Version Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life

lecture: LDraw: computer-aided design for serious LEGO fans

Ldraw logo

LDraw™ is an open standard for LEGO CAD programs that allow the user to create virtual LEGO models and scenes. You can use it to document models you have physically built, create building instructions just like LEGO, render 3D photo realistic images of your virtual models and even make animations. The possibilities are endless. Unlike real LEGO bricks where you are limited by the number of parts and colors, in LDraw nothing is impossible.
-- http://ldraw.org/
#Software #Kids #Making

This talk will introduce the LDraw ecosystem. We will examine several tools for creating virtual LEGO models, methods of creating high-quality renderings of your models, generating instruction booklets, and take a look at the underlying format in which parts are models are represented.

I first got into LDraw when I was in 5th grade, and it was a very good bridge between my mechanical interests in the physical world (having a very LEGO-oriented childhood) and my initial math and programming interests in the virtual world. Creating models of new LEGO parts as they came out motivated me to learn basic linear algebra while still in elementary school, and motivated me to write many simple programs to manipulate the models I was creating.

This is definitely a topic for all ages, future-hackers and AFOLs (Adult Fans Of LEGO) alike :)

* Abstract taken from official description on http://ldraw.org/