Travis Cobbs Wrote:I believe that the people extracting data are doing so via a 3D screen-grabber program (a program that intercepts Direct3D and/or OpenGL API calls). Unfortunately, the program (which was free) was discontinued by the company that made it, and so if you don't already have it, you'll have to find someone willing to send you the installer they already downloaded. (Note: I'm not sure if the program's license allows distributing the installer, even though the program was free. If so, please don't take this post as an encouragement for someone else to do something illegal.)
There were at least two separate sets of folks who completely deciphered the LDD part format. Many of the files that were received through LEGO Universe were in fact created from LDD data, knowledge of this format, and a translator that read directly from the LDD format.
Later, LU stopped providing files (and then stopped altogether), and the LDD format changed (geometry is still there, but new data that wasn't deciphered), so the most recently format isn't entirely known outside of TLG.
All that said, the grabbing software is probably the best way to go regardless.
-- joshua