Help with curved hoses (14301)

[Guido MB]

Hello all! Thank you in advance for any responses!

I've been building with real bricks for years but after repeated requests for instructions I've finally had a go at creating some. My first model is almost built digitally, but I am going insane in the last step of adding curved hoses. I'm aware that Studio struggles in this regard, so have downloaded LDCad, but try as I might to follow the online guides, it just isn't working for me! I've attached a couple of images: I create the part, make sure it's rubber type, make sure it's nested in the upper right corner (don't know what that means!). I can move the end, but can't seem use the insert key to add new nodes. When I do this it just goes see-through as in the photos (before I click it says "Invisible part selected, click anywhere to add it"). Any help? I'm guessing it's going to be tricky to export back into studio as well, but we will get there when we get there!

I do note that there are two types of hose 14301 - one seems infinitely extendable, and has a spanner (this is the one I'm using), the other is fixed length but refuses to flex.

[N. W. Perry]

Hello all! Thank you in advance for any responses!

I've been building with real bricks for years but after repeated requests for instructions I've finally had a go at creating some. My first model is almost built digitally, but I am going insane in the last step of adding curved hoses. I'm aware that Studio struggles in this regard, so have downloaded LDCad, but try as I might to follow the online guides, it just isn't working for me! I've attached a couple of images: I create the part, make sure it's rubber type, make sure it's nested in the upper right corner (don't know what that means!). I can move the end, but can't seem use the insert key to add new nodes. When I do this it just goes see-through as in the photos (before I click it says "Invisible part selected, click anywhere to add it"). Any help? I'm guessing it's going to be tricky to export back into studio as well, but we will get there when we get there!

I do note that there are two types of hose 14301 - one seems infinitely extendable, and has a spanner (this is the one I'm using), the other is fixed length but refuses to flex.

Try inserting the node again, and be sure you have selected one of the end parts of the hose with the little red and blue arrows before pressing Insert. I was able to reproduce your problem by clicking on the middle of the hose (the "path skin") and inserting that; but you need to insert a "path point" which is the gadget with the arrows. (You should be able to select the whole end handle of the hose, which will include the arrows, as long as you don't have grouping disabled.)

By the way, "nested" mode means that you can work inside of sub-models from within the main model—you don't have to open up the sub-model separately to manipulate it. A flexible hose in LDCad is really a little sub-model, and if you click on it in normal mode, you select the entire hose and can move it around. But if you click on it in nested mode, you are able to select the different parts of the hose (control points, end caps, path skin etc.) and just affect those. So you can re-shape the hose without moving the whole thing around.

And yes, you're right—there will always (?) be a non-flexible version of any flexible part in the LDraw library. These are mainly useful for displaying in parts inventories, such as in instructions, but they are almost never useful in models because you almost always want the flexible part to, well, flex. :-)

When you are ready to export back to Studio, there are some threads here already about how to do that. The main thing is that you have to save the flexible part that you made in LDCad as a .dat file (not .ldr) that Studio will recognize as a part. But like you say, we'll get there in time!

[Guido MB]

Try inserting the node again, and be sure you have selected one of the end parts of the hose with the little red and blue arrows before pressing Insert. I was able to reproduce your problem by clicking on the middle of the hose (the "path skin") and inserting that; but you need to insert a "path point" which is the gadget with the arrows. (You should be able to select the whole end handle of the hose, which will include the arrows, as long as you don't have grouping disabled.)

By the way, "nested" mode means that you can work inside of sub-models from within the main model—you don't have to open up the sub-model separately to manipulate it. A flexible hose in LDCad is really a little sub-model, and if you click on it in normal mode, you select the entire hose and can move it around. But if you click on it in nested mode, you are able to select the different parts of the hose (control points, end caps, path skin etc.) and just affect those. So you can re-shape the hose without moving the whole thing around.

And yes, you're right—there will always (?) be a non-flexible version of any flexible part in the LDraw library. These are mainly useful for displaying in parts inventories, such as in instructions, but they are almost never useful in models because you almost always want the flexible part to, well, flex. :-)

When you are ready to export back to Studio, there are some threads here already about how to do that. The main thing is that you have to save the flexible part that you made in LDCad as a .dat file (not .ldr) that Studio will recognize as a part. But like you say, we'll get there in time!

Oh my goodness. Thank you so much!! That worked! Still plenty of things I don't understand (sometimes when I click the end and click insert, it just creates another end part! But not always!) but I have got it looking like what I want it to look like! 

So how do I now save it as a .dat? 

[N. W. Perry]

So how do I now save it as a .dat? 

Once you're sure the hose is finished and you're ready to move into Studio:

1. Go into the editing session for the hose itself (easiest way is to double-click on the hose while NOT in nested mode, or you can click on the session name in the upper right and choose it from the drop-down, or you can click into it from the File Content part bin).
2. Go to Session->Duplicate this subfile… and choose "New file" from the dialog that opens.
3. A standalone file containing just the hose now opens. Go to Save or Save as… and give the file a name ending with .dat (not .ldr).

If you place this file in your custom parts directory for Studio, it will now appear in the Custom Parts palette in that program. By far the most difficult part of the process is locating the Custom Parts directory, if you don't already know where it is, since it is a hidden folder. On the Mac it's at /Users/{your username}/.local/share/Stud.io/CustomParts/parts and on PC it's something like C:\Users\{your username}\AppData\Local\Stud.io.

If you've never created a custom part using Part Designer, the custom directory may not exist yet. In that case (or if you simply can't find the directory), you can import the .dat file into Part Designer, then save it as a Studio part. This should create the custom parts directory, so in the future you can just stick parts in there and they will open right up in Studio without needing to be imported via Part Designer (unless you want to add Studio snap or collision info).

[Guido MB]

Once you're sure the hose is finished and you're ready to move into Studio:

1. Go into the editing session for the hose itself (easiest way is to double-click on the hose while NOT in nested mode, or you can click on the session name in the upper right and choose it from the drop-down, or you can click into it from the File Content part bin).
2. Go to Session->Duplicate this subfile… and choose "New file" from the dialog that opens.
3. A standalone file containing just the hose now opens. Go to Save or Save as… and give the file a name ending with .dat (not .ldr).

If you place this file in your custom parts directory for Studio, it will now appear in the Custom Parts palette in that program. By far the most difficult part of the process is locating the Custom Parts directory, if you don't already know where it is, since it is a hidden folder. On the Mac it's at /Users/{your username}/.local/share/Stud.io/CustomParts/parts and on PC it's something like C:\Users\{your username}\AppData\Local\Stud.io.

If you've never created a custom part using Part Designer, the custom directory may not exist yet. In that case (or if you simply can't find the directory), you can import the .dat file into Part Designer, then save it as a Studio part. This should create the custom parts directory, so in the future you can just stick parts in there and they will open right up in Studio without needing to be imported via Part Designer (unless you want to add Studio snap or collision info).

Thank you! Very kind. I have almost finished my instructions now, will post a link to them when I'm done.