We are on Twitter!

Tweets are there for some time, I would like to publicize it a bit more. The twitter feed contains many news bits that do not appear here on the blog.:

http://twitter.com/bricksngears

Lego Universe - new screen shots

Brothers Brick has published that there are new screen shots available about the massively multiplayer online game Lego Universe. The game is set for release in 2010 and will be available as a subscription service.

Lego Digital Designer

We already discussed how one can play Lego with a computer instead of real bricks. We mentioned LDraw and SR 3D Builder. Let's go back to the alpha an omega of virtual building now: Lego Digital Designer (LDD).

The most important difference is that LDD is Lego's own official product available for free from ldd.lego.com. Unlike the other apps mentioned LDD is not open source. This is a drawback because there is no way to hack it and insert new bricks for example. This is also a plus because hacking is not required - you just need to download and install it. Another plus is that it is well integrated with other services from Lego. What you build can be uploaded into a public gallery and even bought as real bricks (depending on your country).

Key features:

• You get a photorealistic view while building.
• LDD models the physics of elements. You can put bricks only where they fit. They can be rotated or selected based on connections. It does not model rotating gears, though.
  
• The ready model can be rotated or viewed between different backgrounds. Since this is built into the app it is convenient, but our images will not be as nice as with the LDraw - Pov-Ray duo.
  
• After a click and some thinking it presents you with building instructions too. Handy if you are about to order physical bricks.
  

I am sure free software believers will not like me but I think LDD is more intuitive and easier to use than say LDraw. If you would like to try virtual building for the first time I recommend LDD.

After starting it you have to choose whether to build from Factory, Mindstorms or Creator bricks. Building from the Factory bricks allows you to order your creation online from real bricks. If you made up your mind, you can choose from half-ready models, starting from scratch or from your own earlier models.

On the left hand side you can choose the bricks - not all of them are available in all colors, this limits building a little bit. Technic elements are very rare, the selection support City-style building most (in case of the Factory bricks).

You can place new bricks with the mouse and rotate them with the arrows. The program helps you to attach new bricks to existing ones. In the Tool Box there are the following tools available:

• Select. Selected bricks can be rotated and moved the same way as new ones. You can select single bricks, bricks within a rectangle, connected bricks etc.
  
• Clone. You can copy without limits.
  
• Hinge. You can rotate parts like propeller, arms and legs of minifigs, etc.
• Paint. If the selected part is available in other colors, you can re-color it.
  
• Delete.
• Screen shot.
  

With a little bit of practice you can easily get this far:

Once this is done you can go to view mode, rotate it and make pictures:

In Building Guide Mode it even creates building instructions that can be saved as HTML:

When done you can upload your model to factory.lego.com (after registration). You can even order your own or others' sets - it is not more expensive than a factory set with the same number of bricks.

Some experience:

• LDD does not let you build if the bricks do not fit. There are some borderline cases though that fit in reality but not according to LDD.
• With larger models it happens sometimes that small errors accumulate and some bricks do not fit unexpectedly. For example I have managed to save a design that LDD could not load the next time because of this.
• Bricks available in the Factory change a little bit over time. It is possible that you could order a set yesterday but not today.
• Create building instructions may take minutes if the model is large.
• A "Mirror building mode" would be very useful - SR 3D Builder is better here.
  

As usual we have more pics in the album. Have fun!

SR 3D Builder

If you like to deal with bricks on your computer, you must know LDraw. There is another less known but very interesting builder: SR 3D Builder was covered by TechnicBRICKs this week. It is also free and the result of several years of work of Sergio Reano.


And what is it capable of? The incomplete list:

• support for popular file formats like .dat, .ldr and .mpd (incomplete)
• it knows about connected bricks, it is possible to select and move them
• it recognizes rotation axles and models the rotation of connected gears
• support for mirror building in the case of symmetric models

gzurti's LDraw page

I wrote about LDraw a while back. One of my faithful readers sent a link to his creations:
http://gzurti.uw.hu/

It is worth to have a look at what LDraw is capable of in the hands of a pro.

How to get Lego

We already discussed how to buy bricks but not yet how to acquire a whole set. This part is mostly about auction sites on the net. Of course it would be possible to buy directly from Lego but there are many reasons not to do so: 1. it is expensive (unless you live in the States) 2. the set is not sold any more 3. we would like to have a set with real bricks (with studs).

As usual, the net is our friend. If your dream set is still sold then shop.lego.com tells you its current price in different countries. Usually the States has the best prices. So if you happen to live there or go there occasionally then the best thing is to go to a Lego store and grab it. In the case of older sets like 8860 "Auto chassis" Lugnet tells you its original price.

So far so good, we can start searching on the auction sites. There may be many other sites depending on where you live, we only conside EBay here. If EBay does not have a page in your country, don't worry - you can also register on the site in other countries. For example EBay.de has direct 11 hits for "lego 8860". The good thing is that it immediately lists hits from other countries is well. The results are in the range from "a bunch of dusty bricks" to "unopened original from 1980" with appropriate price tags. A good buy needs a lot of time and searching.

If we decide and did not register with EBay yet, then this is the first thing to do. The best is to register in your own country or in one closeby to avoid customs fees. (This is actually more complicated than that, if you are not sure, ask someone who knows more.) It requires a valid postal address. EBay checks this address by sending a code in a mail. You should do this well before participating in an auction, it does not cost any money. It is also worth having a PayPal account (see previous post).

When everything is set, it is time to start bidding! The recommended strategy is the following: when seeing your dream set, you should first decide how much we are willing to pay for it. (It is advised to learn about shipping costs and other details in advance.) Then you should set an alarm for 5 or 10 minutes before the auction ends and be prepared to be online at that time. When the alarm goes off and the price is still below your treshold, it is time to start bidding. It is still possible that someone else is doing the same, but at least you did not increase the price ahead of time. If you win, the only thing left is to pay and wait for the result.

Really good sets are expensive but there are many bargains, especially if you are willing to make some sacrifice. Remember that Lego bricks are good quality and do not get old quickly. It may happen that you need to clean them, and if there are a couple of missing or broken bricks, they are easy to replace.

Happy bidding!

Five things you may not know about LDraw

As a kid my dream was to have so many bricks that I never run out of them during building. As time has passed I have realized that this is never going to happen. But there is a small hope - you always have enough when building from virtual bricks.

This post promotes LDraw. This is a free program that can be used just like some serious piece of 3D CAD software - to build models from Lego bricks. For example like that:


Matt Wagner, a famous Lego builder had a guest editorial on the Brothers Brick blog titled Five things you may not know about LDraw . It is worth reading, I think it is a great intro to LDraw.
Besides LDView you can also learn how to make raytraced images using Koyan's tutorial on how to render LDraw images with POV-Ray.



Now, if you happen to browse Brickshelf and find some .LDR files - you should know what it is!

(As a sidenote, Lego has their own official building program: Lego Digital Designer. I'll write about it another time.)

Lego on the net

Playing Lego today is different from 10-20 years ago. Not just because I have grown up - there is the net and many websites helping us. www.lego.com is obvious but it lists only sets that one can buy today. What if we would like to know about one from 20 years ago?

First, there are databases where we can find out more about ancient and modern sets:

• On guide.ludnet.se we can learn that for example the 8480 Space Shuttle set became available in 1996, its price was $158 and contains 1366 bricks. It also gives us links to the building instructions and the set inventory (found on the next site).

• www.peeron.com is similar. Looking for the shuttle we get the inventory of bricks. The page also returns detailed information about the bricks. For example, clickling on article 2744 "Technic wing back" we can find out what colors was it available in and which sets contained this brick throughout Lego history. On the right hand side we can also find shops that sell this brick - we get back to that below.

• Following links from Peeron we can also get to www.brickset.com. Instead of raw facts we see reviews and scores. Our favorite shuttle was scored 4.4 points (out of 5).

Then there is www.bricklink.com where we can order bricks one by one. BrickLink is not a single store, rather a portal bringing together buyers and merchants from all around the world. It contains many merchants in the US, UK, France, Australia and other countries. Most merchants sell used and new bricks. (Just recently one can buy bricks directly from Lego one by one but their selection is smaller.)

Bricks can be found based on part number like on Peeron, or we can search directly on Peeron and follow the link from there. The latter one is a bit simpler because we see immediately in which country the merchant is located - that may be an important issue influencing our decision. Depending on your country it is generally worthwhile to buy from your own region, let it be the EU, US or Australia. This makes it sure there are no customs fees and the order can be there within 2-4 days. Postage & packaging is usually in the $5...$10 range.

To buy one needs a Paypal account that in turn requires a credit card. Paypal signup takes 2-3 days because they charge a small amount to our credit card (and then return it) to verify the card. Once this is done transfering money to the Paypal account takes another 2-3 days. It sounds complicated but singup is needed only once and can be used for many other things like buying second hand Lego on EBay :)


Once this is done we can complete the order. Before getting the invoice the order is open and we can append new batches of items. Getting the real bricks takes 3-4 days after making the payment, depending on your country. I live in Switzerland and have ordered from the UK and France. There were 2-3 day delays but both sellers were very responsive and they reacted quickly and precisely.

Good shopping!