Building with Virtual LEGO: Getting Started with LEGO Digital Designer, LDraw, and Mecabricks

1 Building with Virtual LEGO<br/>What’s Virtual Building All About?<br/>Virtual Building<br/>Robust Brick Palettes<br/>Physics<br/>Sharing<br/>Is Virtual Building for You?<br/>Reasons to Build Virtually<br/>Reasons Why Not to Build Virtually<br/>Overview of Virtual Building Options<br/>LEGO Digital Designer<br/>LDraw<br/>Mecabricks<br/>Summary<br/>2 Gallery of Cool LDD Models<br/>Keytar<br/>Great Temple of Odan<br/>A Gentleman’s Tank<br/>Death Angel Mecha<br/>Chocolate Milk Maker<br/>A15 Comet<br/>Alien vs. Predator Diorama<br/>Pentagon<br/>Ford Pinto<br/>Robot Chassis<br/>Pumpkin Factory<br/>Antarxa<br/>Summary<br/>3 Choosing Between Software Options<br/>General Editor Limitations<br/>System Requirements<br/>LEGO Digital Designer<br/>LDraw<br/>Mecabricks<br/>Ease of Installation<br/>LDD<br/>LDraw<br/>Mecabricks<br/>Brick Palettes<br/>LDD<br/>LDraw<br/>Mecabricks<br/>Maximum Build Size<br/>Community<br/>LDD<br/>LDraw<br/>Mecabricks<br/>Summary<br/>4 Installation and Overview of LDD and LDraw<br/>Downloading LEGO Digital Designer<br/>Download the LDD Application<br/>Choose Your Platform<br/>Downloading LDD for PC<br/>Downloading LDD for Mac<br/>Downloading LDraw<br/>Choose Your Package<br/>Quick-Install Option<br/>Downloading LDCad for Windows<br/>Downloading LDCad for Linux<br/>Downloading Bricksmith for Mac<br/>Legacy LDraw Software<br/>Bricksmith<br/>LDCad<br/>MLCad<br/>LDD<br/>Summary<br/>5 Brick Palettes<br/>LEGO Digital Designer (LDD)<br/>Identifying an Element<br/>Exploring the Palettes<br/>Classic Bricks<br/>Round Bricks<br/>Miscellaneous Bricks<br/>Technic Bricks<br/>Slope Bricks<br/>Control Panel Bricks<br/>Additional Slope Bricks<br/>Arch Bricks<br/>Rectangular Plates<br/>Circular and Triangular Plates<br/>Miscellaneous Plates<br/>Windscreens<br/>Architectural Elements<br/>Wheels<br/>Mindstorms and Technic<br/>Technic Beams<br/>Thin Technic Beams<br/>Pegs and Axles<br/>Gears<br/>Car Parts<br/>Flex Elements<br/>Street Plates<br/>Hero Factory Body Parts<br/>Hero Factory Accessories<br/>Outdoor Furnishings<br/>Vehicle Parts<br/>Boat Parts<br/>Train Parts<br/>Mechanical Parts<br/>Minifig Torsos and Legs<br/>Minifig Heads<br/>Minifig Hair<br/>Minifig Hats<br/>Alternate Figure Parts<br/>Minifig Torso Parts<br/>Minifig Accessories<br/>Food<br/>Animals<br/>Mecabricks<br/>Finding the Right Brick<br/>The Palettes<br/>Animals and Accessories for Animals<br/>Beams (Six)<br/>Bricks (Nine)<br/>Connectors<br/>Constraction<br/>Cranes and Scaffolding<br/>Decoration Elements<br/>Doors and Windows<br/>Electric Parts<br/>Fences and Ladders<br/>Food Stuff<br/>Functionnal Elements (Two)<br/>Interior<br/>Minifigs (Nine)<br/>Plants<br/>Plates (Six)<br/>Rubbers and Strings<br/>Signs and Flags<br/>Stickers<br/>Support<br/>Textiles<br/>Transportation (Four Subcategories)<br/>Tubes<br/>Tyres and Rims (Three Subcategories)<br/>Various Parts<br/>Wheel Based<br/>Wheel Bases<br/>Windscreens and Cockpits<br/>LDraw<br/>Unusual Elements<br/>Summary<br/>6 Building with LEGO Digital Designer<br/>Exploring the Application<br/>Choose the Theme<br/>The Three Modes<br/>Menus<br/>Preferences<br/>Show Information Field<br/>Show Tool Tips<br/>Enable Sounds in the Application<br/>“Keys for Turning” Shown Along with Cursor<br/>Repeat Inserting Selected Bricks<br/>Show/Hide Brick Count<br/>Invert Camera X-Axis<br/>Invert Camera Y-Axis<br/>High-Quality Rendering of Bricks Placed in a Scene<br/>High-Quality Rendering of Bricks in the Brick Palette<br/>Advanced Shading<br/>Compatibility Mode<br/>Reset Preferences<br/>File<br/>Edit<br/>Toolbox<br/>View<br/>Help<br/>Checking Out the Workspace<br/>Navigating in the Workspace<br/>Camera Controls<br/>Using the Mouse to Move the Camera<br/>Zooming<br/>Reset View<br/>Panning<br/>Hiding the Palettes and Camera Control<br/>Building Basics<br/>Finding an Element<br/>Adding, Moving, and Placing an Element<br/>Colorizing and Decorating an Element<br/>Attaching Two Parts<br/>Attaching Multiple Parts<br/>The Physics of LDD<br/>Interacting with the Grid<br/>Advanced Building Techniques<br/>Templates<br/>Groups<br/>Bending and Flexing<br/>Summary<br/>7 Building with LDraw<br/>LDraw Editor General Features<br/>LDraw Library<br/>Color Selector<br/>Multiple Views<br/>Precise Placement<br/>Submodels and Steps<br/>Complexity<br/>Building with Bricksmith<br/>The Top Menus<br/>The Workspace<br/>Building with LDCad<br/>Scripting and Animation in LDCad<br/>Summary<br/>8 Building with Mecabricks<br/>Navigating Mecabricks<br/>The Home Page<br/>The Workshop<br/>The Library<br/>Parts<br/>Forum<br/>Building in Mecabricks<br/>Set the Grid and Ground<br/>Camera Control<br/>Adding New Bricks<br/>Cloning<br/>Rotation and Translation<br/>Grouping<br/>Hinges<br/>Flexing<br/>Snap<br/>Interacting with Other Platforms<br/>Saving to Mecabricks’ Library<br/>Importing<br/>Exporting<br/>Summary<br/>9 Building Instructions<br/>Creating Instructions in LDD<br/>Autogenerating LDD Instructions<br/>Disadvantages of the System<br/>Steps<br/>Make a Web Page<br/>Differences Between the Two Versions<br/>Parts List<br/>Printing Instructions<br/>LPub: Building Instructions for LDraw<br/>Advantages of LPub<br/>Disadvantages of LPub<br/>Download LPub<br/>Manually Generating Instructions<br/>Generate Step Images<br/>Work in Google Slides<br/>Summary<br/>10 Community<br/>Websites<br/>Peeron<br/>Bricklink<br/>Lego.com<br/>BrickJournal<br/>Software<br/>Viewers<br/>Creating New Parts for LDraw<br/>.DAT: The LDraw File Format<br/>Subfiles<br/>Example .DAT File<br/>Modify a Part<br/>Get Certified<br/>3D Printing Parts<br/>Summary<br/>Index