I have bad news for loyal fans of the popular LEGO Digital Designer: LEGO just announced that it is planning to shut down the program on January 31, 2022. It is making LEGO BrickLink Studio the new official program for your 3D LEGO-building needs.
The iconic LEGO Digital Designer (LDD) program was first released in 2004. At the time, it was the primary program people used for digitally building and rendering their creative LEGO ideas in real-time. Its replacement—BrickLink Studio—was created a decade later in 2014. At one point, BrickLink Studio supported various other programs (including LEGO Digital Designer at one point).
Users switching between the two programs will be able to import their LDD files and continue working on projects there if desired.
Tormod Askildsen, head of AFOL Engagement for the LEGO Group, stated, “When the LEGO Group acquired BrickLink, one of the things that impressed and inspired us was their purposeful development of the Studio software. For digital building to be not only a nice feature for some, but a meaningful part of many people’s LEGO building experience, it must be an integrated and useful part of both the design, the building and the sharing experience. The talented team behind Studio see this clearly and continue relentlessly to further innovate and improve the Studio experience.”
There’s still some good news, though: you have until that day to download LDD. After that, however, it will become unavailable. The program will still work but will no longer receive updates and such. So if you’ve been on the fence about downloading it for a future project, now is the time to get it.
via The Brick Fan
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