These are both Vic Vipers, a popular design loosely based on the player ship from a classic video game. Vic Vipers are characterized by two forward prongs, two rear wings, and a single vertical tail fin. I’m not quite sure why they’re so popular in the LEGO-verse, but I think part of the reason is that the template provides a creative constraint, like painting with a limited palette or engineering on a budget.

Another creative constraint I like to employ when building models is to use pieces from only one or two sets. It helps you learn to see each piece as an elemental shape instead of a specific type of part with a fixed function. Draw what you see, not just a symbol for what you think you see.

Also, strive to rationalize your most indulgent hobby as a valuable exercise in mental elasticity.

Anyway, both ships were built in time for the annual “NoVVember” challenge. The second ship was built as a subtle but specific tribute to nnenn (Nate Nielson), a prolific and respected builder who died unexpectedly last year. The ship incorporates two instances of the funny quasi-part Nate used as his recognizable icon.

So what sort of creative constraints do you work with, intentionally or otherwise? Can a cage become a scaffolding?

Further details as events warrant.

First, identify the number of a needed part. Let’s suppose it’s this brick:

It’s not yet in the official part library, but an unofficial version of 60475 is in the LDraw.org parts tracker. You can download the unofficial part and its prerequisites manually, or you can create a dummy model that requires it, and let LDView retrieve the files you. Here’s how.

Create a file consisting of a single reference to the desired part, 60745.dat:

1 71 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 60475.dat

Let’s call it download.ldr. Next time you want to download a new part, just change the highlighted part number (or add a new line for the new part; it doesn’t matter how the parts are positioned):

LDView can download missing parts automatically. First, make sure “Automatically check ldraw.org for missing parts” is checked in the “Updates” tab of LDView Preferences:

Next, open download.ldr in LDView. If it’s already open, reload it. (This will happen instantly if you’ve selected “Auto-update immediately” from the File → Polling menu.) When LDView loads the model, it will attempt to retrieve any missing parts from the parts tracker. After a moment, your new part should appear:

The new part (and any prerequisite sub-parts or primitives) will be added to your library:

To use your new part in Bricksmith, click “Reload Parts” in the “Parts” tab of Bricksmith Preferences:

The new part will now be available in the Bricksmith Parts Browser:

So, the point is that if you want to use a part that’s not yet in your library, just paste the part number in download.ldr, open it in LDView, and reload your parts library in Bricksmith.

The screenshot above shows exactly how to set it up. So, if you’re cleaning up a lot of old LDraw files, now you can do it with nothing more than a right-click on the file or files of interest.

I’ve started a Flickr group called LEGO Remix. It is dedicated to the fine art of the alternate model – something original created with the pieces from an official LEGO set. You have to be frugal and creative with your parts usage to make a good alternate model. It’s my favorite building challenge. The LEGO Remix group is intended to encourage this aspect of the hobby.

(The icon is supposed to be a DJ. He’s… remixing some beats.)

Start by opening a model in LPub. I’m using this one.

Go to LPub’s Configuration menu and select Page Setup. Choose Picture as the Background type and select a file (thanks to Hubble for the nebula image in this example).

Now the page background is in place. Don’t forget that some images make better backgrounds than others. This example is a bit dark, making it hard to see the assembly details in some places.

Next, return to the Configuration menu and select Parts List Setup. Select Picture as the parts list Background type and choose your background image (here is the simple transparent white image I’m using).

In this case, it doesn’t matter whether you choose Stretch or Fill, but if your parts list background has some texture or text you may prefer one over another. However, I think there is a currently a bug in LPub that causes the parts list border to be stretched or cropped along with the background, so for now you’ll probably want to select Borderless as the Border type.

Now the page background is partly visible through the tinted parts list backgrounds. No post-export image editing necessary! Note that you can also modify individual parts lists backgrounds one at a time by right-clicking them.

I hope this gives you some ideas for new things to try with your custom instructions.

Click here to view some digital bricks right in your browser.

It’s a quick late-nite first-draft online adaptation of the Processing LDraw viewer I’ve been playing with.

Processing gives you a decent among of guidance, but for your reference here’s what I did to get this up and running:

1. Download and unzip ProcessingLcad-Oct2008.zip.
2. Rename the LcadTest-Oct2008 folder to LcadTest01 in order to match the project file it contains.
3. Move the contents of the LcadTest01/libs/ folder to your Processing sketchbook libraries folder. In my case, it is /Users/anoved/Documents/Processing/libraries/.
4. Move the contents of the LcadTest01/models/ folder to the models subfolder of your LDraw library. Alternatively, you can edit LcadTest01.pde to load a model of your choice.
5. Open LcadTest01.pde and edit BaseDir to identify your LDraw library folder. In my case, it is /Users/anoved/Documents/LDraw/.

Lastly, if the capitalization of the LDConfig.ldr file in your LDraw library does not match that specified later in LcadTest10.pde, edit one or the other so they are in agreement.

Now you can take it for a spin. And, yes, this viewer can load files with Unix line endings. ☺

It is used by students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists for learning, prototyping, and production. It is created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook and professional production tool.

Check out the Exhibition for some examples of what’s possible and the Tutorials to see how easy it is get started. There is a great collection of examples for specific topics, too, most of which include illustrative applets embedded in the page. The ability to export Processing programs (or “sketches”) as applets is particularly appealing, although my understanding is that some features, such as file I/O, are available only in application or development mode. It works cross-platform.

I know I have encountered Processing before, but my current interest began as I read Andy Lynch’s description of a simple LDraw renderer he implemented as a Processing sketch. That lit a fire under some related ideas of my own that have been simmering for want of an optimal outlet.

But there’s more to my interest than digital bricks: if there isn’t already a decent library (which would be surprising, as many useful libraries seem to be available), I might be tempted to write a shapefile loader, if for no other reason than to complement the shapefile parser I once wrote for Chipmunk Basic. I think it could be fun to experiment with some raster GIS and remote sensing ideas in Processing, too. (Just get the spectral signatures – click, click, click – and you do it. That’s all what it is!) Last but not least, per its original intent, I can envision using Processing as a superior tool to visualize certain data.

What sort of Process will you invent?