Virtual LEGO^® Book

In 2003 I co-authored the first comprehensive guide to virtual LEGO® building software with Steve Bliss and Ahui Herrera. Virtual LEGO, a 450-page technical book published by No Starch Press, served as a tutorial and reference for thousands of LEGO fans to learn to design and render their own digital LEGO models, images, and building instructions to archive and share online. These tools and this book helped establish the foundation for today's digital LEGO creation ecosystem.

Before digital cameras or homebrew LEGO CAD software, LEGO fans (who became known as Adult Fans of LEGO or AFOLs) lacked tools to document and share their own LEGO creations online. The LDraw community emerged in the late 1990s to solve this challenge through open-source software tools for digital LEGO building. After James Jessiman created the original LDraw format and software in 1995, a dedicated community formed around extending and supporting these tools. Following James Jessiman's passing, I worked with other stewards to establish LDraw.org as the central hub for the community, including links to compatible tools, parts library distribution, and file format governance.

Virtual LEGO aimed to make complex digital tools accessible to everyday LEGO fans through:

• A comprehensive tutorial of the LDraw software ecosystem and file format
• Step-by-step guides for common building techniques, identifying and working with parts, creating building instructions, rendering photo-realistic images, and authoring parts
• Real-world examples of creations from LEGO fans
• CD-ROM with bundled software, models, and parts library

Read Virtual LEGO online for free on the Internet Archive.