LEGO® announced that its digital designer program, LEGO® Digital Designer (or “LDD”) will be replaced by BrickLink Studio. The closure of LDD will happen on 31 January and will no longer be available for download.
Landing on LDD now points users to BrickLink Studio.
LDD was released in 2004. It was a freeware computer program that allow the user to build their own 3D LEGO® designs and models. LDD provided the user with a wide variety of LEGO parts that could be used to build and design their own creation. LDD allowed the user to generate their own list of parts or instructions to build their creation.
BrickLink Studio was created in 2014 by BrickLink. It too was created as a free download for LEGO users as a building tool.
“Studio was created because at BrickLink, there is a great belief in how digital LEGO® building could unlock true potential of everyone’s creativity by lowering the entry barriers and motivating people to inspire each other,” says Casper Thingholm, Head of BrickLink. “Going forward, the Studio team will continue to focus on making digital building as intuitive as physical building, and encourage even more builders to share their creations to inspire and help each other.”
The good news is that any designs already created in LDD can be imported to Studio. To do so, simply open Studio. Click on “File” … click “Import” … “Import Model” … and then browse to the LDD model you want to import.
Studio allows for intuitive and easy building, and allows the user to generate photo realistic renders of their design. It is completely free for use and is supported in Windows and Mac. You do not need a BrickLink account, but there are definitely benefits for the user that wants to share designs or collaborate with friends.
Studio also “supports direct integration with BrickLink’s catalogue, marketplace and gallery”. Look for the “BrickLink” drop-down menu at the top of the program.
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