Subject:
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Re: Introducing LEGO Direct
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general, lugnet.cad.dev
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Date:
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Fri, 10 Dec 1999 19:59:20 GMT
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Reply-To:
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[lpieniazek@novera.]stopspammers[com]
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Viewed:
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7307 times
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I don't mold plastic for a living but I think when you design plastic
parts you have to design what you want to actually get, to a very high
tolerance, and then you have to design the mold, which will have
DIFFERENT dimensions than the desired part, to allow for shrinking,
warping, etc. also to a very high tolerance. (I mean to a very precise
and accurate dimension, with very small allowances for variance)
The exact dimensions of parts, and especially of molds, are probably
trade secrets. TLG plastic engineers have intellectual capital invested
in how to efficiently mold parts. Lots of it. Witness how poor their
competition is, relatively speaking... Even Tyco, who is considered by
many as the best of the bunch.
however I expect that it would be fairly easy to write a convertor that
took a part dimensioned in .001 mm or whatever, and converted it to
LDUs. (LDraw units). WE could write it if we knew their internal
formats, but only TLC can RUN it because only they have the (trade
secret) original data files.
For that reason I suggest that we stick with our format and our
dimensions. However, if TLC should release to us official versions of
all our parts, run through such a convertor, using their nomenclature,
we should switch to their nomenclature, in order to be compatible with
future releases.
The question of primitives makes things harder, though. Do they use the
same primitives we do, conceptually?
Parts run through this "to LDU" convertor are of no value to competitors
as they are not accurate enough to build molds from.
I added cad.dev ... some cad group seems right but I'm not sure which.
Steve B, feel free to redirect groups and followups to the right area.
Adrian Drake wrote:
>
> In lugnet.general, Steve Bliss writes:
> > [snipped .dear-lego from the ng list]
> >
> > In lugnet.dear-lego, Kevin Loch wrote:
> >
> > > In lugnet.general, Larry Pieniazek writes:
> > > > My one wish? Let me put my money where my mouth is. I've shot off about
> > > > how your sites can be improved in the past. Put me (and the firm I work
> > > > for) to the test. Late summer? We may be able to help you accelerate
> > > > that date.
> > > Excellent suggestion. I can't help but think that ldraw technology
> > > is necessary for the parts ordering system. This would prevent them
> > > from using proprietary technology which may have held up this in the past.
> >
> > The LEGO Company has much better tools than LDraw. I remember a year or two
> > ago, they were posting job openings that required experience with a specific
> > high-end CAD/3D-modeling tool (maybe it was ALIAS? I don't remember for • sure).
> >
> > I'd assume that all of LEGO pieces have been modeled in a graphic-objects
> > database, especially the newer ones, where CAD tools would be used throughout
> > most of the design process, especially in the later stages, when the molds are
> > being designed and fabricated.
>
>
> Of course all of the pieces are modeled in a high end graphics package. They
> need to include things like drafts and parting lines in order to manufacture
> these parts. They certainly don't make tools by hand, ya know! The problem
> is, making these models available to us would also make them available to the
> competitors, who could then begin manufacturing exact copies of lego pieces,
> thus making it very unlikely that they would release these models.
>
> Adrian
> --
> http://junior.apk.net/~tremor/lego.html
--
Larry Pieniazek larryp@novera.com http://my.voyager.net/lar
- - - Web Application Integration! http://www.novera.com
fund Lugnet(tm): http://www.ebates.com/ ref: lar, 1/2 $$ to lugnet.
NOTE: Soon to be lpieniazek@tsisoft.com :-)
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Introducing LEGO Direct
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| (...) sure). (...) Of course all of the pieces are modeled in a high end graphics package. They need to include things like drafts and parting lines in order to manufacture these parts. They certainly don't make tools by hand, ya know! The problem (...) (25 years ago, 10-Dec-99, to lugnet.general)
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