LEGO Digital Designer (LDD) is a 3D CAD computer application that allows LEGO fans to design models from an unlimited supply of over LEGO bricks available in nearly every color. The tool allows users to add decorations to surfaces of selected bricks, and can be used in the Extended theme. The Hide tool (L key) is used to hide bricks or models, while the Color Picker tool allows users to pick up colors by selecting bricks.
The Hinge Align tool is used to automatically connect two separate connection points, while the Flex tool (F key) bends and twists flexible elements. The Paint tool (B) is used to paint decorations on selected bricks. To use custom decorations, go to the “Decorations” tab and check the box “Use custom decorations”. A list will appear at the bottom, showing all the options.
To add a new decal, select View > New themes > LDD Extended. Place the part you added a new decal to, select the Decoration tool, and then click the second button to bring up the colour menu. In LU mode, users can freely pick any LEGO color and apply it to any brick they want. The Color Picker tool allows users to pick up colors by selecting bricks, and the Clone Tool creates an exact copy of their piece, which can be placed like a brick taken from the palette.
In summary, LEGO Digital Designer is a versatile tool for creating models with virtual LEGO bricks. Users can use various tools to customize their models, such as the Decoration tool, the Color Picker tool, and the Clone Tool.
📹 Macplay – Lego Digital Designer Part 4 Wanna Couch?
📹 Illegal LEGO Techniques
People called my builds illegal… I took it personally and made this video! And for the record, I should know a thing or two about the …
I had no idea that the technic bricks and bricks with studs on the sides had slightly different heights on their holes and studs respectively, kinda feels like an oversight on legos part ngl, I alos never noticed how flat plates and studded plates are different in thickness, great article man! also that wheel that u showed off towards the end looks cool af
I think it’s important to further clarify that “illegal” is really just “contraindicated in Lego’s official manual of how to design sets.” Lego couldn’t care one bit if people do any of this stuff. There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s not taboo or special. It’s just not good practices for creating sensible, robust, elegant designs.
My favourite obscure legal connection is a technic pin to the underside of a 1×1 brick with studs on 4 sides. The open studs actually give the pin room to properly expand and move freely, so while it may not be intentional it’s not actually stressing anything and is, as such, fully legal! It was even used in an old M-Tron set once.
Unfortunately, these days even being an active LEGO designer and being embedded in the design and quality processes at the mothership doesn’t seem to be a guarantee that no illegal building techniques make their way into official sets. Have you heard about the problem with 76205 Gargantos Showdown? If not, check out the article “Possible design flaw found in 2022 Super Heroes set” over on Brickset.
This is awesome! I would always direct any non-Lego friends to the “Stressing the Elements” powerpoint by Jamie Berard when they’d hear me talking about my builds or see the ever so misunderstood memes, but this more ‘hands-on’ article is way more intuitive and thorough (as well as being more modern with the new cone and 1×1 tile with clip molds).
It appears to me that many of these “illegal” connections were just a lack of foresight on the original designs as far as cross-compatibility goes. In some cases they were directly addressed with a re-design and it seems that some of them are simply just too late to fix (e.g. technic vs. normal alignments & lego logo protrusion). Can you honestly say that with a blank design slate that all of these incompatibilities are necessary?
Its kinda funny how I as a kid, didnt know that these are actually called illegal techniques, whenever I or my friends tried to build something using thes techniques I said it just didnt felt right to do it that way. So I kinda got a feeling for illegal techniques… I should become a Lego police officer!
I was unaware that there was such a thing as ‘illegal’ Lego building… idk how this ended up in my recommended, but you’ve given me SO much ammo to use against my niece next time we play with Legos… even after the article explanation, I still don’t know what constitutes ‘illegal’, but the fact the concept exists? I’m about to drive my niece crazy! Oh man, there is so much potential in this… it’s gonna be great! 🤣😂🤣😂
I have seen so many articles talking about what’s legal and illegal when it comes to building legos and I almost didn’t click on this article, thinking I knew everything it was gonna say. But then I did anyway and actually learned so much more about the topic and also how to identify it more easily. Thanks a lot for the info.
This is really cool and insightful, thank you for sharing. I was wondering if you could share more about what is different between a single stud plate going into a technic brick vs a larger plate doing the same and why one is okay but the other is illegal, what specifically is it about a multiple stud plate attempting that connection that makes it illegal?
Okay, my mind is blown right now. I knew about the logo on the studs making some connections illegal, but I never would have thought that the hole in a technic brick is positioned a little heigher than the stud on a headlight brick. Why is that even the case? Is it to make room for the stud of another brick when you connect that to the bottom of the technic brick? And why does the stud of the indented headlight brick extend just a little out of the volume of a regular 1x1x1 brick? Or why don’t those bracket pieces fit? It makes no sense to me.
My first thought when I heard about illegal builds… “Dude! These are my Legos. The whole point is to be creative. How can anything I do with them be illegal.” Lego set designer: “Some things will wear out or damage your legos.” Me: “Alright. Yeah. I’ll go with that.” …though I still think “illegal” might be a little strong.
Surely any of these “illegal” build techniques only really count for official Lego builds; when it’s going to be sold as a kit for profit. I can also see these “laws” (rules) being extended to competition. Any form of competition requires constraints to even the playing field and make it easier to identify a winner. Of course if it is an official competition by Lego it may be the case that the winning build will become an officially produced Lego set. But hell, if your just building for fun at home – even to create and showcase interesting builds on YouTube – who cares! It’s your Lego to abuse and break as you please.
I did a lot of plate connections (03:50) in the ’80’s with my Lego’s. If you wanted to make a slum or a shed, that plate connection was the way to go and looked the most natural. Since then, Lego had lot of time improving them to release the stress in the plates that way. If they can improve the cones (03:17) to make former “illegal techniques” legal, they can do the same with the plates.
The old 1×1 clips were breaking even when you made legal connections like adding a simple 4L bar or minifig tool. It’s only one example how elements break just from the originally intended stress. Many of transparent parts with clips, transparent 1×1 plates round and squared, Bionicle sockets for balljoints, bushings for Technic crossbars and so on. The all tend to break by just the normal use. Sad.
i really still dont understand why these are illegal. like, stressing the parts? how?? after how many decades?? like i understand that some techniques are obviously stressing the bricks and even require too much strength to even put in place. but some just seem like a natural thing to do and then get marked illegal
I’m still a little confused as to how plates with more than one stud on a technic piece is illegal. I’ve seen people explain it as “the technic holes aren’t spaced out the same distance as system plates”, but putting technic pins in the technic holes and then putting the system plates on those is completely legal. What exactly is it that’s causing the stress? I’ve seen a lot of mech builders also use a technique where they use 2 boat studs and place an axel and pin connector between each pair of studs, and always wondered if this was legal or not.
“Quality test” -pices do not stuck proper -same colors do not match -sets look shit and can sometimes not even be seperatet proper. And can not be proper played. -it teaches young kids they have to buy big company logos and shit. -the new low quality concept comes with ridiculus new high prices, noone can understand. Because lego use a dice to come to a price. -real lego fans buy kobi or cada or what ever germanys former biggest lego fan, lego took to curt, recomands. -go. Step on a lego. Love, former lego fan 1984-2020
Having the technic brick holes at a different height from a brick with a stud on the side seems like such an arbitrary decision that limits your build. Also if all that it takes to legally fit a plate on it’s side between studs is to be microscopically shorter than why on earth would you not make all plates that size?????
Hi Tiago, hope you’ve had a great start to 2023. I was revisiting this article and have a couple questions – 1. I have been collecting CMF’s and have chosen to display by inserting the classic mini fig stand between studs on a 48×48 baseplate in a grid pattern so that they are perpendicular to the baseplate when displayed. Given the element is considered a modified tile, does this present any long term risk or considered illegal. 2. In organizing my legos, I find it useful to stack 1×1 plates of each color together making it easy to pick up however many you need and not dig thru a pile- does this stress the elements over time and make their grip any less? 3. In the recent CMF Series 24, there is the awesome Football Referee which includes a soccer ball element – do you have any suggestion how to mount or display this with the fig – I only see a tiny hole like on some animals or minidolls? Thanks
Is their any actual reason why the hole on the technic brick is slightly higher? Was it a mistake in the original design and no one decided to change, or is it there to specifically serve a certain purpose. I could see in certain cases that a technic hole could be useful to mount a pice in a different orientation and would open more possibilities.
At least I have been building correctly but still have bricks break, mostly the torso piece and arm connectio, ever think they will get fixed? Also I design in Lego Digital Designer and I improved some designs and made them simpler so anyway to get those reviewed for sets? If I build anything better all I want is to show people a better way
So Lego that you bought with money making it your property is illegal to ruin/break it? I don’t understand what the law has to with this because then why isn’t cracking your phone screen illegal then? Is it illegal because of safety reasons or because the Lego company is so legendary that breaking bricks is simply disrespectful? I’m having trouble understanding the why it’s illegal part. Could some one clear up the ‘why its illegal’ part for me? I’m surprised no one seems to have brought this up.
I laugh at the word illegal. how can using something YOU OWN to do with and build anything you want, ever be illegal? I mean I have been known to mix bricks from alternative sets (for unique pieces not available from lego) and even wood logs into various builds… heck even used erector pieces for some designs in the past… They’re mine, I paid for all the parts I’ll use them as I see fit thank you very much…. If I want to sand off the lego logo on every brick, I’ll do so (why anyone would is beyond me seemingly a huge waste of time, But still). no one can control an item’s use after it is purchased from the seller.
I didn’t realize the new 1×1 tile with clip with tile connected was a legal building technic. I have seen this on both the Creator Blue Power Jet and the Icons Discovery sets, with the clip holding a 1×1 tile up for a heads-up display. I always thought that was illegal, but I realize now it isn’t. I have however added an illegal building technique to the Discovery set to make the explosive cover for the drogue chute that goes at the base of the tail. While the Technic pin + 1×1 stud does allow the bottom of the tail to line up with the rudder/brake, it does put strain on the pin as it cannot expand inside the 1×3 inverted slope. It’s been in there so long that it has practically conformed itself to the hole and no longer is under much strain anymore. I now realize this is also inaccurate, as STS-31 (which the set is based on) didn’t have this drogue chute. It was first flown on STS-49, the maiden flight of Endeavour, almost 2 years after Discovery carried the Hubble Telescope to orbit. Also, if you’re wondering what the hell a “drogue” chute is, it can also be called a drag chute, but I first picked up the term while playing Kerbal Space Program.
Interessting knowledge to have as an adult. But i doubt i cared about this in my childhood. I just wanted to build, and if it was off by half a millimeter, just yolo it and use some more force or get the file out and make it fit. And explaining something like “illegal build technics” to a kid sounds just rediculous, it’s supposed to be just a simple creative toy.
The Comments here are amusing… talkin about “Illegal Lego Technics” and “This article describs it correct”…. While nothing shown here can be called “Properly Illegal”…. For something to be Illegal it has to be Forbidden by Law… thats the MAIN Point…. It might be bad for the Tiles to use them that way, not advisable and such but its not Illegal xD
Lol… you know what: As long as you lego guys aren’t even able to build Sci Fi sets that didn’t look like a rainbow inside, you shouldn’t talk about what’s “illegal”. You know what’s illegal? The pricing of your products and the fact that you even sue other companies while your company itself isn’t even the original inventor of building bricks!
If stuff like that is “illegal” then I must be Denmark’s most wanted criminal. When I had an idea I did what worked out to make it real, no matter what. I even built pillars made of Lego heads or made my own 1:1 toy version of a Colt 1911 and many more weird stuff. You have no idea what’s possible owning just some random LEGO sets XD I loved it soo much when i was a little boy.
“Illegal” Lego building? What a nonsensical concept! XD Do whatever you want with your Legos! I guarantee you won’t be going to prison. Also I always thought that Legos had a norm, making certain features like the studs and holes the same on all bricks. This seems like a really obvious technical oversight that needs correcting.
There is no such thing as illegal connections. When we all played with Lego as kids, we did whatever we wanted and lived with the consequences. Yes I understand the intent here regarding possible damage to a solid and extremely hard wearing piece of plastic, but as kids, we all saw if the connection wasn’t right and either accepted it or changed it. “Illegal” is what happens when adults go back to their childhood Lego sets and start putting rules in place to control themselves and others because that’s what adults have been conditioned to do since school. Rules for the sake of rules to make everyone feel confident and secure about the “right” way. Talk about sucking the fun out of a children’s toy. Oh you’re an adult and a serious builder? Seriously, Lego is a kid’s toy first and foremost. If it wasn’t, Lego would be sold exclusively in adult hobby shops alongside model aeroplanes and Warhammer 40k. Damaged bricks? I got news for everyone: your Lego bricks won’t last forever. Sorry, accept it. But they’ll last an extremely long time. In England a ship with Lego sank into the sea and for years washed Lego pieces onto the beach and the Lego is just fine: Lego pieces are very hard to break but want to be paranoid about brick damage? Your decision, your life. But to use the word “illegal” betrays a very controlling and intolerant mindset for a children’s toy. A more neutral phrase like “sub optimal connection” would be more appropriate rather than a term that sounds like you’ve committed a crime, should be arrested, put on trial and sent to prison.
Oh so you designed the haunted house? Oddly I remember different people presenting it as creators. Either way I like that set almost even bought it but it was way too expensive where I live and importing it would cost double then what would I locally pay for …. When it comes to preservation and proper usage. My experience with LEGO is that many old pieces I have deformed or broke and I didn’t even used it much. There were few that I assembled and kept it as a display while upon dusting it off with a gentle brush I managed to somehow break pieces. So using it how ever you want is welcomed because chances are some will break anyways so use it while you still can. The high quality in LEGO is a myth, they are not that different from alternative bricks. Besides some of the even official ones are actually manufactured in China in relatively poor conditions. Hence why there is lots of knockoffs there since they copied or use ‘outdated’ molds.
Legos, one of the only extremely high standard of quality products still made in the world. If every one of the billions of pieces were not manufactured exactly to standard and every like piece isn’t exactly the same over time, legal builds would exhibit the same stresses, wonkyness and failures of illegal builds. Too bad Legos doesn’t make real cars, trucks, boats and buildings lol.
Umm yea I don’t understand why certain builds are illegal??? Between my kids bitting,chewy, smashing and just about anything else a 5 and 6 year old can imagine they can do with them. Also does my dogs count as an illegal build or connection when they are put into the mix???. This article makes no sense.
Lol, I just love the dystopian flare that the word “legal” brings here. As a kid I once have flattened a section of a cross beam with my teeth, making the beam able to flex, so that it turned into a catapult arm. Moreover, when you inserted the flattened part deeper into the holder (and it took lots of flattening and a small hammer to tightly match the tolerances of Lego) – you could control the flexiness of the beam, thus kinda controlling the range. You can do anything with the things you purchase (especially when they cost what they cost).
WHY are technic bricks slightly different dimensions that lead to less compatible legal builds? I have wanted to use plates and bricks for bases of some technic builds. Or to incorporate non technic pieces for form or function. I wish there was a rod/pin piece that was meant to go into the Lego brick anti-stud holes.
Oh yeah, that haunted house, which was a total rip off of one of my creation using some Lego designer software many years ago. I submitted my house, with the entrance stairs on the left, the gothic door, the rest of the house recessed, a tower, a mad science lab, pointy windows… A few months later, I see my house on shelves, except better because the software Lego provided was very limited. Everything had the same shape and was in the same place. You’re welcome.
Just tell them not to chain the brain. Honestly, as long as it’s not completely cracking a brick, I don’t see anything as illegal. Since there is no law in the world preventing it. Lego is not a government and cannot make laws. Love the creative ways you use elements; it challenges me to think outside the box.
Yea I took my bionicle claw pieces and put one over the other like on the knuckle, and the clip… Let’s just say, it is ded and can’t be used anymore, the clip gets cracked and falls off, now I do reccomend if you were to make bionicle again, please make the clips more stronger and a little bit beefier, and not fragile and thin.