| |
Hi Willy (and everyone :),
I mostly agree with your idea that 'minifig parts' need to be
rearranged. This has been a back-burner project of mine for over a year
(and it had been thought about for much longer than that).
Here are some things to keep in mind:
0. There already is a standard that new parts are held to.
1. MLCAD does not use the organizational information that the current
LDraw standard can provide. Specifically, MLCAD ignores the 0 CATEGORY
meta-statement. The reason for this is that ...
2. Historically, many LDraw files have not included a 0 CATEGORY
meta-statement. This is generally alright; by default, the CATEGORY can
be taken as the first word in a part's descriptive title.
3. Part names/titles that include a lot of "category" information are
awkward to read and remember. That's part of the reason the CATEGORY
statement was established.
4. You can always redefine the way MLCAD groups parts. For instance, I
separate all decorated bricks from regular bricks by having a "Brick,
Deco" group defined to match "<Brick & ( Pattern | Logo | Picture )".
So MLCAD problems can be addressed within MLCAD, not by changing the
LDraw library.
More history: the "Minifig Tool" term started out specifically to group
the 6 items included on the Town 'tool wheel' part: the wrenches,
oilcan, drill, screwdriver and hammer. It kind of grew from there...
When the Parts Tracker was first up and running, I (with some help)
undertook the task of reorganizing the parts in the "Town" category into
more appropriate locations in the LDraw library. Mostly, parts moved to
Minifig Accessory, but there were a few that went other places.
One piece of this project is still hanging out there on the PT -- the
Town Radio. :/ This part got hung up in the pitfall of "we've got
better files for this part, but we're not sure which to put where, and
no one will make the time to sort it out". Or something like that.
This still happens - a minor (admin) change is made to a part, it's
submitted to the tracker, and someone decides that it's time to fix or
update the part. So what was once a simple change, quick to review and
release, becomes a big re-work of the file. For a single file, this
isn't really a big deal. When it's part of a bigger multi-file change,
it can really bog down the works.
If we want to reorganize the 'minifig parts', a lot of the work should
be done by adding 0 CATEGORY statements to files, rather than changing
all the part titles. Although some parts may be retitled as part of the
reorg.
In general, most of your category suggestions have been made, and mulled
over, before. I've had a very detailed discussion on this exact topic.
Unfortunately, I'm afraid I've lost the results of that discussion - my
email history gets cleared out once a year (I'm running a search while I
type this). But basically, I would argue that it's better to have a few
well-chosen categories than to make a lot of categories (well-chosen or
not). I'd also argue that it's a good thing to keep categories
balanced. Right now, the LDraw categories are very unbalanced --
Technic is huge, Jack is very small.
Specific comments on your suggested categories follow...
> Minifig Body Part = arm right, arm skeleton, hand, leg left, leg old, leg robot, hip ...
> Minifig Head = head with standard grin pattern, head skeleton skull ...
> Minifig Torso = torso with classic space logo, torso old, torso skeleton, ...
I'd recommend keeping the basic "minifig parts" - head, body, arms,
hands, legs - together in one category. I'd prefer they be simply in
"Minifig".
> Minifig Footgear = ski, flipper
> Minifig Headgear = cap, castle helmet, diver mask, feathers with pin, plume small...
> Minifig Neckgear = armor plate, air tank, backpack, container D-basket, arrow quiver...
There isn't enough footgear or neckgear to warrant separate categories.
I could see a category like "Minifig wearable parts" (but with a
different name).
> Minifig Weapon = bow with arrow, gun revolver, polearm halberd, sword, shield with ...
I would not want to see weapons category. Call me idealistic, but I
don't want to honor these parts with their own listing. Plus, there's
the issue of parts that could be a weapon or a tool (the bowie knife,
the shovel, etc).
> Minifig Utensil = cup, town radio, metal detector, hairbrush, ...
> Minifig Others = seat 2 x 2, coin, cannon 2 x 4 base
I wish there was a better place for the cannon. It doesn't really fit
in Minifig -- it's too big.
Steve
In lugnet.cad.dev, Willy Tschager wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> the other day I was flicking through the "Other Parts/M-Library" looking for the "Minifig Top Hat" and it took me quiet a while to
> find it 'cos there isn't any criteria in naming the different minifig parts. There are: caps, castle helmets, construction helmet,
> hair male, hat cowboy, wizards hat ...
> Most of the tools are named as "tool" but then again: Minifig Metal Detector, Minifig Underwater Scooter, Minifig Whip,...
> Finally things become odd 'cos "tools" like the "Space Gun" or the "Space Chainsaw Body" are stored in the "Other Parts/S-Tree",
> while the "Town Radio" is kept under "T".
> The only parts which already respect a standard are the patterned torsos and heads with some exceptions like the skeleton torso or
> skeleton skull.
>
> How about renaming all the different minifig parts by adding an appropriate sub-category in the header by scaling the definitions
> from general to detailed? IMHO I think that the new category "Minifig Accessory" is to wide and solves the problem only in part. I
> propose the sub-categories I found at bricklink:
>
> Minifig Body Part = arm right, arm skeleton, hand, leg left, leg old, leg robot, hip ...
> Minifig Footgear = ski, flipper
> Minifig Head = head with standard grin pattern, head skeleton skull ...
> Minifig Headgear = cap, castle helmet, diver mask, feathers with pin, plume small...
> Minifig Neckgear = armor plate, air tank, backpack, container D-basket, arrow quiver...
> Minifig Torso = torso with classic space logo, torso old, torso skeleton, ...
> Minifig Utensil = cup, town radio, metal detector, hairbrush, ...
> Minifig Weapon = bow with arrow, gun revolver, polearm halberd, sword, shield with ...
> Minifig Others = seat 2 x 2, coin, cannon 2 x 4 base
>
> following some examples how the new file header would look like:
>
> 0 Minifig Body Part Arm Left
> 0 Minifig Body Part Arm Skeleton
> 0 Minifig Body Part Leg Right with Robot Pattern
> 0 Minifig Body Part Leg Wooden
>
> 0 Minifig Head Skeleton
> 0 Minifig Head with Hollow Stud
> 0 Minifig Head with Standard Women Pattern
>
> 0 Minifig Headgear Cap
> 0 Minifig Headgear Hat Police
> 0 Minifig Headgear Hat Wizard
> 0 Minifig Headgear Helmet Castle with Chin-Guard
> 0 Minifig Headgear Helmet Castle with Neck Protector
> 0 Minifig Headgear Helmet Construction
>
> 0 Minifig Torso Old
> 0 Minifig Torso Skeleton
> 0 Minifig Torso with Classic Space Logo Pattern
>
> 0 Minifig Utensil Signal Holder
> 0 Minifig Utensil Space Gun (or is it a weapon?)
> 0 Minifig Utensil Town Radio
>
> 0 Minifig Weapon Bow with Arrow
> 0 Minifig Weapon Harpoon
> 0 Minifig Weapon Knife
> 0 Minifig Weapon Sword Cutlass
>
> I know that this would require a hell of work, but at the same time we can set a standard for the future.
>
> Bye, Willy
|
|
Message has 1 Reply:
Message is in Reply To:
4 Messages in This Thread:
   
- Entire Thread on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
This Message and its Replies on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
|
|
|
|
