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Unfortunately these types of Bricks have not been made Decoratable yet meaning most likely no Official TLG Decorations used any relevant Brick Surfaces in the past or have not yet done so, which requires adding Custom Decoration Surfaces a slightly more complicated process, Part 3754 is now retired by TLG so will most likely remain not Decoratable in LDD. If I remember correctly there is a Software to directly edit LDD Bricks which I have never used before since I personally only customise LDD with Custom Decorations on existing Decoratable Surfaces. Look through this Topic for posts on this subject and there may be more details posted by others who have done this before.

The first thing to do is make sure the correct latest version of LDD (4.3.11) is installed, then install all Custom LDD Updates released so far, check out this reply for a brief summary. It is slightly more complicated to assign Custom Decoration Surfaces in LDD, so the best thing to do is look for Bricks with one or more Decoratable Surfaces and apply Decorations to these, as Decoration Surfaces are usually enabled depending on whether any Official TLG Decorations use them or not anyway. To check whether a Brick has been made Decoratable in LDD, simply open a new LDD File, insert the relevant Brick(s) and go to the “File” drop-down Menu then “Export Model” or Press “Ctrl+E” on the Keyboard. Select “.lxfml” as the output File Format and open it with Windows “Notepad”. Locate the following row for each Brick (Part 3010 in Bright Red is used as an example). <Part refID="0" designID="3010" materials="21,0,0" decoration="0,0">. As long as “decoration="0"”, decoration="0,0" or similar is present, then it is Decoratable. LDD accepts Image Files in the “.PNG” Format with Pixels (px) as the Measurement Unit, where the “Bit Depth” of each PNG Image must equal 32 for everything to be displayed properly. The Maximum LDD Decoration Size is 1024 Pixels times 1024 Pixels, while Decoration Sizes which are the Power of 2 (1:2, 1:4 and 1:8) are also accepted (so not 1:3 and 1:6). Simply take the standard LEGO Brick sizes in Centimetres (1 Brick Width 0.8 cm Height 0.96 cm, Plate Height 0.32 cm, Flat Tile Main Height 0.27 cm with 0.05 cm Base Groove total 0.32 cm, etc.) to Scale Up into the required Pixel Measurements by calculating ratios. The following Maximum Decoration Dimensions should always be used: all 1:1 Surfaces: 1024px times 1024px, all 1:2 Surfaces: 512px times 1024px, all 1:4 Surfaces: 256px times 1024px, all 1:8 Surfaces: 128px times 1024px. For all non-Power of 2 and Irregular Surfaces always use the Maximum Square 1024px times 1024px, some newer official LEGO Decorations added in recent Custom LDD Updates still use slightly Smaller Dimensions of all 1:1 Surfaces 512px times 512px and all 1:2 Surfaces: 256px times 512px, but the Maximum Dimensions are always preferred since “Larger Decoration Sizes will produce better display results”. Starting from recent Custom LDD Updates, specific UV Maps supplied as PNG Images are also introduced. Located in the “UV Map” Folder supplied with Custom LDD Updates under “db\Decorations”, they explain how to Decorate common LDD Brick Surfaces. Up to the Custom LDD Update on May 10, 2026 there are over 1,100 of these provided with 38 more Complex Surfaces using the “Adobe Photoshop Format” “.psd” plus a “21019 instructions.txt” which explains how to correctly Decorate Part 21019 Mini Lower Part No. 2 (Minifigure Legs), with the following two main groups of PNG UV Maps. The first group still Decorate individual Brick Surfaces one at a time or only each has one main Decoratable Brick Surface, where the old Maximum Decoration sizes are still used. For Irregular Decorations in this group there are two ways to Decorate: If these Single Surfaces are still using the old Format of accepting a Maximum Square Decoration of 1024px times 1024px, simply Scale Up the Decoration until the Shorter Side equals 1024px and Compress the Longer Side to 1024px; for other Decoration sizes Scale Up the Longer and Shorter Side to 1024px separately then use the result closest to the PNG UV Map Measurements usually Measured in “Microsoft Paint” (e.g., for the Top Main Surface of Part 6636 Flat Tile 1×6, Scale Up To 170.666667px times 1024px, Enlarge the Shorter Height slightly to 172 Pixels and Align to the Centre and Middle of a Plain/Transparent Maximum 1024px times 1024px Square for Output). The second group of Bricks can now Decorate Multiple Brick Surfaces at once within the same UV Map, so no need to manually apply up to four or five Decoration Surfaces in LDD. Simply Measure all individual Surface and Gap Dimensions in “Microsoft Paint”, then also Scale Up the Longer and Shorter Side to 1024px separately and use the result closest to the UV Map Measurements to further Enlarge or Compress the required Side. If any PNG UV Map Image does not use the Maximum Decoration Dimensions listed above, it is still possible to manually Scale Up everything until these Maximum Measurements. Each time a new Custom LDD Update is released, the relevant “Update Overview” Contents found under each Update Post on “https://www.customlddupdates.com/” and in the “Change Log” Plain Text File supplied with each Update will always mention Updated UV Mappings and new Bricks made Decoratable, so check these too. If a UV Map is updated, most likely original Decorations will no longer fit which requires further adjustments. The next thing to do is locate the Text File handling LDD Decorations, navigate to “C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\LEGO Company\LEGO Digital Designer\db” and open the “DecorationMapping.xml” with Windows “Notepad”, the current format used is as follows. <Mapping decorationID="XXXXXX" designID="YYYYY" surfaceID="Z"/> To add Custom Decorations, simply add more entries after the current ones using the same format as above (also add blank rows to make a new Section). Each time a new Custom LDD Update is released the original “DecorationMapping.xml” will most likely be updated with new entries, so remember to manually add back all Custom entries whenever this File is updated. The “decorationID” is a unique Number assigned to each LDD Decoration, usually a five- or six-digit Number. Most of these are obtained from TLG’s official Database itself, but a Custom Decoration ID can always be assigned if no Official Decorations are using that particular Number. Unfortunately, there is no way to guarantee that these will not be used by an Official Decoration in the future which will then be overwritten, the only best thing to do is to use six Numbers and try to stay away from the 1XXXXX range but this is still not completely safe. The “designID” refers to the Part Number of the Brick in the LDD Database, also obtained from TLG’s official Database itself, which is a fixed four-, five- or six-digit Number. The “surfaceID” refers to the Decoratable Surface(s) of the corresponding Brick. Most Bricks with only one Main Decoration Surface will only use “1”, but some can actually have more than one. To create Custom LDD Decorations, simply use the PNG UV Map Images as a starting point and design using these Measurements and Layouts. After much research, the best Format to use during the design process is the “Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)” Format instead of Bitmaps, where infinite scaling without Pixelation is possible for SVG and exact Circles/Curves/Slopes no longer Pixelated can be Drawn accurately. Once complete, Name it using the “decorationID” Rules above, Save it soemwhere then Copy and Paste into the LDD Decoration Folder located in “C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\LEGO Company\LEGO Digital Designer\db\Decorations”. Once a Custom Decoration has been successfully added to the LDD Database, simply open a new LDD File and go to “LDD Extended”, insert the relevant Brick in the desired Colour then use the “Decoration tool” to select the relevant Brick Surface and manually select the Decoration from the list to apply it. Alternatively, temporarily convert any LDD “.lxf” File into a “.lxfml” File and add the Decorations directiy with Windows “Notepad”, one Brick benefiting greatly from this method is the Minifigure Torso (Part 3814) where the long list of tiny Images within the “Decoration tool” and the Scroll Feature not always working (both cannot be fixed right now) may lengthen the time required to locate the wanted Decorations. For the second method: Locate the “.lxf” File such as “1234.lxf” and temporarily change its File Extension from “.lxf” to “.zip” thus becoming “1234.zip”; unzip “1234.zip” which creates a new Folder “1234” in the same Folder as “1234.zip”, then open “1234” which should contain two Files “IMAGE100.LXFML” and “IMAGE100.PNG” (as these two File Names will be universal across each converted “.lxf” File, please convert one at a time); open “IMAGE100.LXFML” with Windows “Notepad” and locate the relevant Brick to Decorate, then update the “decoration="0"”, decoration="0,0" or similar section by replacing each “0” with the relevant Decoration Number; once all relevant Bricks have been updated, close “IMAGE100.LXFML” then Copy both “IMAGE100.LXFML” and “IMAGE100.PNG” to Paste both Files within “1234.zip”, always selecting “Copy and Replace” for both when promoted; Delete the “1234” Folder and change “1234.zip” back into “1234.lxf”, then open in LDD as usual with all Decorations successfully applied. Hope this information helps.

Just go to GitHub and look for the latest release to download as a ZIP File, there are a few minor issues when I installed it around last week (missing Decorations/UV Map Images and seven Bricks glitching slightly but no missing Bricks) but I have already reported these issues from the Update Website Contact Form, the response was they will be looked into and fixed in an upcoming update.

Welcome, next time post in the partner Topic here. Since November 2025, there are now new comprehensive working methods to install LDD from scratch, the following links should help. 1. Custom LDD Updates are now managed directly on https://www.customlddupdates.com/, so check back often for new releases. Some of us do still post in the partner Topic, so check that too, but these days issues and errors are usually reported directly to the author via the Website’s Contact Form. 2. This explains the latest LDD Installer in detail: https://www.customlddupdates.com/getting-started. 3. Once the basic LDD is installed, check out the Custom LDD Updates at: https://github.com/stephan3321/LDD-custom-update-releases/releases. It is recommended to first install “Baseline update until 20251130 v1.1” and “Stickers”, once complete also install the latest “20260510 v1.0”.

Just installed the latest Custom LDD Update using the latest “20251130_v1.0.zip” Folder and discovered several small issues. First, after opening the “251130.lxf” a number of Bricks and Decorations are missing as shown below, LDD also marked some Bricks as Removed. Next, some of the Sticker Decorations under the Optional “Stickers Rar.rar” Folder are now Misplaced due to Updated UV Maps in this Custom Update, the relevant Bricks for these Decorations at least include 63864, 5091, 5092 and 65676, there might be others too since this Folder remains unchanged in the past few Custom LDD Updates. Lastly, were the contents of the previous “20250822 v1.0 - fix.rar” Dropbox Download been incorporated into any latest Custom LDD Update Releases, since the old “79393_1.png” seems to be the version supplied in “20251130_v1.0.zip” instead of the new one from “20250822 v1.0 - fix.rar”, thanks.

How To Manage And Use LDD Colours This Post will introduce everything Colour-related in LDD on Windows (latest 10/11), including details of Programme Files and how to add Custom Colours into LDD, hope that this will be useful for all and thanks for stopping by. There are three main Colour Palettes for each Mode in LDD plus a Colour Selector Palette in LDD Extended under the “Paint Tool (B)”, all changes are usually only for the LDD Extended Colour Palette (identical to the Colour Selector Palette). Go to “C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\LEGO Company\LEGO Digital Designer\db” to find “Materials.xml” and “CurrentMaterials.xml”, both can be opened using any Text Editor. “Materials.xml” is the backbone File for all LDD Colours, where each Colour has its “Material ID”, “RGBA” Values and “Material Type” listed using the following format (excluding the Blank Spaces in front): “<Material MatID="WWW" Red="XXX" Green="YYY" Blue="ZZZ" Alpha="255 or 150" MaterialType="shinyPlastic or shinySteel"/>”. “Material MatID” is the official TLG Colour ID with 1-3 Dights, “Red”, “Green” and “Blue” are the “RGB” Colour Values always between 0-255, “Alpha” is the Transparency Value set as either “255” for all Solid Colours and “150” for all Colours with Transparency, “MaterialType” defines the type of Colour Material either “shinyPlastic” or “shinySteel”. “CurrentMaterials.xml” defines the Number of current Colours in LDD actively used by TLG, categorised into “Solid”, “Transparent” and “Metallic”. The remaining ones are considered retired by TLG and placed under “Legacy” (first found in the “MaterialSelector.xml” File introduced below), with the following format used (excluding the Blank Spaces in front): “<Material MatID="XXX" />”. “Material MatID” is again the official TLG Colour ID with 1-3 Digits. Go to “C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\LEGO Company\LEGO Digital Designer\Palettes\LDDExtended” to find “MaterialSelector.xml” (also opened with any Text Editor), which further defines how Colours are shown in LDD Extended, as listed using the following format (excluding the Blank Spaces in front): “<Material id="XXX"/>”. Once again, “Material id” is the official TLG Colour ID with 1-3 Digits while some entries hide their Colour Names at the end after two Regular Spaces as follows: “<Material id ="423"/> <!-- Umber Brown -->”. Go to “C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\LEGO Company\LEGO Digital Designer\db” and locate the “MaterialNames” Folder, where the “localizedStrings.loc” File under the “EN” Folder contains all English LDD Colour Names, while the “localizedStrings.loc” File under the “DE” Folder contains all German LDD Colour Names. Both Files should be opened with the programme “Notepad++” (for more information and to download, visit: https://notepad-plus-plus.org/), since it can successfully insert the “NULL” Character used in “.loc” Files (thus no regular Spaces are used except within Colour Names). Each Text starts with the Number “2”, then “NULL”/“MaterialXXX”/“NULL”/“Colour Name”/“NULL”/“MaterialXXX”/“NULL”/“Colour Name”/“NULL”/etc. (always ending with a “NULL” Character), where “XXX” is again the official TLG Colour ID with 1-3 Digits, additional Naming Rules for both Languages are listed below. The initial pair of Colour Name Files provided by TLG were not perfect, with missing entries on both Sides and a few incorrectly translated German Names. Since the release of Custom LDD Updates, both Files have also been updated each time new Colours were added. The most up-to-date LDD Colour Files for the July 2025 Custom LDD Update can be downloaded from Dropbox here, also including a slightly modified version of the “Materials.xml” and “MaterialSelector.xml” Files plus a Change Log File. Simply Download the ZIP Folder and extract all content after opening the “File Properties” of the ZIP Folder and unblock it before use, since Windows might treat Files as harmful ones from other Computers once modified or Downloaded, then directly Replace all relevant local Files. The ZIP Folder is scheduled to be updated soon, after the release of the next Custom LDD Update on November 30, 2025, which will introduce a single new Colour “428 Earth Blue V.3/Blau Erdfarbe V.3” into LDD. Using the current LDD Extended main Colour Palette Layout, the best location to add Custom Colours in LDD Extended is at the end of the “Solid” section on top, with five available spaces at the end of the last Row. First modify the “Materials.xml” File by typing in new entries (also add at least one Blank Row before to make a new Section) after the current ones using the same formats, then set “Alpha” as “255” or “150” and “MaterialType” as “shinyPlastic” or “shinySteel” accordingly, while the “Material MatID” should be set as a random large Number such as “500” to minimise the chances of it being used by TLG in the future. Once complete, modify the “CurrentMaterials.xml” File by typing in new entries (also add Blank Rows before to make a new Section) after the current ones using the same format, otherwise the new Colours will all be automatically placed into the “Legacy” Category by default and not appear in the LDD Extended Colour Palettes “Solid” section. Next, modify the “MaterialSelector.xml” File by typing in new entries (also add at least one Blank Row before to make a new Section) in the first section before “<!-- Legacy -->” after the current ones using the same format. Finally, add the English and correctly Translated German Names of each new Colour into the corresponding “localizedStrings.loc” File, after the final “NULL” Character at the end of each Text add “MaterialXXX”/“NULL”/“New Colour Name”/“NULL”/etc., always ending with a “NULL” Character. Each time a new Custom LDD Update containing new Colours is released, the Updated Colour Files included in the ZIP File “LDD Latest Colour Files.zip” on Dropbox will be merged with the new versions provided within the Custom LDD Update Files, most likely the new entries will be checked for mistakes then fixed and manually added to the Dropbox Colour Files before the new version of the Dropbox ZIP File is released. For any personally added Custom Colours, always install the latest Dropbox ZIP File first, then manually add back all Customisations.

If I am not mistaken, the Colour Selector Palette is the one in LDD Extended under the “Paint Tool (B)”, this should be identical to the main Colour Palette accessed from the base of the LDD Extended Brick Palette, so changes must be made to the main Colour Palette for them to show up in the Colour Selector Palette. I am planning a separate post to explain all Colour-related Menus and Programme Files later, but the following brief information should help for now. Also remember that not all Colours added in each new Custom LDD Update are enabled to avoid both Colour Palettes from becoming too tall, some will simply be part of specific Assemblies and Bricks. If the goal here is to add a new Custom Colour into LDD, the four Colour-related LDD Programme Files need to be modified, then add the Colour’s English and German Names to each corresponding Colour Name File. EDIT: If certain Colours are out of bounds, it’s probably due to the “Display Scale” Settings in Windows. The recommended one is usually “150%” then there is “175%”, which are both too large personally. The next best one is “125%” which is quite ideal, but always set as “100%” to fully display all rows of Colours in LDD.

Here is the SVG Version of the Part 87079 UV Map with bonus Dimensions information listed below. Front and Back Vertical Surfaces: Original Maximum Dimensions 83.2125 Pixels times 952 Pixels, Compress shorter side to 74 Pixels. Two Side Vertical Surfaces: Original Maximum Dimensions 83.3 Pixels times 476 Pixels, Compress shorter side to 74 Pixels. Remember not to change either longer side or crop any shapes, all other Measurements are accurate as listed in the SVG.

This Element is one of many which now decorates multiple surfaces at once, in this case the main surface on top and the four side vertical surfaces as well, so a regular Maximum Square will no longer work. For now check the “UV Maps” Folder supplied with recent Custom LDD Updates and there should be a rough PNG Image of 87079 in there, I can post the SVG version shortly for better exact Pixel Measurements once my Laptop loads (currently replying on Mobile).

Under the “UV Maps” Folder in the Part 5 ZIP File two PNG Images are shown as Plain Black instead of including the actual UV Map Outlines: “79393_1.png” and “98834_1.png”, attempts to manually recreate the Decoration Surface of “79393” using a shape with similar Curved Edges and the only existing Decoration failed as the results did not fill up the entire surface, resulting in border issues (for “98834” the actual Surface is similar to the UV Map Surface thus easier to work out). Perhaps the correctly outlined UV Map Image can explain what I did wrong with the similar shape as there are no external borders to reference, if this Decoration Surface is updated do fix the only existing Decoration too, thanks.

The updated “LDD Latest Colour Files” for the July 2025 Update have just been completed, which can be downloaded from Dropbox here. Basically, the original LDD Colour Files, especially the two Name Files, contain multiple issues such as missing entries on both the English/German sides and mistranslated German Names. Although initial improvements were published officially, the latest version for the May 2024 Update was not, which is why a separate “LDD Latest Colour Files.zip” File is now maintained alongside official Custom LDD Updates. It is highly recommended to download the files and manually replace the local versions with these instead of using those supplied with the latest Custom LDD Update. Please refer to the attached “Change Log” for all details regarding what is fixed, including everything from the previous updated version (details in this old post). Thanks for stopping by and the five changes for this updated version include the following. English Colour Names: Fixed spelling mistake of new Colour 181 Multikombination” to “Multicombination”. German Colour Names: Fixed incorrect Colour Numbers used at the back of new Colours 31 and 32, added missing Space before the “&” for Colour 81, Colour 130 now properly translated as “Farbe Mischung” instead of “Farbenmix” from the original English Name “Colour Mix”.

Yes for No. 2 just save the files elsewhere like the original “db” folder but do not delete them so this is essentially just backing them up elsewhere, in fact it is highly recommended to do the same for all LDD programme files which are replaced with an unlocked version in case they are needed again. Regarding the perfect method to install LDD, there are two simple rules to follow. 1. “LDD Version 4.3.11” will always be the best installer to use (since “LDD Version 4.3.12” removes the Flash Player requirement but has other issues), any old PCs with an existing, unaltered original LDD installation can directly install Custom LDD Updates. 2. On modern PCs, there are now two options. If Flash Player is not available, always use the perfect method. Alternatively, try to properly install Flash Player, then install “LDD Version 4.3.11” and Custom Updates. Without the perfect method or installing “LDD Version 4.3.11” directly, LDD is not listed as a properly installed programme in the Settings or Control Panel and the additional Start Menu Folder and Desktop Shortcut are not generated. Minor issues include missing non-essential programme files, LDD now runs directly from the software executable “LDD.exe” and the need to manually associate “.lxf” and “.lxfml” files with “LDD.exe”. I have not tried the alternative method under No. 2 yet, but there is now a free programme called “Clean Flash Player” on GitHub which aims to bring it back to modern PCs, perhaps “LDD Version 4.3.11” can now be installed directly after also installing “Clean Flash Player”.

Welcome to the forum, here are more details regarding your questions. 1. This is correct, just remember to manually update the “DecorationMapping.xml” each time an LDD Update is installed as this file can be customised to add custom decorations. 2. This is correct too, perhaps just save the two files elsewhere without renaming them, they must now be stored in a separate folder as LDD will always attempt to read any “.lxf” files before any extracted folders. 3. This is correct, it will become a new folder under the “Palettes” folder and is accessed via LDD Mindstorms. 4. For “Aditional, Optional Palettes”, please copy and paste the separate folders inside to the “Palettes” folder, then access them via LDD Mindstorms too. 5. It is quite common to find errors for new LDD Updates upon release, just check back the Update Website and this topic for further news. P.S., there is also a new combined method to fully install LDD on Windows as linked below, which might help solve further issues along the way, hope it will be useful too.

To both: Welcome to the Forum. Do check out the following information as well, which can hopefully make the installation process a bit easier for Windows. Before adding any Custom Updates, the best thing to do first is install LDD properly. There is a new perfect method to do this as detailed in my earlier post linked below, which essentially combines the two installers for both “LDD Version 4.3.11” and “LDD Version 4.3.12” to achieve a perfect installation. Once complete, Custom LDD Updates can be installed. Start with the “Complete Update“ from Dropbox as linked in the Post to receive all new content since 2020, then install the latest LDD Update (January 2025) as well. The easiest way to describe the installation process is to Copy and Paste all Folders and Files into the corresponding locations on the User’s PC, then select “Replace All” when prompted (only after the “db” File has been extracted). The main “db” Folder should be located in “C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\LEGO Company\LEGO Digital Designer”, so everything should be Pasted within there. Remember that most new Bricks will only be added to LDD Extended, so always check here first. P.S., Do check this topic and the main Custom LDD Update Website for further news regarding ongoing issues with certain Parts such as Minifigure-related ones, which require more time to fully address.

Next time remember to post in the partner support topic for questions regarding LDD Updates. For the latest LDD Update this year Minifigure Parts were updated with new UV Mappings which decorates multiple surfaces at once instead of separately, connections between Parts were also modified. However, some users including myself found old connected Minifigures removed due to the new collisions, the new UV Mappings also mean all existing official Minifigure Decorations need to be redone which takes a lot of time The new format will also impact custom Decorations and creating custom combos from the existing Decorations, unless you have access to the original high-resolution Decoration Images/Shapes and know how to edit each UV Map manually to combine Decorations. I am less involved with LDD these days so the best thing I can say now is wait for official news as this issue takes time to resolve or temporarily revert back to the previous Update.