Decide your boxes

Two questions decide the whole profile.

How many bins does your machine have? Every box needs somewhere to land. Ask for fewer boxes than you have bins, and keep one spare for everything that matches nothing.

Not every bin takes every piece. The big bins are the only ones a big piece fits through, so a box holding large parts has to get one of those. Send it to your machine has the sizes and what to do about it.

What do you want to separate? Sorting by part type (bricks, plates, tiles) works well today. Sorting by colour is where Hive currently struggles, and there is a workaround on asking for colour.

Write your list on paper first. It is easier than thinking the boxes up in the chat.

Three kinds of box

A box can be one of three things, and the chat can make any of them.

A rule describes parts: "all tiles", "everything in dark bluish grey", "Technic pins". It catches however many parts match that description, with no limit and no counting. Most boxes are rules.

A set is one official LEGO set, given by its set number. Hive looks up what is in that set, and the box catches exactly those parts, each in the colour the set actually uses. It also counts: the machine knows how many of each part the set needs, so it can tell you how much of the set you have found. Spare parts are left out unless you ask for them.

A custom set works the same way, except the part list is yours instead of LEGO's. Use it for a model of your own, a kit you sell, or a picking list. You can search for the parts and add them one at a time, or import a BrickLink CSV file with BLItemNo, BLColorId and Qty columns. Those are BrickLink's colour numbers, and in this one file they are the correct ones.

Choose by what you are asking. Sorting a pile into boxes is rules. "Do I have everything for this model" is a set or a custom set.

Everything else, and one bin per part

Whatever no box takes goes to Everything else. In the editor you choose how that last box is split:

• All together: one box for everything left over.
• By BrickLink category: one bin for each category, such as Brick, Plate or Tile, whatever the color.
• By Rebrickable category: the same, using Rebrickable's categories.
• By color: one bin for each color, whatever the part.

There is no choice that gives every part number its own bin. A category is the finest split the last box can make, so a pile of nothing but plates still lands in one bin. To separate individual parts, make a box for each one. In the Chat tab, ask for One box for each of these parts: 3020, 3021, 3022 and list the part numbers. A box that names only a part takes it in any color. Ask for no more boxes than you have bins.

Next: ask for it in plain words.

Back to Build your first sorting profile.