User blog:Zproductions/LDD to LeoCAD to Blender

Hey guys, so I remembered that Nick Royer said he's having trouble with transfering LDD's lfx. files to Blender's Wavefront (obj.) files. So When I got some free time, I sat down, and thought it over, then I did tests and other rigerus stuff so that this method could be proven as the best! And, I asked Alden to send me his CUUSOO project, but I ended up using this MOC that I found 4-5 years ago, all credit goes to the creator, ._. I forgot his name... I'll post it later... :P



Anyway,

Step 1)  If you have a LDD model, you might come across some problems, but none are really bad. First things first, open your LDD model. If you have a MOC that moves or has articulation, break it apart into little segments (in LDD) then Export to your desktop via LDraw format.

Step 2) Open LeoCAD, go to file, open, then click you model, here's how mine turned out. Not what you'd expect, mainly because the pieces are not in the LeoCAD's system. So I encourage building strait in LeoCAD. Lucily, I had a back up model.

Step 3) Now you have a figure in LeoCAD, with that, your onto the next step, exproting. Go to File, Save, Export as Wavefront (.obj) and save to desktop. and there. now you're ready to open blenger. Click A then A again to select or de-select all objects, the press DELETE, you won't be needing them. With Blender now open, go to File, Open, Import, Wavefront (.obj) and then click on desktop, and then click the file you have just created, and it should look like this.

Step 4) Blender, a VERY confusing aplication all in its self, and that's why I'm here. so with your (messed up) model, you need to select everything (A) and let go, then press S to Scale it down to the size you want it. Pressing R twice makes you rotate it, and pressing G will lete you move the piece with your mouse.

With that, every piece of articulation is in X amount of pieces, so you need to press B, then drag you mouse over the group of LEGO pieces you want as the foot, head, ect. and go to your left side of the screen and click object tools. On that tab, look for the word JOIN. click that, and your done, now you have a foot...

(Repeat that however many points of articulation you have in a model)

So now you have, in my case, 15 objects, now build your model using G (grab) and your mouse. Connect all pieces, but DO NOT JOIN THEM.

Your almost done!

It should look like this.

Step 5) Now to add color, go to your right, click the little tiny button that looks like a black hourglass inside an orange circle. yes that one, click it. Now find the sphere, and below that there is a blank modifier that looks like this,, click it, you should see a circle full of colors, and simply pick one! Now you have a colored MOC in blender. To animate, well, I think a whole nother tuturial is required for that one!

You might have noticed that the center of the object is a while away from the object itself, you can change that, but sadly, I forgot how! :P I'll add it when I re-learn it!

Step 5) To render it, go to Add, Camera, then move your screen to where you want it (Middle mouse button) and hold down CTR, ALT, and NUM 0 to set the camera. Next you need to see it, so go to Add, Lamp, Hemi and then move it (G) to where you want it, then scale it up, (S). Once your done with that, go to Render, Render photo, and click it. With that, just take a screen shot, and open it in Paint, Gimp, Photo shop, pisca, what ever! and there you can save it to any other form, like .Jpeg, .PNG, .GIF, ect.

Recap!

LDD > Build model > Break it apart by articulation points > Export as LDraw > Save to desktop > Open in LeoCAD > Export as Wavefront (.obj) > Save to desktop > import to Blender > Scale down > Rotate > Join > Assemble > Add Camera > Add Lamp > Render> Save