Digital Designer, LDraw, MLCad, and other similar stuff.

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Professor Fairfield
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Digital Designer, LDraw, MLCad, and other similar stuff.

Post by Professor Fairfield » Sat Feb 28, 2009 10:21 pm

Some time ago I downloaded two programs that allowed you to create virtual LEGO models. I found each to be cool but limited in its own way, and was wondering what you guys would recommend.

First, Digital Designer. I should have known LEGO wasn't going to make anything good for free, because this was the biggest dissapointment, not because it was all that bad, because it still snapped together like a LEGO set should, but just because it was one of those dreaded idiot products that insisted on telling me, "The only limit is your imagination!" Gee, how many times have you heard that shit before?! I'm guessing too damn many, but here it was especially false. Here the limit was the sheer lack of available bricks, such as the lack of any ground tile in any color but green. So yeah, no "paint brick" function either. What garbage!

Then I downloaded something else, either LDraw or MLCad. Whatever it was, it was substantially better, as it had most LEGO pieces in existence in digital form. The only problem reared its ugly head as I began doing an actual model, and realized that the pieces in this program did not snap together like real LEGOS. They had no mass and would Shadowcat right through each other if you weren't careful. In fact, they may not even have had any grid movement, because I found them moving too little or two far too often. In short, I had to spend a long time babysitting my bricks before I could finagle them into the right place, which took a lot of fun out of building a model.

So to somebody who has experienced similar things, I need help! Was it LDraw or MLCad I was using? What's the difference between the two? Does either have a way to make bricks snap together? Has Digital Designer been upgraded to something better? Are there any other, better programs that I could use?
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Post by pesgores » Mon Mar 02, 2009 2:56 pm

I agree with you. That's why I want a hack that transfers LDraw pieces to LDD.
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Professor Fairfield
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Post by Professor Fairfield » Mon Mar 02, 2009 3:56 pm

I think there actually is a way to do that, but I don't know if every LEGO piece can be lifted from one to the other at the same time.
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Post by IVhorseman » Mon Mar 02, 2009 4:10 pm

the reverse is true. LDD can just be straight-up converted into LDraw.

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Post by pesgores » Tue Mar 03, 2009 2:42 pm

But that is old news. Now LDraw->LDD...would be revolutionary.
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Post by RoC77 » Tue Mar 03, 2009 5:33 pm

Isn't the LDD pieces limited because it uses bricks you can buy from the Lego factory?

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Post by pesgores » Wed Mar 04, 2009 2:33 pm

Yes, they are, but it also has an assortment of pieces that can't be upload but can still be used in the models, which m akes an entire construction unbuyable.
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