Quickstart Guide
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Build your model
Create a digital model in your favorite editor, e.g. Bricklink Studio, Lego Digital Designer, LDCad, or any other editor. You don't have to pay attention to building steps, BrickStep will generate them automatically. Make sure to save your model in LDraw format (.ldr or .mpd extension).
- To export LDraw from Bricklink Studio, navigate to File → Export As → Export as LDraw.
- To export LDraw from Lego Digital Designer, navigate to File → Export Model. Select LDraw-Files in the Files of type box. Make sure to specify a name that ends in .ldr in the File name box.
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Upload to BrickStep
Upload your LDraw file. BrickStep will automatically split your model into subassemblies, generate building steps, and arrange steps on pages. Please note that this process requires some heavy computations, so it can take a few minutes (or hours if the server is very busy). Once it's done, you will receive an email with a link to download your instructions.
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Render the instructions
BrickStep generates your instructions as a raw .io or .mpd file. To covert them to a PDF file, you can use either Bricklink Studio or LPub3D. Simply open the downloaded .io file in Bricklink Studio or the downloaded .mpd file in LPub3D. You can make adjustments to the instructions and when you're ready, export the PDF.
- To export PDF from Bricklink Studio, navigate to Tool → Instruction Maker. Switch to Page Design and click Export in the top right corner.
- To export PDF from LPub3D, navigate to File → Export to PDF File.
Sample Instructions
Below you can download sample instructions generated by BrickStep for a few models taken from the LDraw Official Model Repository.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which parts are supported by BrickStep?
All official parts from the LDraw Parts Library are supported. You can also use custom or unofficial parts if you include them as subfiles in the uploaded LDraw file.
Note that some new parts that are available in Bricklink Studio may not be available in the LDraw library yet.
How to improve the quality of generated instructions?
BrickStep generates subassemblies and building steps based on the strength of connections between parts in your model. It is important that all parts are properly aligned, so that the connections are detected correctly. We recommend using an editor with part snapping functionality, such as Bricklink Studio or LDCad.
If your model is large or complex, BrickStep may fail to find good subassemblies, which may result in unintuitive step sequences. You can significantly improve the quality of generated instructions by defining some subassemblies manually.
- To define a subassembly in Bricklink Studio, select all relevant parts (while holding Ctrl). Press the right mouse button and choose Submodel → Create.
- To define a subassembly in LDCad, select all relevant parts (while holding Ctrl). Press the right mouse button and choose Reorganize → Move to subfile.
Can I edit generated instructions?
Yes! You can edit the downloaded .io file in Bricklink Studio or the downloaded .mpd file in any LDraw editor. After making changes, you can reupload the modified file to BrickStep to regenerate the step sequence and/or page layout.
- If you modified the subassemblies, enable the Preserve existing subassemblies option to prevent BrickStep from changing them. You may want to disable Split model into subassemblies if you don't want any new subassemblies to be created.
- If you modified the building steps, enable the Preserve already defined steps option to ensure they stay intact. You may want to disable Split subassemblies into building steps if you don't want to generate building steps for any remaining subassemblies.
- There is no option to preserve page formatting, so we recommend leaving any formatting changes until the end, once you're satisfied with the subassemblies and steps.
How to fix misaligned steps in LPub3D?
In some older versions of LPub3D, text size depends on your screen scaling factor, which may cause wrong alignment of elements on the page. If this is the case, go to Configuration → Build Instructions Setup → Project Setup and change the Dot Resolution option according to your screen scaling factor.
- Screen scaling: 100% → Dots per inch: 150
- Screen scaling: 125% → Dots per inch: 188
- Screen scaling: 150% → Dots per inch: 225
- Screen scaling: 175% → Dots per inch: 263
- Screen scaling: 200% → Dots per inch: 300
Which LPub3D renderers are supported by BrickStep?
To properly arrange steps on pages, BrickStep makes assumptions about the size of images. However, different renderers may scale them differently. By default, BrickStep adjusts images for the Native renderer. You may select the Adjust step image sizes for LDView renderer option if you want to use the LDView renderer. If you use a different renderer, images may appear too large or too small.