Tips for printed hips/legs?

[Lee Gaiteri]

I'm getting back into part authoring and have three torsos ready to submit. I'm looking at doing the troubadour torso next, but he also has printed legs.

I've never done printed legs and hips, and that might be a bridge too far for me, but I'm curious if I can learn to pull it off in time. But since we have some parts like that, do any experienced part authors have good tips on how to do that?

(For torsos I'm working on some tools to help me crank those out faster. One of the bigger problems I had was lining up photos from BrickLink to trace an .svg over, but I've figured out a nice way to deal with that.)

[Gerald Lasser]

First of all, let me ask you if you know LDPC? the Pattern Creator

Did you use it to create the other flat patterns?

[Lee Gaiteri]

First of all, let me ask you if you know LDPC? the Pattern Creator

Did you use it to create the other flat patterns?

Nope, I'm not familiar with LDPC. I made my torso patterns the way I was doing it a decade ago: Trace over the image in Inkscape to make an SVG, use a JavaScript tool to break up the paths into LDraw shapes. It works pretty well for flat areas but for hips and legs, that's obviously not a choice.

I can't seem to find a page for LDPC. Can you point me in the right direction?

[Magnus Forsberg]

I can't seem to find a page for LDPC. Can you point me in the right direction?

Here:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/patterncreator/

https://www.ldraw.org/downloads-2/third-...tware.html

[Orion Pobursky]

I can't seem to find a page for LDPC. Can you point me in the right direction?

LPC (Not to be confused with LDPE by the same author):
https://sourceforge.net/p/patterncreator/home/Home/

[Lee Gaiteri]

Okay, I've downloaded LD Pattern Creator. But... now what?

I can't seem to find any information on how to use the tool; it has no instructions, only a readme file that mentions some tips for someone who already knows the software, and a document on the template format that would only be relevant to someone who knows how to use it. Is there a place I can read up on how to use this tool?

I imagine there's also a need for leg and hip templates in order to use this tool for those. Has anyone made such templates?

[N. W. Perry]

I can't seem to find any information on how to use the tool; it has no instructions, only a readme file that mentions some tips for someone who already knows the software, and a document on the template format that would only be relevant to someone who knows how to use it. Is there a place I can read up on how to use this tool?

Yes: https://jc-tchang.philohome.com/manuel/LPC_a.htm

It's in French, but this being 2023 your browser or Google should have no problem translating it for you. And you can get a manual for any other LDraw tool you could possibly dream of at the same site.

[Vincent Messenet]

I can't seem to find any information on how to use the tool

Also a tutorial video was created by Philo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vax5vvJH_Rs

[Willy Tschager]

Okay, I've downloaded LD Pattern Creator. But... now what?

Maybe this gives you some insight:

https://forums.ldraw.org/thread-27173.html

w.