LD Pattern Creator Help - Template creation

[ShireBrickz.com]

Hi LD community.

I’m after some help with either understanding the process of importing .dat files into LD Pattern Creator, or creating additional templates.

I’ve used the software for a while now and can create patterns using the supplied templates, but can’t seem to successfully create pieces which are not already supplied. Are there any suggested posts or instructions elsewhere to explain the process of importing existing .dat files from the LDRaw Parts Library and selecting the correct face. For example I can’t successfully find the large face of 1x6x5 panel (59349) to then create my pattern.

Thanks in advance
Adam

[Gerald Lasser]

Hi LD community.

I’m after some help with either understanding the process of importing .dat files into LD Pattern Creator, or creating additional templates.

I’ve used the software for a while now and can create patterns using the supplied templates, but can’t seem to successfully create pieces which are not already supplied. Are there any suggested posts or instructions elsewhere to explain the process of importing existing .dat files from the LDRaw Parts Library and selecting the correct face. For example I can’t successfully find the large face of 1x6x5 panel (59349) to then create my pattern.

Thanks in advance
Adam

Hi Adam,

To generate your own templates, I generally use the following steps:

• Open the part in LDPE (Part Editor)
  
• Select the surface(s) you want to have as a template and save it as a new file, e.g. 59349_pattarea.dat
  
• Import the file into 59349_pattarea.dat LDPC (Pattern Creator),
  - observe the correct plane (XY)
  - In the import dialogue, select "Overwrite and Import Projection Data"
  
• You could start now, but to use it for later save the Template in LDPC
  - File > Projection Data -> Template
  This wil give it an arbitrary name "New..."
  
• Rename the Template in the Editor
  - File > Load Template > Edit/Delete
  - In the Dialogue: Select the last template called "New..." (That should be the one you converted last) and Click "Edit"
  - IF there is pattern-less a sub-file available, you can immediately add it in the export from LDPC, so you can add in the "Additional Lines" area the line "1 16 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 s/59349s01.dat"
  -> NOTE: the file s/59349s01.dat is not yet existing! I will upload this in a few moments

Now go ahead as usual

Gerald

EDIT: I can only find on promotional print of this part (59349pb095), is it this one you want to do?

[ShireBrickz.com]

Hi Adam,

To generate your own templates, I generally use the following steps:

• Open the part in LDPE (Part Editor)
  
• Select the surface(s) you want to have as a template and save it as a new file, e.g. 59349_pattarea.dat
  
• Import the file into 59349_pattarea.dat LDPC (Pattern Creator),
  - observe the correct plane (XY)
  - In the import dialogue, select "Overwrite and Import Projection Data"
  
• You could start now, but to use it for later save the Template in LDPC
  - File > Projection Data -> Template
  This wil give it an arbitrary name "New..."
  
• Rename the Template in the Editor
  - File > Load Template > Edit/Delete
  - In the Dialogue: Select the last template called "New..." (That should be the one you converted last) and Click "Edit"
  - IF there is pattern-less a sub-file available, you can immediately add it in the export from LDPC, so you can add in the "Additional Lines" area the line "1 16 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 s/59349s01.dat"
  -> NOTE: the file s/59349s01.dat is not yet existing! I will upload this in a few moments
  

Now go ahead as usual

Gerald

EDIT: I can only find on promotional print of this part (59349pb095), is it this one you want to do?

Thanks Gerald,
That's great help, I'm about to spend some time working my way through it.
Any patterns I design are usually custom ones for my own MOC's although I have done a few official ones I could never find like the recent Fergusson Tractor tiles.
I'll keep this thread posted on my success (or failure).
Cheers
Adam

[Willy Tschager]

Gerald,

could you please flesh this out a bit, add some pics and upload it to the wiki?

Thx,

w.

[ShireBrickz.com]

Thanks Gerald,
That's great help, I'm about to spend some time working my way through it.
Any patterns I design are usually custom ones for my own MOC's although I have done a few official ones I could never find like the recent Fergusson Tractor tiles.
I'll keep this thread posted on my success (or failure).
Cheers
Adam

Ha, 2x hours later and I'm still lost trying to actually select the desired face in Part Editor. I hope it's just me, but Part Editor is not user friendly at all.

[ShireBrickz.com]

So I managed to create a template (i think).

This is the end result as rendered in Stud.io. 
The design seems to be not the black selected in LDPC and it also seems to show the triangles created in LDPC.
Was i Supposed to offset the pattern at some point to get it to sit on the surface of the brick rather than within the surface?

[Magnus Forsberg]

This is the end result as rendered in Stud.io.

Could you please add a copy of the code?
It's very hard to see/understand what you want to do from only a rendering.

[ShireBrickz.com]

Could you please add a copy of the code?
It's very hard to see/understand what you want to do from only a rendering.

I'll try.

My rendering is the part that I'm trying to create. The 59349 1x5x6 Panel rotated 270 degrees with the YvesSaintLaurent type across the bottom in black. The part will be a window in trans-clear. The rendering may be a little too small to clearly see that it appears the created YSL type is almost "embedded" behind the surface causing unusual refractions and loss of colour in the text in the render.

This was my process:

1. Using LDPE, open file 59349.dat from the LDraw library.

   

2. Selected the four front face vertices using select>select single vertice +Ctrl.

   

3. Copied and pasted the selected vertices into the new.dat in the text editor section of LDPE.

   

4. Save the new.dat file as 59349_patterndata.dat

5. Open 59349_patterndata.data in LDPE selecting the front face as per instructions above.

   

6. Saved projection data as a template and added the line of code  "1 16 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 s/59349s01.dat", also copied 59349.dat and pasted, renaming into parts/s/59349s01.dat

7. Created pattern using LDPC and colours 16 and 1 (Black)

   

8. Exported as .dat

Does this adequately explain my process and what I was trying to do?
Thanks in advance.
Adam

[ShireBrickz.com]

Final screenshots and how the pattern appears in Stud.io showing the triangulation patterns.

[ShireBrickz.com]

I forgot to include the .dat file for you to look at if that helps. Attached.

[Willy Tschager]

Looks like you didn't remove the surface substituted by the pattern from 59349.

w.

[ShireBrickz.com]

Looks like you didn't remove the surface substituted by the pattern from 59349.

w.

Thanks Willy.
Could you expand a little on how I do that and where in the process that happens?
I'm a complete novice with regards to navigating non-template part editing.
Cheers

[Gerald Lasser]

I forgot to include the .dat file for you to look at if that helps. Attached.

May be your s01 subfile still includes the from face, that does not need to be there.

EDIT: Confirmed, your s01 Subfile contains the front face where the pattern is.

I did not explicitly write that in my notes. This face has to go as it leads to overlapping polygons. See the samples here:
The GREEN one misses (correctly) the front face in the sub-file, the RED one is done like yours, where faces overlap. You can see immediately in the editor viewport that something is wrong:

   

This leads to the following render: (Much better result at the GREEN Brick)
   

I have attached the sample of the relevant sub-file, it needed the line

1 16 0 60 10 -60 0 0 0 0 -60 0 -20 0 box4-1.dat

further broken down to be able to remove the front face (quad), see the file in the attachment, in LDPE it looks like this:
   

As a final note: The pattern could be cleaned up a bit more to reduce the number of polygons, see the sample screenshot:
   

[Willy Tschager]

Thanks Willy.
Could you expand a little on how I do that and where in the process that happens?
I'm a complete novice with regards to navigating non-template part editing.
Cheers

Please post your 59349s01.dat file.

w.