Subject:
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Re: New Part in progress - Baseplate 32 x 32 with Craters
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.cad.dat.parts
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Date:
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Thu, 8 Aug 2002 09:47:47 GMT
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Viewed:
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1849 times
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hi ampi,
sorry for the late reply but I was abroad for a few days.
> My only comment is that in the case of a complex freeform shape like this
> hill, there are few chance to find neighbouring and coplanar triangles that
> can be substituted by one coplanar quad. (If I remember well, it is not
> legal in Ldraw to use non-coplanar quads.) The homogenius all-triangle mesh
> is better. Please consider this if you plan to reduce the filesize. (Just an
> example to compare with, the 2610.dat Minifig Lifevest is very small in
> dimensions but 116K filesize)
hmm... thanks for the hint. I started doing part-authoring just a few months ago and I'm not very familiar with all the
ldraw-specifications.
> BTW I'd like to know what Cad software did you use
I use Reflections 4.3. initially it was written for amiga (back in 1990) and later adapted to the redmond crap. the version I use
was released in 1996 (sic!). it's not up to date, it's not sophisticated, it only supports its own file-format and dxf (therefor I
have to do a lot of conversion to get out a dat-file) but it's just perfect for simple objects like Ldraw-parts. when I started
doing part-authoring earlier this year I wasn't in the mood of spending month or even years to get into one of these million dollar
programs (beside the waste of money - is somebody out there who uses 3D max, lightwave, or alias to design its parts?) it took me
two days to remember all the commands and functions I had learned in 1996 and the software didn't cost me a penny (okay, I spent
$190 when I bought it in 1996).
> and how did you capture or digitize this very complex shape. Could you give
> us a brief description of your method.
capture ... digitize ;-) are you talking about a 3D scanner or things like this. no way. it's simple handcraft. I am not a cad-guru
and not very skilled :'-(. have a look at a map and its altitude lines and you will understand the process:
1.. take a pencil and draw lines around your model. the distance in height is the height of a plate (sorry about my poor english.
I hope you get it at least.)
2.. take a picture from above. use a long lens (120 mm or longer) to eliminate any perspective distortion. (take also pictures
from the sides to check the final shape in the sideviews).
3.. scan it (yes, I used an old-fashion camera, due to the poor resolution of my digicam). the scan was 6000 x 4000 pixel.
4.. use a software like illustrator, freehand to get paths of the altitude lines and convert it to dxf, 3ds, lwo ... or import the
picture into your cad software if it can handle it an make polygons, splines .... don't waste time and effort to make a smooth path,
just use straight lines. a rough path or polygon will do the job. I used a grid of 56 point (the crater hill is 28 studs long - I
divided the distance between studs and layers by 2 to get more detail). as a result you will get 9 to 10 layers.
5.. ultimately connect the single points.
you see the whole process is simple but time-consuming. there are surely better and more efficient ways and for cad-wizards (like
most of you probably are) with a proper software it won't take a month to get a rough shape, but ... this method is pretty precise
and it works, at least it works for me.
willy
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