP file.

[Equilibrium]

While building new Ferrari I noticed that flex rod's 19L geometry is showing gaps while flexing. You guys don't include any credits inside xml file so I don't know who's an author but I sat over the weekend and started updating my scripts to support bone/skin editing and fixed it. I guess I'll add flex to other rods as well.

[zweifuss]

2 hours ago, Equilibrium said:

While building new Ferrari I noticed that flex rod's 19L geometry is showing gaps while flexing. You guys don't include any credits inside xml file so I don't know who's an author but I sat over the weekend and started updating my scripts to support bone/skin editing and fixed it. I guess I'll add flex to other rods as well.

I think @polymaker did the 19L flex rods, didn't he? Do you just make scripts for writing the XML files, or for Blender as well?

[mdogg]

I have a request for a 3x3 cross plate (part no. 15397)

[polymaker]

1 hour ago, zweifuss said:

I think @polymaker did the 19L flex rods, didn't he? Do you just make scripts for writing the XML files, or for Blender as well?

I did make a flexible 19L rod but I don't know if it is my version that was used by @Stephan.

The only part I sent him was the flexible mast (47996) for the milenium falcon. I think there are some parts that were taken directly off my github.

Anyway, I went and checked my version and it has the issue. 

4 hours ago, Equilibrium said:

You guys don't include any credits inside xml file so I don't know who's an author

While on the subject, I need the help of you guys...

Since the start of LDD Brick Studio I wanted to add a feature to add credits and a changelog to the parts.
I never got around to do it because I can't decide between an easy solution or the "perfect" (overengineered) feature that I have in my head.

The dead-simple solution is to have a text area (somewhere in the UI) that would write as a comment in the xml file.

I know that this solution is perfectly fine, but I don't like the idea of having a "free for all" text area.
Parts of me want to enforce some "structure" so files made anyone will all have the same structure.
What I mean by that is to have a kind of template, like "Created by: <name> <date> Last edited by: <name> <date>" etc 

So what do you guys think? Does a simple textbox does the job or it could be useful to have a kind of software enforced template text? 

Edited December 7, 2020 by polymaker
completed my post

[Stephan]

49 minutes ago, polymaker said:

So what do you guys think? Does a simple textbox does the job or it could be useful to have a kind of software enforced template text?

What we use right now is:

<!--
Derived from The LDraw Parts Library
Orginal Author: Marek Idec [Maras]
Editted for LDD by Kuramapika1
-->

So, I think you should have three text fields: "Derived from", "Original Author", and "Editted by".

[M2m]

I’ll vote for maybe 2 fields:

1) created by

2) comment (free text)

it has most flexibility 

[Equilibrium]

@zweifuss I'm using 3D Studio Max, I have direct import/export from/to 3dmax/lego xml/g file. For .g I'm only missing outlines now, I couldn't script it when I started this topic and haven't tried since. While I can import and combine skin/flex data from both files to get fully rigged model I didn't update my xml export yet. For fixing 19L rod I have used xml that @polymaker created and changed only 3d model and its skin data.

I think the derived/original author part is required by LDraw license.

I'm also using:
<!--
Derived from The LDraw Parts Library
Orginal Author: Gerald Lasser [GeraldLasser]
Edited for LDD by Equilibrium
-->
And in case of creating something myself/updating existing part:
<!--
Created for LDD/Updated by Equilibrium
-->

The Last edited by: <name> <date> could be usefull in case of fixing others bricks.

[EDWELL]

I drew a 4x4 tile, but the outline is not shown. How to deal with it？

Just now, EDWELL said:

The software used is Brick Studio

 

[Stephan]

35 minutes ago, EDWELL said:

I drew a 4x4 tile, but the outline is not shown. How to deal with it？

 

In Brick Studio you can choose "Calculate Outlines" somewhere in the top right side of your screen (I don't have the software in front of me now, but it should be under "Meshes").

[EDWELL]

14 hours ago, Stephan said:

In Brick Studio you can choose "Calculate Outlines" somewhere in the top right side of your screen (I don't have the software in front of me now, but it should be under "Meshes").

Thanks, it has been resolved！！

[shaldur]

i followed the given instructions to the best of my ability, but it isnt working, the new part files are present but they have not integrated into ldd, whenever i unzip a file or folder, it creates an unzipped copy of the item instead of unzipping the item itself, i dont know if this is normal but it may be contributing to the issue, i unzipped the new primitives folder inside db and it automatically placed the unzipped copy into the old primitives folder rather than overriding it, now somehow there are 3 folders titled primitives in sequence within each other with massive blocks of part files distributed throughout, none of it interacting with the ldd program, this is my first time trying to set up something like this so i dont know how much of this is normal behavior, being unfamiliar with windows 10 doesnt help either,  the folder sequence goes, this pc > downloads > lif extractor win 64bit > lif extractor win 64bit > db > primitives > primitives > db > primitives > lod0    i dont understand,    the first primitives folder has a lod0 in it which im guessing is the original, and the last lod0 in the sequence has g1 files in addition to the gcode toolpaths of everything else,    when i opened ldd nothing was different except a slightly slower loading time, which could just be a fluke,    are there extra steps not described in the above tutorial, because i dont remember seeing any steps that would suggest uploading data into ldd,  it just made an accessible copy of the parts list and threw some more parts in that general direction

[Zerobricks]

One question. How is with quality assurance of the newly added parts? Several parts such as 5292, 42716, etc have bad collisions or even literally copy pasted from simillar parts (42716 collision is copy pasted 56145) which are not correct. I appreciate the effort in making new parts, but it's all for nothing if they are not correctly defined.

Edited December 11, 2020 by Zerobricks

[Stephan]

The parts are correctly defined even if they don't have collisions. Collisions are very much wanted and all newest parts include them. It's very time consuming to create collisions for all these older parts, so they will get colissions at some point. If you have time, feel free to add the missing collisions :)

[CorvusA]

Any chance to get these? 35032

[Jason C. Hand]

Hello all. There is an issue with piece # 35494 (Mini Wig No. 191) aka Luke Skywalker's Last Jedi wig. I've included a couple of images to illustrate. It has collision detection issues on the minifig's shoulders.

Edited December 12, 2020 by Jason C. Hand