Cannot reliably search for even old parts in LDraw

[Timo]

Hi, recently installed LDraw but I'm tearing my hair out a bit. Many common parts don't appear to show up in LDraw part search. What am I doing wrong?



I open new model, and on the left dialogue make sure I'm at the top of the tree, then I click the lego man icon to Search Inventory:



.... then I click the filter and enter a known common part, let's say a 4x4 black plate, part number 4243819, tick all the boxes, but after clicking Accept it doesn't find the part.


Some common parts are found (such as black 1x6 plate 303226, or grey 1x4 plate 4211395), but others not (grey 4x4 plate 4243797, red 1x4 plate 371021) etc.

It doesn't make sense.

My libraries are configured as below:



I have quit & reloaded the app to update any new folder libraries/archives.

Thanks for any help.

Timo

[N. W. Perry]

It looks like you’re searching by element ID, which is a code used by Lego but doesn’t correspond to the LDraw numbering system. Rebrickable is a good resource to cross-reference element IDs with LDraw part numbers.

(Note that element IDs identify specific parts in specific colors, whereas LDraw parts numbers don’t account for color.)

[Orion Pobursky]

Just to pile onto N. W. Perry's reply, the number found in the instruction booklets is the LEGO element ID which is a number LEGO uses to identify both part and color. Since LDraw parts can be any color, it doesn't make sense for us to use element ID so we used the part number instead (usually found molded onto the part itself in some out of the way spot.) You can, however, search on part name, look up the part number by typing it into Rebrickable and seeing what they have for LDraw number, or, for specific sets, you can generate a PBG file for LDCad using the tool in the LDraw website. I'll see if I can extend this tool to custom part lists.