Building with Virtual LEGO: Getting Started with LEGO Digital Designer, LDraw, and Mecabricks


Book Description

Virtually build any LEGO creation you can imagine—with any LEGO part ever made! This fun guide shows how to create just about anything from virtual LEGO blocks using free software. Learn how to install and customize LEGO Digital Designer, navigate the user interface, and get started on your own projects. LDraw and Mecabricks are also clearly explained. Building with Virtual LEGO: Getting Started with LEGO Digital Designer, LDraw, and Mecabricks features DIY projects that illustrate each technique and software tool. You will see how to upload and share your creations online—even modify projects that others have built! Find out how to: • Download, set up, and configure LEGO Digital Designer • Navigate the LDD user interface, menus, and tools • Identify the different Lego parts and explore brick palettes • Quickly and easily start creating your own LEGO models • Access the huge library of out-of-print LEGO bricks in LDraw, including those designed by hobbyists • Get up and running on Mecabricks and launch creative projects online • Write clear instructions and share them with other virtual LEGO enthusiasts • Create custom bricks and participate in the LDraw parts design process




Building with Virtual LEGO


Book Description

Virtually build any LEGO creation you can imagine—with any LEGO part ever made! This fun guide shows how to create just about anything from virtual LEGO blocks using free software. Learn how to install and customize LEGO Digital Designer, navigate the user interface, and get started on your own projects. LDrawTM and Mecabricks are also clearly explained. Building with Virtual LEGO: Getting Started with LEGO Digital Designer, LDrawTM, and Mecabricks features DIY projects that illustrate each technique and software tool. You will see how to upload and share your creations online—even modify projects that others have built! Find out how to: • Download, set up, and configure LEGO Digital Designer • Navigate the LDD user interface, menus, and tools • Identify the different Lego parts and explore brick palettes • Quickly and easily start creating your own LEGO models • Access the huge library of out-of-print LEGO bricks in LDrawTM, including those designed by hobbyists • Get up and running on Mecabricks and launch creative projects online • Write clear instructions and share them with other virtual LEGO enthusiasts • Create custom bricks and participate in the LDrawTM parts design process




The LEGO Technic Idea Book: Wheeled Wonders


Book Description

The LEGO® Technic Idea Book: Wheeled Wonders is a collection of hundreds of mechanisms for cars, trucks, motorcycles, and other vehicles that you can build based on their pictures alone. Each project uses color-coded pieces and is photographed from multiple angles, making it easy to see how the models are assembled without the need for step-by-step instructions. Every model illustrates a different principle, concept, or mechanism that will inspire your own original creations. You're encouraged to use these elements as building blocks to create your own masterpieces. The Technic models in Wheeled Wonders spin or move things, drag race, haul heavy gear, bump off walls, wind up and go, and much more. You'll discover how to build differential gears, implement steering and suspension, and design clutch and transmission systems to use in your own vehicles. This visual guide, the second in the three-volume LEGO Technic Idea Book series, is the brainchild of master builder Yoshihito Isogawa of Tokyo, Japan. Each title is filled with photos of Isogawa's unique models, all of which are designed to fire the imaginations of LEGO builders young and old. Imagine. Create. Invent. Now, what will you build? NOTE: The LEGO Technic Idea Book series uses parts from various Technic sets. If you don't have some of the pieces shown in a particular model, experiment by substituting your own parts or visit the author's website for a list of the special parts used in the book.




Monitoring with Ganglia


Book Description

"Taking dynamic host and application metrics at scale"--Cover.




The LEGO BOOST Activity Book


Book Description

At last, fans of the LEGO BOOST robot building kit have the learning resource they've been missing! Enter The LEGO BOOST Activity Book: a full-color guide that will help readers learn how to build and code LEGO creations that move, explore their environment, grab and lift objects, and more. The LEGO BOOST kit lets younger builders create fun, multifunctional robots by combining bricks with code, but it doesn't come with a manual. With the help of this complete guide to the LEGO BOOST set, you'll be on your way to building and programming BOOST robots in no time. You'll begin your exploration by building a basic rover robot called MARIO to help you learn the fundamentals of the BOOST programming environment. Next, you'll add features to your rover to control its movement and make it repeat actions and react to colors and sounds. Once you've learned some programming basics, you'll learn how to program your robot to do things like follow lines on the ground, scan its environment to decide where to go, and even play darts. As final projects, you'll create two complete robots: BrickPecker to help you organize your bricks and CYBOT, a robot that talks, shoots objects, and executes voice commands. As you advance through the book, optional lessons aim to deepen your understanding of basic robotics concepts. Brain BOOSter sections let you dig into the math and engineering behind your builds while a host of experiments seek to test your skills and encourage you to do more with your robots. With countless illustrations, extensive explanations, and a wealth of coding examples to guide you, The LEGO BOOST Activity Book is sure to take you from beginning builder to robotics whiz and give your robot-building brain that needed boost!




The Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide, 2nd Edition


Book Description

What's the difference between a tile and a plate? Why isn't it a good idea to stack bricks in columns to make a wall? How do you build a LEGO mosaic or build at different scales? You’ll find the answers to these and other questions in The Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide. Now in full color, this brand-new edition of a well-loved favorite will show you how to:–Construct models that won't fall apart –Choose the right pieces and substitute when needed –Build to micro, jumbo, and miniland scale –Make playable board games out of LEGO pieces –Create photo mosaics and curved sculptures –Build a miniature space shuttle, a minifig-sized train station, and more Of course, the real fun of LEGO building lies in creating your own models—from choosing the subject to clicking that final brick into place. Learn how in The Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide. Includes the Brickopedia, a visual dictionary of nearly 300 of the most commonly used LEGO elements!




Make: Lego and Arduino Projects


Book Description

Provides step-by-step instructions for building a variety of LEGO Mindstorms NXT and Arduino devices.




The Cult of LEGO


Book Description

In The Cult of LEGO, Wired's GeekDad blogger John Baichtal and BrickJournal founder Joe Meno take you on a magnificent, illustrated tour of the LEGO® community, its people, and their creations. The Cult of LEGO introduces us to fans and builders from all walks of life. People like professional LEGO artist Nathan Sawaya; enigmatic Dutch painter Ego Leonard (who maintains that he is, in fact, a LEGO minifig); Angus MacLane, a Pixar animator who builds CubeDudes, instantly recognizable likenesses of fictional characters; Brick Testament creator Brendan Powell Smith, who uses LEGO to illustrate biblical stories; and Henry Lim, whose work includes a series of models recreating M.C. Escher lithographs and a full-scale, functioning LEGO harpsichord. Marvel at spectacular LEGO creations like: –A life-sized Stegosaurus and an 80,000-brick T. Rex skeleton –Detailed microscale versions of landmarks like the Acropolis and Yankee Stadium –A 22-foot long, 350-pound re-creation of the World War II battleship Yamato –A robotic, giant chess set that can replay historical matches or take on an opponent –A three-level, remote-controlled Jawa Sandcrawler, complete with moving conveyor belt Whether you're a card-carrying LEGO fanatic or just thinking fondly about that dusty box of LEGO in storage, The Cult of LEGO will inspire you to take out your bricks and build something amazing.




Tiny LEGO Wonders


Book Description

In this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn how to build 40 miniature models of race cars, airplanes, ships, trains, and more. These fun, compact designs will inspire you to get creative with as few as nine LEGO® pieces. Imagine what you can build with just a handful of LEGO bricks—almost anything! In Tiny LEGO Wonders, you'll create miniscale models of real vehicles like: –A space shuttle –Jets, planes, and helicopters –Flatbed trucks and cement mixers –France’s high-speed TGV train –F1 racecars –Muscle cars –Cargo, cruise, wooden ships, and more! Let your creativity run wild!




The Art of LEGO Design


Book Description

The most impressive LEGO models often take careful planning (and lots of pieces), but with some inspiration, a little imagination, and a number of tried-and-true techniques, you too can turn bricks into a masterpiece.In The Art of LEGO® Design, author Jordan Schwartz explores LEGO as an artistic medium. This wide-ranging collection of creative techniques will help you craft your own amazing models as you learn to see the world through the eyes of some of the greatest LEGO builders. Each concept is presented with a collection of impressive models to spark your imagination—like fantastic dragons, futuristic spaceships, expressive characters, and elaborate dioramas. You’ll discover some of the inventive techniques that LEGO artists use to: –Create lifelike creatures from unusual elements like inside-out tires and minifigure capes –Design sleek cars without showing a single stud –Add ambience to dioramas with light bricks or LEDs –Craft eye-catching textures to create cobblestone roads and brick walls –Build sturdy, detailed, posable mechs and other figures –Add depth with forced perspective and interesting silhouettes Interviews with the talented builders behind many of the book’s models reveal their thoughts on the design process and what inspires them most. Even if you’ve been building with LEGO since you could crawl, you’ll find new inspiration in The Art of LEGO® Design.