This "Lite Brite" system was covered in my popular Mosaic LEGO Lamps tutorial, which explains the principles behind colored light grids. In simple terms, the LEGO structure serves as a house, inside the "house" are three spotlights each rigged up to a microchip which cycles through the colors like a real traffic light, and the front of the "house" uses a grid of colored transparent LEGO pieces which act similar to a Lite Brite set (or almost resembling a cluster of LEDs lit up). The light bulbs are pricey LED spotlights that use very little electrical power yet have a strong illuminated output. The "brain" of the project is actually a model railroad traffic signal controller that I purchased on eBay, and then ultimately wired into the infrastructure of the traffic lamp. The electrical system seems rather tricky, but is actually somewhat simple, if you have a basic understanding of soldering/wiring.
As a result, the physical LEGO portion of this project via the LDD file may differ slightly than what you see in the final outcome, and if you attempt to build one yourself, you may notice a few differences. The LEGO construction was a heavily-modified project that went through a ton of revisions in both the 3D program LEGO Digital Designer, as well as in real life. This project is not an easy build to say the least, nor is it a cheap thing that you can slap together with random electrical parts.
That being said, as I've traditionally built LEGO Transformers or LEGO Zelda/Mario-related projects in the past, I decided to build a fully-functional (and near life-size) traffic signal lamp, constructed almost entirely from LEGO pieces - sans the electrical wiring/lights! The actual traffic light itself is constructed from LEGO pieces (totaling about 1,700+), whilst only the wires, lights, power plug, and switch are non-LEGO - with no other modifications, such as painting, glue, sanding, nor cutting. I dreamed of growing up and not only living in a house filled with LEGO bricks, Nintendo games, and Transformers figures, but also with authentic roadsigns and lights on the walls. In fact, my mama used to snag roadcones from construction sites and give 'em to me as strange playthings. When others in my age group at the time were doodling pictures of Batman with crayons, I was drawing countless images of various road signs and orange construction cones. Still, it's a great facsimile for replicating the fun of Lego bricks digitally, and since its free, it's the cheapest Lego experience you'll ever have.As many of you know, most of my LEGO creations are a blend of my childhood passions, notably Transformers, Nintendo, and uh, traffic lights? Yes folks, it's a little-known Baron von Brunk fact, but when I was a wee lad, I had an offbeat obsession with roadsigns, traffic signals, and road construction equipment. The app chows on RAM, so those with older machines should be prepared for serious slow-downs if they can get the program to run at all. The user interface for Version 2 is a big improvement, although some controls could be more intuitive. In addition to all this, you can send your model to to share with other Lego builders.
#Lego digital designer for mac how to#
There's an option to watch an animated guide on how to recreate whatever complex design you just built. You can place your model against a cheesy 3D background, save it, take a screenshot, explode it only to have it reassembled on the next mouse click.
Seventeen prebuilt models are included to help beginners. The Brick Palette puts all your bricks in one basket, so to speak, so that managing them is no more difficult than keeping track of more than two dozen subpalettes that catalogue the variations. Parts include basic bricks, model jet engines, and infrared sensors. The graphics-intensive program seamlessly zooms in and out, rotates your point-of-view 360 degrees, connects bricks to each other, rotates them, and moves any hinges they might have so you can explore how your pieces fit together.
The program links to the Lego online store, but there's more going on here than corporate shilling. Loaded with features, the drawbacks are minor and this program is a lot of fun to use. Lego Digital Designer gives users the chance to play with Legos without paying for Legos.
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