Hot answers tagged software
27
Yes there is! Rebrickable.com is dedicated entirely to doing so. You can save time and import your LEGO collection from Brickset.com (If you have an account). The site will then search for other sets and MOCs you can build from the bricks you have in your collection.
23
The Lego Digital Designer is ideal for this job. Avalible for Mac and PC it allows you to build models from scatch, order them, and get them delivered. Or, if you've got the bits already it can make instructions for you. It has a range of technic items (see image below)..
Importing a model will also enable you to view the part number and details which could ...
11
If you want to know if you can build a certain set with the parts you have, you can have a look at set inventories on Peeron or BrickLink
You can also even enter a list of your own parts on Peeron and have it check it against existing sets, thus letting you know what you can build, or what you need to buy to build the set you want.
10
I know of no desktop applications that have functionality like Rebrickable, but an API has recently been released which would enable any applications to integrate with the site and display this kind of information. I know of one such application currently being developed but not ready for release yet.
disclaimer: I created Rebrickable.
9
You need:
Digital Designer (Or anything that can produce Ldraw files, there are some listed in this question)
Blender (Or another renderer that supports Ldraw)
Blender Script (This is necessary for Blender to read you Ldraw models)
Recreate your creation in Lego Digital Designer.
Export as Ldraw format
Import in Blender
Create & render Blender scene
...
8
In addition to the other answers, the oldschool way using POV (in use before there even WAS a LEGO Digital Designer) still works.
Model your creation in a LDraw compatible modelling tool of your choice (such as MLCad) but there are other choices
Use one of several export programs (such as L3P) to create a POVRay compatible file
Add a few commands to move ...
7
First note that this question is a possible duplicate of Do any programs exist that allow you to build your own LEGO manuals? With that, here is the answer:
(optional) Create a model in LEGO digital designer or LDraw and export it as a LDraw (*.ldr) file.
Install LeoCAD, and either open the model that you made in LDD/LDraw (recommended) or create your ...
6
See AlternativeTo's list.
LEGO Digital Designer (official; most popular)
LDraw (2nd most popular)
Konstruktor
MLCAD
You can do all this in Google Sketchup with SketchyPhysics simulation, of course! And the pieces are easier to fit in, and GS is generally more flexible and easier to use, unlike LDD. The disadvantage is, you don't get LDD's Building ...
6
To build your example in MLCad (LDraw), I needed to switch to "Grid Fine" to move the element into the right alignment:
A couple of techniques to note when doing this when you finish with the SNOT modeling:
Set the grid back to coarse so that subsequent pieces are back on the grid.
Select a non-SNOT element (in this case the 2x3 or 2x2 plate) before ...
6
You can use GIMP for this.
First you need to scale the image to the size you want. (If you want to stack bricks on top of each other instead of a baseplate, use a different y-scaling to correspond the bricks height.)
Now create a palette by going to the Palette tab and click the "New palette" icon.
In this add the bricks colors you want. You can find the ...
6
For our Lug, we have assigned one person who is the contact for all things LUGBULK and is also responsible for the organization of everything. (He also happens to be the one who will spend the most). We followed this general format to keep everything organized.
At the most recent club meeting, we agreed on those parts that the club needed for upcoming ...
5
I believe this is the current location for the Lion Patch
In the interests of finding it again when the LEGO group change their site again:
Visit the LEGO Education page.
Navigate to "Pre-school and School" -> Secondary -> 11+ LEGO MINDSTORMS Education -> Downloads (or similar)
I then filtered the list to just the Download Type of "Software Update / ...
5
I believe that many AFOL user groups had previously been able to buy in bulk from LEGO, but I don't know if that's still an option with the release of pick-a-brick - however as Joubarc points out there are often limits on the number of different elements, as well as a group limit on the number of bricks. Couple that with the fact that the process often takes ...
5
Take a look at SR 3D Builder. I have not used this software myself but it looks like it may do what you need. It's free (for non-commercial use) and you can import your LDraw files.
Here is a link to some videos on YouTube
See below for the features list (taken from the website)
NEW Support for Piston - Rod mechanism
NEW Support for Linear Actuators and ...
5
The graphical software that ships with the EV3 set can program both EV3 bricks and older generation bricks. We assume that this means NXT 1.0 and 2.0 bricks. However, it is unlikely that NXT-G will work with EV3 bricks as EV3 bricks run a custom build of Linux, whereas older bricks run a custom firmware.
LEGO will create an offical app for both Apple and ...
4
As you say, there are still tons of unknown at this point, so asking the question is way premature.
However, considering the software is said to be based on the same technology as the one in the NXT, it's likely it won't be too different, and that's why that software will be able to control NXT bricks. However, I also doubt you'll be able to control EV3 ...
3
You should look at LPub4. This is an OpenSource (GPL) tool that can create high quality instructions from LDRAW compatible files. It runs on Windows and OS X and with my patches on Linux as well.
Note that the LDD license states "Any commercial use of the software is strictly prohibited" so keep that in mind if you are intending to do anything commercial ...
3
Both, often in the same file.
If you take a look at the .ldr file format specification you can see that each file is made up of an number of different types of "line", one of which is a Subfile Reference where you can specify the colour, position, rotation and scale of the model.
Other lines can then be added to describe Lines, Triangles, Quadrilaterals ...
3
The LXFML file is an XML document, and there's an XSD document that you can use to validate any LXFML file, along with a textual description of the tags on the LUGNet forums supplied by the LDD Team a few years ago:
LXF files - info and XML schema
The key parts of the LXFML you're going to be interested in start with the <Scene> element, which ...
3
(fair warning: I work for a 3D printer company [Type A Machines])
I thought this cross-posting up on the RepRap forum would be useful here:
http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?1,114024,114024
Summarizing that post:
It is possible to 3D print lego-compatible parts on desktop 3D printers, but with caveats:
The fit will likely never be as tight as real legos. ...
3
You can't directly export from MLCad to the .STL format that the Makerbots require, but there are workflows you could probably set up.
MLCad doesn't really have many export options, so you're better off using something like LeoCAD which can read .ldr files from MLCad, and export as other formats.
Using LeoCAD, add the part you want to print to the scene.
...
3
I tried LDD at first, but frankly, the order in which it adds the parts is often quite nonsensical:
I also tried a bunch of other tools, some of which are mentioned elsewhere on this page, with mixed results.
So what I ended up using, with great success, is LIC (LEGO Instruction Creator). It's beta, somewhat buggy, and for all I can see it was written by ...
3
Ultimately, you'll probably have to come up with your own solutions, but I think the main issue is to pick which parts to order, as the number is usually limited and your LUG members all have different views on what to pick.
Here are a few line of thoughts:
Have each member pick one favourite part, or more (so you can attribute the second one if there's a ...
3
There are several editors which are based on the open LDraw part database.
I believe that the most popular are MLCAD and LeoCAD. I personally use LDD, so I can't speak to the quality of the instruction generation from these tools, but they do at least offer the ability to create instructions.
LeoCAD is probably your best bet for doing animations, but I ...
2
Let me suggest Autodesk 3ds Max software or Autodesk Maya software for achieving this. You can find free bricks and models meshes right here. Additional information on lego visualization can be found on Okino's website.
Here is the example of a rendered still. Doing a manual simply involve making parts of the model visible/invisible and positioning the ...
2
Here's a method you'll be able to use with the latest stable version of Blender, without any extra plugins or addons.
Build your model in LEGO Digital Designer and export as an LDraw file.
Import into LeoCAD, then export as a .obj file.
Import into Blender with the built-in .obj importer.
You can then setup the scene how you want.
Also, if you're just ...
2
LEGO Mindstorms was initially released in 1998, running on Windows 95/98, and Windows 2000 and XP were not supported let alone Windows 7.
I know that they did release an updated install CD for the Mindstorms Vision Kit which allowed you to install it on Windows XP (I believe I've still got a copy of this somewhere), however you may be able to install the ...
2
I know the original Microsoft Robotics Studio supported building robots using the RCX bricks - although the latest version has been upgraded to NXT and it has simulation tools too for testing your robots prior to building and deploying your code.
As the core components should be the same (gears, beams, etc.) you should be able to get a reasonable way ...
2
Although lxf files must be loaded with LEGO Digital Designer (LDD), it's not always the case that lxf files are loaded correct/completely with LDD. This because the fact that LDD uses a database where the parts are stored, but it doesn't contain all parts and the database changes from time to time. When trying to load older files, you have about 100% ...
1
I have a similar problem with my RCX 1.0. Also have a RCX 2.0 that loads the firmware just fine. After failing to load more up to date firmware I tried loading the original RCX 1.0 firmware from the original CD with a third party tool (ROBOTC) and got a checksum error. My RCX 1.0 has a hard time getting a signal from the USB IR tower that came with the ...
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