Category:LDraw.org

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.

LDraw.org is the volunteer's organization which takes care of LDraw by its

• (taking care of where ldraw.org moves as a whole)
• (taking care of technical specifications)

It also runs the Parts Tracker, which is the means to produce new official parts.

History

James Jessiman, during his free time, developed LDraw and LEdit, the 2 original LDraw programs. He also defined the initial version of the LDraw file format. He received a lot of feedback and his system flourished. In late July 1997, James died of influenza after a short period of illness. The community was shocked of this. Instead of disappearing, however, LDraw began to be taken care of by the community. In many volunteering hours, LDraw grew and grew. Many tools and parts were developed. Set inventories created. Colors researched. Images and videos created. Many things more. At some point, LDraw.org was formed, the Steering Committee and Standards Board were elected, and the development of official parts was formalized a little more to ensure a high quality and usability and consistency of those parts. Today, LDraw.org takes care of LDraw.

Eventually, in the 21st century, it was decided to re-license the library under the Creative Commons Attribution license, forming the Contributor Agreement. Nowadays, all official parts are released with this new license model.