I made a new convert

[Rafael Skibicki]

I couldn't help but to post about LDraw at a certain forum I frequent. It's more related to computer games or history of warfare, yet it has a small modeling section (scale models, RC), where people occasionally post things like this Kamov Ka-50.

I went to describe the "virtual blocks experience" briefly, as for someone who hadn't tried anything similar before, pointing how to start.

Most people usually react "oh, that's cool" - best case. But at least one of them surprised me by... posting within one day POV-ray renders of a properly assembled set. So I managed to hook at least one person to LDraw!

By the way: could anyone give a fair comparison of LDraw to LDD? e.g: part library size? Last time I checked it was 4 years ago, I'm sure it evolved by now.

[Tim Gould]

Cool. The more the merrier

LDraw has a much broader range of parts and, minifig accessories aside, is likely to maintain this lead. Mainly because LDraw has the goal of including every part, including those that are no longer produced, while LDD focuses on the current pallette in production.

We may fall behind on minifig parts as TLG seem to have ramped up new moulds for these (cheaper production = more range quickly) and they tend to be a bit complicated. But with new part editing software coming online and the potential for texture mapping in the near future we might even be able to keep up with this.

For editing... it depends what you like. LDD restricts building to what they consider to be 'legitimate connections' so there are things you can do in real bricks and in LDraw that you can't do in LDD.

Tim