Inclusion of Helper parts in the Official LDraw Parts Library

[Willy Tschager]

The Steering Committee has voted for the inclusion of helper parts in the Official LDraw Parts Library. As helper parts have to go through the LDraw Parts Tracker via "Fasttrack" for the inclusion in the package, this won't happen in a timely fashion as the current PT is technically not ready. However we agreed on the following specs:

Helper Part General Rules

Helper parts are non-LEGO text, arrows, and other icons intended to be used in building instructions or other renderings. In some cases these parts can be used to position non-brick elements (such as lights) in a LDraw scene.

Helper parts will not be subject to review on the Parts Tracker and will qualify for admin "fast tracking".

Helper Description

As for the third party parts it starts with '|' or '~|'

    |Helper <2D/3D qualifier> <Type> <additional description> <lenght/height/depth>

<Type> Arrow, Dot, Line, Letter, Number, Light, LSynth Constraint, String Knot ...
<additional description> Straight, Rotation, "3", "F", Vertical
<lenght/height/depth> 2L, 3 Studs, 20 LDU, 10 mm

Helper Part Numbering

Name as description without blanks: Helper3DEasyRotation.dat

Helper Category

Not needed. From the !CATEGORY and !KEYWORDS spec: If a part has no !CATEGORY meta-statement, the category is assumed to be the first word in the part name (ie. the first word of the first line of the part file).

Helper Keywords

Not needed, as the description should contain all relevant information.

Helper Location

<Library Root>\parts\helper

Helper Dimensions

Numbers and letters should fit into a x-z grid of a: 20 x 20 LDU