LEGO Digital Designer

### LEGO® Digital Designer 1.3

| Build 3.42.23456 |

## Documentation

The readme file contains system requirements and the latest information. You should check it if you have any problems.

### Contents

- Mouse controls
- Brick palettes
- The toolbar
- Viewpoint control
- The function bar
- The navigation bar
- The building instruction bar
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Configuration file settings

### Mouse controls

The table below lists the mouse controls.

### Mouse controls

- Left mouse button - Pick up and move a brick if you're not holding one. If you are holding one, attempt to place it.
- Right mouse button - Rotate the held or selected brick.

### Brick Palettes

When you first start LEGO Digital Designer, or when you click Restart on the function bar, you can select which brick palette you want to build with.

### Brick palettes

| All bricks,actual colours - This brick palette has bricks taken from all the LEGO sets available. The brick colours are the same as those used in the sets. This is a combination of all the individual palettes.
| Individual palettes - All of the other palette options allow you to build with the bricks of an individual LEGO set. The brick colours are the same as those used in the sets.
| Virtual sets - Most palettes allow you to use as many bricks of each type as you like, but some palettes have a limited number of each brick, more like a real set. If you choose one of these palettes, numbers will appear on the bricks in the brick tray to tell you how many bricks you have left of each type.
| Viewing palette info - When you load a model, the brick palette automatically changes to match the palette that was used to build the model (you can load a model with a different palette by right clicking a model on the load screen). You can see which brick palette you are using by clicking this button at the top of the brick tray.

### The toolbar

The toolbar is on the left hand side of the screen. It contains tools to position and edit the bricks in your model. Some icons conceal multiple tools: click the arrow to the right to reveal the other tools available.

### The toolbar

| Automatic LEGO Connections (L key) - When this mode is active, LEGO Digital Designer will try and find a suitable place to stick bricks. After you've placed them, use the PgUp/PgDn buttons to move them up and down. When the mode is inactive, you can position the bricks yourself. They won't stick to other bricks.
| Select and move (M key) - Click on a brick to pick it up, move it to where you want to place it and click to put it down. You can use the cursor keys to rotate the brick too.
| Multi select (M key) - Click on multiple bricks to select them, then drag to begin moving them. Position the selection where you want it, and click to put it down. Click on the background to deselect all bricks.
| Super select (M key) - Click on a part of the model to select all the connected bricks. Click repeatedly to select bricks above, below, to the left or to the right. Click the background to deselect all bricks.
| Same Colour select (M key) - Click on a brick to select all the bricks in the model with the same colour.
| Same Design select (M key) - Click on a brick to select all the bricks in the model with the same design.
| Same Colour and Design select (M key) - Click on a brick to select all the bricks in the model with the same colour and design.
| Clone (D key) - Click a single brick or selection of bricks to create a copy.
| Paint (G key) - Paint a brick or the baseplate by selecting a colour then clicking with this tool.
| Colour Picker (G key) - Select a colour by clicking on a brick.
| Delete (E key) - Delete bricks by clicking them. You can also delete bricks with the delete key, or by dropping them back onto the brick tray.
| Hinge (H key) - Use this tool to click a brick that is already connected. The left and right keys will allow you to rotate the brick around the connection point.

### Viewpoint control

The viewpoint control is in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. It controls your view of the model.

### Viewpoint control

The arrow buttons rotate the viewpoint about the target.
The central button resets the viewpoint back to the starting state.
The + and - buttons zoom in and out on the target.
The target button allows you to set where the viewpoint is centred. Click a brick to focus on it.
You can also use the keypad buttons on your keyboard. Keys 8, 6, 4, 2, +, - 0 and 5.

By holding down the Alt key you can move the camera around using the mouse. Hold down Alt and the left mouse button and move the mouse to rotate the camera about the target, hold down the middle mouse button to pan the camera and hold down the right mouse button to zoom. If you have a mouse with a wheel this can also be rolled to zoom in and out from the model.

### The function bar

The function bar is at the bottom of the screen. It contains options for controlling LEGO Digital Designer and your model.

### The function bar

| Restart (N key) - Clear your model, then either open a model from your saved documents folder or choose a new brick palette and start again.
| Save (S key) - Save a model to your saved documents folder.
| Delete from disk - Delete models from your saved documents folder.
| Undo (build mode only) (Z or Escape key) - Abort the current action if you are holding a brick. Otherwise, undo the last action performed.
| Redo (build mode only) (Y Key) - Redo the last undo action you performed.
| Deconstruct (view mode only) (U key) - This button shows you an animated deconstruction of your model.
| Snapshot (view mode only) (K key) - This button saves a snapshot to your saved documents folder. It will have the same name as your model.
| Print Brick List / Print Screen Shot (P key) - In build mode this button prints a list of the bricks that were used to build your model. Inview mode the button prints a screenshot of your model. The printout will go to your default Windows printer. You can configure the default printer using the Windows control panel.
| Exchange models (I key) - Share your models at the LEGO website.
| Build Instruction Toolbar (view mode only) (F2 Key) - Click on this button to toggle the building instruction toolbar on and off (described below).
| What's this tool (F1 key) - Click on this button then on another button to get pop up information on how to use that button.

### The navigation bar

The navigation bar is at the bottom right of the screen. It contains buttons for switching between the build and view modes and for exiting the LEGO Digital Designer.

### The navigation bar

| View mode (build mode only) (T key) - Switch to view mode to look at your model from all angles.
| Build mode (view mode only) (T key) - This button exits back to the build area.
| Quit (Q key) - Exit LEGO Digital Designer.

### The building instruction bar

The building instruction bar may be toggled on and off in view mode by clicking the building instruction button on the function bar. It contains buttons for stepping through the construction of your model and is also useful to see how to build other peoples models.
You can save or print any building instruction step by pressing the Snapshot or Print Screen Shot buttons on the function bar.

### The building instruction bar

| First Building Instruction Step (Home Key) - Go back to the first step in the building instructions.
| Step Back (Page Up Key) - Go back one step in the building instructions.
| Play / Pause (Enter Key) - Press this button to play through the building instructions from the current step. Press the button again to pause.
| Forward (Page Down Key) - Go forward one step in the building instructions.
| Last Building Instruction Step (End) - Go forward to the last step in the building instructions.

### Keyboard shortcuts

The table below lists the keyboard shortcuts.

### Keyboard shortcuts

#### Selected brick:

- Left/Right/Up/Down Rotate selected brick. If the hinge tool is active, rotate the brick around the hinge connection. Otherwise, rotate the brick in the world.
- Delete Delete the selected bricks.
- PgUp/PgDn Move the placed brick up and down.

#### Undo:

- Escape Abort the current action.
- Z Undo the last action.
- Y Redo the last action.

#### Viewpoint control:

- +/-/ Zoom in and out.
- 4/6 Rotate the view left and right.
- 2/8 Rotate the view up and down.
- 0 or 5 Reset the viewpoint.
- Space Switch on the targeting tool to centre the view on an object.

#### Tools:

- M Cycle between the brick movement tools.
- D Clone tool.
- G Cycle between the paint tools (paint and colour picker).
- E Delete tool.
- H Hinge tool.
- L Toggle automatic LEGO connections on or off.
- B Toggles the display of the brick tray.

#### Functions:

- N Restart.
- S Save.
- P Print brick list (build mode) / screen shot (view mode).
- I Exchange models on LEGO.com.
- F1 Help.
- U Deconstruct (view mode only).
- K Save screenshot (view mode only).
- F2 Toggle building instruction toolbar (view mode).
- F3 Toggle alternative background images (view mode).

#### Building Instructions (view mode only):

- Home First building instruction step.
- Page Up Step back.
- Enter Play / Pause.
- Page Down Step forward.
- End Last building instruction step.

#### Navigation:

- T Toggle build/view mode.
- Q or F4 Exit LDD.

### Configuration file settings

The configuration settings may be changed using the preferences editor included with the LEGO Digital Designer.

### Configuration file settings

#### Display Settings:

- Fullscreen Controls whether the application is run in full screen or windowed mode. (Note: Windowed mode is not fully supported, advanced users only). Two cursors may be seen and the user will be required to lock the position of one using the F11 key.
- Display Driver Controls whether the Lego Digital Designer runs using either DirectX 7 or DirectX 8.
- Resolution Depth Controls the screen resolution and the number of colours to display when running LEGO Digital Designer. To set an unusual resolution (for a portrait monitor for example), the file LEGO.conf can be edited by opening it in a text editor and changing the appropriate entries (see below).

#### LEGO Models Folder:

- Default Folder The name of the folder where your creations will be saved. This folder is "My Documents/My LEGO Creations" by default.

#### Building in Virtual LEGO colours:

- Allow New All-Colour Models Set this to On if you want to be able to make new models using a brick palette with a large selection of LEGO colours. Be aware that real LEGO pieces may not be available in all of the colours available here.

#### Developer Settings:

- Developer Mode Set this to On to enable diagnostic features in the LEGO Digital Designer (advanced users only). Diagnostic features may be accessed by pressing Left Control, Right Shift and one of: F5 (toggle statistics display), F6 (toggle geometry), F7 (toggle LEGO connections), F8 (toggle collision box display), F9 (reset UI), F10 (save model as a Q file).

#### Web Settings:

- Web Version Check Set this to Off to disable update checking. LEGO Digital Designer will not look on the web to see if there is a new version available unless it is set to On.

#### Mouse Settings:

- Mouse Sensitivity Set this to change how quickly the mouse moves.

#### Building Instruction Settings:

- Number of Bricks Per Step Sets the number of bricks to add to the model for each step of the building instructions
  (1 - 10).
- Playback Speed Sets the speed at which the steps in the building instructions will be played back
  (1 = slow, 10 = fast).
- Build Up From Base Set this to On to place bricks in height order from the base of the model upwards, or Off to place bricks in the order in which they were added to the model.

| Settings are stored in the file lego.conf, in the installation directory. By default, this is C:/Program Files/LEGO Software/LEGO Digital Designer. Advanced users may choose to edit this file with Windows Notepad. |