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About this video

Design your own LEGO-style set, then 3D print it

In this clip from his 9 free 3D printing tools review, Steve (3D Jesus) tries PrintPal's free 3D Brick Builder. You snap construction-style bricks together on a virtual baseplate in your browser and download every part as a printable STL. You also get step-by-step building instructions for the exact model you designed. No CAD software or design experience needed.

What the Brick Builder gives you

  • Every brick as its own STL. The export is a ZIP with one print-ready STL per unique brick. They open in Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer, PrusaSlicer or Cura.
  • A PDF instruction booklet. It has a cover page, a full parts list and one page per step, with the new brick highlighted. The PDF is bundled in the ZIP, and you can also walk through the steps in the browser.
  • Custom brick sizes. Make anything from a 1×1 up to a 12×12 brick, from 1 to 9 plates tall.
  • Save and share builds. Download your design as a .bricks.json file and load it again later. The tool also auto-saves in your browser.

Will 3D printed bricks fit real LEGO?

Steve's warning is the right one. Injection-molded bricks have very tight tolerances, so how well a printed brick fits depends on your printer, filament and calibration. He did not print the bricks in this clip. The Brick Builder has settings for exactly this:

Setting What it does
Scale 100% Real-brick-compatible sizing: 8 mm stud spacing, 9.6 mm brick height
Scale 130% (default) Chunkier, easier-to-handle bricks for kids and classrooms. They only fit each other
Clutch Fit: Standard, Tight, Extra Tight Changes the stud size and the small internal ridges that grip the brick below

Print one or two test bricks before a full set. If they fall apart, switch to Tight and export again. If they're too hard to pull apart, lower the stud diameter slightly (try 4.90 or 4.85 mm). Layers of 0.16 mm or finer, 3 walls and slower outer walls give cleaner studs. It also helps to calibrate your flow rate: over-extrusion shrinks the cavities and changes the fit.

Ideas to try

  • Family or classroom builds: kids design a set, print the pieces in their favorite colors and build it from the booklet. Along the way they learn about 3D coordinates, design and tolerances.
  • Personalized gifts: import one brick into your slicer and add a name, date or logo.
  • Branded desk builds: a small set in your company colors, with its own instructions.
  • Share a MOC: send the .bricks.json file so anyone can rebuild your creation.

FAQ

Is PrintPal's Brick Builder free?
Yes. It runs in your browser and is free with a PrintPal account. The STL ZIP and PDF instructions are included.

What files do I get?
One STL per unique brick plus a PDF building guide, all in one ZIP.

Is this an official LEGO product?
No. LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO Group, which does not sponsor or endorse this tool or video.

Full Transcript

The brick builder. Here it is. Okay, so this is actually kind of interesting because you can do any of these bricks over here and you can build stuff. Put this one next to that, I guess, I don't know, like that. Okay, and then when you download the parts in a ZIP file and you open them, it gives you all the bricks, which is nice. I didn't print any of these, but I would imagine... I've tried to print Lego bricks before and design my own, and the tolerances on these things are crazy tight because they're injection molded. They're not usually 3D printed. So these are tough, but these look really good. So you could probably just print those if you're looking for actual Legos for your kids, or bring one of those into the slicer and stick a name on it or your company logo or whatever you want, right? Just be creative with it. And then it'll give you all the individual bricks, and then it actually gives you this kind of cool instruction PDF on how to build that thing you just made. So that's kind of fun. I thought that was interesting. So for a kid, again, if they're really into Lego, they can build their own stuff and then it spits out the directions, which is kind of fun if you're a child, right?