LEGO Design Software

[jobert]

I did a quick forum search and couldn't find a thread for this type of discussion. Please point me in the right direction if I'm wrong.
A lack of physical bricks at the moment has me interested in LEGO design on the computer. I've played around a bunch with the official LEGO Design software (ie: LDD). I've found that when the models get big the software tends really slow down. I have some models with +4000 virtual pieces and there not even close to being finished. The computer just can't handle the model however so they have been put aside. Doing a quick Google search reveals that there is other software out there including BlockCAD, LDraw, LeoCAD, MLCad. Having never heard about any of these I'm not sure which one to explore. I have a background in AutoCAD so anything with a learning curve is not a problem.
What do other people use? Does anyone know of a paid program that would work? Obviously you could use AutoCAD but that would be an extremely inefficient use of time as you'd have to draw all the pieces.

Any suggestions would be great.
Happy Building

[DeGobbi]

What's the stats on your computer ? Cpu , ram , gpu ?

[jobert]

I run LDD on two different computers.
1) My Sony Laptop:
- CPU: i7 (Second generation - I don't remember the exact model as I'm at work).
- RAM: 8Gb, GPU: I don't remember the exact specs but it does have a dedicated GPU. It's not integrated into the CPU chip
- Windows 7 64bit.
This laptop has no problems running other modeling software (ie: Solidworks, AutoCAD, Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop).

2) Work Desktop:
- CPU: E8500 @3.2Ghz
- RAM: 4Gb (Only have access to about 3.2Gb as it's only 32bit windows).
- GPU: Nvidia Geforce 9500
- Windows XP (32bit). I use this computer at work in AutoCAD with +million object for work. There's some slow down but nothing that is not to manageable. I also use Civil3D without any difficulties.

Neither of these computers are the latest and greatest however I would expect, given their performance with other resource heavy programs to perform better then they do with LDD. Perhaps its a case where the software is really not optimized for large models.

[Pascal]

Hi jobert!

I shall direct you to this: http://www.vlc.ca/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2161

by the way if you have any membership questions, send me a PM and I will be happy to assist.

[jobert]

Thanks Pascal. That software looks interesting. I'll take a look.
The render abilities look pretty cool. Do you have any experience using it?

I was interested in getting a membership and coming out to the meeting awhile ago but that was put on the back burner. I'll send you a PM. I'm back to being interested.
Thanks again for the suggestion.

[Pascal]

Michael is the member who created the digital AND real version. Yes, he actually built it for real too!

PM Michael -> http://www.vlc.ca/forums/memberlist.php ... ail&u=3521

[JamesH]

He also did the rendering at the top of this thread (which eventually lead to the minecraft set):
http://www.vlc.ca/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2610

And perhaps his most viewed rendering of all is the logo at the top of this page