Mapping Lego parts to library

[karen lauro]

The Lego Power Tools book states parts are named #LEGOreferencenumber#. These are stated to be the numbers printed on physical blocks. I am assuming these are the same numbers Lego uses in instruction manuals.  Going to the top brick in Lego friends 41007, the number is 4113261, a 2x2x2. I could not find 4113261.dat in my LDraw\parts directory of the parts tracker online. So I looked for 300101 a 2 x 4 x 1. Could not find that either. What am I doing wrong? Thanks.

[Gerald Lasser]

Hello Karen,

The number you try to look up is actually the LEGO Element ID. It is a combination of the Design and the color. However: Only LEGO knows how this number is generated... Unforunately it isn't simply the Design ID plus the color in front, no, they use some magic computation to generate it.

But, how to get to the right part:
Try Bricklink or Brickset:

e.g.:
https://brickset.com/parts/4113261

will give you the Design ID: 3245 (which you can find in LDraw) plus the color white

To make it easier for you to build something, look up the inventory on Brickset or Bricklink, there you can find directly the DEsign ID of the brick you are looking for.

e.g. for Set https://brickset.com/sets/41007-1/Heartlake-Pet-Salon (go to inventory)

Gerald

[Philippe Hurbain]

The Lego Power Tools book states parts are named #LEGOreferencenumber#. These are stated to be the numbers printed on physical blocks. I am assuming these are the same numbers Lego uses in instruction manuals.  Going to the top brick in Lego friends 41007, the number is 4113261, a 2x2x2. I could not find 4113261.dat in my LDraw\parts directory of the parts tracker online. So I looked for 300101 a 2 x 4 x 1. Could not find that either. What am I doing wrong? Thanks.

LEGO uses 2 kind of references. One is the design number (generally a 5 digits number, though early parts got only 4) which is generally embossed in teeny characters somewhere on the part. This number matches a shape, think of it as a number of mold. The other is the item number (generally a 7 digits number) which can be considered as a particular shape in a particular color (but the same - apparently- shape/color combo may have several different item numbers). This is the number you see in building instructions.

As LDraw is all about shapes, it uses the 5 digits design number (when it is known, unfortunately not always the case). Brickset inventories (based on LEGO spare parts inventories) allow to search for a part using both systems. In your case, 4113261 is a Brick 1X2X2, design number 3245, in white color.

Just to make things a tad more complex, LEGO sometimes modify the mold without changing part number, so in LDraw library you have 3 variants, 3245a, b and c!

That said, it may be easier to look for elements using description, eg. in LDCad you can either browse the plain bricks sorted bin, or search for "brick 1x2x2" and you'll find it.

[karen lauro]

Hello Karen,

The number you try to look up is actually the LEGO Element ID. It is a combination of the Design and the color. However: Only LEGO knows how this number is generated... Unforunately it isn't simply the Design ID plus the color in front, no, they use some magic computation to generate it.

But, how to get to the right part:
Try Bricklink or Brickset:

e.g.:
https://brickset.com/parts/4113261

will give you the Design ID: 3245 (which you can find in LDraw) plus the color white

To make it easier for you to build something, look up the inventory on Brickset or Bricklink, there you can find directly the DEsign ID of the brick you are looking for.

e.g. for Set https://brickset.com/sets/41007-1/Heartlake-Pet-Salon (go to inventory)

Gerald

Major Thanks Gerald.

[karen lauro]

The Lego Power Tools book states parts are named #LEGOreferencenumber#. These are stated to be the numbers printed on physical blocks. I am assuming these are the same numbers Lego uses in instruction manuals.  Going to the top brick in Lego friends 41007, the number is 4113261, a 2x2x2. I could not find 4113261.dat in my LDraw\parts directory of the parts tracker online. So I looked for 300101 a 2 x 4 x 1. Could not find that either. What am I doing wrong? Thanks.

LEGO uses 2 kind of references. One is the design number (generally a 5 digits number, though early parts got only 4) which is generally embossed in teeny characters somewhere on the part. This number matches a shape, think of it as a number of mold. The other is the item number (generally a 7 digits number) which can be considered as a particular shape in a particular color (but the same - apparently- shape/color combo may have several different item numbers). This is the number you see in building instructions.

As LDraw is all about shapes, it uses the 5 digits design number (when it is known, unfortunately not always the case). Brickset inventories (based on LEGO spare parts inventories) allow to search for a part using both systems. In your case, 4113261 is a Brick 1X2X2, design number 3245, in white color.

Just to make things a tad more complex, LEGO sometimes modify the mold without changing part number, so in LDraw library you have 3 variants, 3245a, b and c!

That said, it may be easier to look for elements using description, eg. in LDCad you can either browse the plain bricks sorted bin, or search for "brick 1x2x2" and you'll find it.

Thank you, but you are kinda making my head hurt. One of the reasons of doing this mini model is to learn what I do not know, and hopefully fill in the blanks. I think it will!

[Merlijn Wissink]

To add to this, the 'item number' is officially called an element-id and is not only used for a specific part (design-id) + color, but also to different printed parts, multi-color parts etc. etc. In fact, Lego uses the element-id for basicially everything they produce: stickers, instructions, booklets, flyers, promotional booklets, boxes, packaging material. Everything has an element id.

And to Karen: Rebrickable.com has a pretty extensive mapping between Lego part numbers (also the element-ids from instructions!) and LDraw parts 

[karen lauro]

To add to this, the 'item number' is officially called an element-id and is not only used for a specific part (design-id) + color, but also to different printed parts, multi-color parts etc. etc. In fact, Lego uses the element-id for basicially everything they produce: stickers, instructions, booklets, flyers, promotional booklets, boxes, packaging material. Everything has an element id.

And to Karen: Rebrickable.com has a pretty extensive mapping between Lego part numbers (also the element-ids from instructions!) and LDraw parts 

Thank you. I will definitely check it out.