LEGO 2 LDraw 2 BL

[Lutz Gehlen]

Could be as simple as XML:

Code:

<items>
 <item src="6228b" dst="6228"/>
</items>

or JSON:

Code:

[{src: '6228b', dst: '6228'}]

or even CSV

Code:

6228b,6228

An editor would use it as a translation table.

Any format could be generated if the 3rd party names would be stored in the parts tracker as metadata.

We could also introduce a new LDraw meta for this, and add it to the parts themselves. Eliminating the need for an index file altogether.

Hi all,

I think the two of you are talking about two different aspects. Roland is talking about how to store the information in files. One important aspect is whether to store the reference system of a part number explicitly. In the ldraw.xml file that Willy quoted the attribute names encode explicitly which is the lego number and which is the ldraw number. In my opinion this is preferable over src/dest. In the latter case you need meta information on the file in order to know how to use it. For example you need to know that this is an ldraw to lego translation file and not the other way around or ldraw to bricklink or whatever. In the former case, this information is stored in the content of the file itself. You could even have something like

Code:

<item ldraw="foo" lego="bar" bricklink="baz" />

in one go. Whether the file format is XML or JSON is not that important I think, but CSV might be too limited.

I think the last idea is interesting to store the information in the files themselves and eliminate the need for a translation file altogether. Roland, could you elaborate on that idea? Do you think of something like
0 ALIAS LEGO 6228
or what is the idea?

On the other hand, if I understand correctly, Willy is talking about how to expose this information (no matter how it is stored) to the user in an editor. I think from a model author's point of view there are several aspects. If I want to add a part to my model it would be most convenient if I can find it under any of its part numbers. Maybe I have found the part in a Lego model or on Bricklink or wherever and now I want to use it. On the other hand, in some situations I might want to use its number in a specific reference system. For example, I might want to look up on Bricklink how expensive the part is. Or I want to export a Bricklink XML file. It just happened to me that I exported such a file from LeoCAD and could not import it to Bricklink before I manually translated some of the part numbers. Ideally, this is to be avoided by an editor if such translation information is available.

Cheers,
Lutz