Bricksmith is the most gonad-happying piece of software I have ever used.
It is everything LEGO’s own Digital Designer promises to be, before it crushes your hopes and dreams in its hideously-sluggish, limited-inventory, unintuitive-interface maw. In the few years I’ve had Digital Designer on my computer I have designed exactly zero models with it.
With Bricksmith, in just one evening I have completed the instructions for a model I’ve been thinking about for the last few months, and I now have a full list of the 295 pieces required to make it a reality. I shall post more details soon, once I have bought the parts.
The only thing that could possibly make it better would be if you could click a button and it would automatically source said parts off BrickLink, total it up and let you pay for them right then and there. As it is, I shall do some hunting tomorrow.
Love you, Bricksmith, love you!
Noes D: It is mac only!
Digital designed had so much promise, and failed to deliver so hard…
Also, Lego MMO!
LDraw
LDraw.org is the website proper for all of this and they list software for Windows and Linux too. I didn’t bother trying them out, but I would assume they work well. Once you’ve made your model you can then render it in lush 3D, but I’ve yet to try that.
Haw, I saw this on Joystiq, but I’ve never played such a game, so it did not immediately excite me. However, if there is a huge emphasis on the actual designing/building aspect, I shall be most interested.