• Studio has a great feature, the possibility to import inventories of official sets from Bricklink (of course!) and create a specialized palette. This feature is also available in LDCad, but requires a few manual operations.
  
• Creation of submodels is easy, but works a bit like groups in other programs: you have to select several bricks from current model then "Create into submodel". True submodels are created nonetheless (or at least they are exported as such in Ldraw format). This is possible only with at least two bricks, so if you need a submodel with only one part (useful to highlight a particular part in building instructions as a callout), you need to edit the submodel and remove extraneous parts...
  
• I have not experimented a lot the coloring of parts (since the imported 42001 palette contained parts already in model colors), but I appreciated the filtering of colours, allowing to show only the shades of basic colors (eg. "show all green colors").
  
• Finding parts is always tricky in most LEGO CAD programs. Studio does a rather good job by sorting parts in categories and with a text/part number search box. The drawback for me is that it uses BL names and categories, while I am more used to LDraw ones. I guess this is not an issue for most people that have the opposite training.
  
• Overall, snapping and collision detection works well... but not always. Usage of Technic axles was especially cumbersome, as it is very difficult to place precisely parts on it. This gives some slight misplacement errors, as can be seen when looking at coordinates in exported LDraw file. This may not be seem a big deal as it mimicks real life behaviour, but flexibility of parts helps, and manual adjustements are easier to do with physical parts than with virtual models. LDCad has a neat feature for that, as position of parts on an axle depends on current grid, I missed that a lot.
  
• Noneneless, there must be inaccuracies in snapping/collision definition: the panels for the doors were not placed correctly on pins (2 ldu too high), and the technic bush properly stopped against a beam on the round side, but was able to collide inside that beam on the notched side. The good thing (contrary to LDD) is that you can fine tune position and orientation of parts using "manual mode". Unfortunately I couldn't see any parts coordinates to make sure of what I was doing. Less user intimidating, but sorely missing for me!
  
• Studio has no flexible parts generator. I had to use LDcad to generate a custom part for the rubber bands used as shock absorbers in this model. More on this in a separate thread.
  

• Studio has an integrated photo-realistic rendering tool. Depending on the quality you need and rendering time you want to wait, you can choose between two engines (POV and Eyesight), each with several quality levels and tweakable parameters. Seamless integration to Studio is very convenient! One trick: Studio seems to use the bounding box of parts to derive the floor level. As the wheels are rotated, their bounding box extend below the base of tire, and I got "floating in the air" effect. This can be seen in the last image below. I had to "unrotate" the wheels to get proper results.

• POV renderer, "Low" setting, 17 seconds on my ageing machine
  
  
• POV renderer, "Medium" setting, 20 seconds
  
  
• POV renderer, "High" setting, 1.20 minutes
  
  
• POV renderer,  Custom settings, 2.30 minutes
  
  
• Eyesight renderer, Medium setting, 4 minutes
  
  
• Eyesight renderer, High setting, 7 minutes
  
  
• Eyesight renderer, Very High setting, 15 minutes
  
  

(2018-09-21, 13:53)Philippe Hurbain Wrote: Eyesight renderer, Very High setting, 15 minutes

(2018-09-22, 3:41)Owen Dive Wrote: Those settings are so High, the model is noticeably off the ground!

Quote:How does it handle an import of LDraw file? i.e. how feasible is it to make the model in LDCad and then generate instructions/renders in Studio?

• create the model in Stud.io
  
• export it to LDraw
  
• Use LDCad to correct inaccuracies and generate the rubber band
  
• Reimport the result in Stud.io
  
• Generate renders and BIs
  

• Part Snapping
  
• Renders (impressive) but only used in a few ocations
  
• Buildings instructions (needs works but its on its way) its far more flexible than lpub
  
• Easy to use interface
  

• No flexible parts available (by the moment)
  
• Heavier interface compared LDCAD
  
• Little other things
  

(2018-09-24, 14:21)tatubias Wrote: this is a sample of a excellent easy render. it does not takes you more than 15 seconds to set the scene. then it took like 15 miunts to render but the quality is exceptional. 

(2018-09-24, 17:39)Orion Pobursky Wrote:

(2018-09-24, 14:21)tatubias Wrote: this is a sample of a excellent easy render. it does not takes you more than 15 seconds to set the scene. then it took like 15 miunts to render but the quality is exceptional. 

There's definitly some rendering artifact, probably due to bad smoothing, on the nose of the model but overall an impressive rendering.

(2018-09-25, 9:03)Philippe Hurbain Wrote: Mmmhhhh... Wedo2 parts do look wrong with Studio, both with the editor AND with Eyesight render! POV render is OK.

(2018-09-25, 17:02)Roland Melkert Wrote: I think the eyesight (and studio's editor) smoothing is only using angles between planes for averaging normal's.

(2018-09-26, 18:15)Gerald Lasser Wrote: Can you tell which parts are from LDraw and which ones are sourced differently?

What is their alternate source? LDD/Directly from LEGO?

(2018-09-25, 9:03)i furure it out how to remove that artifact. its very easy.1 - open your design2 - click on Edit3 - Preferences4 - clicl on tab apparece5- lower the render quality 1 or more steps6 - you can or not enable outline The final render this was with the application smoothness in lowest valuePhilippe Hurbain Wrote: Mmmhhhh... Wedo2 parts do look wrong with Studio, both with the editor AND with Eyesight render! POV render is OK.

Studio editor

Studio Eyesight

Studio POV

LDCad

LDView

(2018-09-30, 16:22)Philippe Hurbain Wrote: (export from Studio to LDraw -> inline with LDCad -> open LDraw file in Studio)

(2018-09-21, 13:53)Philippe Hurbain Wrote: With the release of Bricklink's Studio 2.0 and seeing its increased popularity I decided to have a closer look at it, here is a quick summary of my experience using it.

1 - Installation
Nothing much to say: download the installer and launch it... Nothing to configure, it just works.

2 - Building
I tested building with a small Technic model, 42001 Mini Off-Roader. Not the most general purpose test case, but it is my favorite domain, and probably the most demanding style for CAD capabilities.

Here is the result...

The Studio file is available here, and a raw Ldraw export is here.
Random notes:

• Studio has a great feature, the possibility to import inventories of official sets from Bricklink (of course!) and create a specialized palette. This feature is also available in LDCad, but requires a few manual operations.
  
• Creation of submodels is easy, but works a bit like groups in other programs: you have to select several bricks from current model then "Create into submodel". True submodels are created nonetheless (or at least they are exported as such in Ldraw format). This is possible only with at least two bricks, so if you need a submodel with only one part (useful to highlight a particular part in building instructions as a callout), you need to edit the submodel and remove extraneous parts...
  
• I have not experimented a lot the coloring of parts (since the imported 42001 palette contained parts already in model colors), but I appreciated the filtering of colours, allowing to show only the shades of basic colors (eg. "show all green colors").
  
• Finding parts is always tricky in most LEGO CAD programs. Studio does a rather good job by sorting parts in categories and with a text/part number search box. The drawback for me is that it uses BL names and categories, while I am more used to LDraw ones. I guess this is not an issue for most people that have the opposite training.
  
• Overall, snapping and collision detection works well... but not always. Usage of Technic axles was especially cumbersome, as it is very difficult to place precisely parts on it. This gives some slight misplacement errors, as can be seen when looking at coordinates in exported LDraw file. This may not be seem a big deal as it mimicks real life behaviour, but flexibility of parts helps, and manual adjustements are easier to do with physical parts than with virtual models. LDCad has a neat feature for that, as position of parts on an axle depends on current grid, I missed that a lot.
  
• Noneneless, there must be inaccuracies in snapping/collision definition: the panels for the doors were not placed correctly on pins (2 ldu too high), and the technic bush properly stopped against a beam on the round side, but was able to collide inside that beam on the notched side. The good thing (contrary to LDD) is that you can fine tune position and orientation of parts using "manual mode". Unfortunately I couldn't see any parts coordinates to make sure of what I was doing. Less user intimidating, but sorely missing for me!
  
• Studio has no flexible parts generator. I had to use LDcad to generate a custom part for the rubber bands used as shock absorbers in this model. More on this in a separate thread.
  

As a conclusion... I'm not ready to change tool from the trusty LDCad, but it mostly gets the job done.

3 - Rendering

• Studio has an integrated photo-realistic rendering tool. Depending on the quality you need and rendering time you want to wait, you can choose between two engines (POV and Eyesight), each with several quality levels and tweakable parameters. Seamless integration to Studio is very convenient! One trick: Studio seems to use the bounding box of parts to derive the floor level. As the wheels are rotated, their bounding box extend below the base of tire, and I got "floating in the air" effect. This can be seen in the last image below. I had to "unrotate" the wheels to get proper results.

• POV renderer, "Low" setting, 17 seconds on my ageing machine
  
  
• POV renderer, "Medium" setting, 20 seconds
  
  
• POV renderer, "High" setting, 1.20 minutes
  
  
• POV renderer,  Custom settings, 2.30 minutes
  
  
• Eyesight renderer, Medium setting, 4 minutes
  
  
• Eyesight renderer, High setting, 7 minutes
  
  
• Eyesight renderer, Very High setting, 15 minutes
  
  

4 - Building instructions
Studio Instruction Maker is the major addition to version 2.0 (along with Eyesight renderer). An I must say - Wow!!! This is by far the best instruction generator I used. Concepts are very similar to LPub/LPub3d, but user interface is imho significantly better (in LPub you never know where you must right click to perform such or such action). More importantly, Studio Instruction Maker is FAST. You can navigate between pages, change layout, scale models in a snap. Rendering quality is very good, as you can see from the attached PDF.

5 - Conclusions
Overall I liked Studio. As mentioned above, model creation is the weak point (for me, used to LDCad), but it does work... The seamless integrated rendering tool is very convenient, and I'm really fond of instruction generator!

(2019-01-28, 17:18)christian kuhr Wrote: i like STUDIO 2.0 so far but they need a setting like LDD had load a file and let it GENERATE after that its makes a step by step cos if the set is more then 4353 peace im not sitting there making the book

(2019-02-17, 11:59)Magnus Forsberg Wrote: I can't get Studio 2.0 running on my machine. Win 10, intel i7, 64bit,  nvidia GeForce GTX 560M
All I get is a window with a completely black screen and no GUI at all.

(2019-02-17, 12:25)Philippe Hurbain Wrote: Some guys were successful after a video driver update...

(2019-03-21, 14:54)Mike Cook Wrote: I wonder if you could help me with something. I am very new to Studio 2.0, and can't find the way to alter the default projection of the model in the instructions generation bit. What I get is a one unchanging isometric projection used throughout. This results in most of the placement action taking place round the hidden side of the model. Their must be some way of changing this but I have yet to find it. I am on a Mac by the way.
Thank you for reading this.

(2019-03-21, 15:29)Mike Cook Wrote: Thanks for that, but my screen does not show these options. I was asking how to do this in Studio 2.0 is it perchance that these screen options are only in LDraw?


With a bit more fiddling I got it. Those options only appear in the Page designer mode and only then if you click on the bounding box of the model, the blue outline. I don't in fact get the "Convert to callout" option bar at all, just a "Cancle step change view" red bar.

Thanks very much happy bunny.

(2019-06-14, 7:56)Philippe Hurbain Wrote: An example with a few bricks, quality setting "high"