According to my Future of LDraw? post there are a bunch of readers of this blog who use LDraw. But LDraw can only work with a steady stream of volunteers to make and review parts for use in new parts releases. (I also forgot to pimp the Flickr group for LDraw)
Reviewing parts is a great way to get involved without having to get too technical. Niels Bugge has written a very handy tutorial explaining what is involved and how to get involved. If you feel you’d like to give something back to LDraw this is a great way to get started.
It is also a good start to making new parts if you wish to pursue that path. If you understand 3D software which can output 3DS format you can even get involved with LDraw part creation without leaving your known environment. Simply team up with someone who does understand the LDraw file format and make and convert a file from your preferred tool to LDraw format for tidying.
There are also other ways to get involved such as running for elected office (not for a year or so now) and helping out with the website. If you think you might be interested in these roles please contact me privately.
Remember that without volunteers the LDraw library would grind to a halt. Fresh faces are always welcome and necessary. If you like LDraw please consider helping it.
Image credit to LDraw.org, Elroy Davis (taltosvt) and Niels Bugge from top to bottom
OK, who/how do I contact someone about teaming up for parts authoring? I’ve never used LDraw, but I use Rhinoceros every day at work, and it exports 3ds. Now maybe I can do something Lego besides cruising Brothers brick and Eurobricks all day.
I’m not on Lugnet, and I’m unclear if I should just email an administrator from the LDraw contacts pager. Also, though I can find a list of parts that are being worked on , I don’t see a handy list of parts that have no one working on them yet.
How about a push to get a new 3D tool to replace some of the aging systems like MLCad?
^^ Those are good questions and ones without easy answers but your Rhino skills are highly useful. Do you want to drop me an email (tgould(D.OT)lego(A@T)gmail(DO.T)com) and we can discuss things that way.
^ Go for it.
One other tidbit that I’ll point out, in reference to a “handy list”:
The one thing that’s very needed is an organizational utility. Something that says “part X is being worked on by person Y, and was claimed on date Z”. Something where users can easily claim parts automatically, submit them automatically, and have them accepted automatically into parts libraries.
I can’t say much about the specifics, but I can probably say that this is the sort of thing that really seemed to help on a certain aspect of LDraw before. People are happy to help, but if it’s too difficult to learn HOW to help, they won’t. Of course, I may be biased since I wrote the facilitating utility, but it seemed that it went either nowhere or very slowly until a utility existed for volunteers to help, and then in one fell swoop, contributions abounded.
DaveE