Some parts, like hoses and strings, can be flexed in Studio. They are the only parts that can be modified in Studio, besides posable parts.
Finding flexible parts
Not all parts that are flexible in real life are flexible in Studio yet. Most chains, hoses, and strings with studs are flexible in Studio. Flexible parts are marked with a special icon in the Building palette:
In BL Categories, they are spread among different categories like chains, hoses, or strings.
In the Shapes categorization, they are all grouped in the Flexible supercategory.
In a build, you can recognize a flexible part by the presence of the tool to bend them below the hand-shaped icon.
Flexing a part
First, place the unflexed part in the build.
Then, to flex the part:
- Select the part, and the hand-shaped icon and the flex icon appear.
- Click on Flex icon Ω.
- The flex icon appears next to the mouse pointer.
- The bones of the part appear, in blue.
- You can grab one end of the part to move it and place it where you want, the other end will stay. in place and the body of the part will flex to follow the movement.
- You can turn the end around with the arrow keys, like when moving a simple part.
- Once you’ve placed the end, the body takes a little time to settle down.
- The mouse works as when you move other parts: click and hold the button to grab the end, then move the mouse, then you can release the button and the end will follow the mouse pointer until you click again to place it.
You can grab the body of the part to pull it to another position. The ends won’t move.
- The body can take time to follow your movements. And when you stop moving, it continues to follow the mouse pointer.
- As with the ends, you can release the mouse button, the body will stop following the mouse pointer only when you click again.
- When you release the body (click to “place” it), it can go back a bit if you stretched it too much. It’ll sell down in a comfortable position.
6. When you’ve finished, click somewhere outside the part to quit the Flex tool.
- Once you have placed an end or the body, the part continues to move. You can quit the Flex tool quickly to prevent it to move back.
If you reopen the Flex tool for that part, it will restart to move to finish to settle down. - Some parts can also connect with their body. For instance, the Hoses Rigid 3mm can connect to clips all along their length. Studio will try not to move the connected bits when you bend the part but depending on the part and how you bend it, the body may disconnect.
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Clone & Copy & Mirror work with flexible parts.”
Early Access Version 2.25.5_1
Flexible parts have received major updates in Early Access Version 2.25.5_1.
Editing flexible parts
You can now edit specific control points along a flexible part, allowing you to position the part more precisely. These control points are indicated by small blue spheres. Click and drag the point you want to move and the part will flex in that direction.
You can lock control points by clicking on the open lock icon. Once locked, the position of a control point cannot be edited until you click the closed lock icon to unlock it. Locked control points are indicated by dark grey spheres instead of the standard blue.
The Move tool now appears when you edit a control point, allowing you to edit the part by dragging one of the three arrows. You can also control which plane or axis the control point moves in.
Working with flexible parts
You can now create shortcuts for locking and unlocking control points on flexible parts or enabling and disabling the flexible editing mode. These shortcuts can be set by navigating to Preferences | Shortcuts | BrickControl / Model.
You can easily enable or disable the flexible parts editing mode by double clicking the part, and also Undo and Redo your last actions with flexible parts.