G`day Folks, This time I am just running through some of the possibilities available to us through the Libre Office Drawing program. I have used this program extensively over the last few years and continue to do so due to it`s easy to use interface. If you are like me, and you`re not prepared to go down the route of learning a full blown CAD program, this may suit your needs quite adequately. You can easily draw up building components to accurate scale, for use as card buildings along the same style of build as we see in Scalescenes. I think the simplest method is to create the shell of the building in Libre Office and then use Scalescenes papers to complete the job. Therefore giving you vast possibilities only limited by your imagination. In this episode we go through the basics to create your shapes and in the next episode, to follow in a week or two, we will go through the construction of the little building in question. PDF attached below. Gormo
and the inspiration for the name. Where could that have came from I wonder . I like the software as it looks reasonably easy to pick up and use. I'm looking forward to part 2 already. Well done Sir.
The name...????........would you believe a random selection...????.......probably not........well everybody gets a go on Gormo`s railway Toto. My Grandsons all have their own little businesses. My sons father in law has an antique shop up there opposite the church on the hill. Julie has her own art shop and gallery, my brother in law is the eastate agent etc. etc. etc....so you see I`m working my way through the family and then it was supposed to be friends, but you seem to have jumped the queue in this case......so you are the first friend to be allocated a spot on GCJ.......you can put that on your CV old chum..... The software is easy to use .......especially when it comes to those exact measurements, rather than trying to drag parts into the correct size and shape, you just tell it what you want. Of course the onus is on you to plan it out properly in the first place, however it`s easy enough to make alterations if you stuff it up. There is always a better way to go about these things and there is definitely better software available to create a more professional result, however I doubt that it would be as user friendly for the average model railway hobbyist. I would rather spend time looking at the finished model, than spending hours struggling to work out the software.....so that`s why I use Libre Office. I rest my case your honour. I have the sheet printed out, the card is ready, brick paper needs to be sealed and roof slates printed, but I`m close to getting under way on the build. Gormo
Looks interesting... Once you've got your design, say in 4mm scale, would you be able to scale the whole thing up to say 7mm or larger?
G`day Clive Once you`ve got your design created in 4mm scale, you would have to scale it using your printing software if you wanted to go up to 7mm scale or larger. If you are working in 7mm scale it would be best to draw your design in that scale I would think...???? That way, you could spread the parts over a number of A4 pages and take greater control of the finished product. Scaling down is probably easier than scaling up. Scaling up means that some parts may be split over two pages unless you print on larger sheets of paper. Gormo
You shouldn't really need to scale up or down Clive. As Gormo says, it's best to draw in the scale your working in. This is a 7mm NG engine shed I've been working on for some (considerable) time. The limiting factor is the size of the largest part of the building you need to print and your paper size, which for most of us is A4/Letter. Ed
That`s lookin` nice Ed.... I have been moving forward with the Coal Office build and I now can show some progress pics here, although I will compile all of the info into a video at the end of the build. Instead of gluing the complete sheet to an A4 2mm card, I divided up the sheet so that I could use up my off cuts of card......waste not want not. I usually find it easier to cut out the door and window apertures from the full card first before cutting out the individual wall panels. As the panels will be covered in brick papers, I can also cut slightly past the intersecting points at the corners to give me a cleaner result. So here we have the main components of the building. The parts marked " C " are for the chimney, they will be simply glued on top of each other to create a solid 8mm square chimney. Much more robust than the old soft card folded versions. I`ve also started on some of the small parts. The doors will need further trimming as I think I will set them in the open position, which then means that I need floor coverings, so I`m working on that as we move along. The window (on the right) and window surround cut out and ready to go Brick paper is now being applied to the walls. I have left an overlapping flap of brick paper on both of the end walls that will cover the join where the side walls butt up. Haven`t tried this before, but I`m hopeful it will give an almost seamless joint.?? The side walls are also covered. They just need to dry and then I`ll cut out the door and the windows. So that`s where it`s at for the moment but I will insert a link to my Blog which has an updated PDF which has extra parts included over and above the original upload at the beginning of the thread. Just look under the page list on the right of the screen and click on Coal Office PDF https://greatchesterfordjunction.blogspot.com/ Gormo
