Getting started
Your first model
Put parts down, colour and turn them, make a step, save the model and share it, in about ten minutes.
This walks through one small model from an empty baseplate to a link you can send. Everything here works the same in a browser and in the desktop app.
1. Build your first model
A first visit offers Build your first model along the top of the model: seven short steps, each done in the app, not read about. Start gives you a baseplate of your own (the example model comes off; a model of yours is kept, and File › New asks first if it is not saved). Each step says one thing, frames what to use and names your key for it, and moves on when the app sees it done, whichever way you do it: put a part down, turn it, colour it, move it, copy it, turn the view, and save. Skip ends it at any step, and it is not offered again; Help › Take the tour brings it back.
2. Put a part down
Press P or click a part in the parts bin on the left: it is now in hand and follows the pointer over the baseplate, snapping to the studs. Click to put it down. It stays in hand, so each click puts down another. Press Esc or right-click to let go, and Q to take the last part back.
- R turns the part in hand a quarter turn; T tips it onto its side.
- [ and ] step through colours; Shift+C asks for a colour by name or number.
- A part aimed under an overhang goes underneath it; a part tipped with T and aimed at a side stud goes on sideways.
3. Change it
Click a part to select it. Drag it to carry it somewhere else, press Delete to take it away, C to paint it in the current colour, or Ctrl+D to duplicate it. Ctrl+Z undoes anything, and Edit › History goes back several steps at once.
4. Make a step
Press E when a stage is done: everything put down since the last step becomes one build step. B opens the timeline to see them in order. The booklet and the step player on your model's page follow these steps. See Instructions and booklets.
5. Save it
Press Ctrl+S. The first save asks what to call the model. It is kept in this browser (or on this computer) and with your account, so File › Open finds it anywhere you sign in. File › Versions… keeps its last 20 saves.
6. Check it holds
Tools › Check stability shows whether it would stand and which joints would give way. A red part is one that would come loose. See Joints and mechanisms.
7. Share it
File › Share… publishes the model with a picture, a name and a kind. You get a link anyone can open in 3D, step through and build, with no account. See Sharing a model.