Un-be-cool-lievable!

This is probably the coolest application I've ever seen...This would have actually come in handy in one of my technical writing courses in colleges where we had to do LEGO designs and descriptions. I wish I knew of this then!

Tack on the fact you can create custom kits...just too cool.

After seeing the 4,000 LEGO block Death Star kit coming out in September, I'm wondering if it can be recreated here, and how the prices would compare.

AbrogatedOrder

sounds cool, but how many total pieces does it have? i was a 2box-of-legos kinda kid....

scrog

Won't start on my more-than-compatibly specced PC. :(

humperdinck

oh yeah, and can i virtually build the worlds largest Lego tower? or the Lego Indiana Jones boulder?

MisterCow.Pnoy

too bad it only has 763 bricks, theres so many more pieces out there to build with.

MisterCow.Pnoy

This one has been around for awhile...and other than the ability to order the parts, you may want to look into ldraw.org and MLCad. LDRAW is not an official LEGO product, but there have been people designing parts for it for a long time. The official parts library has tons of parts including LEGO Star-Wars and Spider-Man.

There's a bit of a learning curve, but once you get it figured out, you can ray-trace your model to get a photo-realistic image of your creation. There are also some sites out there that offer archives of instructions for a ton of store bought LEGO kits, as well as brickshelf.org which is a showcase of products people have build. I believe there is also an online auction/store to purchase individual parts. I wonder how that compares to the price of the actual Death Star kit.

This is LEGO's (lame) attempt to accomplish what hobbyists have been doing for years now, and while it's the thought that counts, in practice it's not as robust as ldraw/mlcad.
Let me know if you want more info and I'll see what I can turn up.

AltReality

Sweet!! I've gotta see if I can make this portable!!

chefdkb175

@dapezboy: Found the windows link.
(I'm dumb)

dapezboy

This is cool, but is it only for Mac?
And if it is, is there one for pc?

[RANT]
Even though this is a REALLY COOL program. It's way more fun to build structures out of real Lego's.
Building it in a virtual world, doesn't give you the option to toss it out the window (and watch it explode).
OR
Shove fireworks in it and watch it burn (baby burn).
[/RANT]

dapezboy

I've used it. It's decent. Bottom line, however, is that it's a marketing tool for Lego. You build it virtually, hit a button, and then order the exact set of blocks you need to build it in real life. That's the whole point of it as far as Lego is concerned.

RickS

I have used this before, the controls are hard, and the pieces are incredibly expensive. I would just buy a large amount of sets yourself and get building. :)

Simonft

When this incorporates Lego Technic and Lego Mindstorms pieces and a realistic physics engine... I think I will have found my time-nemesis.

Seriously... motors... pumps... gears... beams... robotics... electricity... CRAZY.

(Although it is more fun to build in real life... I can't afford the expensive lego machinery.)

CWW

i agree with simonft ive use this before but its hard to control and is VERY time consuming, and also there aren't many pieces and certain pieces you get when you are online are not compatible when you want to post you project online wtf?!

fullyrandomtandem

Does anyone else remember Gryphon Bricks? The last time I used a Lego-like program, that was the one!

» [www.thecomputershow.com]

Torley

or you could use this program:

Blockcad

[web.telia.com]

brazilbear

I think I'll stick with LDraw and MLCad, and the other programs that go with them.

interficio

omg... this is like the perfect toy!!! I foresee hundreds of wasted hours in my future...

so what if you dont have, like ALL the pieces?

As a kid i never had ALL the pieces, and i managed to build stuff and had lots of fun!

and you can order the bricks you need to build whatever you just spend 2 hours building? this is AWESOME.

Thespamhere

Oh man, I remember when I had this a few years ago! The first release. I completely forgot about it. For anyone who wants to know, this runs perfectly in wine, except for sound.

Jshaw

they need to make a free ware app for lego technic bricks, my mindstorms collection is sitting there waiting for an inspiration

metalmarious

Wow, I had to use that program in my Intro to Engineering class 2 years ago. A small warning, when making large (as in 2000+ bricks, I think) designs, the program slows down a LOT. At least, the old one did, hopefully they fixed that, as my entire class sent in emails to LEGO telling them about the problem.

DarkYang

this new version is actually %500 times better than the old version of LDD.

i've been using ldraw and mlcad for years. real pain to setup but well worth the effort.

LDD has a superior interface overall, hands down - and from my understanding, this new version of LDD lets you IMPORT all those parts from LDRAW that were built by hobbyists.

now the really cool thing is that those LDRAW parts are categorized from the ID Numbers of the real lego part they're made from. so you should be able to import, build and order your set :) without being limited by the 700+ some odd parts LDD is installed with.

i'm about to try building something with parts from LDRAW in LDD and see if i can order it.

pixeldotz

I just looove lego :)

rfu

Does this make anyone else think of that Douglas Coupland novel, Microserfs, instantly?

h4nn4h

Thanks Lifehacker!

This post sent me on a nostalgic trip through Google image search to revisit some of my old favorite Lego Space sets. Good times.

Johnay

Program runs great on my computer! I already built my first work of art, but the bricks cost $45.00. Can you say :(? So, phase 1 is complete, time to begin phase 2: make money!

This program is amazingly user friendly. Sometimes placing the bricks in just the right place can be annoying, but that's nothing that tweaking the view angle can't fix with a simple left click. Enjoy everyone! 5,000,000/10 Stars!

wwiz84