Miniature Figures

Miniature figures give you more lively models. LeoCAD offers a wizard for this purpose, which you can launch via the Part | Minifig Wizard menu (Figure 5). A dialog opens where you can assemble the individual parts of a miniature figure – hair, face, body, and accessories – and specify colors. Next to some elements, you will also find an input field for a number that you can use to rotate the element in question. For example, you can rotate the face or bend the arms, hands, and legs.

Figure 5: A wizard helps you assemble miniature figures and kit them out with accessories.

Press the Save button to store a minifig in your collection and Delete to remove it. Export saves the minifig data in a separate file, and Import loads the data for a figure from an external file. Once you are satisfied with your minifig, press OK to insert it into the model, such as the coffee house shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Miniature figures make models look more alive.

Exporting

LeoCAD offers several options for exporting. You can use the File | Save Image menu item to turn a model into a PNG graphic. For more options, see File | Export. You can create an HTML file from your model or write a list of the bricks used for it to a CSV or XML file. You can reuse the bricks, for example, on an online marketplace such as BrickLink [7].

Conclusions

Let your creativity run wild with LDraw and LeoCAD. Building with the virtual bricks takes some practice, but is just as fun as using real bricks. LeoCAD also lets you create build instructions and lists of the bricks used, so you and others can easily recreate your creations.