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All right, the new LDD and LEGO Factory have inspired this idea, which is a dumb
one but I have to get it off my chest anyway:
Somebody with reasonable technical skills and a decent amount of time on their
hands could set up a service similar to LEGO Factory, but based on LDraw models.
Here’s how it would work:
- Entrepreneur decides the selection of parts he can get in quantity, and at what prices. He obtains a decent selection of each in bags of (say) 10, and makes this list available somewhere.
- He puts up a web site running some CGIs which do the following things...
- LDraw user makes a model, perhaps with reference to the published parts list, though not necessarily restricted to it.
- User uploads the LDraw file to the web site. It calculates the cost (using even bags, i.e. multiples of 10 of each part), and also lists what parts are left over (in the model but not available).
- User can choose to post the model publicly, as on LEGO Factory.
- Anybody can then find the model, download the LDRAW file, read the description, and if they choose, place an order for those parts (plus get a list of parts that are in the model but not available, which they may choose to obtain elsewhere or substitute something from their own collection).
- As a nice little extra feature, when you place such an order, it isn’t executed right away – instead, it just goes into a BrickLink-style shopping cart. So before you execute it, you can remove bags of parts that you know you already have a lot of, or add some extras that you also want.
- If entrepreneur runs out of some parts, well that just means he’s doing well. He orders more (from other BrickLink sellers if necessary), adjusting prices now and then as required by the market.
- If you really want to get fancy, you could have two prices for any model: one for all new parts (or as much new as possible), and another one for used (good condition) parts, to make models more accessible to folks on a budget.
I know, it’s a crazy idea, but it would probably work. The main reason I don’t
like it is because it would compete with LEGO Factory, and probably blow its
socks off, at least initially – it’s going to be a long time before LEGO Factory
has a big enough selection of parts, in small enough lots, to make it practical
for any serious modeling. But this system would enable ALEs to immediately
upload their carefully crafted MOCs, and let others buy at least most of the
pieces they contain, including pieces that LEGO doesn’t make anymore (but are
still reasonably easy to find).
I really want to be able to buy something like Quantum Manor or Jake’s
locomotive! I could imagine someone doing the above making that possible within
a couple months. Much as I love what LEGO Factory is trying to do, it’s hard
for me to imagine it handling models like that for a long time to come.
Best,
– Joe
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In lugnet.cad, Joe Strout wrote:
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All right, the new LDD and LEGO Factory have inspired this idea, which is a
dumb one but I have to get it off my chest anyway:
Somebody with reasonable technical skills and a decent amount of time on
their hands could set up a service similar to LEGO Factory, but based on
LDraw models. Here’s how it would work:
- Entrepreneur decides the selection of parts he can get in quantity, and at what prices. He obtains a decent selection of each in bags of (say) 10, and makes this list available somewhere.
- He puts up a web site running some CGIs which do the following things...
- LDraw user makes a model, perhaps with reference to the published parts list, though not necessarily restricted to it.
- User uploads the LDraw file to the web site. It calculates the cost (using even bags, i.e. multiples of 10 of each part), and also lists what parts are left over (in the model but not available).
- User can choose to post the model publicly, as on LEGO Factory.
- Anybody can then find the model, download the LDRAW file, read the description, and if they choose, place an order for those parts (plus get a list of parts that are in the model but not available, which they may choose to obtain elsewhere or substitute something from their own collection).
- As a nice little extra feature, when you place such an order, it isn’t executed right away – instead, it just goes into a BrickLink-style shopping cart. So before you execute it, you can remove bags of parts that you know you already have a lot of, or add some extras that you also want.
- If entrepreneur runs out of some parts, well that just means he’s doing well. He orders more (from other BrickLink sellers if necessary), adjusting prices now and then as required by the market.
- If you really want to get fancy, you could have two prices for any model: one for all new parts (or as much new as possible), and another one for used (good condition) parts, to make models more accessible to folks on a budget.
I know, it’s a crazy idea, but it would probably work. The main reason I
don’t like it is because it would compete with LEGO Factory, and probably
blow its socks off, at least initially – it’s going to be a long time before
LEGO Factory has a big enough selection of parts, in small enough lots, to
make it practical for any serious modeling. But this system would enable
ALEs to immediately upload their carefully crafted MOCs, and let others buy
at least most of the pieces they contain, including pieces that LEGO
doesn’t make anymore (but are still reasonably easy to find).
I really want to be able to buy something like Quantum Manor or Jake’s
locomotive! I could imagine someone doing the above making that possible
within a couple months. Much as I love what LEGO Factory is trying to do,
it’s hard for me to imagine it handling models like that for a long time to
come.
Best,
– Joe
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Beautiful idea!
If I may add a slight suggestion...
How about just writing some code for bricklink and selling it to them which
takes an mlcad model and scans Bricklink for the best deal for those pieces or
all pieces from one vendor etc. Kind of like peeron does for individual pieces
already (at least I don’t think this capability already exists!)
Larry
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On 27/08/05, Larry Whitman <larry.whitman@wichita.edu> wrote:
> In lugnet.cad, Joe Strout wrote:
> Beautiful idea!
>
> If I may add a slight suggestion...
>
> How about just writing some code for bricklink and selling it to them which
> takes an mlcad model and scans Bricklink for the best deal for those pieces or
> all pieces from one vendor etc. Kind of like peeron does for individual pieces
> already (at least I don't think this capability already exists!)
>
> Larry
Crazy sounding ideas always turn out to be the best ones. The
bricklink thing could also link with the peeron parts list, so you
already have a good idea of which bricks you already have. However -
those may be tied up in other models. I really like the sound of use.
Orionrobots
--
http://orionrobots.co.uk - Build Robots
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In lugnet.cad, Larry Whitman wrote:
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How about just writing some code for bricklink and selling it to them which
takes an mlcad model and scans Bricklink for the best deal for those pieces
or all pieces from one vendor etc. Kind of like peeron does for individual
pieces already (at least I don’t think this capability already exists!)
Larry
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Larry-
I’ve always wondered why BrickLink was not set up to provide a user with the
cheapest solution to a specific want list. One could argue that it’s counter
productive for sellers wanting to get the most for their wares, but BL is aleady
setup to help users find the cheapest parts. So, why not help users find the
cheapest set of parts? I suppose this quickly starts to resemble the traveling
salesman problem in that finding the exact best solution is not necessarily
easy, but finding a good enough solution would probably be just fine. One
wrinkle is that BL doesn provide shipping costs up front, so that makes a
calculation more imprecise. Still, ...
-Ted
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In lugnet.cad, Ted Michon wrote:
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I’ve always wondered why BrickLink was not set up to provide a user with the
cheapest solution to a specific want list. One could argue that it’s counter
productive for sellers wanting to get the most for their wares, but BL is
aleady setup to help users find the cheapest parts. So, why not help users
find the cheapest set of parts? I suppose this quickly starts to resemble the
traveling salesman problem in that finding the exact best solution is not
necessarily easy, but finding a good enough solution would probably be just
fine. One wrinkle is that BL doesn provide shipping costs up front, so that
makes a calculation more imprecise. Still, ...
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From a technical standpoint, I think this wouldn’t be too hard to do. You’d
query each vendor with the list of parts, and taking into account the vendor’s
minimum lot size for each part, get back a mock order that covers as much of
that parts list as possible. Then you’d display this in a table showing how
much of your parts list wasn’t covered, how many extra pieces you’re getting
(due to lot minimums), and the total cost. You could even compute the “value”
for each vendor by comparing their cost per piece (included in the order) to the
BrickLink average cost for the same pieces. (It’d be a computationally
expensive search, but it would tend to result in larger orders — the economics
could probably be worked out.)
The user could then sort this table by total price, value, pieces left over, or
whatever, and choose for themselves which best serves the need.
And you guys are right, this would mostly solve what I was looking for -- it
still lacks a central repository of LDraw models (or instructions) and parts
lists in some ready-to-use format. But if BrickLink could do this sort of
multi-part search, probably some third party would set up the model repository.
So. Who’s in charge of BrickLink, anyway? Who could make this actually happen?
Best,
– Joe
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In lugnet.cad, Larry Whitman wrote:
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Beautiful idea!
If I may add a slight suggestion...
How about just writing some code for bricklink and selling it to them which
takes an mlcad model and scans Bricklink for the best deal for those pieces
or all pieces from one vendor etc. Kind of like peeron does for individual
pieces already (at least I don’t think this capability already exists!)
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Although not addressing the “cheapest parts list” desire, the Building
Instructions Portal (http://www.bricksonthebrain.com/instructions) has
something similar. Users who add a link to their Building Instruction can also
upload the LDraw file and, thanks to BrikTrak and Richard Morton, add a link on
their BIP instruction description that goes to Bricklink to find the parts for
that specific model.
I’ve been trying to find the time to further develop this idea, but just haven’t
been able to yet.
Jake
---
Jake McKee
Webmaster - BIP
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In lugnet.cad, danny staple <orionrobots@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 27/08/05, Larry Whitman <larry.whitman@wichita.edu> wrote:
> > In lugnet.cad, Joe Strout wrote:
> > Beautiful idea!
> >
> > If I may add a slight suggestion...
> >
> > How about just writing some code for bricklink and selling it to them which
> > takes an mlcad model and scans Bricklink for the best deal for those pieces or
> > all pieces from one vendor etc. Kind of like peeron does for individual pieces
> > already (at least I don't think this capability already exists!)
> >
> > Larry
>
> Crazy sounding ideas always turn out to be the best ones. The
> bricklink thing could also link with the peeron parts list, so you
> already have a good idea of which bricks you already have. However -
> those may be tied up in other models. I really like the sound of use.
The problem exists that Bricklink doesn't use the same numbering system that
Peeron does for parts where the number is unknown. Bricklink and Peeron also
differ, in some cases, on part naming. This leads to the neccesity of
constructing a huge lookup table to cross reference between the two systems.
-Orion
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In lugnet.cad, Jake McKee wrote:
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Although not addressing the “cheapest parts list” desire, the Building
Instructions Portal (http://www.bricksonthebrain.com/instructions) has
something similar. Users who add a link to their Building Instruction can
also upload the LDraw file and, thanks to BrikTrak and Richard Morton, add a
link on their BIP instruction description that goes to Bricklink to find the
parts for that specific model.
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I just tried this, but with mixed success. For example, I tried to buy parts
for your Intermodal Spine Car. This produces “Oops! There was a problem
processing your request: 1. Item #21: Item Not Found in Catalog.” (You’d think
it would then provide a way to go on and find the other items, but it does not.)
Then I tried the Older style Boxcar, and this did work better. I’m a little
unclear on exactly what it’s doing when I click through to one of the sellers; I
think it’s showing me all the parts they have that match the inventory parts.
The quantities don’t carry over, so I’d have to keep the parts list handy and
fill out the order myself, but it is indeed a good start.
Then of course there’s the more general problem that half the instruction links
on BIP seem to be broken... I wish BIP would just host the instructions
themselves.
Best,
– Joe
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In lugnet.cad, Joe Strout wrote:
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In lugnet.cad, Jake McKee wrote:
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Although not addressing the “cheapest parts list” desire, the Building
Instructions Portal (http://www.bricksonthebrain.com/instructions) has
something similar. Users who add a link to their Building Instruction can
also upload the LDraw file and, thanks to BrikTrak and Richard Morton, add a
link on their BIP instruction description that goes to Bricklink to find the
parts for that specific model.
|
I just tried this, but with mixed success. For example, I tried to buy parts
for your Intermodal Spine Car. This produces “Oops! There was a problem
processing your request: 1. Item #21: Item Not Found in Catalog.” (You’d
think it would then provide a way to go on and find the other items, but it
does not.)
Then I tried the Older style Boxcar, and this did work better. I’m a little
unclear on exactly what it’s doing when I click through to one of the
sellers; I think it’s showing me all the parts they have that match the
inventory parts. The quantities don’t carry over, so I’d have to keep the
parts list handy and fill out the order myself, but it is indeed a good
start.
Then of course there’s the more general problem that half the instruction
links on BIP seem to be broken... I wish BIP would just host the instructions
themselves.
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Heh...yeah, clearly it needs some updating. Honestly, I sorta lost interest when
I couldn’t get any feedback or help from Bricklink - that was the lynchpin in
the system and without it, it was tough to make much more happen.
Of course, that doesn’t address my personal broken link problems. :) I’ll take a
look at that tonight.
As far as hosting.... well, that’s going to be a tough nut to crack. I’m not
sure I want to (or would be able to) get into the content hosting biz. And
hosting images, ldraw files, PDFs, videos, Flash animations, and other Building
Instructions methods would be a level of magnitude more complicated adn complex.
Plus, the site has been able to cover it’s own costs (or more importantly, I’m
sucking it up now) as it current works. Adding file hosting to the mix would
certainly not allow for that.
As a side note, MOCpages does basically the same thing I’m doing here - content
is actually hosted elsewhere, with the MOCpages.com page wrapper and content
wrapped around the off-site images.
The other problem was, of course, legalities. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to
worry about having a lawyer scrub the site to ensure that all was kosher when it
comes to people uploading their own content onto my site and still being able to
retain the rights to that content. It’s a tricky game. Before I go down that
path, I’d want to ensure that the site would be able to support itself through
some long-term business model. I’d hate to have a new expansion concept actually
kill the site!
That said, I’d love to be able to handle precisely that concept some day. Don’t
rule it out, just don’t expect it next week either. :)
Jake
---
Jake McKee
Webmaster - BIP
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