Subject:
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Re: Creating Models and Optimizing instructions using LDD and LDraw
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.cad.ldd, lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Sat, 23 Dec 2006 15:27:49 GMT
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Viewed:
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901 times
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In lugnet.cad.ldd, Eric Kingsley wrote:
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I have added an article over in the LDD Database area of Save 9v Trains of my
thoughts about using LDraw (MLCad) to optimize instructions for LDD.
http://save.9vtrains.com/article.php?story=20061223020839815
I used this caboose as my test subject.
http://save.9vtrains.com/mediagallery/mediaobjects/disp/7/7_caboosefront2.jpg
This is a model that I designed and ordered via LEGO Factory.
I hope to add more about how to use LDD efficiently in the future. I would
like to invite anyone else that has thoughts to share to please do so. LEGO
Factory is a great idea and while LDD needs much in the way of improvements I
think we can all help overcome its shortcommings by sharing our findings and
what we have done to overcome LDD’s limitations.
-Eric
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Hi Eric,
I think this an important topic and I’m glad you brought it up. When I did my
Purina boxcar I designed it with
LDraw/MLCAD and then converted to LDD as a last step. (Note, I also needed to
tweak the ldraw.xml file to prevent a couple parts from get mangled in the
conversion.) Using MLCAD gave me the ability to include instruction steps that
LDD does preserve when you import a .ldr file. That said, there were a few
special considerations needed for creating LDraw instructions for LDD that you
normally wouldn’t contend with if doing straight LDraw to LPub instructions, or
the like:
- Part outlines -- LDD does not draw part outlines in the instructions view. If you, say, have a 1x3 brick in line with a 1x4 brick and add them in the same building step, in LDD it just looks like you added a 1x7 brick. You can’t see where one ends and the other begins, and therefore don’t know which goes where. For this reason I tried to avoid including adjacent parts in the same LDraw step. To me this felt very different from what I’d normally tend to do, and what TLG tends to do in official instructions.
- Sub-assemblies -- As we all know, LDD doesn’t allow them. When doing my boxcar I struggled a bit to come up with a way to handle these as there’s no perfect solution. What I decided to do was build the objects that require sub-assemblies by deliberately leaving them disjoint from the rest of the model until the last step. That way someone following the instructions would be forced to keep them as separate assemblies until the last step. For example, my instructions show how to build the trucks last. The last part I add to each truck is the bogie plate itself. That way the builder should be forced to assemble the truck completely before adding it to the railcar -- as is typically done in official TLG instructions.
- Rotation steps -- These don’t tranlsate to LDD. For this I think we just have to assume that someone building a model with LDD knows to, and is accustomed to, rotating the model around all the while he/she is building the model.
Well, I hope these thoughts help with this discussion. I encourage you to
download my boxcar’s LDD file and view the instructions in LDD. I’m curious for feedback
if you think my techniques worked or not, or what could be done better.
Regards,
Paul D’Urbano
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