(2020-05-28, 21:48)Orion Pobursky Wrote: Also, the "Parts numbering scheme for parts with unknown numbers" and "Official Library Specification for Sticker Parts" should be folded into the main document. There are also some pages on the PT that can be added as well.

(2020-05-28, 21:48)Orion Pobursky Wrote: Basically, I'm opening the entire "File Format Restrictions for the Official Library" document up for revision. How should this document be laid out? What else should be included? I have the ability to separate sections in to tabs and other formatting tricks. I also think a downloadable PDF for quick, offline reference might be a good idea. Maybe even a Quick Reference One Sheet for commonly used info.

(2020-05-29, 19:25)Evert-Jan Boer Wrote: What about sticker sheets with more than 26 stickers? Continue with aa, ab, ac etc?

(2020-05-28, 21:48)Orion Pobursky Wrote: As part of our meeting last year in Billund, we expressed a desired to make the learning curve for authoring parts a little less steep. As part of that, I'm working on clarifying the rules for the Official Library. Recently we've had a discussion about complete assemblies and disallowing sticker shortcuts for stickers applied to single, flat parts. As a result of those discussion, I made a draft revision to the File Format Restrictions for the Official Library. Proposed changes in red:
https://www.ldraw.org/hidden-content/draft-documents/draft-file-format-restrictions-for-the-official-library.html

I also posted about my concerns about documentation fragmentation. I personally feel that the File Format Restrictions for the Official Library document should one single source for all the rules for parts in the official library. With that reasoning in mind, I think "Official Library Policy On Embedding POV-Ray Code" should be cancelled since those METAs are already disallowed. Also, the "Parts numbering scheme for parts with unknown numbers" and "Official Library Specification for Sticker Parts" should be folded into the main document. There are also some pages on the PT that can be added as well.

Basically, I'm opening the entire "File Format Restrictions for the Official Library" document up for revision. How should this document be laid out? What else should be included? I have the ability to separate sections in to tabs and other formatting tricks. I also think a downloadable PDF for quick, offline reference might be a good idea. Maybe even a Quick Reference One Sheet for commonly used info.

I'd like to have a full and frank discussion about this. Remember, if you have a problem, propose a solution. Also, we're not going to break backwards compatibility. Aside from those 2 rules almost anything goes.

(2020-05-30, 17:39)Chris Dee Wrote: I would prefer to separate the rules about the content of the files from those about naming the files.

(2020-05-30, 7:24)Willy Tschager Wrote: T-Junk
https://wiki.ldraw.org/wiki/T-Junction

(2020-05-30, 17:57)Orion Pobursky Wrote: That's fair a request. I'm in the middle of reformatting the document. It'll be fairly easy to peel off that part into a new document once the text is finalized and ratified.

(2020-05-30, 17:58)Orion Pobursky Wrote: We need to work on this:
https://www.ldraw.org/hidden-content/draft-documents/draft-file-format-restrictions-for-the-official-library.html#unknownnum

Now that Peeron is in legacy mode, we should remove references to it.

(2020-06-04, 15:25)Orion Pobursky Wrote: Stugs have been moved to the Part Number spec. I moved the LDConfig paragraph under the Colour Restictions heading.

Id like more comment. Particularly I'd like comments on the general rules for shortcuts.

(2020-06-05, 10:47)Willy Tschager Wrote: Nothing on canvas/fabric/cloth - guess it should go into the part numbering and we should address a convention when Canvas or Cloth is used.

(2020-06-05, 10:47)Willy Tschager Wrote: I don't like shortcuts with flat stickers on bricks

(2020-06-05, 10:47)Willy Tschager Wrote: as well as all minifig assemblies that go beond the very basic torso-arms, hip-leg.

(2020-06-05, 10:47)Willy Tschager Wrote: You should consider incorporate Colour Definitions https://www.ldraw.org/article/547.html into LDraw.org Standards: Colour Definition Language Extension as a practical example.

(2020-06-05, 10:47)Willy Tschager Wrote: There is nothing on patterned parts and the requirment of their plane counterpart in the library.

(2020-06-05, 10:47)Willy Tschager Wrote: Nothing on canvas/fabric/cloth - guess it should go into the part numbering and we should address a convention when Canvas or Cloth is used.

(2020-06-05, 11:18)Philippe Hurbain Wrote: Speaking of canvas... I think it would be a good thing to rename formed cloth from ...c0x to ...-fx ?

(2020-06-05, 10:47)Willy Tschager Wrote: There is nothing on patterned parts and the requirment of their plane counterpart in the library.

(2020-06-05, 19:15)Orion Pobursky Wrote: I think we need to rename this document. How about:

Official Library Part Guidelines

or

Official Library Policies and Procedures

(2020-06-05, 16:58)Orion Pobursky Wrote: I know we hashed this out already in the closed discussion. I'd like to hear from the larger community

(2020-06-05, 19:41)N. W. Perry Wrote: Those two core functions of LDraw are somewhat conflated and interchangeable in the mind of the casual user.

(2020-06-05, 20:47)Orion Pobursky Wrote: We're not necessarily catering to the "casual user". In fact, the casual user probably never has need to read either document. Or maybe you mean something different and I'm just misunderstanding.

(2020-06-05, 10:47)Willy Tschager Wrote: Nothing on canvas/fabric/cloth - guess it should go into the part numbering and we should address a convention when Canvas or Cloth is used.

• Sheet Cardboard
  
• Sheet Fabric
  
• Sheet Plastic
  

(2020-06-04, 15:25)Orion Pobursky Wrote: Stugs have been moved to the Part Number spec. I moved the LDConfig paragraph under the Colour Restictions heading.

Id like more comment. Particularly I'd like comments on the general rules for shortcuts.

Quote:  The word (Complete), parenthesis included, should placed at the end of the part
  description name for all shortcuts.
  Use 'Shortcut' when the file is provided for convenience of use
  (example: Minifig files like <979.dat).
  Use 'Complete' when the file represents a composite part, as purchased
  (example: Shock Absorber, 75348.dat).
  [Notice that neither of the example files follow this shortcut/complete standard,
  and the minifig file doesn't follow the file-naming standard,
  either.]

(2020-06-05, 19:15)Orion Pobursky Wrote: I think we need to rename this document. How about:

Official Library Part Guidelines

or

Official Library Policies and Procedures

(2020-06-06, 14:07)Willy Tschager Wrote: What I'm talking about is this:

https://forums.ldraw.org/thread-23171.html

and:

https://forums.ldraw.org/thread-23089.html

I think as for sticker, we should somehow formalize them. We have

• Sheet Cardboard
  
• Sheet Fabric
  
• Sheet Plastic
  

As category but nothing about proper naming and we still have:

https://www.ldraw.org/cgi-bin/ptscan.cgi?q=sail&scope=description
https://www.ldraw.org/cgi-bin/ptscan.cgi?q=canvas&scope=description
https://www.ldraw.org/cgi-bin/ptscan.cgi?q=cardboard&scope=description

all over the library along with:

https://www.ldraw.org/cgi-bin/ptscan.cgi?q=sheet&scope=description

w.

Quote:While both upper and lower case letters are permitted in filenames, filenames are case-insensitive. Currently, all official parts are issued with upper-case only names.

Quote:All files in the LDraw Parts Library are required to carry the .DAT extension.

Quote:[*]The shortcut may not include more than one part, although that part may be a composite part (one with a "c" in the filename).
[*]The shortcut may not be a flat sticker on the flat surface of the part unless unless that surface is not parallel with one of the 3 cardinal ...

Quote:0 !KEYWORDS Set 10442-1, Bricklink 973pb0042

(2020-06-18, 8:52)Magnus Forsberg Wrote:

Quote:While both upper and lower case letters are permitted in filenames, filenames are case-insensitive. Currently, all official parts are issued with upper-case only names.

I dont understand this:  "all official parts are issued with upper-case only names."

 AFAIK there are no files in the library with a upper case file ending.
Some dat-files may contain references to primitives using .DAT as a file ending, but it is considered an error and are auto-corrected by LDPE, if you tell it to do that, changing the ending to lower case .dat.
DATHeader ignore this, and accept a file using .DAT in the code.
In some files there is a comment about the use of .DAT on stud primitves to please LEdit. I have ignored that and change any old file I edit and replace .DAT with .dat.

I think it needs a clarification.

(2020-06-18, 8:52)Magnus Forsberg Wrote:

Quote:All files in the LDraw Parts Library are required to carry the .DAT extension.

Same here. What is this wording trying to explain? Why .DAT? Why upper case?

(2020-06-18, 20:19)Orion Pobursky Wrote: So is the consensus all lower case? Ive confirmed that is the de-facto way we a doing things. 

I'll make the change on the dat extension.

(2020-06-19, 1:42)Travis Cobbs Wrote: Given that the actual files all have lower case names, and in all cases but 2 they reference each other with lower case names, I definitely feel that the document should indicate this.

FYI, the 2 DAT instances are as follows:

Code:

ldraw travis$ find . -name \*.dat -exec grep -H DAT$ {} \;
./parts/6567c01.dat:1 47 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 s\6567s01.DAT
./parts/6567c02.dat:1 40 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 s\6567s01.DAT

(2020-06-19, 14:49)Orion Pobursky Wrote: I also changed the extension portion and added a section about texture files.

(2020-06-19, 16:40)Orion Pobursky Wrote: I just noticed while cleaning up the code that the TEXMAP spec requires PNG. I've changed the texture text to reflect this.

(2020-06-19, 20:46)Magnus Forsberg Wrote: Did you miss my other objections/corrections?

(2020-06-25, 13:53)Christoph Kubisch Wrote: when programming a ldraw loader and adding bevel edges automatically, I noticed that several parts don't follow those rules (T-junctions existed, overlapping surfaces etc.). Meaning the rules are not followed and I implemented some mesh operations to fix them on the fly. 

Looking at the rules, statements like "must be avoided, but still legal", don't help imo.

Is the plan to robustly identify them, do people go through them manually one by one to have them rebuilt etc.?
Are there tools that do this. Could the tools fix the parts directly? Like one sentence there can have a lot of consequences for the existing content, is that accounted for?

(2020-05-30, 7:24)Willy Tschager Wrote: Blanks in description
One thing that is a constant issue for newbies at the PT is the blank in the front of numbers in the description and I couldn't find the specs for it. (This would obviously go into header).

(2020-06-19, 14:49)Orion Pobursky Wrote: I made the change to required all lower case. This involve removing the option for A-Z from the allowed characters and changing the note at the end of the paragraph. 

I also changed the extension portion and added a section about texture files.

(2020-06-06, 13:45)Willy Tschager Wrote: At the very end you should add this:

https://forums.ldraw.org/thread-22605-post-32133.html#pid32133

w.