LDraw.org is going to allow digital replicas of LEGO clone and custom bricks in its official parts library. This decision has been taken by the LDraw.org Steering Committee yesterday.

In the past LDraw.org had a policy which allowed only representations of parts manufactured by the LEGO group in its official library. This forced part authors to offer their own creations on personal websites and prevented the addition of bricks developed by competitors such as Mega Bloks or Enlighten Brick to the LDraw library.

„We have dropped the restrictions in favour of a wider LDraw experience and believe that clone bricks will affect the building style of our users in a positive way“, said Willy Tschager, member of the LDraw.org Steering Committee. „With LDraw you might use bricks in colours LEGO never moulded and the results are stunning. I guess this will be much true also for some awesome windscreens one can for example find in Mega Bloks 6859 - Call of Duty Hovercraft“, Tschager adds.

In a first round LDraw part authors will submit custom bricks they have designed over the years, such as “Plate 2x2 with studs underneath” or female torsi. Later mainly 3D-counterparts of Mega Bloks, Bayko, Best-Lock Construction Toys and Kre-O by Hasbro, which have been prepared in the foresight of this allowance. “But it's not limited to those … there are also great pieces in military sets from Kazi or Sluban”, the Steering Committee welcomes the new entries.

The LDraw Parts Tracker, an online system used by the community to review and certify unofficial parts, has been adapted and will offer the possibility to brand the uploaded files according to the manufacturer. Nonetheless the different libraries will be joined, once the users have become familiar with the additions and start mixing LEGO bricks with the clones. By then parts will be distinguishable only by the new !SYSTEM meta-statement in the part-code. Also more general construction toy parts (that don't connect with LEGO) are planned for inclusion in the library in the future: Lincoln Logs, GeoMag (for which a new magnetic connector primitive is in development) and Meccano.

There are also talks with the LDD - LEGO Digital Designer development team at LEGO. „We hope LEGO will joins us in our attempt to add value to the overall building experience, as they did back in 2007 with the development of the so called Lego Universe Mode in their LDD software: In addition to some 1400+ bricks you could suddenly build in any colour, even in colours that haven’t been produced – like transparent tires. Something LDraw could do right from the start in 1995. Nowadays the LDD Extended Mode is normal business and not a hack for LEGO Universe designers. We bet the same will happen to clone bricks in LDD“, Tschager said. There hasn't been a breakthrough in the negotiation so far, but at least signals of cautious opening.

The LDraw System of Tools is a popular system of free software tools for modeling LEGO creations in 3D on a computer. The parts library that is central to the programs is under continuous maintenance and extension by the LDraw community since 1997. LDD as a virtual building experience attracts several million people each year to build a huge range of amazing creations.

LDraw Content Management
On behalf of the LDraw.org Steering Committee

Hi All,

I am trying all day, to do it but my effords were in vain and I need your help.

I have downloaded parts from this page: http://jc-tchang.philohome.com/manuel/part_hd.htm
Among the .dat files there is t01o0714.dat. It looks like this:



Could you please remodel it for me to have 48 sides, instead 16, and match the rest of the 48 stud files?
This is what I need:



I have no idea how to do this. I need the same dimensions, but more sides.

Regards,
Slawomir

I just got a new computer and had to install all my software again. I am running all the same versions including operating system (Windows 7 Professional 64-bit). I have the same 4.2.0.1 64-bit beta version of LDView that I had before, but I can't seem to get the screen saver to work. I made a copy called LDView.scr and put it in the System32 directory. It shows up on my list of screen savers, but when it actually runs I just get a blank black screen. LDView works fine when run manually. Any ideas?

On a related matter, I'm sure it is a low priority but it would be really cool if the screen saver supported multiple screens.

I came across the following issue while authoring the Helicarrier stickers. The large '64' sticker has lost of bolts which are best done with primitives and this amound to roughly 200 to be used. Now I worked on the file for a few days on and of, saved/quite LDPC multiple times and it always saved the primitives.

For some unknown reason it is not saving the primitives anymore, when I open the files, the primitives are converted to triangles...

Has anyone experienced this?

I was pretty sure that Fabuland car engine parts had been already LDrawn, but I can't find them... Can someone confirm they are missing - or that I need new glasses?

Hi,

I found the missing brick T_T

95347 Support 2 x 2 x 10 Girder Triangular Vertical - Type 4 - 3 Posts, 3 Sections



It looks so much complex. ^^;;;

Thanks for reading.

Oscar

Hi,

I hope that these may be the last parts to complete 76042 Helicarrier.

90498pb02 Tile 8 x 16 with Bottom Tubes with Runway and SHIELD Logo Pattern





90498pb03 Tile 8 x 16 with Bottom Tubes with Runway Pattern




If someone has the sticker for 76042 Helicarrier, make it ldr part and upload, please.

Thanks you very much

Oscar

Based on an idea of Magnus Forsberg [MagFors] I have updated DATHeader.

We have an article that clearly states that leading or / and trailing zeros are not allowed in good files.

For example the current file p\4-4ring1.dat contains the following line, that is not correct:
4 16 -1.8478 0 0.7654 -0.9239 0 0.3827 -0.7071 0 0.7071 -1.4142 0 1.41420

This is clearly a task for DATHeader .

DATHeader now detects this and also can correct this error.


If you have any other wish for DATHeader, please let me know and I am looking what can be done.

You can download DATHeader as usually from DATHeader homepage.

cu
mikeheide

Greetings all,

Could anyone provide me with guidance as to how I can author parts myself? The parts I need are not in LDD, I don't have LDraw experience, and I don't have a 3D scanner.

Thank you,

LegoSW

Hi,

I found another part is missing.

16770 Barb Large (Claw, Talon) with Clip



If anybody have this part, then convert it to dat file, please.

Thanks for reading

Oscar