Well, I could just give up on the project, but that's not the point of this blog post. So instead I have to try to build the model. With a model this big, it could take hours or days, or even weeks or months, to finish, even if I do have all the parts I need. And if I don't, I might spend a hundred dollars or more on parts before I get it right, and at least half of the parts I bought wouldn't be any use to the project.
Yuck. And over several years as a Lego hobbyist, just imagine how much time and money would be wasted on trial-and-error.
But this is the twenty-first century, and - surprise! There's an app for that. Well, a computer program, anyway; I don't know if it's available for smartphones. It's called Lego Digital Designer, or LDD for short, and it's a Lego fan's dream come true, unless you really like working with BIONICLE's, in which case it isn't really much help. But more on that later.
Basically, Lego Digital Designer is a computer program that allows you to build virtual models out of virtual bricks. It started out as one half of the old LEGO Factory service. LEGO Factory allowed you to upload models built with LDD to the Lego website, then buy those models as custom sets. They cost a pretty penny, and ultimately that brought about the downfall of LEGO Factory. The service was discontinued as part of a series of steps taken in the nineties to keep LEGO from going bankrupt (but that's a story for another day). But LDD stayed around, and LEGO Factory was key to making it what it is today.
LDD, which is a free-download program available online from Lego's website, has three modes: Basic, Extended, and Mindstorms. Basic is stocked with an inventory of the bricks currently produced by Lego in their proper colors, albeit with some limitations so far as minifigures and other printed parts are concerned. This setting most plainly reflects how the original LDD functioned: Lego put limits on what parts you could use in which colors and with which prints in an attempt to keep overhead on the Factory service down. Extended essentially takes all the parts in Basic and makes them available in all colors. I really don't know what Mindstorms is for. I would assume it has something to do with the Mindstorms line of Lego robotics sets, which uses some different Lego-compatible sensors, motors, and computer chips to build 100% Lego robots.
Just about every piece every made by Lego is available in Extended mode, with one notable exception. The Bionicle line of a few years ago is virtually unrepresented in the LDD inventory. Why? I have no idea. Maybe Lego just hasn't gotten around to updating LDD with those parts - every few months they update the program with more pieces. But regardless, you can build just about anything with LDD.
So, if I want to work out my great model idea (Remember that idea? That one that I didn't really have but we're pretending I did?) without spending a fortune and an age by testing my idea in real bricks, I can build it with virtual bricks, than take that virtual model apart to find out what parts I need to build a physical model. And once I've corralled the parts, LDD has an instruction generator that can figure out (and pretty quickly) how you should put your model together. Well, maybe should is a bit strong. Could, perhaps? The problem is that, while it's entirely possible to build something exactly according to LDD's instructions, it can get it bit strange since the program sometimes has you put down a piece hanging out in space, a long, long way from anything to connect to. Eventually something will connect to it, but in the meantime it just hangs around out there. As a result, the instructions, while usable, are a bit of a brain-bender.
For the low-budget Lego fan, there are some other things that can be done with LDD. Pov-Ray is a program that renders virtual three-dimensional models to create realistic-looking pictures of them, and there is a free LDD-to-Pov-Ray converter that takes your LDD file and converts it to something Pov-Ray can work on. If your model has transparent parts, the process can get a bit lengthy and involved, but the results can be really quite stunning. There are quite a few high-profile Lego builders who work almost exclusively in LDD, and someday when I can't come up with anything better to post about I'll share some of their work.
Happy building!
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