Questions regarding stickers

[Christophe Mitillo]

Hi everyone,

Recently, I decided to submit some of my own parts to the part tracker. Some of them are stickers, for set 70816.
I know that almost all of them do not meet the standard because of some choices I made when authoring them.

-First, a lot of them are flat but due to fit on sloped parts. I created them bended and right in place regarding the part associated.
I know it's a violation to the standard, but if I modify them and make them flat and horizontal, It then very difficult to place them correctly on the model later. It was a concious choice because of the sole usage of these stickers on this very set.

-Two, some of them are formed stickers due to fit on curved parts, so, consciously, I added conditional lines to the stickers, even if I knew it's another violation to the standard. Removing cond lines will ruin the renders in Pov ray.

So, I want to know if these stickers can be removed from the parts tracker, as I dont really want to correct these issues. corrections will make them totally useless for me.

I know I should have asked all these questions before submitting. I'm very sorry for inconvenience.

Chris

[Gerald Lasser]

Hi Chris,

First of all, thanks for creating all those stickers! I would not have them deleted from the Parts-Tracker.

I looked right now into the stickers for the 45° slopes. They just need to be rotated back, trimmed their decimals and then they look very good already. Some need a bit of a correction of their size, but those are minor things.

As far as I can remember there are only two stickers that are bent by themselves, the ones over the wedges. Those might need more work.

If you don't mind I would touch some of those and rotate them back to a flat position.

Gerald

[Max Martin Richter]

We are very happy about every new part on the PT. Sometimes it can be a bit disappointing for new members if we vote "hold" for almost everything, I know. So please don't remove the parts, it's at least a very good starting point for fitting them with our standards. If you don't want to spent any effort on your parts, I would ask for a note from you, that anybody else can fix them.

/Max

[Christophe Mitillo]

Thank you for your anwsers.

So, I will try to correct the issues regarding orientation, naming and various header problems I sould have corrected before submitting. I am more concerned about the interdiction of conditional lines, as every sticker I made have "rounded" edges instead of square angle boxes. If I remove the cond lines, the renders are showing the faces instead of smoothing them.

And of course, I have absolutely no objection if someone here help me in improving the result.

Chris

edit: added my try in correcting a part. If it's OK, I will correct the others accordingly

[Max Martin Richter]

Technically it's fine. I would use 1-4cyli2.dat and 1-4disc.dat/1-4chrd.dat prims for each of the four "corners".
I'm not sure about the condlines. I don't like that rule with no edges and no condlines as well. I there would be a way to remove this restrictions for condlines (especially on formed stickers) I would vote for it. :-)

The description needs some polishing - especially upper and lower case word beginnings. I would suggest something like "Sticker 1.4 x 4 with White Strip and LL929 (Left side)", but I'm not so good in finding names for stickers and parts. Maybe we have somebody with a better idea?!

/Max

[Roland Melkert]

I think the no con lines rule comes from the fact all stickers are currently assumed flat.

With this in mind I don't see the problem with extending the sticker spec to allow (demand?) con lines in non flat stickers only.

[Magnus Forsberg]

Hi Chris,

I'm really glad to see so many very good patterns. Lets fix the issues in the files.
I too could lend a helping hand, if needed, but someone has to be able to vote.

Your post raises some interesting questions, thou.

Why don't we allow condlines in sticker? I don't know, and I think I have read all of the documents, but I can't remember reading any explanation for that rule.
Could anyone else explain why?
And how about divided cond-lines along a straight ridge? A minifig head, for instance.
Many short cond-lines gives a better rendering, than one long cond-line across many vertices.

Second question is the formed sticker.
Is it ok to place a sticker so that it is easy to place it on its brick, as long as it has (Formed) at the end of the description?
Even if it is a flat sticker?

Third.
I have looked at many of complete sticker sets we have in the library.
Many of them have 1 or 2 formed stickers, but no flat version of that particular sticker.
Look at 4544258 for instance. We have all the sticker needed for that set, but no flat version of the formed f and g sticker. Why?
Must there allways be a flat versions of a formed stickers?

[Gerald Lasser]

Second question is the formed sticker.
Is it ok to place a sticker so that it is easy to place it on its brick, as long as it has (Formed) at the end of the description?
Even if it is a flat sticker?

In my opinion there is another question: Does it make sense to have a formed sticker standalone in the library? If the sticker is formed (bent) then there is pretty much only one place where it can fit, on the part it was supposed to go. In my view a Part+ Formed Sticker combination would be enough.
Either this way or e.g. If it is a sticker is a stand-alone part, e.g. for the curved Wedge, it would make sense to have the sticker in its proper position when the co-ordinates of (the formed) sticker and the parts are the same.

If the sticker is just rotated, i.e. a sticker on a slope, the (relative) position for the part where it is supposed to go could be in the helpline. E.g. the Stickers for the 45° Slopes could then just be rotated 45° and positioned . In this case especially easy as all the center coordinates are full LDU values (0 10 -20)

I have looked at many of complete sticker sets we have in the library.
Many of them have 1 or 2 formed stickers, but no flat version of that particular sticker.
Look at 4544258 for instance. We have all the sticker needed for that set, but no flat version of the formed f and g sticker. Why?
Must there allways be a flat versions of a formed stickers?

I don't think the flat version shall be mandatory. Usually the flat version is where you (at least I) start from when designing a new one, so uploadingit would not be too much of a hassle then. You then have the possibility to use it on other places as well.

[Max Martin Richter]

My thoughts to this theme:
About the flat stickers: I would prefer, that we have a flat version of each sticker in our library. (Who tells, that nobody wants to use such a sticker on a MOC?)
About the formed versions: I would like to see, if we can find an agreement, that the formed (bent not rotated) sticker is using the base coordinates of the brick, where it will be applied. (Or a moved centre coordinate if it is not applied on brick's centre.)

Seems that we should open a new topic for discussion the sticker specs...(Or should I simply move the content to another thread.)

/Max

[Orion Pobursky]

Yes. Please start a new thread about this with a brief summary of the issue and a proposed solution.

[Steffen]

------> http://forums.ldraw.org/showthread.php?t...0#pid16600

[Magnus Forsberg]

I'll soon have all of these stickers fixed and ready for upload. And a set of brick/sticker shortcuts.

   

Would it be ok if I replaced the files at Part Tracker with these?