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I have LDD on my Mac and have used it to create EV3 models (like an FLL robot, or a Lego dot-matrix printer). Recently, I purchased a cheap Windows laptop for use by a FLL team.

After twice installing LDD v4.3.11 on the PC, however, I am running into a roadblock. It doesn't seem to have EV3-specific parts, such as EV3 motors, sensors, or brick/brain.

For example, if on the PC I try to load a model I designed using LDD on my Mac (which does have these parts), I get the following error:

1 brick could not be loaded and has been removed from the model

If I search the parts either by specific part number or by the term "EV3", I find nothing. It also doesn't matter which mode I use ("Mindstorms", "Extended", etc).

I think they are just missing from v4.3.11 for Windows!

Can anyone confirm? Can anyone suggest a way to get them back?

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  • yes i m also facing the same issue in fact EV3 large motor ,medium motor ,and EV3 brick are totally omitted from piece list
    – user13475
    Dec 21, 2019 at 18:33

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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The current download link at https://www.lego.com/en-us/ldd is https://www.lego.com/assets/franchisesites/ldd/installer/setupldd-pc-4_3_12.exe. When installed it still shows the version as 4.3.11 even though the file name hints that it is 4.3.12. This version is missing EV3 parts.

Here are some links for previous versions:

UPDATE May 2020: These links are broken.

Try archive.org instead:

Also found a hint for installing old versions on Windows 10 if Adobe Flash Player fails to install: https://breeks.gr/index.php/el/menu-gr-main-forum/general-discussion-english/183-installing-ldd-on-windows-10.html

For anyone looking for an alternative to LDD since it is not longer supported by LEGO, Studio from Bricklink has a similar building experience and can even open LDD files.

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    So it seems I had that 4.3.12 installed (with "Brick version 777"). Downgrading to 4.3.11 (with "Brick version 2670") restored the EV3 parts!
    – Kirkman14
    Sep 19, 2019 at 21:44
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    For some reason the latest version is missing a lot of parts. I wonder if it might be possible to copy the LIF files from the previous version.
    – Alexander O'Mara
    Sep 19, 2019 at 23:45
  • Thank you @Kirill Mostachev and David Lechner
    – Shiva Y
    May 14, 2020 at 14:24
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    Links are no longer usable. However, this link for 4.3.11 at the Internet Archive seems viable: web.archive.org/web/20190622153357/https://…
    – nijineko
    May 28, 2020 at 19:50
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I think I might have a more elegant solution rather than downgrading to LDD 4.3.11 :

You just need to replace "Assets.lif" file in the 4.3.12 installation folder with the same file from 4.3.11 version. I happen to have this file archived here. After you replace the file and restart LDD, all bricks will be available and all your previous creations will open without errors.

Notes:

If you don't trust my version of the file, you can do it yourself easily, since the "setupldd-pc-4_3_11.exe" distributive is essentially an archive and the file can be easily extracted with tools like WinRar or 7-zip from there.

Why choose file swapping instead of downgrading: in version 4.3.12 LEGO has removed the Flash dependability (or Silverlight, i don't remember now). That resulted in more convenient install on latest Win 10 systems, which is nice, since I personally had trouble installing 4.3.11 on a fully updated Win 10. Unfortunately LEGO developers also somehow corrupted the Assets.lif file that contains the brick library. It seems that the file got simply truncated at some point, which is obvious when you compare the file sizes of the 4.3.11 and 4.3.12 versions.

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