Helper Part Regulations

Helper Part General Rules

Helper parts are non-LEGO text, arrows, and other icons intended to be used in building instructions or other renderings. In some cases these parts can be used to position non-brick elements (such as lights) in a LDraw scene.

Helper parts will be subject to review on the Parts Tracker and will qualify for admin "fast tracking".

Helper Description

1. Proposal

As for the third party parts it starts with '|' or '~|'

• |Helper <2D/3D qualifier> <Type> <additional description> <lenght/height/depth>

<Type> Arrow, Dot, Line, Letter, Number, Light, LSynth Constraint, String Knot ...
<additional description> Straight, Rotation, "3", "F", Vertical
<lenght/height/depth> 2L, 3 Studs, 20 LDU, 10 mm

Note: It has to be decided if it is "Helpers" or "Helper".

2. Proposal

No prefix, the 'h/' folder already indicates it's a non standard part.
If we put "Helper" in the category meta the description can be free to fill in by the author.
Maybe only use a prefix to indicate the 'set' of helpers it belong to, but even this should be up to the author of the set.

Helper Part Numbering

1. Proposal

• Scheme: h<number>.dat
• Scheme: Helper<number>.dat
• Name as description without blanks: Helper3DEasyRotation.dat

<number> NNNN is the next sequential number available number by helper part in either the Official Library or the Parts Tracker

2. Proposal

• h/<setName>_<numberOrName>.dat

<setName> Roland's flat arrows
<numberOrName> short single

Helper Category

1. Proposal

• Not needed. From the !CATEGORY and !KEYWORDS spec: If a part has no !CATEGORY meta-statement, the category is assumed to be the first word in the part name (ie. the first word of the first line of the part file).

2. Proposal

• Recommend making this mandatory "HELPER", so the description if free to use.

Helper Keywords

1. Proposal

• None, as the description should contain all relevant information.

2. Proposal

• The type or "qualifier" should be put here, e.g. "3D arrow", "2D arrow", "Arrow" (can be together with 2D arrow).

Helper Location

1. Proposal

• <Library Root>\helpers
• <Library Root>\parts
• <Library Root>\parts\helpers
• <Library Root>\parts\h

Note: It has to be decided if it is "helpers" or "helper".

2. Proposal

• <Library Root>/parts/h

Helper Part Geometry

Helper parts can be either 2D or 3D.
2D helper parts shall be oriented such that they are parallel with the X-Z plane and at 0.0 Y.

1. Proposal

• No edges on 2D helpers as for stickers
• Edges on 3D helpers

2. Proposal

• Only orientation should be formalized.

Helper Dimensions

1. Proposal

Numbers and letters should fit into a x-z grid of a:

• 20 x 20 LDU
• 40 x 40 LDU

Note: Dimension of letters and numbers should be defined. Otherwise you might have to scale a letter by 2 and a number by 3.1 to get the same height. Or a Times Roman by 2 and an Arial by 4.

2. Proposal

• Up to the author