Subject:
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Re: Massive LDraw file repository
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.cad.dev
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Date:
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Tue, 10 Jan 2006 05:19:44 GMT
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Viewed:
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2770 times
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Ok, I'm going to try this again. :) I've learned a few things since my first
post. I'm moving this to lugnet.cad.dev BTW.
First of all, I know there is interest to in a Massive Ldraw file repository as
I have gotten many private emails about the matter.
Second, I know there is *great* interest to have ldraw.org host it. I would
like to see that myself. And some people have stated to me in private email
that they might just work on it.
Another idea is to just use Brickshelf.com to host all the files. We could do
that too.
I've also been shown this site: http://www.legoat.com/, which hosts many ldraw
files by many authors, and printed instructions as well. It however states "Do
not download this site, order it now", which is pretty much the exact opposite
of my goal. My goal is "download it now, all of it." ;)
And of course I've been pointed to
http://www.bricksonthebrain.com/instructions/index.cfm. However, BI doesn't
seem to limit itself to ldraw files, and the selection is actually very small
relativly speaking. For example, there are only 17 of of Bryce2501's airplanes,
when I count 38 on his site. And I don't see anything there by Mladen or Primus
or other prolific authors.
There are many ways this could go. One of the existing sites could be extended.
For example, BI could have an LDraw category search limiter. I could try to
resolve issues with legoat.com (like removing the "Buy CD" stuff and offering
zips, and giving more credits to the authors (see below for more about
authors)). We could also start brandnew on ldraw.org or go the easy but perhaps
chaotic with brickshelf.com
I still plan on making my page live. It is almost live now. It isn't fancy, no
images, and just a static page with links to zips of files. But enough people
have agreed to let me host their files I think it is worth it. And in fact, my
asking motivated many people to offer more of their files, including works in
progress or whatever they had squirled away on their hard disks. And organizing
the extra files I have been sent is the only thing I have left to do before I
make it live. So I'm not counting my little webpage as wasted work.
But where it goes from here is up to the community.
I'll start by saying some things I've learned. There are SO SO SO many files,
that I think having links to download each model, one by one, is torture.
Personally I use wget, curl, or I write a script to download files (that is how
I started my repository). This is why I want to download the files via zipped
archives instead of file by file download.
Second, there are SO SO SO many files that it is impossible to have just one
zip. http://www.brickcommander.com alone has 30 MB of files, about 5 or 6 MB's
compressed. His stuff pretty much dominates all the files I've downloaded. I
would wager Primus is probably one of the most prolific ldraw authors.
However, for people on broadband, I would like to make it as easy as possible to
download *everything*. So as few links to click as possible, perhaps even one
master zip, even if it is 100 MB. And then once they've downloaded it, it
becomes an issue how to find files in it. On the Mac there is a nice shareware
app called Photogrid that quickly displays 1000's of images. That is how I plan
on viewing my archive. I don't know if there is anything similar on Windows.
The only crossplatform database I can think of is FileMaker Pro. I've written
lots of FMP databases, but am not really wanting to write something like this,
as I don't have FM Developer (which would be required, but I do know someone who
does have it and doesn't use it and might lend it to me). Maybe simple static
html files would be good enough.
Third, Primus also has so many models in the mecha category, that he dominates
that category. Other mecha authors would be lucky to get noticed. For this
reason, I'm organizing my site by author. This also solves the problem of
duplicated work in the case of official Lego sets, as I'm sure there are
multiple versions of various models.
Fourth, I know there is still a need to be able to download by genre or
category. This would be the reason for making the repository database driven
and auth-generated.
That is, each file would have keywords associated with it: MOC or Official, and
genre: Castle, Train, City, Sculpture, Space (which would include Classic Space,
Space Police, Blacktron, etc, and then Jade Empire, PCS, etc), etc etc. When a
new model is added to the repostitory, it is added to the author's zip, as well
as the zip for the category.
I'm not thinking that a ldraw file update, similar to the ldraw parts would be a
good idea. I never actually use the parts update (mainly because I'm on Mac and
there is no automated way to move the files where they should go). I just
download the full compressed library. Bandwidth and hard disk space are
cheap...
Or something. This obviously will be a big diverging point, how that is
handled. One way could be that a search for Castle just brings up all authors
who have modeled in castle and you get all of an authors' stuff, castle and
non-castle.
Also, for authors who don't have lots of files (like myself--I think I have
authored 3 models in LDraw (I know, I'm bad, but I'm on Mac and the tools have
been hard to use, but Bricksmith is actually pretty nice so I'm doing stuff
now)) we could just have a grab bag of authors.
The other thing I would like is snapshot images for an archive. Not
instructions, just a thumbnail showing what is in an archive. For example, if I
do a search for Mecha, I get a list of all authors who have created Mecha. I
could sort by number of files, and Primus would probably land in first place. I
would see thumbnails of say 5 of his mecha, the words: "view all 104
thumbnails", and I can click on the link and see all 104 thumbnails of Primus'
mechs. I suppose to support low bandwidth users (on modem) we could have links
to individual files on such a page even.
If I did a search for mecha and an author was on the list who only authored one
mecha, but lots of castle, it would show me the one mech thumbnail, and then
"other catergory thumbnails", show 4 more thumbnails (so there are 5 on that
page), and then a link to "view all x thumbnails".
In otherwords, I'm thinking the site should be very author centered, rather than
genre/category centered. But category/genre should certainly be the next
criteria.
And about quality assurance. I have no idea. I certainly don't want to see
mixed color models as if the author didn't have enough bricks to build something
like we sometimes see on with physical sets... :eek: We could put a "vote"
link for every author, but I think that would be unfair. It may be more useful
to sort by number of times downloaded, kinda like the way Google ranks websites.
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Massive LDraw file repository
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| And one more comment. It would be cool to have some automation for site owners as well. For example, Jacob wrote a script that auto-generates descriptions of the files on his site. All he does is move a file to his web folder, and a script runs (...) (19 years ago, 10-Jan-06, to lugnet.cad.dev)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Massive LDraw file repository
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| I'm interested in starting a LDraw file repository. I want to start it by asking everyone to email me their files with a description and keywords of each file, so I can quickly catigorize it without having to open it. Please include any copyright or (...) (19 years ago, 27-Dec-05, to lugnet.cad, lugnet.build, lugnet.announce)
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