Brick, plate, tile, slope: brick types explained

When you sort bricks, read instructions or build in the editor, you keep seeing the same words: brick, plate, tile, slope, round brick. They are based on a simple system of measurements. Once you know it, you can read any part name, combine heights correctly and choose the right part for each job.

This guide covers the 29 parts in the lay-a-brick editor. They are classic basic shapes and cover most of what you need for your own models.

The stud grid: 8 millimetres

The basic unit is the stud. The distance from the centre of one stud to the centre of the next is 8 mm, which is why it is called the 8 mm stud grid. A part with one stud is 8 × 8 mm, a 2×4 brick measures 16 × 32 mm. A baseplate with 16 × 16 studs is 12.8 cm wide, one with 32 × 32 studs is 25.6 cm.

The grid applies to every basic part. Horizontally, bricks, plates and tiles all fit onto each other as long as there are free studs.

Heights: plate 3.2 mm, brick 9.6 mm

There are two basic heights:

• A plate is 3.2 mm tall.
• A brick is 9.6 mm tall, which is exactly three plates.

You need this ratio all the time when building. A brick and three stacked plates next to it end at the same height. A brick plus a plate is four plates tall, two bricks are six plates. That is why the editor counts height in plates: one layer is one plate, and a brick takes up three layers.

A brick is slightly taller than it is wide. Five stacked bricks are as tall as six studs are wide (48 mm), and five stacked plates (16 mm) are exactly two studs.

How to read 2×4

Parts are named by their footprint in studs: width × length. A 2×4 brick has two studs in one direction and four in the other, so eight studs on top. A 1×6 plate is one stud wide and six long. The short side usually comes first, and the editor shows it that way too.

The name stays the same when you rotate the part. A 2×4 is still a 2×4 whether it lies lengthways or across. For slopes, the first number is the depth of the slope and the second is the width. A 45° slope 2×1 slopes down over two studs and is one stud wide.

The part types at a glance

Bricks

Bricks carry the load. You use them for walls, vehicle bodies, towers and anything that needs bulk. Long bricks such as 1×6, 1×8 and 2×8 work like beams. They bridge gaps and hold several smaller parts underneath together. The 2×4 is the most versatile brick. Two 2×2 bricks cover the same area but add one more joint.

The 1×1 brick is used in almost every model, as a column, table leg, eye or corner. You can see this in 10 building ideas with fewer than 50 bricks.

Plates

Plates are for finer work. You use them for colour stripes, flat floors and roofs, for beaks, wings and bumpers that stick out, and for heights you can't get with bricks alone. The 4×4 plate is the largest plate in the editor. It works as the floor of a small model, the gallery of a lighthouse or a launch pad.

For mosaics you use 1×1 plates, with each plate as one pixel. Round 1×1 plates in between give softer shapes, for example in flowers or waves.

Combining heights: three plates make one brick

Because a brick is three plates tall, you can mix heights and still end up level:

• A brick plus a plate is 4 plates tall. Two of these stacks side by side are level.
• Two plates next to a brick leave a step of one plate. That is the smallest step in the system and works for stairs, ledges and shoulders.
• A brick next to three plates ends level. This way you can build a wall in one colour next to a three-colour stripe of the same height.
• Five plates are as high as two studs are wide. If you want to continue a surface vertically, this matches the grid.

The editor shows height in plates, so you can check these combinations while you build.

Tiles

A tile is a plate without studs. It is 3.2 mm tall and sits on studs, but you can't build anything on top of it. So tiles always go on the top layer: tabletops, roof surfaces, windows, water, roads or screens. A model finished with tiles looks complete. With visible studs it looks unfinished.

The editor has tiles in 1×1, 1×2 and 2×2. For larger surfaces you put several 2×2 tiles together.

Slopes 45°

A slope is a brick with a front face angled at 45°. It only has studs on the back row. The editor has two sizes, 2×1 (one stud wide) and 2×2 (two studs wide). Both are as tall as a brick.

You use slopes for everything that shouldn't be rectangular: roofs, bonnets, the bow of a boat, wings, the breast of a duck. Two slopes back to back make a gable. Four slopes facing outwards around a 2×2 centre make a pyramid roof with space in the middle for a tip of round bricks.

Since a slope only has studs at the back, you can only build on from that row. Use slopes at the end of a shape, not as a middle layer.

Round bricks and round plates

The 1×1 round brick is a cylinder 8 mm across and one brick tall. The 1×1 round plate has the same diameter at plate height. Both have one stud and can be stacked. Stacked round bricks make trunks, columns, masts, candles, chimneys or lamp posts. A round plate can be a headlight, an eye, a flower, a button or a stone in a stream.

On a small vehicle you can use a round brick attached sideways to a 1×1 plate as a wheel. It doesn't turn, but it is clearly a wheel.

Rules of thumb for choosing parts

• For bulk and height, use bricks.
• For colour, details and overhangs, use plates.
• For surfaces that should look finished, use tiles.
• For angled shapes, use slopes, always as the last layer.
• For round and thin shapes, use round bricks and round plates.
• Heights always add up with the rule 1 brick = 3 plates.

If you sort your parts by these types when you tidy up, you save time the next time you build. See how to sort building bricks. The parts list of any instructions uses the same names, see create building instructions.

Try it in the editor

All 29 parts are in the bar on the left of the editor. Place a brick with three plates next to it and check that they end level: open the editor.