(2024-11-05, 13:32)Jasper Speelman Wrote: Apparently there's a lot of invalid lines but I'm not sure what is invalid exactly.... I added some of the metadata but it seems to be the rest causing problems... can someone help me figure it out?
Also x351 is apparently not supported, so I changed it to the alternative part number 41850.

(2024-11-05, 13:32)Jasper Speelman Wrote: Apparently there's a lot of invalid lines but I'm not sure what is invalid exactly.... I added some of the metadata but it seems to be the rest causing problems... can someone help me figure it out?
Also x351 is apparently not supported, so I changed it to the alternative part number 41850.

(2024-11-05, 14:09)Chris Böhnke Wrote: Another little nitpick would be the y-coordinate of the neck connector:



I would assume that this is meant to be 'in system', meaning the y-value should be exactly 24 LDU not 24.006 LDU.

This would apply to the entire flat 'neck' area. Did you measure this value yourself?

Unfortunatley I can not access one of mine to compare at the moment

(2024-11-05, 14:00)Chris Böhnke Wrote: Nice work there! I really like to finally have this part available

Regarding the errors, most of it seems to be caused by the usual Stud.io export mess-ups. It can be very easily fixed in LDraw Parts Editor (at least it seems so).

The meta data should look something like this:

0 Body, Racers Driver
0 Name: 41850.dat
0 Author: Jasper Speelman [JappaWakka]
0 !LDRAW_ORG Unofficial_Part
0 !LICENSE Licensed under CC BY 4.0 : see CAreadme.txt

0 BFC CERTIFY CCW

A few more issues I found thus far:
*edge lines (Line Type 2) should be reworked, there are a few missing or misplaced I would say
*Conditional Lines (Line Type 5) are missing entirely, those are needed to make the round areas look 'smooth' (use Edger2, then manually check for errors)
*many triangles could be merged to quadrilaterals (use Rectifier from LDPE)
*the neck connector pin should probably be replaced by a cylinder primitive

Most of this can be done with LDraw Parts Editor (LDPE):
https://sourceforge.net/projects/partcreator/

br, Chris

EDIT:
Also, mirroring this part seems like a good idea. It's entirely symmetrical I guess?

(2024-11-05, 13:54)Jeff Jones Wrote: i could polish it and upload it to the tracker in your name but im busy rn

(2024-11-05, 14:20)Jeff Jones Wrote: its almost done

(2024-11-05, 14:16)Jasper Speelman Wrote: Those are useful tips. How do I mirror a part because I did make it symmetrical yes. And how do I add a cylinder primitive?

(2024-11-05, 14:47)Jeff Jones Wrote: im done with that part time to polish this up

(2024-11-05, 17:31)Chris Böhnke Wrote: Mirroring:

You would need 2 files for this:
41850.dat (the actual part, but it doesn't contain the raw geometric data)
41850s01.dat (a sub-part file, containing the actual geometry)

Using the program of your choice just delete all vertices on either the left or right side of your model, so there should be a clean cut along the plane of symmetry and save this as 41850s01.dat. Then have a file 41850.dat only containing the metadata and enter two lines like this:

1 16 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 s\41850s01.dat        //The left side
1 16 0 0 0 -1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 s\41850s01.dat       //The right side

Subfiles always start with linetype "1". By keeping the transformation matrix "empty" (0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1) you asure that the main part keeps the origin of your halfed sub-part (and all other properties as well).

In the second line just turn the first x-value of the rotation matrix from 1 to -1 to have that one mirrored.

Primitives:

Primitives work very similar to the above. Use line type 1 and then input the required values in the transformation matrix. The advantage here is that it reduces the number of lines in the file, makes the cylinder more easy to modify and allows for different resolutions in most viewers.

1) Delete the existing cylinder geometry (but remember the actual position)
2) Cylinder primitives are set with their origin in the center top, so enter the original coordinates as the first 3 values, in your case this would be: 0 -32 0 (with the height accuracy already adjusted)
3) The first and third triplet of values afterwards change the radius (default is 1 LDU). Since you want a radius of 6, this gives 6 0 0 and 0 0 6 respectively.
4) Finally adjust the height in the second triplet: 0 8 0

Using the 4-4cylc primitive (full 360° cylinder which has top but no bottom surface and edges on both ends) gives you this line:
1 16 0 -32 0 6 0 0 0 8 0 0 0 6 4-4cylc.dat

The official documentation on primitives can be found here: https://wiki.ldraw.org/wiki/Primitives_Reference#Three_dimensional_2

While it's probably not 100% necessary for this part, I would still advise to use a matching "anti-circle" at the bottom around it, to avoid T-junctions and gaps:
1 16 0 -24 0 6 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 6 4-4ndis.dat
You would then have to realign the remaining vertices to this new square (including the mid points!)


You can then repeat this process for the underside of the pin

(2024-11-11, 12:58)Jasper Speelman Wrote: Chris Böhnke, I can't make any sense of this LDPartEditor tool. It's the most confusing 3d software I've ever seen. I don't think I can reliably use this.
I did figure out a way to have a better, more clean export from Blender using the ExportLDraw addon, which I've included in the attachments.
It already has the lines (although I can't find a way to add a conditional line myself) and smooth shading set properly. I also made sure some key vertices are rounded to whole LDUs.
Could this be useful? I really need some help getting this right.

Quote:1 16 0 -32 0 6 0 0 0 8 0 0 0 6 4-4cylc.dat

Quote:1 16 0 -28 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 studa.dat
1 16 0 -28 0 6 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 6 4-4cyli.dat

(2024-11-11, 14:01)Jeff Jones Wrote: for the stud
instead of this
do this

(2024-11-11, 14:07)Jasper Speelman Wrote: Sure. Is the rest of the part okay?

(2024-11-11, 17:28)Chris Böhnke Wrote: Stud.io isn't maintained by LDraw.org but rather Bricklink/Lego.

This means the Stud.io collision/connectivity files will be added by them, when the will add your part to Stud.io (which may or may not happen, old parts get added quite inconsistently). So this is nothing you have to worry about.

Regarding the Parts Tracker, the people who can vote are Part Reviewers. Assuming everything is fine with your part and you get the 2 required votes, the part's status changes to "Admin Review", which is basically just a second review phase. After it passes this phase, it will usually be included in the next official parts update.

So if the part is okay, there is nothing more for you to do on that regard. Just check regularly if anybody makes a vote or comment until it's official.

If there are problems with the part, the reviewers will tell you about, so you can change it .

Quote:you should get rid of the center vertices of straight edges... (merge to other vertices)
and the LDraw specs use somewhat "ideal" values on connections, so look to get the outer corners to nice round values.
for example, the corners are at 16.048 and 20.06, try to get these to 16 and 20.
same for the "neck" connection point, instead of -24.072 use -24
to do that, try using the LDPE

(2024-11-11, 19:23)Jasper Speelman Wrote: I don't know what to do or how to do it. LDPE is unusable to me. Nothing works like it should and it's stressing me out.

(2024-11-13, 9:25)Chris Böhnke Wrote: I think what Rene means is something like this:


A single line should only have 2 vertices on it. You probably have to puzzle a bit to get this arranged correctly with the connecting geometry, but it should be possible. There might be a few exception an additional vertex is  unavoidable, but those shown can be merged for example.

Also you should rebuild the neck area using a primitive (blue) and then add new triangles (red):


(Please note there are still a few unneccessary vertices in this image that should be merged)

Hope this helps a bit.

(2024-11-19, 11:18)Rene Rechthaler Wrote: made some photos of my two parts on a 2x4 plate (composed into 1 image)
all outer sides are slanted and coarse like the standard 2xX slopes

(2024-11-19, 11:18)Rene Rechthaler Wrote: made some photos of my two parts on a 2x4 plate (composed into 1 image)
all outer sides are slanted and coarse like the standard 2xX slopes

(2024-11-19, 21:14)Magnus Forsberg Wrote: Finding surfaces to subfile is always good, but dividing flat quads into 2 symetrical halves is never good practice.
Here is an example of useless vertices that should be avoided.



Try to remove these surfaces from the subfile, and then add them in the top level as full quads, spanning from left to right side.