by Erik Olson
What you see here are the results of a Perl program to generate spheres and other shapes in Lego bricks. It creates output in LDRAW format for rendering, or crude ASCII instruction steps. I wrote this to assist in creating my 16x16 dome out of plates.
The program is free. You can use the online version, or download a copy to your machine.
To use it on your own machine, you need to have beginner Perl knowledge. At the very least, this means you know your machine has Perl installed and you know how to run a Perl script, edit it, and redirect the output.
Basically, you should edit the first line of the program to select one of six shapes you want. There are 6 built in, but you can edit the parameters to get others including ellipsoids. The capability is there, but it hasn't got much of an interface so you have to edit the calling parameters to request the exact shape you need.
Or, just use the online version!
A gallery of the same thing you see here is part of my Brickshelf folder.
Click on a picture to get the source DAT file:|
Sphere (1)
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Tent (5)
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Cone (3)
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Low Tent (6)
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I built the Low Tent structure right away using parts from Yoda (Lego Set 7194). After visualizing the Spheroid Generator output with BrickDraw3D, I built it from the crude ASCII instructions. Notice the instructions do not indicate which parts to use! I doubled Step 1 in two layers of plates to provide a stable base. Also, I built the two halves together using one 2x16 plate down the center.
Step 1 OOOOOOOO OOOOOOOO OOOOOOOO OOOOOOO. OOOOOOO. OOOOOO.. OOOOO... OOO..... |
Step 2 OOOOO*** OOOOO*** OOOOO*** OOOO***. OOO****. ******.. *****... ***..... |
Step 3 OOOO*... OOOO*... OOOO*... OOO*.... ***..... ........ ........ ........ |
Step 4 OOOO.... OOO*.... OOO*.... O**..... ........ ........ ........ ........ |
Step 5 OOO*.... OOO..... OO*..... *....... ........ ........ ........ ........ |
Step 6 OO*..... OO*..... **...... ........ ........ ........ ........ ........ |
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Step 7 OO...... O*...... ........ ........ ........ ........ ........ ........ Step 8 O*...... *....... ........ ........ ........ ........ ........ ........ Step 9 O....... ........ ........ ........ ........ ........ ........ ........ |
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I have made a few other spheroid structures in the past, without computer assistance. My tools were graph paper and ruler.
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