LDD 5, what features do YOU want?

[Happy SDE]

Just finished to assemble 2500-pieces model.

And I was surprised that I had no crash in almost 12 hours!

Thank you developers for such good software!

I had a lot of fun!

The only suggestion I may give - is to use multicore.

My Q9400 slows down for seconds when I tried to stick together 300-brick part with main model.

Only 1 core was used all the time (25% CPU usage)

I found a workaround: divide sub model in to pieces and merge them to the main model.

But I am looking forward for getting full advantage of multicore in the future!

[Lego Otaku]

LDD weren't coded to take advantage of multiple core or CPUs so large project can make LDD run very slow even if the computer seems fine otherwise.

[Happy SDE]

LDD weren't coded to take advantage of multiple core or CPUs so large project can make LDD run very slow even if the computer seems fine otherwise.

Lego Otaku, I am talking about LDD version 5, not about minor update like version 4.3.9.

Some things like PPL allow to use all cores with minimal changes in code without adding explicit use of threads.

Edited March 8, 2015 by Happy SDE

[___]

1.) all the bricks should be decorable by default (doesn't matter if the bricks has real decoration in real LEGO letting users use their imagination)

2.) instalation file should have only some basic bricks lowering its size drasticaly with all the bricks LEGO ever build reside on their server devided into thematical or "brick types" packages so anyone in need could ddl any brick he wants, which would avoid the size problem if all those bricks were packed into instalation file as it is now. In the LDD GUI for those bricks not realy presented there would be only a simple thumbnail of it and after clicking the thumbnail the brick file would be downloaded to a PC, or if there is no internet at the moment (user being offline) just a link given with the address where the apropriate brick file could be reached and installed to LDD. This way there would really be no need for LDD team permanently erasing of some old bricks as I understand it like that they need to save file's size

[Stephan]

I would like to see a new function: to be able to slide bricks (i.e. without pins) over studs.

You should be able to:

- slide a 1x2 tile over a stud (like a clip on a bar);

- slide a 1x2, 1x4, 1x6 etc. Without Pins over a stud;

- slide a clip over a bar;

- slide a bar in a clip.

You select the brick you would to slide, and click the button for this option (ex. a brick with an arrow next to it). This give you a numeral field with 2 arrows (like the Rotation Tool). Increasing or decreasing the arrow lets the selected brick slide either left or right, up or down, or diagonal up or down.

This way you can precisely position a brick or bar.

Now an 1x2 tile only has 3 connection points while in real life it has 'infinite' connection points. This option can fix that.

Edited March 20, 2015 by Stephan

[Happy SDE]

Ability to hide mainframe menu.

Usually when I assemble a model, I don't use menu with "File, Edit, Toolbox, ...".

For many hours 21 pixels in vertical resolution are wasted.

It would be very nice to have ability to hide the menu.

Show/hide menu may be controlled over system menu (upper-left corner of LDD: as an additional item to restore/move/size/minimize/maximize/close).

Ability to memorize this setting over LDD sessions also would be nice (Check-box-like behavior in the system menu).

Edited March 21, 2015 by Happy SDE

[Happy SDE]

Short cut for color picker tool.

<B> for brush is good, but it would be very convenient to have additional shortcut to change to color picker without moving mice to menu.

[welverin]

hi all, I'm new to this forum

I would like to know , lego is really developing a new version of ldd ?

because it seems strange that three years is not bait an update , perhaps lego abandoned software ?

[Calabar]

Hi welverin, and welcome to the digital section.

As far as I know, LDD was born as a vehicle for the "Design by Me" service, that allowed to design a set and order it directly from LEGO (with box and instructions).

Since the "Design by Me" service has been closed. LDD remains as a tool for the community of user that was born in the meantime, giving access to the new bricks with the update of the brickset, and few fix/improvements.

At the moment, I think that a new version of LDD is unlikely.

[___]

Hi welverin, and welcome to the digital section.

As far as I know, LDD was born as a vehicle for the "Design by Me" service, that allowed to design a set and order it directly from LEGO (with box and instructions).

Since the "Design by Me" service has been closed. LDD remains as a tool for the community of user that was born in the meantime, giving access to the new bricks with the update of the brickset, and few fix/improvements.

At the moment, I think that a new version of LDD is unlikely.

Hmm, that being said: wouldn't be better for TLG themselves to release the src code of LDD for the public so it can grow forward by the LEGO AFOL community itself, just like MLCAD? I simply just wonder cos that would somehow quite automatically solve many if not all the problems/new feature requests as programmers in the community could implement it...

[obsidianheart]

Hmm, that being said: wouldn't be better for TLG themselves to release the src code of LDD for the public so it can grow forward by the LEGO AFOL community itself, just like MLCAD? I simply just wonder cos that would somehow quite automatically solve many if not all the problems/new feature requests as programmers in the community could implement it...

While, on the one hand, this sounds like an easy way to fix the things people want, I could see it turning into a nightmare of patches and competing community-implemented design ideas and implementation architectures.

[OLDNUT]

An open conversation of the future of LDD. I have made some observation since reading a article

http://lifehacker.com/career-spotlight-what-i-do-as-a-lego-model-designer-1686123935

Three software products are listed Rhino3D, LDD and Lego’s proprietary software. My speculation is that brick updates are a byproduct of coding work done for the in house proprietary product. The only two other areas of use I see on the LEGO site is general MOC (free design ideas for TLG) and use by the Mindstorm community to share builds in the educational circles. Opening the source would mean TLG loss of control of there image adults are not the customer. The best I could hope for is a relaxing of some small portion of the product. The use of decoration could be easer. The palettes .lif files could be documented. The Preference.ini could be fully documented.

[ThorsHammer9999]

to make more pieces able to have decals, such as the windows and the doors since a lot of those have decals and a custom decal maker tool programed in. I simple screen to paint pixel by pixel what you want and then a simple select for which piece your new decal is meant for. and an exchange for people to swap the custom decals they create. Also being able to have sub palettes for the user palettes...making sub folders usable in the user palettes folder so that when you hover the mouse over your palette and have your sub palettes pop up...using the Adventure's set's for example when you hover the user palette Adventurers it looks in the Adventures sub folder in the User Palette folder and finds the sub palettes Orient Expedition, Pharaoh's Quest, Egypt Adventures, etc etc etc all palettes in that folder.

[ThorsHammer9999]

Also making ALL hoses flexible....quite honestly it's ridiculous that for example part 71986 the 88mm corrugated pipe and 72039 the 144mm corrugated pipe are both flexible but 71923 the 112mm corrugated pipe isn't even though that's the one I need most of the time...another good feature to add is in LDD extended to add all the legacy colors to the paint palette with a scroll bar so all the colors are visible and a button by the select, clone, flex, hinge, paint, etc etc etc buttons that have all the decals as a basic image (As they appear in the .lif file) that you can scroll through and select one and apply it to any brick with a printable surface (it'd work like the paint like select black and paint any brick you click with black) we also need much more printable surfaces on bricks and a larger collection of decals, especially for older sets (any retired should in my opinion have it's decals automatically added to LDD after it's been off the shelves for a year or more) also that the most unused bricks be kept on a server and removed from LDD and can be downloaded and installed from the server in brick packs later at the user's discretion like being able to download and install ALL the missing Adventurers pieces, with ALL the proper decals, in ALL the right colors (including the ones that aren't currently in LDD like the blimp pieces from set 5956) if want but not having to have 1000s of bionical and hero factory pieces I never use on my LDD if I don't want them there. Even easier would be to have a server dedicated to different .lif files that could be downloaded and dropped straight into the Lego install file C:/Programfiles/Lego Company/Lego Digital Designer or where ever and then on start up have a message box pop up so you can select what .lif file(s) you want loaded so that people with faster computers can load 20 .lif files and have all sorts of pieces but people with slow computers can load just two or three and won't have to worry about LDD crashing from loading up so many pieces to use. So you can release a Star Wars .lif, a Galaxy Squad .lif, a Batman .lif, or an Adventurers .lif all while still having the current standard .lif file that has a little of everything.

[___]

Also making ALL hoses flexible....quite honestly it's ridiculous that for example part 71986 the 88mm corrugated pipe and 72039 the 144mm corrugated pipe are both flexible but 71923 the 112mm corrugated pipe isn't even though that's the one I need most of the time...another good feature to add is in LDD extended to add all the legacy colors to the paint palette with a scroll bar so all the colors are visible and a button by the select, clone, flex, hinge, paint, etc etc etc buttons that have all the decals as a basic image (As they appear in the .lif file) that you can scroll through and select one and apply it to any brick with a printable surface (it'd work like the paint like select black and paint any brick you click with black) we also need much more printable surfaces on bricks and a larger collection of decals, especially for older sets (any retired should in my opinion have it's decals automatically added to LDD after it's been off the shelves for a year or more) also that the most unused bricks be kept on a server and removed from LDD and can be downloaded and installed from the server in brick packs later at the user's discretion like being able to download and install ALL the missing Adventurers pieces, with ALL the proper decals, in ALL the right colors (including the ones that aren't currently in LDD like the blimp pieces from set 5956) if want but not having to have 1000s of bionical and hero factory pieces I never use on my LDD if I don't want them there. Even easier would be to have a server dedicated to different .lif files that could be downloaded and dropped straight into the Lego install file C:/Programfiles/Lego Company/Lego Digital Designer or where ever and then on start up have a message box pop up so you can select what .lif file(s) you want loaded so that people with faster computers can load 20 .lif files and have all sorts of pieces but people with slow computers can load just two or three and won't have to worry about LDD crashing from loading up so many pieces to use. So you can release a Star Wars .lif, a Galaxy Squad .lif, a Batman .lif, or an Adventurers .lif all while still having the current standard .lif file that has a little of everything.

Right!

Now this is almost exactly what I was saying a few posts above, excellently put my friend - I am with you on this fully!

[Happy SDE]

64 bit !!!

LDD crashes on big models like LXF

Amount of Private bytes is going over 1.8 GB.

It is likely to be "Out of memoy" exception.

Overall GPU memory usage for all processes at crash time is 1.1 GB from 2 GB (so GPU memory is not the issue).

But if I turn down all graphic futures, the model will be loaded in to LDD without crash.

I use these graphic settings:

Edited April 8, 2015 by Happy SDE

[CCarmichael89]

6 things that are needed:

1. 64-bit version

2 Updated database of parts (including all printed bricks)

3. Part numbers that correlate with Bricklink database

4. Improvements of building guide mode. Generate instructions similar to real-life instruction books

5. Ability to export building guide to pdf. Html format is useless when wanting to print

6. Model part list creation tool

[ThorsHammer9999]

a select instructions button that automatically takes you to the Lego Customer Service instructions page where you select the instructions you want imported to LDD and LDD shows ghost bricks where you'd place the digital brick.....also a stretch button for rubber bands

[___]

....also a stretch button for rubber bands

This is very good and I am second that

[Takanuinuva]

I would like to have the power functions wires to be fully connected and be able to be bent with the flex tool. So to allow us to properly integrate power functions ideas into our LDD creations

[suenkachun]

Here's something I'd love LDD to have in the next update, something which I've wanted for quite a while already. If I use a group of Bricks together frequently, I always place the Bricks as a template so that I can recall the group easily. However, say that I've placed multiple copies of the group in wrong locations: I'd need to manually select the groups of Bricks one by one then delete/move them or use the Delete Tool to delete them one by one. Therefore, I hope that LDD can have a "Group Selection Tool". For example, I have inserted a LEGO Printer as a template. When I've placed one Printer in the wrong place, I insert another Printer from the templates, then I select the newly inserted Printer. The "Group Selection Tool" can help me select the other Printer at the same time. This tool is just like the "Multiple Selection Tool" and the "Colour and Shape Selection Tool" combined together, and can also be useful when you are deleting things. For example, I've previously inserted a row of Window Frames with Glass and now they all need to be deleted. By using the "Group Selection Tool" all of the Window Frames with Glass can be selected at once then deleted. The tool should also have the following feature: when selecting the groups of Bricks, it ignores the same copies of the Bricks outside the identified group. For example, if there is a White 1x1 Brick in the Group, the "Group Selection Tool" will only select those White 1x1 Bricks identified within the groups, but not all of the White 1x1 Bricks (or simply any 1x1 Bricks) in the file. With more complex structures like a piece of furniture, this tool is essential when you just want to select and move/delete a single piece of furniture without having to hide things and/or use a lot of time selecting each and every Brick of that piece of furniture. Thank you for everyone's attention!

[___]

* add option to set brick's X/Y/R coordinates numerically by hand, manually (of course in some "LEGO-reasonable" steps, like +/-1 stud or similar), yet avoiding bricks collisions so that way we could also place bricks in places without pins (like T base plates, tiles etc.)

Edited April 27, 2015 by bublible

[clee19892]

Technic pieces that can properly hinge on two parts WITHOUT spinning the whole model.See an xample of this in the Star Wars LAAT sets (there are others, but these spring to mind)

[vl_cn]

I believe I already said this in another forum somewhere, and I also think somebody else might have already come up with this idea, but whatever.

I want positionable cameras. The one that takes screenshots, but you can attach it to bricks. It'll be much easier to make stop motion videos with LDD.

It would also be nice if there was a precise zoom control. And control for cone of vision, maybe.

[jamie75]

Auto-save!!!

I was just playing LDD. Not a big model, yet. Only at about 1000 pieces in. Building an UCS Theta Class Shuttle from Star Wars. Wings are similar to 10212. When I used the rotate function, it froze and I lost everything I did. 3 hours gone.

There has to be a way to implement something, so we don't go crazy, yell at our computers and wake the wives and kids?!

Jamie