Author Topic: Playmo3D Project - a computer based virtual building tool for Playmobil parts  (Read 28974 times)

Offline grangel

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Free has worked fine for me.

Thanks alot Tim
   

Offline Jrodmobil

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 I was wondering how you are getting the "item to file" I guess. Are you using a 3D scanner or calipers and measuring by hand?

Jarred
To err is human; to klick, divine.

Offline Sir Pleamo

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I was wondering how you are getting the "item to file" I guess. Are you using a 3D scanner or calipers and measuring by hand?

Jarred

No, not a 3D-Scanner, even if I had enough money to by one, the result would be too big, a lot of work to generate those files and they would be not as exact as they are now of course... so, therefore the last one, yes all are purely "handmade" ...it looks really harder than it is. Of course you need some experiences but meanwhile it is no longer a real big challenge for me to digitalize some parts. The main theme in designing now is a huge number of "standard files" e.g. the steck-wall outer frame, which never changes, so if you have it once, you easily could go ahead for all kinds of such walls. This method is true for nearly all parts. Once you have made one shape, this opens you a way to a lot of new parts containing this shape... So it is funny but true, the more parts you have the faster the whole work can be continued. ...and this is my greatest motivation to go on, the parts grow exponentially in number! So therefore I keep the illusion that there will be light at the end of the tunnel... 8}

Offline Pynedor

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How exactly do the parts snap together? My wall pieces, for example, are always ever so slightly off when they snap into place. Is there a certain point on them I should be clicking when I move them together? :-\
~Pynedor~

Offline Sir Pleamo

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How exactly do the parts snap together? My wall pieces, for example, are always ever so slightly off when they snap into place. Is there a certain point on them I should be clicking when I move them together? :-\
I take this post to drop some sentences about what might help some of you in some of your difficulties.
First of all be sure about the fact that I do not feel bothered by any of such a question, the opposite is true, I am really happy about them! First of all this shows, that you are really using the parts, and that is great (!) and secondly I am preparing an advanced manual (working title is “Playmo3D on a second view – Advanced techniques and hints”), so all your difficulties will really help me to understand better where specific difficulties in use may be found that I have to mention in detail.
So for the very beginning here are some short and sketchy notes on some FAQs.

In general, the point I tried to make strong in the published First-Steps manual (btw, thanks Tim for the warm words about it... seems I am on the right way when I keep this style for additional stuff?) was “get familiar with working in 3D”, sound trivial but this is the only difficulty that might bother most of you. Remember, the whole Playmo3D do not use any feature that is not SketchUp, that means, all what I try to describe is purely normal working with SU (in some aspects comparable to different 3D-programs), so don’t be afraid of using the SU Helping Center too.
Maybe the few additional examples in the following will help some of you with the specific Playmo3D-working.
Let’s have a closer look on “the right adjustment” of e.g. some Steck walls (fig. 1a) (same is true for all other kind of parts of course):
In general all parts match exactly to each other, in other words there must not be any gap between them (fig. 1b, also 3a). If there is such a gap, you have made something wrong, but what and how to do it better?
In principle you can move and connect any part with any point you want to, but not every point is as useful as some others… therefore in the manual I talked about “prominent points“ and on this idea the Grid-System is constructed (so by the way, the Grids are not in any situation the best or easiest way (see SysX example below, next post).  Also it is neither possible to list every part with its specific “best points” nor might be any mentioned point the best in any situation.
In most cases (and I guess this will be true for most of your difficulties) problems do not arise within choosing and moving the parts at specific points but not having a well chosen view on your parts in the project. This was the reason why in the manual I am repeating sentences like “remember Orbit/ Pan…” so often. THIS IS the key to nearly all adjustments. In my opinion using the shortcuts will do the job the very best, e.g. “hanging a part on your mouse” (see manual) and then just press "o" (for orbit). Now adjust your view – NOT to the part which you want to move but to the TARGET point, bring the mouse next to that point and now return to move-mode by just pressing "m" (for move) again (repeat these steps when you fail).
Often (a question of experience) you might be confused by some lines and/or marks that leads to a wrong chosen point. There might be some situations for that. For example, in some situations you might be confused by the blue “marking-outline” when you have selected a part. This outline is NOT identical with e.g. the Grid (fig. 1c), even if in some situations they may fall together. The blue outlines just mark the total dimension of a part. In the case of fig. 1c (the Steck castle connector) there are some bricks that are wider than the rest, therefore the blue outlines are wider in the top of the part too, but are NO MAGNETIC POINTS in our sense (the black dotted arrows in 1c show the “right “ prominent points for this situation).
Another difficulty might be that you do not find any Grid in some parts. Why and what to do? That’s fine, if there is no Grid, than simply because the part itself offers these points. In Steck e.g. the the wall’s Grid is build up on the (castle) wall connectors, so they do not have a Grid themselves (compare 1c).
In some situations the theoretically prominent Grid-points are covered by the parts like in the case of Steck Battlements (fig 2a). In that case e.g. use the middle point of the front side Grid-line in an upwards view (fig 2b).

Offline Sir Pleamo

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Here is the same again, compare the both different sides of the SysX stonework wall parts (fig 3a). If you choose the stonework side to adjust the parts you have to select e.g. the Grid edge point (fig 3a, red arrow) (because of the 1mm texture of these parts) OR you may choose the egde point in the part itself (fig 3a, dotted red arrow), OR you might use the backside of the parts (red circled), OR you choose the points used in the manual, OR…  Again in fact it does not matter what will be your choice as long as these points have corresponding ones in the target part. The Grid-System is only a helpful tool that you easily can find AT LEAST ONE POMINENT POINT, if there is a different maybe better one for your situation, take it! (Again, here you can see no gap and an exact matching.)

Offline Sir Pleamo

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What to do if none of this help and/ or specific problems with specific parts/ situations still remain?
Please write me a short note. PM would be the best, so I can sort them and answer to a bundle of similar questions, but if you think your point might be a point of major interest posting will be fine too of course. Please tell me the part-numbers and/or part-types so that I can get sure that there is no error in the part itself (of course there are some errors in the library, anytime I discover one I correct it, but if you have an open eye too…). Or describe the situation in which you are unsure how to act.

Sometimes it is not unimportant which hardware you use, e.g. with notebooks only with a touchpad instead of a mouse are really difficult to handle. If you have very slow computers and/or very little working memory, SketchUp tends not to work very well (especially in turning the view and moving parts, in detail it is a question of latency) .

Again, thanks for all your feedback (mainly via PMs), there is nothing unsolvable yet! So stay trying the Lib!

Offline Sir Pleamo

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+++UPDATE AVAILABLE+++
There is an update available now! Playmobil 3D-Library 3.0.1 can be downloaded now!

This update comes with 35 new parts and fixed bugs in some parts. It comes as a bundle with the whole Playmo3D – Library included, so we recommend deleting your last version and replacing it with this one.
The focus in 3.0.1 mainly is making the Steck-roofs available for you, because they are really a must for Steck-designes. For sure, there are still some parts missing but as you can see, only about one month after the release of 3.0 there is 3.0.1 coming with 35 new parts, so we are looking forward to fill the remaining gaps soon.

Thank you again for all your input and feedback!
 
How to get version 3.0.1?
The password stays the same but here is the new link:
Playmo3D – 3.0
So if you are new, you should contact me for getting access, if you are already using Playmo3D 3.0 use the given password.


Offline tonguello

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How did I miss this thread for so long?  ???
I'll carefully read it.  ;D
...“But waiting can’t be bad, for plastic men, as I have learnt, are made to wait when playing's done”...
Check my blog: www.funfanphotoys.tumblr.com

Offline Pynedor

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Thanks for the information, Sir Pleamo! ;)
~Pynedor~