Review of LEGO Digital Designer 2.0
After some initial problems getting LDD 2.0 to run correctly, I was finally able to get it going, and I must say, it is pretty impressive. For a basic LEGO CAD program, aimed at a younger audience, it is very good, and a definite improvement over version 1.6.
I’ll start withe the plusses:
- Part connection – This is much improved over previous versions of LDD. It even works well with SNOT construction, as long as parts are on 90° angles. Other angles sometimes work, but it’s a little hit and miss. And it’s generally possible to get the same effect by attaching it when its at 90° then rotating multiple bricks. And for the target audience that probably covers most situations.
- Performance – this is noticeably improved, on my PC anyway. Others have also commented that it seems faster.
- Building Instructions Mode – This seems to be much better at generating instructions, and I get to choose how many parts to add in each step. But see the minus below…
And now some minusses:
- Installation directory – maybe not noticed by the average user, but the default install location is “C:\Program Files\LEGO Company\LEGO Digital Designer”. This may seem logical, except for the fact that version 1.6 was installed in “C:\Program Files\LEGO Software\LEGO Digital Designer”. So if you choose not to un-install version 1.6 (or have Mindstorms NXT installed), you now have 2 top-level LEGO software directories. Add to this the “C:\Program Files\LEGO MINDSTORMS” directory if you have the RCX software installed, and it adds up to lack of planning/communication. NXT and LDD 1.6 are in “LEGO Software”, why wasn’t LDD 2.0 put there too? How many more top level directories will they add before they standardise?
- No menu entry – Another installation woe, if I choose not to un-install version 1.6, no entry is created for the new version in my Start/All Programs.
- LDraw import/export – This is there, but only just. Using an enhanced translation file created by an AFOL, you can get some joy, but there appears to be problems with how it detects part collisions.
- Palette grouping – This is just not really well done. The majority of parts are obvious, but a significant number aren’t, for example the SEAT 2x2x2 is grouped with the ANTENNAS, SCANNER TOOLS, and SPRUCE TREE. Also click hinge parts seemed to be grouped with whatever the other connection is. I know this just takes time to get used to, but it is a little weird. Maybe the ability to have the same part in multiple groups would make them easier to find?
- Hinge Tool – This would be handy, except there doesn’t appear to be any way to adjust the default angle, which is set to 18°, instead of the angle click hinges rotate, ie: 22.5°.
- No “almost right” mode – for those situations where bricks don’t quite connect 100%, but it does work in real life. It would be nice if there was an advanced mode that allowed this, but was disabled by default.
- Edge lines – multiple bricks beside each other get very hard to distinguish. Moving the mouse over them does highlight them, but being able to see the edges would be better I think
- Documentation – Handy little tips like right-click a brick centres it on the screen don’t seem to be documented anywhere.
- Multi-select tools – The clone and paint tools don’t seem to be able to operate on multiple bricks. The clone limitation can be got around by selecting multiple bricks then copy/pasting, but it would be really nice to have a way to change the colour of multiple bricks in one go.
- Building Instructions Mode – I can’t seem to see any difference between “Building”, “Vehicle” and “Technic”. Is there any details of the differences anywhere?
Overall, it does look more slick, and most functions are fairly obvious. It seems a lot more usable, and has lots of potential for kids. But serious modelers will still find it limiting, especially because the LDraw conversion is in such an unusable state. Hopefully that (and other issues) will be fixed in upcoming versions.
But easily the most common comment I have had from AFOLs is “MORE ELEMENTS!”.
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:57 am
For cloning multiple bricks setect all of them in normal mode then hit control then press “C” and it will clone them.
April 9th, 2009 at 3:35 am
This software really is garbage. It doesn’t have all the pieces NOR can you build from an inventory of what you own.
Not to mention that I added a simple gear and the thing told me that I cannot order/upload… A BASIC GEAR!
The software should allow you to (if you want of course) make an inventory and then build using a combination of YOUR bricks AND ones they currently sell AND ones they do not currently sell (yes I know grammar is messed up there) so that way you can print a list of what you would need to purchase, what you have and then what you would need to acquire from a different source.
It should also have tags that you can piece search for. So let’s say you build a basic wheel structure and you add the tag “wheel”, you should be able to do a quick parts search for “wheel” and it pull up both the completed structure (to add directly to your current build) as well as the individual parts so you could just grab a part because you use it often and like it. This would also allow you to tag things for easier reference so you could say “right connector” and it pulls up YOUR custom list of “right connectors” so you don’t have to hunt when you know what you want.
So much promise, so little delivery.
Also I have to say that being a program that runs locally on your machine they should have real textures that would allow you to look at what the completed model would actually look like, in scale to common objects because it’s hard to judge scale unless you constantly work with Lego, not a crappy looking CG model.
Again so much promise in a software like this but it just never delivers.