CAD System - Computer Aided Design for Playmobil

[Indianna]

    I am stunned, Emma!  I never knew that this type of thing could be done in Excel - I have only used it for boring old text and numbers.   

Thank you for showing this to us!  Would you be able to explain the methodology a little bit, please?  Even though I am somewhat familiar with Excel I would not know how to begin to do something like this.   

[Emma.J]

Hi Indianna,
sure I'll help out if I can. I just realised why I changed over from the pink to blue palace parts. The pink bits I drew with paint program and loaded these into excel - insert picture - but these couldn't be made into 3d objects. So all the other parts I've redone as objects.

(oh as an aside I use excel to print all my wallpapers, labels, signs, books etc that I use in my dioramas)

First create the 2d shape you wish to use. We'll work on the basic layout of the house walls. A 2 window wall is a square, the door wall is a rectangle and the roof is a "snip same side corner rectangle".

Click on the second tab at the top "insert". In the second box is a "shapes" button. Click on it and select rectangle. Then click anywhere on the page. This will produce a square on the page and the "format" tab at the top will appear.

This "format" tab has 3 main options - shape fill, shape outline, shape effects. You can colour in this square with the first 2 options, then copy and paste this object so you can have as many 2 window walls on your page as you really poses.

Make a door wall by just clicking on the square and dragging the side outwards.

I made the square 2cm on each side and the rectangle 2x3cm - the size can be altered using the size box on the "format" tab. If you want to label the image just right click on the object and type eg bed , kitchen etc.

[Emma.J]

Ok part 2...

Hopefully you can now make a 2d vertical plan of a house. Using these objects it's easy to pick them up and drag them around to work out how many floors you want to build and what you want each room for.

Now the trickier part making it 3d.

Click on your square and on the "format" tab select "shape effects" go to the bottom and select 3-d rotation - parallel. Then "shape effects" - bevel - bevel (I click on the first bevel icon)
Then "shape effects" - bevel - 3d options. This opens up a new window called format shape. Altering the settings in this window is how I turned my square into a 3d outline.

For a 3d box with a square front eg 2 windows I used the following settings
bevel : top width 0pt, height 5pt
        : bottom width 0pt, height 97pt

depth : 11pt

contour : size 0pt

Surface : material - wireframe for outline or translucent for coloured
lighting : neutral - soft

Once you've altered the settings for one box just copy and paste this object to have loads of room boxes. Use the same settings for to make one door wall into a box as well and then just drag them around the page till you've got them stacked up in any design you like!

Well I hope you managed to follow all this and that it helps

[Emma.J]

  Hello again,

about the cad program has anyone used google's sketch up? I've just found it and it might be interesting to use as people can design 3d objects and load them into a warehouse for everyone to share. Could be a way around the design program problem until PM comes up with a program like the lego one.

[Indianna]

Thanks for all this wonderful info, Emma!  I am going to try it out later today or tomorrow, when I have a little more time (I am supposed to be doing something important right now, but I am visiting PF instead       )

I have looked at Google Sketch-up (a while back - it may have changed since I last used it) and it is very cool!  My sense is that with all of these basic programs, the hard part is accurately translating the actual real world parts into the virtual world - measurements have to be super precise if the part is being "built" that way.  The ideal is to have a 3D image file to upload but one needs a 3D scanner to do that. 

I like attempting this kind of thing, though, because it is always interesting and fun - so, if people are interested in experimenting, I say: "Go for it!"  The worst that can happen is that we learn something new.   

[Indianna]

I am lucky as i can do this with the Playmobil railway track using Win Rail.
It would be could if there was a programme for using the building pieces.

Walt - thanks for this tip!  I have looked at the Win Rail website and it looks really interesting.  I am thinking about buying it, though I will certainly download the free trial version first.  Do you recommend the deluxe or standard version?  Do you think we could "build" Playmobil buildings using Win Rail?