ROBOTMAK3RS Blog

Today I've published version 1.5 of Lemon on my web site for Download . Lemon is a Java -based application with a graphical user interface that allows for comparing two LEGO® models that are stored in LDraw or LDD format; the common parts are listed as well as the ones that are contained in one of the models only. It's also possible to check a model against the NXT Retail Kit or (new to 1.5) against the NXT Education Kit - comes in handy if you want to know whether a model can be built with one of these kits. Moreover, the new version supports multi module models now and contains numerous bugfixes. Give it a try, please, and provide feedback and proposals. Addendum: If someone is encountering problems with Lemon, please do not hesitate to contact me via the contact page on my web site.

Remember the beta release of a Model Differ application I posted about some days ago? Finally, the first productional of it is available now, called Lemon 1.0 . It features comparing LEGO(R) models laid down in LDRAW (.ldr) or LEGO Digital Designer (.lxf) format comparing such models against the NXT Retail Kit listing parts contained in each model only listing parts commonly contained in both models easy one-click installation and running using Java Web Start (the only thing you need is a Java 5 (or above) runtime on your computer - might already come pre-installed on your operating system) supported on all platforms Java 5 is available for (in particular Windows XP, Mac OSX, Linux) If you ever needed to know if your (or other people's) model can be built with a single NXT Retail Kit and which parts you need in addition, or if you ever were curious in which parts two models differ, this Java-based application might prove useful for you.

As someone who is running simply a large trunk with LEGO parts where a new NXT kit gets emptied out to for further building I have found it hard in the past to answer frequent questions like "Can this model of your's been built with a single retail kit?" - figuring out the answer to that was somewhat troublesome and required a lot of comparing to the according parts inventory at Peeron. Hence I finally implemented a Java application that may come in handy: Model Differ (working title). It allows for comparison of two models that are laid down in LDRAW format and lists the parts that are mutually not contained (honoring also the number of occurrences of a particular part). For convenience, it's possible also to check a model directly against the NXT Retail Kit. If you are into CADing your models with LDRAW, have a look - the only thing you need is a Java Runtime (version 5 or above). And some LDRAW model, of course.