castle LDAW creations?

Discussion of personal LEGO Castle creations
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ratmfan
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castle LDAW creations?

Post by ratmfan »

hi! i was wondering if there were many castle creations built virtually with LDRAW? i have been searchin, but can only find a few. mostly, i was wondering if there were any large scale models out there. i have started an extremely ambitious building project using LDRAW. i am striving to build a large cathedral. i decided that since i cannot afford the tens of thousands of parts to build a real one :-( , that i would try in the virtual world. it is coming along quite nicely, but i still have a long way to go. i was just wondering if i was the only one to try a large (huge) scale castle creation in LDRAW. i will definitely post pics of the evolution of the project, and hopefully in a while, the finished product! looking forward to doing the stained glass windows ;-) !

thanks!
steve
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akochan
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Post by akochan »

It's not /that/ hard to do it. Just be sure to use a good program (MLCAD is really the /only/ worthwhile way to LDRAW) so you can isolate the castle parts by section as a multipart model. This means way less paning and confusion and allows you to build not just from the ground up. My two large castles made in MLCAD/Ldraw were done modularly (like CCC only on a larger scale). Be sure to use Peeron to ensure the pieces come in those colors in case you want to make instructions once you're done.

There's a few downsides to this method though.
Certain parts do not yet exist (although almost everything you need is there) and doing string or chain drawbridges in Ldraw is very hard.

Rendering the finished product will take as much as a whole day for each picture(if it doesn't run out of memory first). So you will not be easily able to do multiple POV-Ray shots detailing the model when it's complete. LDView will work better despite the lower quality render for doing internal or sectional pictures then just do one big POV-Ray render for the whole thing. Or that's my reccomendation anyhow, unless you've got some monstrous computer.

-Andy
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Bruce N H
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Post by Bruce N H »

It's not a castle, or even a period-appropriate cathedral, but Brad Hamilton built this virtually:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=2268
then he was later able to create it in the brick:
http://members.cox.net/bhamilto1/topia/catice.htm

Again, not a castle-era creation, but I've always been amazed by the scope of this L-draw creation by Vagabondma (I wish Brickshelf hadn't taken away real names on these):
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=229329
If you click "up" you can see a gallery where he has L-draws of all the individual buildings.
Is that the sort of thing you want to do--design different portions of a castle complex and then put it together in one huge virtual MOC? Sounds like a very cool project. One of these days I'll have to learn to use L-draw.

Bruce
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David Girard
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Post by David Girard »

I create a lot with LDRAW too. My participation for the contest was before made with LDRAW and then, I builded it with true Lego.

I putted somes creations on my internet site last automn, but, my Hard Drive crashed and I lost many of my creations with LDRAW :(

So I can't show you picture. I can say however that it's a great tool for conception. I conceive my MOCs with it, I build with Lego and correct some final details in Lego. :wink:
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Dan_BL
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Post by Dan_BL »

I wasn't aware Benjamin that your gatehouse-tower was so BIG!

I'll have to try making it sone of those days.
ratmfan
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Post by ratmfan »

sorry about how long it took for me to get back to you guys, there are not enough hours in the day to do everything i have to! anyway, thanks for the links! that military base is enormous! my cathedral will not be that big, thats for sure, but i am hoping it will be huge anyway. so far, i have only worked on the front facade, the beginnings of the bell towers. they cover most of 3 48x48 baseplates, and may get bigger still, we will see. i plan for the nave to be about 2 48stud plates wide by probably 6-7 long, but again, we will see how it goes! this is all preliminary, so it is highly subject to change, based on the evolving cathedral. the main building i draw inspiration from is Reims cathedral in France. mine will not be as ornate, but basically the same style. now, i have an LDRAW question. can i build it in sections, then put them all together in picture, or do i have to build it all at once? the reason i ask is, my internet connection is on a different computer than my model, and i need to get it from my computer, to the internet computer, so, i use a disk, but it appears the final model will be too large for one disk, so i figured i might transfer it piece by piece, then put it together and render it. also, what are the rendering programs i can use? thanks for all your help, this is my first LDRAW model, and i am fairly computer illiterate.
thanks!

steve
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akochan
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Post by akochan »

Check out http://www.ldraw.org

Presuming you're using a PC. If not I don't know what software you'd use... basically if you want to LDraw Macs lack most of the necessary software and that handy mouse with lotsa buttons (nicest way I could say something without starting a flame war - and it takes alot of restraint)

They have a download package which contains:
latest version of LDraw
latest version of MLCAD
(which is IMHO the only way to LDraw :) )
latest version of POV-RAY
(which is the rendering program most people use)
latest version of L3PAO which converts LDRAW files to POVs
latest version of LDView which is good for quick views
latest version of a bunch of other utitlities all very useful

So if you download that plus the parts updates made after that package, you'll be all set for software.

Then in MLCAD there's two ways to do it. One is use the "multipart model" functions. The other is to save each to the model directory, then scan new parts to get them on the list, then use the sections like giant lego pieces for the final model.

Then you run l3pao to convert the file to a high quality render you can run in POV-Ray (which if it's a big model will take a LONG time to finish, as much as a day). Smaller models are done in minutes of less.

Alternatively you can use LDView which produces a lower quality render much quicker but one that allows you to pan around and through the model. I often use POV-Ray for exterior shots, then LDView for the inside.


It's all much more complicated than I make it sound, so may be daunting at first... but there's also alot of good tutorials on LDraw.org, and helpful people both on this forum, and the lugnet.com CAD forum.

-Andy
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Post by Linus »

I made some LDRAW Lego castles, but I think they got deleted.
They were great, too... :cry:
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SavaTheAggie
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Post by SavaTheAggie »

Well.... they're not exactly castle... but...

Fully rendered and photoshopped. No real LEGO were harmed in the making of this picture.

Image

Other images are as follows

Another pic of the two dragons fighting
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=228026

Black dragon alone
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=55255

Red dragon alone
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=86146

The four dragon's heads
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=76187

The griffon
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=219352

And the gallery that most of my other Ldraw stuff sits in
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=5577

--Anthony
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LEGO_KNIGHT
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Post by LEGO_KNIGHT »


Nice work, Anthony. I really like the way Formeathan looks. :D

Thanks.

Erwin
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