color codes for silver vs metal ?
2011-08-01, 4:27 (This post was last modified: 2012-05-14, 20:20 by Travis Cobbs.)
2011-08-01, 4:27 (This post was last modified: 2012-05-14, 20:20 by Travis Cobbs.)
There always has been confusion about which color codes need to be used
for silver(ish) things or metal in our library.
I would like to sum up my state of knowledge and would like to discuss this here,
so the usage of color codes can be tidied up in our library.
Causing this post is the ongoing discussion at
http://www.ldraw.org/cgi-bin/ptdetail.cg...144485.dat
(, there had been some before already at other parts)
This is my (personal) state of knowledge,
I may be wrong in one or the other point of course.
When replying, please just don't assume that I or you are "just right",
because the library sometimes has inconsistencies.
color 179:
means "printed silver".
that is a color being used in patterns that get printed onto parts
color 383:
from the beginning was a "special color", used for physical metal parts
which appear "silverish" or "chromish" :-) ,
thus, do not use this for copper or other metal things
color 494:
another very special color.
it has been introduced for "electric studs",
which show up in historic LEGO instructions as studs with a yellow portion.
some tools for this reason used to render or code this color as yellow,
but nowadays most render it similar to 383, which frequently leads to confusion.
IMHO, this color code should ONLY be used for electric studs, and not used
too liberately, because it carries not only the semantics "made of silverish/chrome metal",
but also "shall show up in instructions as yellow" and
"is somewhat related to electric studs"
color 80:
I didn't know much about this color for long time and have never used it.
But I think it is for silver plastic parts like this
http://media.peeron.com/pics/inv/custpic...848722.jpg
BrickLink has a very good, visual color comparison table
http://www.bricklink.com/catalogColors.a...itemType=P
, but sadly without LDRAW color codes.
IMHO, we definetely need such a table with visual part examples for our LDRAW library.
We also might or might not have to introduce new colors in ldconfig.ldr, or phase out some confusing ones
(and map them to others for downwards compatibility).
for silver(ish) things or metal in our library.
I would like to sum up my state of knowledge and would like to discuss this here,
so the usage of color codes can be tidied up in our library.
Causing this post is the ongoing discussion at
http://www.ldraw.org/cgi-bin/ptdetail.cg...144485.dat
(, there had been some before already at other parts)
This is my (personal) state of knowledge,
I may be wrong in one or the other point of course.
When replying, please just don't assume that I or you are "just right",
because the library sometimes has inconsistencies.
color 179:
means "printed silver".
that is a color being used in patterns that get printed onto parts
color 383:
from the beginning was a "special color", used for physical metal parts
which appear "silverish" or "chromish" :-) ,
thus, do not use this for copper or other metal things
color 494:
another very special color.
it has been introduced for "electric studs",
which show up in historic LEGO instructions as studs with a yellow portion.
some tools for this reason used to render or code this color as yellow,
but nowadays most render it similar to 383, which frequently leads to confusion.
IMHO, this color code should ONLY be used for electric studs, and not used
too liberately, because it carries not only the semantics "made of silverish/chrome metal",
but also "shall show up in instructions as yellow" and
"is somewhat related to electric studs"
color 80:
I didn't know much about this color for long time and have never used it.
But I think it is for silver plastic parts like this
http://media.peeron.com/pics/inv/custpic...848722.jpg
BrickLink has a very good, visual color comparison table
http://www.bricklink.com/catalogColors.a...itemType=P
, but sadly without LDRAW color codes.
IMHO, we definetely need such a table with visual part examples for our LDRAW library.
We also might or might not have to introduce new colors in ldconfig.ldr, or phase out some confusing ones
(and map them to others for downwards compatibility).