Lego-like Models in DAZ Studio with LeoCAD

richardandtracyrichardandtracy Posts: 5,683
edited September 2020 in Freebies

I may well be late to the party, but a quick use of the search facitlity doesn't show many hits, so I thought it may be worth a link to suggest/remind people.

LeoCAD is a surprisingly easy to use modeller that has a library of all the Lego Brick shapes (7000+) enabling you to build virtual Lego models.

There is a rather nice addition though. The models can be output in .obj format and import into DS. So... could your virtual G8 figures be playing with virtual lego in a virtual house, yelping from pain after stepping on a brick, picking up scattered bricks?

The biggest problem with importing the .obj files for DS users is remembering that it uses the engineering convention that +Z is up rather than +Y. It can be fixed on import through the obj import window, but just have to remember to do so.

Anyway: Here's the link to the site to enable the program download: https://www.leocad.org/

I'm not associated with the site in any way, just thought it might be a fun additional toy to play with in association with DS, using Ed's brick shaders: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/429586/ed-s-brick-shader-iray/p1

Regards,

Richard

Post edited by richardandtracy on

Comments

  • Nice for Lego Renders. You should be able to fix this on inport or use Blender to fix. Thanks

  • The import scale of the LeoCAD model into DS should be 4% as a 4x2 brick is 80units long in the obj file and it should be 3.2cm long in DS. [Actually each lego 'unit' is 8mm square x 9.6mm high, but there is 0.2mm clearance between bricks at each side to ease fitting, meaning a 4x2 brick is actually 3.18 x 1.58cm and a 1x1 brick is 0.78 x 0.78cm, however LeoCAD aligns the bricks perfectly against each other - something impossible in reality.]

    Regards,

    Richard

  • manekiNekomanekiNeko Posts: 1,405

    thanks a lot @richardandtracy for pointing out leocad! i hadn't heard of this, and now i've discovered it, it's so much fun! ^^ and Ed's brick shaders just hit the spot too.

    i've only created 1 minifig and 1 scene up to now but i'll thrive to improve ^^

    this is the (ok, veeeeery simple) scene - the cow being a running gag with a buddy of mine who drew me a series of postcards, now i can give my input too! ^^

    lego_cowInField01_small_out.png
    800 x 600 - 2M
  • That's nice. Glad it's got a use. wink

    I've hardly had a chance to play with it - my playing time has been severely curtailed in the last couple of weeks by the need to replace our garage roof.

    Regards,

    Richard

  • manekiNekomanekiNeko Posts: 1,405

    That's nice. Glad it's got a use. wink

    I've hardly had a chance to play with it - my playing time has been severely curtailed in the last couple of weeks by the need to replace our garage roof.

    Regards,

    Richard

    yup, however thrilling virtual building might be, RL has its ways to catch up to you... and chores or repairing stuff don't get done by themselves (i have a big feline family)

  • Our feline family has been supervising the roof work. Sometimes very closely, to the point where one of our three nearly got hit by a roof panel as I'd removed it and dropped it to the ground. Fastest he's moved for years. One of our Maine Coons adopted a meercat pose on the car roof (in the roofless garage) so he could better inspect the new structural timber I put in... Not seen anything quite so silly in years.

    Regards,

    Richard

  • manekiNekomanekiNeko Posts: 1,405

    Our feline family has been supervising the roof work. Sometimes very closely, to the point where one of our three nearly got hit by a roof panel as I'd removed it and dropped it to the ground. Fastest he's moved for years. One of our Maine Coons adopted a meercat pose on the car roof (in the roofless garage) so he could better inspect the new structural timber I put in... Not seen anything quite so silly in years.

    Regards,

    Richard

    of course they'd want to inspect your work - it's THEIR home after all.. XD (you didn't fool yourself thinking it was yours, right?)

    omg so lucky nothing happened with the falling bit... 0_o'''

    well, seems you have a... meercoon? probably the alarm model makes some sort of cry like meeeoooooeeeooooeeeooow ^^

  • The software works, apparently, but (at least with the Ldraw libraries added) it crashes when one scrolls all the way down on the Sticker and Minifig menus.

  • Oh. I have not had that. Must admit I haven't played with everything, or even know what an LDraw library is. Shame.

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