So, I'd like to get a little more comfortable with parts authoring—or more accurately, perhaps, parts editing. I don't see myself soon contributing major new parts to the official library or anything, but I do often find I want to make minor tweaks to existing parts (such as to allow odd connections in Technic assemblies that depend on the physical tolerance of real plastic parts, or to create custom sticker parts, etc.). I think that with the right tools, I wouldn't have much trouble figuring out the process, but it's just a little too abstract to manipulate the raw code of a DAT file without getting visual feedback on what I'm doing. Are there good software programs out there where I could tinker around with the basics?

I should add one major catch—right now, LD Part Editor isn't an option for me. I've encountered a series of technical problems that have so far prevented me from even opening the program, so I have no way to use it. I've reached out for support already, but I realize that this may take some time because LDraw tools are created by volunteers on their free time, so I'm just looking for other options I might use in the meantime. I do also have Studio's Part Designer, but that really doesn't allow you to directly manipulate the various subparts, primitives and so on—unless I'm greatly missing where those capabilities are hidden. I don't think LDCad allows interactive part editing beyond snap info. Should I look into MLCad? Something else? I look forward to everyone's suggestions!

Does anybody have any experience with 3D printing their own Lego bricks? How does it work and what software is needed? Can regular LDraw DAT files be used?

Just made a simple test part in LDPC,
I used the triangular shield template, filled out some meta data, its not accurate but I don't care its just a test. Through it in the following folders one at a time to try and get it to be available in LDcad.
LDraw/Parts
LDraw/Parts/s
Unoffical/Parts
Unofficial/parts/s

I opened it in LDCad using the 'Open' option but then its on its own page as a .dat file

I also exported one without meta-data earlier in. Any ideas why these parts can't be found in the library?


Edit: LDCad was referencing a Zip file not the folders.

Hello Lego Fans,
I have a problem with the perspective in LPub3D. the escape point seems to be wrong. As a result, the farther rear part looks larger than the closer front part. I had the same effect synonymous in studio 2.0, but could help me johann there and you could fix it by switching to the camera icon. Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong?

LDCad 1.6c, LPub3D 2.3.6 (i don´t want to use the newest Version, because this Version has the fewest Side-Effects), used Render-Tool LDView
best regards
Stefan

Attached Files

  Perspective.pdf (Size: 248.7 KB / Downloads: 11)

I've searched around a bit for this question but haven't seen it asked.

I want to find the center of gravity of a model (horizontally, in two dimensions though the 3d center of gravity would be interesting).  Studio has its "stability check" feature which theoretically could answer the question (I could "balance" the model on a 1x1 brick and move that brick around until the model is deemed stable).  However after some testing, the stability check seems to behave unpredictably if there are submodels involved.  

I haven't made the leap to LDCad yet, but maybe it's time.  Is is possible to calculate center of gravity in LDCad?  Or is something similar to Studio's stability check (but hopefully better documented)?

I created an issue for this at GitHub, but also posting here in case others have had similar trouble. I can't seem to get LDPE to open under MacOS 10.14.6; I keep getting the dreaded "unable to access jarfile" message.

I'm pretty sure I was able to launch the program when I first downloaded it a few months ago, but no longer. I tried reinstalling, and also the usual troubleshoots for the JAR file error—reinstalling latest versions of JRE and JDK, checking the path to the file in the shell script (I tried writing the absolute path into the script), even opening the JAR file directly with Jar Launcher.app, nothing works.

Any ideas? Did something change in Java/my system that broke the program? I've attached the error log to this post as well.

Attached Files

  error_log.txt (Size: 5.91 KB / Downloads: 2)

Hi Team,
I’m wishing to customise head 3626cpb1314. I chose this specific head as my starting point as it “was” available in Stud.io2. I’ve looked for it’s .dat file in every LDraw library and Studio folder, official parts and unofficial parts and can’t find it anywhere yet it is definitely still available to use.

I’m wondering if the description tag is correct though it’s file name is incorrectly labeled?

Any help to find it is appreciated.

Cheers
Adam

I think this ground has been partially trodden before, but I'm not sure this exact issue has been solidly settled.

How do we tackle the "classic" flexible hose in LDCad—i.e., the old rubber hose used in Classic Space and early Technic sets? This is a 4mm diameter hose, so I think it's the same as the hoses later used in the pneumatic system. I know these are used in the example 8860 model, but what happens when you need a free end that's not connected to anything? In 8860, the ends are simply left off, because the hoses are tucked inside other parts. But what if the free end is meant to be visible (like in set 920/483)? Is there a suitable end part, and how would I go about replacing the beveled end with the non-beveled one?

(And to perhaps get overly precise, would the end part be different depending on whether it's a pneumatic hose or a "classic" one? Are the inside diameters different on these two parts? Are they even two different parts, or are they in fact identical?)

I am stumbled upon LDraw a week ago and it is faszinating to operate this cool CAD programm!

No I am looking for a good way to transfer mpd-files into 3ds max to create my own renderings.
While trying to convert the "8464 - Front End Loader.mpd" there are some parts missing in the exported obj and I don't know why?
I downloaded the latest LDraw version, implemented the latest complete.zip and the LDraw Parts Library 1902.

Maybe someone has some hints and tips, how to avoid such mishaps?

By the way, this is my first post here in this forum, I just began to work with LDD, LDraw and MLCad and it is great, love it :-)

Dirk

Hello,

I mainly use Studio to do my building but the LDR file it creates when exporting to ldraw does not conform to the standards. I would like to use LPub3D to create my instructions as there is a lot more flexibility for the layout of the pages but the non-conformity of the Studio output doesnt play nice. I would like to use LDCad as the middle man because it handles the non conformity nicely and I am already making some adjustments in LDcad for the models. I would like to have a script that makes the sub models conform in that spaces are removed and replaced with "_" and .ldr is added to the end of the submodel. Then the whole file gets saved as an MPD.

Thanks in advance

Cam