Customer Reviews

LEGO Software Power Tools, With LDraw, MLCad, and LPub

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I wasn't sure if this book would be worth picking up as I already know how to use MLCad... First off-you should get it from Amazon.com and save yourself a bundle.
It is a boon to have all of these programs in one place. They install very easily and you dont have any problems getting them up and running. That is a very good thing, especially for LEGO fans who are new to this stuff.

Second-there is some new information in here, even for long time users of MLCad like me. LSynth is amazing--MLCad users will be very happy to be able to finally include all of those flexible elements into their model files. I haven't started fooling around with LPub yet but it looks very interesting--basically allows you to create instructions a-la the sets you get with a real LEGO kit.
All in all I'd recommend this book, especially to someone who is new to these programs. There is nothing in this book that you
can't find on the web...
and the other sites whre you can download these programs and their instructions, or poking around on the forums.
HOWEVER!!!!! It would take you days, if not weeks, to assemble all of the info that is between the covers of this book, which I think makes it very worth while.
Check it out!

Signing off-

Blacktron23

I've been a big fan of MLcad for a long time. I thought I knew everything there was to know about it but this book proved me wrong.

It has excellent, indepth coverage of what these people call the "LEGO softwarep ower tools" suite of programs, which are all available for free. I agree with an earlier reviewer that it is great to have all of this material in one place, on one CD (installing it is very simple, much more so than if you get them all off the web), with walk throughs and explanations for all of them, including how they work with one another. In fact, this leads to my only complaint. Sometimes the book gets TOO indepth in its look at these programs. At one point they show how to actually go into the model files and manipulate them, which is MUCH deeper than I've ever gone.
All in all it is a good book however--I'm looking forward to documenting my LEGO trains and buildings in ldraw/MLCad and creating instructions for them with lpub. Lpub alone makes this book worth it. It is one of those programs I never even considered until I found out what it can do (granted, there are some functions in other LEGO programs which are somewhat similar but they don't hold a candle to the possibilities lpub offers).
A friend of mine talked to one of the authors on the lugnet forums and said he seems like a nice guy who was very willing to share ideas and tips.

Very good book but went over my head a few times.

T.O.

I teach math and physics at the highschool level and am involved with our local lego robotics club. The kids and I have been in the habit of taking pictures of our finished creations before we disasemble them for reference. One of my students has been pushing us to start documenting the robots with Mlcad. I had just started to look into this when I ran across this book.
I highly recommend this book for those involved with lego robotics clubs like ours. Not only can we now save full color images of our models on our computers, we can also create full sets of instructions for building them using the programs included and described in this book. I have a feeling this will be extremely useful in our competitions, as we plan on documenting our robots in this manner and giving our competitors in the competitions the plans for our robots AFTER we have defeated their robots *smile*, as well as posting them to our club's website. The ability to manipulate our virtual robots on our computer screens in Mlcad after we have "built" them is neat and adds an element of "what if" to our building, but it can't compete with playing with the real bricks.
Great book. I highly recommend it.

This book and all of the software on the CD are INCREDIBLE. All of the tools make it so that you can build virtual versions of just about anything you ever dreamed of. If you like the way it looks, you can then go ahead and build the real thing with a complete set of instructions that you already made with all the software. This also makes it easy to share your ideas with friends on the Web. You can post your instructions w/ all the images. It allows you to create so many more robots (both virtual and ultimately real) than ever.

I've been palying around with most of the software tools mentioned in this book for several years now, so I picked this book up with some interest. I was really most interested in checking out the coverage of LPub and LSynth--two failry new programs that I've only started to play with.
All in all I found this to be an excellent book, although it did have some drawbacks. Good things first.

All of the "Software Power Tools" that the authors cover in this book are freely available online, as any dedicated LEGO fan will know. In my mind, that's a good thing and a bad thing. Good because they are free. Bad because they do not always come with good documentation for how to use them. nothing against the people who wrote these instructions that are usually available with the free downloads, but they usually could benefit from a much more thorough explanation and images to go along with the text--basically a book, which is what this aims to be. In that regard it meets it's goal admirablly. The authors walk you through all of the software power tools in easy to understand steps, with a TON of images to go along with them. It one thing to have the documentation tell you to rotate a piece 45 degrees on it's Y axis--it's quite another thing to see images of this being done. It is nice to have all of the programs in one place (the CD that comes with the book), and installing them all is a breeze.
I was also pleasantly suprised to learn a thing or two (or three) about Mlcad that I did not know. For people who have never used Mlcad, and by default Ldraw, this book is by far the best tool to not only learn but master them.
The coverage of the other programs is also excellent-namely LPub, LSynth, L3P and Povray. LSynth is amazing. it allows you to incorporate flexible parts into your virtual LEGO designs. I've been waiting for a program like this for years.
I also like how the authors set this book up. First, they teach you how to create the models themsleves using Ldraw and mlcad. This is probably about half the book, and with good reason. Next, they walk you through taking your finished model files and creating really good looking images and sets of instructions for them, reminiscent of those that LEGO actually gives you with theire models. Their progression is logical and it works. Readers who are used to using the actual modeling programs can quickly skip ahead to the sections that are new to them without missing a beat, and readers who are new to these programs will get a thorough grounding in the basics before being exposed to some of the advanced material. Some folks in the past have done a good job of trying to assemble instructions for using these progrmas to do something similar in the past (think Don Dueck for you Lugnet fans), but it has never been done so thoroughly before.
Bad things--not too many all in all. The book seems to have chosen the programs that they thought best and covered those exclusively (Ldraw, mlcad, lpub, l3p, lsynth, povray). I personally would have liked to see coverage of some of the other programs out there (leocad in particular--I hate windows ;-) This might actually be a good thing. by only choosing these programs, the authors really get to cover them in very good detail, and no one would argue that their choice of programs to cover was way off base.
Also at several points in the book I can see the average reader being overwhelmed by the depth of the discussion on some failry "out there" technical concepts, but die hards will eat this stuff up, and the authors make it clear when kids/people-who-just-want-to-build can skip ahead a few paragraphs.
All in al lthis is an excellent book, both for novies to virtual LEGO building and experienced virtual lego modelers who are looking to move on to the next level. It is about time a book like this was put together.

I'd fooled around with some of these applications in this book before, but not all of them.
This book rocks!! You can build virtual LEGO models on your computer, without having to worry about expensive pieces or any limits like that! You can then print out instructions for your robots just like lego does in there kits.
I'm usually one of those people who has to walk himslef through things, but this book does a good job of explaining all of the progrmas it comes with. Anyone who loves legos will love this book!

I never knew the programs covered in this book existed! I saw it in B+N, ran home , ordered it on amazon and pulled my kids legos out of their playroom and got reacquainted with them. When the book came I put them away and haven't touched them since. This is amazing! You get to build anything your heart could desire with an unlimited number of legos right on your computer screen! My kids have stopped playing Halo on the x-box and build virtual legos most of the day using the powertools programs that come with the CD.
I'm trying to get them involved with some of the lego sites the book talks about--its incredible the lego world that exists online that I had no idea about.

Highly recommend this book to any parent who has a child under the age of 47!!!

i got this book because im a huge fan of the progrmas covered in the book. ill admit its thorough and easy to read and i gues its cool to have all these programs in one cd. The only thing new to me were lpub which i dont think ill ever use and lsynth which is very very cool and needs to be incorporated by ML into the next incarnation of mlcad.
would probably be excellent for a novice brickhead whod neverp layed with these programs before. ...

Book was not as advertised. Entire book was curled, dirt and leaves were between the pages. Not happy with my purchase. I would NOT do business with this seller again.