For Christmas I got the Lego Architectural set. 1211 pieces of white and clear pieces. While helping my children build a some mobile castles for a Lego contest I wondered if you could build Legos in the computer before you actually built the creations. (I know part of the fun is just finding the pieces and seeing how they fit or don’t together)
I found that Lego has an application for the PC called Lego Digital Designer( http://ldd.lego.com/en-us/download/) For someone that is use to working in 3d programs the interface to move around the virtual Lego model is a little clunky, really the only thing I want is a pan tool. But the program is a cool little modeler. Both of my kids think it’s pretty cool. One thing that is pretty neat about this program is that you can build the Lego model virtually then the program creates the instruction manual so you you can recreate your virtual Lego model in real life.
In my quick little research I also found LDraw (http://www.ldraw.org/) which is another set of programs that allows you to build a Lego model in the computer. One thing that this program does that the Lego Digital Designer doesn’t do is that allows you to export the Lego model to a 3ds file. Which also means that as an Architect I could use this set of programs for study models and then bring the Lego built study models into Revit. I tried this and I actually had to use Sketchup and as the intermediary software because max wouldn’t read the 3ds file but Sketchup would. Using a STL export format I was able to get the Lego model into 3d studio, but the model was rotated 90 degrees.
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