Answers.Body: <p>I searched for more than a month and I found Lego Digital Designer (LDD) is the balance between simplicity and functionality.</p>
  
  <p>You can learn LDD in a few hours. Very good videos available on youtube</p>
  
  <p>LDD is not just 3d rendering tool. It understands the connectivity between technic beams and pegs. Very impressive.</p>
  
  <p>The most impressive feature in LDD is that it can simulate the technic gears. Take a look at this video and see it for yourself: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13wietMv0g8" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13wietMv0g8</a></p>
  
  <p>These two videos will save lots of time:</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4c7Q0W4cDI&amp;t=4s" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Lego Digital Designer Tips and Tricks - 1/2</a></p>
  
  <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-UBj76eEGA" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Lego Digital Designer Tips and Tricks - 2/2</a></p>
  
  <p>Update:</p>
  
  <p>This post helped me to import so many existing Lego lits in LDD. I learned a lot form existing designs. Also, I can find the part numbers that I am looking for, or just copy them from the model. </p>
  
  <p><a href="https://bricks.stackexchange.com/questions/10028/can-i-import-existing-lego-kits-into-lego-digital-designer">Can I import existing Lego kits into Lego Digital Designer?</a></p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2018-05-28T16:28:04.703Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2018-05-28T16:36:41.773Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2018-05-28T16:36:41.773Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Allan Xu
Body: <p>I'm finding Technic parts can be challenging sometimes, and the costs can be high.</p>
  
  <p>Is there any 3d design software that can help with designing before I decide to buy the parts?</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2018-04-03T12:07:44.023Z
Comments.Text: Have you taken a look as SR 3D Builder as [recommended in this answer](https://bricks.stackexchange.com/a/1410/56)?
Comments.UserDisplayName: Zhaph - Ben Duguid
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2018-04-03T18:02:33.823Z
Comments.Text: @Zhaph-BenDuguid, I know a few 3d logo rendering tools, but I did not know that one. I think there is no simulation tool for testing the mechanisms. Perhaps the answer to this question is : "No there is no such tool"
Comments.UserDisplayName: Allan Xu
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2018-04-03T18:04:45.607Z
Comments.Text: Yeah, the testing part is the tricky one. Microsoft Robot Design Studio does have some simulation tools in it, but as I note the current version only supports one LEGO robot. I think earlier versions were a bit more flexible, but had a fairly limited set of parts.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Zhaph - Ben Duguid
Tags: <technic><software>
Title: Is there any software for designing and testing Technic mechanisms?
UserDisplayName: Allan Xu
ThreadText: # Is there any software for designing and testing Technic mechanisms?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2018-03-31)
  
  I'm finding Technic parts can be challenging sometimes, and the costs can be high.
  
  Is there any 3d design software that can help with designing before I decide to buy the parts?
  
  **Tags:** technic, software
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: Have you taken a look as SR 3D Builder as [recommended in this answer](https://bricks.stackexchange.com/a/1410/56)?  
  > **username_0**: @Zhaph-BenDuguid, I know a few 3d logo rendering tools, but I did not know that one. I think there is no simulation tool for testing the mechanisms. Perhaps the answer to this question is : "No there is no such tool"  
  > **username_1**: Yeah, the testing part is the tricky one. Microsoft Robot Design Studio does have some simulation tools in it, but as I note the current version only supports one LEGO robot. I think earlier versions were a bit more flexible, but had a fairly limited set of parts.  
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_0 on 2018-05-28. Score: 0 | Accepted answer
  
  I searched for more than a month and I found Lego Digital Designer (LDD) is the balance between simplicity and functionality.
  
  You can learn LDD in a few hours. Very good videos available on youtube
  
  LDD is not just 3d rendering tool. It understands the connectivity between technic beams and pegs. Very impressive.
  
  The most impressive feature in LDD is that it can simulate the technic gears. Take a look at this video and see it for yourself: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13wietMv0g8>
  
  These two videos will save lots of time:
  
  [Lego Digital Designer Tips and Tricks - 1/2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4c7Q0W4cDI&t=4s)
  
  [Lego Digital Designer Tips and Tricks - 2/2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-UBj76eEGA)
  
  Update:
  
  This post helped me to import so many existing Lego lits in LDD. I learned a lot form existing designs. Also, I can find the part numbers that I am looking for, or just copy them from the model.
  
  [Can I import existing Lego kits into Lego Digital Designer?](https://bricks.stackexchange.com/questions/10028/can-i-import-existing-lego-kits-into-lego-digital-designer)
  
  
  ---
  
  