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LEGO Software Power Tools, With LDraw, MLCad, and LPub (Paperback)

~ Kevin Clague (Author), Miguel Agullo (Author), Lars C. Hassing (Author) "This book is a gateway into a world populated by virtual LEGO models such as the power drill pictured on the book's cover..." (more)
Key Phrases: modeling panes, creating building instructions, pov file, Frequently Asked Questions, James Jessiman, Final Step (more...)

4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Create Virtual 3D LEGO Models Using LEGO Software Power Tools
LEGO Master Builders have created a powerful set of tools that are distributed as freeware to the LEGO community to assist LEGO fans in their building adventures. Until now, these tools have been difficult to find, and even more difficult to configure to work with one another. Here, in one book, readers will find steps for installing and using all of the most popular LEGO freeware applications. Also, all of the applications are consolidated into one simple-to-install program that allows readers to be up and running in minutes

Ã˜ Wide market appeal. This book will appeal to the huge established consumer base of the LEGO community, as well as to children, parents, and teachers who may have been intimidated by the difficulties of bringing all of these applications under one roof.
Ã˜ The only book of its kind to cover the wide variety of applications available. Some books in the past have touched on one or two of these LEGO applications, but none has covered them all in such detail.
Ã˜ CD provides all of these freeware applications in one easy to install program. Included CD packs more than 8 applications into one easy-to-use format, making it easy for readers to have access to all of these applications in minutes and avoid the headaches of trying to download, install, configure, set up folder structures, and troubleshoot such a wide variety of loosely related freeware applications.
Ã˜ Will coincide with the release of Lpub. This will be the first in-depth look at LPub, the new creation of Kevin Clague, which ties LDraw, MLCad, L3P, and POV-Ray together to allow users to easily create professional quality LEGO instructions for both the printed page and the web.

About the Author

Kevin Clague is a Senior Staff Engineer at Sun Microsystems, where he does verification work on their Ulta-SPARC V RISC processor. He also worked for Amdahl Corporation for 18 years as a Diagnostic Engineer. Kevin played with LEGO as a child, and got back into LEGO as an adult when his wife, Jan, got him the LEGO MINDSTORMS Dark Side Developer Kit for Christmas three years ago. Kevin soon got himself a LEGO MINDSTORMS Robotics Invention System 1.5 set, and has been having fun inventing LEGO creations ever since.

In 2001 Kevin got involved with authoring LEGO instruction books for Syngress Publishing, including 10 Cool LEGO Mindstorms Dark Side Robots, Transports, and Creatures: Amazing Projects You Can Build in Under an Hour (ISBN: 1-931836-59-0) and 10 Cool LEGO Mindstorms Ultimate Builders Projects: Amazing Projects You Can Build in Under an Hour (ISBN: 1-931836-60-4). In the process, Kevin developed the LPub program for creating professional quality building instructions using MLCad, L3P, and POV-Ray. More recently, Kevin has developed the LSynth program so that bendable LEGO parts can more easily be documented when creating building instructions.

Miguel Agullo was born in Spain and has lived abroad for long periods of time, from the Far East to South America, from central Europe to the U.S. models, new LDraw pieces, and anything he thinks is worth sharing with other LEGO aficionados. His building interests revolve around robotics, and specifically biomechanics: creating mechanisms that mimic the behavior of natural devices such as legs or arms. Miguel's creations include biped walkers, robots that jump, and a fully functional (including a brake!) LEGO motorcycle.

Lars C. Hassing lives in Århus, Denmark, only 90 km from Billund, where (naturally) he has a season pass to LEGOLAND. Lars works as a programmer at CCI Europe, where he builds large scale, multi-user desktop publishing programs for newspaper publishers in Europe and in the U.S.

Product Details

Paperback: 454 pages
Publisher: Syngress; 1 edition (January 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1931836760
ISBN-13: 978-1931836760
Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 1.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #799,391 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
This book is a gateway into a world populated by virtual LEGO models such as the power drill pictured on the book's cover. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
modeling panes, creating building instructions, pov file, parts list window, part list image, bendable parts, radius modifier, meta commands, ldraw org, camera radius, synthesis specification, flexible axle, ribbed hose, pneumatic parts, questions about this chapter, synthesis constraints, measure your understanding, grid mode, rotation steps, virtual playground, dialog window, using globe, buffer exchange, camera options, rotation sensor

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Frequently Asked Questions, James Jessiman, Final Step, Parts Preview, Face Step, Chassis Step, Kevin Clague, Michael Lachmann, Drive Step, Power Tools Installer, Ask the Author, Left Leg Step, Roof Step, Star Wars, Foot Step, Right Leg Step, Software Power Tools, Users Group Network, Clip Light, Fractal Landscape, Rotation Model, Rotation Point Definition, Enter Pos, Select Model, Bill of Materials

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 3 books:

Star Wars: Episode 6 Return of the Jedi (Star Wars Cinemanga) by LucasFilm on page 374
New Guinea (The World's Wild Places) by Roy D. MacKay in Front Matter
Star Wars (Funfax "Star Wars" File Books) by Raith Black on page 119

1 book cites this book:

LEGO Mindstorms Masterpieces: Building Advanced Robots by Syngress in Front Matter

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	48% buy the item featured on this page: LEGO Software Power Tools, With LDraw, MLCad, and LPub 4.2 out of 5 stars (9) $29.54
	16% buy The Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide 4.2 out of 5 stars (44) $16.47
	14% buy Virtual LEGO: The Official LDraw.org Guide To LDraw Tools for Windows 4.8 out of 5 stars (6) $29.16
	11% buy Forbidden Lego: Build the Models Your Parents Warned You Against! 3.9 out of 5 stars (31) $16.47

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Customer Reviews

9 Reviews

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Average Customer Review

4.2 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good to have all in one place, January 23, 2003

By A Customer

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

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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good but -somewhat confusing in places, February 6, 2003

By	Trent Osweg (Tampa Florida) - See all my reviews

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.

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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars very useful book, January 17, 2003

By A Customer

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.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed
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.

Published 9 months ago by G. Andrews

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing!
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... Read more

Published on April 17, 2003 by Petra Sallowstein

3.0 out of 5 stars Good coverage of stuff I already know
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. Read more

Published on January 17, 2003 by lantse36

5.0 out of 5 stars Book will open up a whole new LEGO world
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. Read more

Published on January 16, 2003 by Shawn

4.0 out of 5 stars Well written coverage of building virtual LEGO models
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. Read more

Published on January 8, 2003 by Anthony Bailey

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome!
I'd fooled around with some of these applications in this book before, but not all of them.
This book rocks!! Read more

Published on January 3, 2003 by Josh Eubanks

› See all 9 customer reviews...

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