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LDD Brick File Format


bartvbl
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Great to see this stuff posted! ^_^

Maybe some day we can actually fix LDD's messed up minifigure model. :P

Maybe. If someone feels lucky you could attempt to see how the model is affected if you modify the geometry part only. If that works it would be possible to possibly create custom LDD bricks, given that the second part of the file is not important. If it is, well.. More digging is needed, I guess :P

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Yes! Info on the LDD brick models! I agree with jamesster. Maybe we can fix the minifig someday. :P

BTW, I linked something on the other topic. It seems someone has already figured this stuff out. Anyone have a Eurobricks account and can use PM? ;P

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Yes! Info on the LDD brick models! I agree with jamesster. Maybe we can fix the minifig someday. :P

BTW, I linked something on the other topic. It seems someone has already figured this stuff out. Anyone have a Eurobricks account and can use PM? ;P

Heh. I'm not surprised, since I didn't put too much effort into seeing if someone had found out how the files worked apart from googling a little bit on it (strange that topic didn't turn up). Going from the LXF format into a 3D model on screen should not be too complicated now, given we're just interested in the 3D model.

I actually did experiment for a little bit with the transformation matrices in the LXF, but since that only gave a weird looking mess, I decided to call it a day and went to do something else. I never returned to it after :P

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Somewhere in there are the locations for the lock points and bounding boxes. There also appears to be something that changes the flexibility of flexible parts.

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Somewhere in there are the locations for the lock points and bounding boxes. There also appears to be something that changes the flexibility of flexible parts.

As far as I could see most of this is stored in the brick's XML file.

The 'bones' of flexible parts and bounding boxes are in the XML file for sure.

I haven't looked yet if the flexible parts differ 'structurally' from other bricks.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Connectivity looks like the connectors with type being the type of connector used.

Collisions looks self explanatory.

PhysicsAttributes I suspect are used for the hinge and probably flex tools.

Annotations are self explanatory. I will check to see what part the file I got this from belongs to.

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Connectivity looks like the connectors with type being the type of connector used.

Collisions looks self explanatory.

PhysicsAttributes I suspect are used for the hinge and probably flex tools.

Annotations are self explanatory. I will check to see what part the file I got this from belongs to.

I don't know about the flex system, but hinges are essentially just part of a connection, tied in with collision. Physics was, from what I've seen, used in LEGO Universe (for smashable models), and possibly in old versions of LDD that had the train tracks with motors and stuff, and some of the bricks would actually physically react to each other and hinges would wildly fly around as the train moved around the track (been several years there, so I don't remember specifically how all that worked).

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  • 2 weeks later...

Your loader is not compiled.

Of course it is, since it was meant for other people to use in their projects if they wanted to.

If you want to actually view brick models, use the viewer tool. It's in a topic somewhere in the same section as this one.

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I don't know about the flex system, but hinges are essentially just part of a connection, tied in with collision. Physics was, from what I've seen, used in LEGO Universe (for smashable models), and possibly in old versions of LDD that had the train tracks with motors and stuff, and some of the bricks would actually physically react to each other and hinges would wildly fly around as the train moved around the track (been several years there, so I don't remember specifically how all that worked).

You can blow up models in LDD when you go to the view mode.

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I don't know about the flex system, but hinges are essentially just part of a connection, tied in with collision. Physics was, from what I've seen, used in LEGO Universe (for smashable models), and possibly in old versions of LDD that had the train tracks with motors and stuff, and some of the bricks would actually physically react to each other and hinges would wildly fly around as the train moved around the track (been several years there, so I don't remember specifically how all that worked).

You can blow up models in LDD when you go to the view mode.

There's no physics involved in that.
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You can blow up models in LDD when you go to the view mode.

There's no physics involved in that.

That and the play mode are the two things Creator has over LDD.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I guess this is the place to post this...

If nobody knew, hjmediastudios, the creator of the Space Troopers! (formerly Space Marines!) CUUSOO project, signed up here on Nov 4, and every time I saw him online, I caught him viewing the topics related to the LDD LIF Extractor and the Brick format (but mostly this one). I just figured out why.

8156259968_433d53f784.jpg

LDD to Blender by HJ Media Studios

He is using the documentation bartvbl wrote up and is writing an... well, I think you can guess from the image. That image was uploaded the exact same day he joined. Reading his comments, it will be a standalone program that will convert pieces to OBJ, then it can be imported into Blender. So far, it only does pieces, but it seems he plans to support sets.

LDD modding just got very interesting...

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If nobody knew, hjmediastudios, the creator of the Space Troopers! (formerly Space Marines!) CUUSOO project, signed up here on Nov 4, and every time I saw him online, I caught him viewing the topics related to the LDD LIF Extractor and the Brick format (but mostly this one). I just figured out why.

Wow. I'm actually quite happy that someone has a use for my stuff ^^

I haven't actually used the brick viewer myself other than for trying to find out what kind of bricks LDD had in its library. Having a tool like this around is really going to be awesome :) Even more so if complete models can be imported. I've been using a lot of time myself with some rather arcane methods to get some models from LDD into blender. They did work, but required amongst others a complete "repaint", since all materials were lost in the process.

And I think you're right too; in the comments he mentions something about a brick-by-brick conversion.

,,In case he is reading this; can I humbly ask you to include a thank you notice if you happen to release it? I did spend a few days trying to figure this all out..

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I'll keep you all posted on my development. I'm closing to pushing out an alpha release of the software.

*Upon the appearance of hjmediastudios on RRU, Alcom makes a loud squealing noise followed by several seconds of an unintelligible gibberish. He then runs away with his arms flailing.*

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I'll keep you all posted on my development. I'm closing to pushing out an alpha release of the software.

Good that someone has use for it. I'm excited to see what you make of it! :D

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