Tout est dans le titre, aujourd’hui LEGO annonce la fermeture du site du logiciel de design de brique en 3D « LEGO Digital Designer », encore appelé LDD pour les utilisateurs avertis, à la date fatidique du 31 janvier 2022. Apres cette date, il ne vous sera plus possible de télécharger le logiciel, il ne sera plus soutenu malgré le fait que la copie en votre possession restera fonctionnelle en l’état.
LEGO encourage ses utilisateurs fans de design en 3D a basculer vers la nouvelle application officielle : BrickLink Studio. Apres presque 20 ans d’existence dans le giron officiel de la marque et sa création en 2004, LDD est bien l’outil qui revient le plus quand j’entends parler de création digitale en LEGO. Même si depuis, d’autres plateformes ont vu le jour dont Bricklink Studio en 2014 ou encore Mécabricks.
Encourager le passage à l’écosystème Bricklink
Pas folle la guêpe Danoise, après avoir racheté Bricklink et dixit le communiqué, le passage de LDD a BL Studio n’est pas non plus anodin. Avec une architecture du soft plus récente, visiblement plus de fonctionnalités (je suis pas spécialiste) et surtout une compatibilité certainement accrue vers BL pour passer plus rapidement du digital à la brique réelle, ça fera forcément plus de brique dans les popoches aux ptits gars de Billund.
Pour m’être mis récemment à BL Studio, je dois vous avouer que c’est pas désagréable, que la fonctionnalité de création de notice est franchement cool et que la liaison facilité pour l’achat des pièces avec entre autre les wanted list est franchement appréciable.
Pas certain que cela change grand chose au quotidien des constructeurs digitaux et cela va dans le sens de l’histoire et de la rationnalisation des outils compte tenu du rachat de BL par Billund. Bref, aucune surprise dans ce move de LEGO du point de vue d’un moldus comme moi!
Que les spécialistes rajoutent leur briques si ils veulent, et vous avez le contenu complet du communiqué ci-dessous :
The LEGO Digital Designer website will shut down at the end of January.
BrickLink Studio welcomes LEGO Digital Designer users.Billund, Denmark – January 12th, 2022: Today, the LEGO Group announces that BrickLink Studio will replace LEGO Digital Designer as the official virtual LEGO building software going forward. The LEGO Digital Designer (LDD) website will close on January 31st, after which time LDD will no longer be available for download. While downloaded versions of the LDD application will continue to work, people are encouraged to download BrickLink Studio, import their LDD files, and use Studio for 3D LEGO building files, and use Studio for 3D LEGO building.
LEGO Digital Designer was released in 2004 as the LEGO Group’s 3D building tool. LDD pioneered real-time rendering of LEGO bricks, virtual brick connectivity, and the compact LEGO Exchange file format (LXF) which made LEGO models built in LDD light and portable. It has played a prominent role in various offerings, from LEGO Factory, LEGO Design ByME, LEGO video games and movies. Now after almost twenty years since its conception and eighteen years in distribution, LEGO Digital Designer will retire and pass the mantle to BrickLink Studio as the officially supported and maintained 3D building application.
« Our initial vision for LEGO Digital Designer back in 2002 was to make building on a computer accessible and fun for children – to play with and share their creations online.” said Ronny Scherer, producer of the first-generation LEGO Digital Designer. “I am so impressed with how the community of creators has evolved. Builders—enthusiasts and professionals alike—have used LDD in wonderful and unexpected ways. They took ownership and created the most amazing virtual LEGO models and have grown the virtual building ecosystem. I am so proud of the team behind LDD and the greater virtual building community. They have truly inspired a generation of digital LEGO creators.”
Tormod Askildsen, head of AFOL Engagement for the LEGO Group, has been intrigued by digital building since using LDD to bring alternate model instructions for the LEGO Factory Hobby Train set to market in 2007. “When the LEGO Group acquired BrickLink,” Askildsen said, “one of the things that impressed and inspired us was their purposeful development of the Studio software. For digital building to be not only a nice feature for some, but a meaningful part of many people’s LEGO building experience, it must be an integrated and useful part of both the design, the building and the sharing experience. The talented team behind Studio see this clearly and continue relentlessly to further innovate and improve the Studio experience”.
In 2014, then-independent BrickLink created the BrickLink Studio software as a free virtual LEGO building tool. Studio was built on the industry-standard Unity gaming engine and is designed to integrate with the BrickLink Marketplace. Its .io file format is based on the fan community-developed LDraw standard with part connectivity data added to give digital bricks clutch power. Users can import LEGO models built in LDD, LDraw, and other popular tools. Studio includes useful features like model stability checking, built-in photo-realistic rendering, and an integrated instructions maker.
“Studio was created because at BrickLink, there is a great belief in how digital LEGO building could unlock true potential of everyone’s creativity by lowering the entry barriers and motivating people to inspire each other,” says Casper Thingholm, Head of BrickLink. “Going forward, the Studio team will continue to focus on making digital building as intuitive as physical building, and encourage even more builders to share their creations to inspire and help each other.”
