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TurboCharizard

RXO and BCO
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Armorsmith Designer is one of those tools that has worked it's way so deeply into my standard workflow that I don't really start any project without at least booting the software up. This is one of the things that I recommend highly to anyone who even wants to step near a Pepakura pattern or a 3D printer just because of it's ease of use and the value that it adds in time saving and peace of mind when building. So what exactly is it? Think of it as a paper doll that you can dress up in 3D space but the doll is a weird blob version of yourself and the paper clothing is a scalable pattern or model of the costume you want to make.

Most importantly, this is a paid program so there is a bit of an up front cost unfortunately. That being said, it is actively being developed with revisions and features being added every few months. It is $30 at my time of writing this which is still cheaper than a copy of Pepakura Designer with some features that in my opinion make it superior. So what do we need for this tutorial?

Purchase List
Armorsmith Designer - $30
A Ruler - $5
A Tape Measure - $3

So you boot up the program and you get a wonderful screen like this, empty and full of possibilities. Also there's a creepy blob man. What next?
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The most important part of this whole process is making this blob person your doppelganger. The most powerful feature of Armorsmith is the avatar being a near exact copy of your body to test Pepakura models (.pdo) or 3D models for printing (.obj/.stl) against a copy of yourself without having to guess opening on armour piece sizes and ultimately being a few centimeters off in scale. To adjust the size of limbs on the avatar you can either select the section of the avatars body and adjust it to the true length of that part of your body or within the Property Grid window of your workspace you can enter the exact measurement. Using the sliders by clicking on the body parts is fun to make monstrosities that you'd see in Spore but having a list of things to check in the Property Grid makes logical sense and makes sure you don't miss anything.
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You'll notice that the values are all in lengths and circumferences. Figuring out limb lengths is fairly simple with a large enough ruler or a tape measure. For some of the more awkward ones I've found that having an oversized set of calipers or because cheaper options are awesome a big woodworking clamp can be used to match the reference lines within the program to your body. For the circumference measurements, using a tape measure around the widest/roundest point of the body part will help in the long run.

After meticulous measuring and data entry (whee) we can finally get some armour pieces onto our avatars. Armour and prop files can come from anywhere but an excellent example would be one of the many free files available from The Armory. An excellent example would be the Halo Reach Army BDU that's used in the Bucket to Boots group build ;). After selecting File > Import and selecting your newly downloaded armour file it'll appear in your Workspace window. Now you can select your model, Attach Costume Part and connection snap points will appear on the avatar to select. Depending on the orientation of the file that the author had prepared they will need to be rotated and re-positioned. Right-clicking on a costume piece will give you the option to Rotate, Translate or Scale. Selecting rotate will give you three wheels each along x,y and z planes and the wheels can be dragged to adjust rotation or a numerical input can be entered into the Property Grid. Translate works in a similar manner with a slider assigned to the x,y and z axis of the costume part. Using the Uniform Scale drag slider is useful for getting an approximate sense of how much you have to increase or decrease the size to fit properly and once you get into making final adjustments the numerical entry for Non-Uniform Scale reigns supreme.
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So, the costume is scaled and you've poked around and made sure that the costume parts fit over your avatar and they don't intersect any body parts when being slid on/off the avatar using the translate tool to make sure you can roughly get into the costume, now it's time to make the physical version! If you're 3D printing your costume, all you need to do is take your scale factors, go to your slicer and let the printing robots do their thing. If you're making a Pepakura or foam costume, the Pattern Layout tab is extremely important.

Within the Pattern Layout tab you can see the unfold of the model and how the pieces connect, much like you would within Pepakura Designer. A helpful tutorial on the intricacies of scaling and manipulating unfolds by HaloGoddess is definitely worth a read since it covers many of the important tricks such as adjusting page margins, setting page sizes (important depending on your printer) and how your files are actually rendered for printing. I primarily work in foam so I like to have the Registration Marks, Edge IDs and Edge Angles set as True in the Property Grid so that there's less guess work when assembling. Pattern pieces can also be moved to maximize space usage on paper or even to minimize the number of pieces needed to be cut out. Manipulating patterns is the topic of another tutorial [INSERT LINK TO TUTORIAL]
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With your finished pattern layout you can either print it directly or export the whole file as a .dxf drawing file which is used in several CAD software suites. If you were brave and had the tools, a .dxf can be converted into an .svg file which can become cut instructions for a CNC of your favourite variety (laser cutter, Cricut, water jet, mill, etc.) and have a machine do the hard work of cutting out all your costume parts. I generally just use it to create cheat sheets and save others some pain when working with foam. There's bound to be other cool features with the export that I just haven't considered yet.

This guide is just a start, I will be updating and editing as required with version changes of the software. If you have any questions or crazy ideas, I'm all ears!
 
Well, when you put it that way, I may have to pick this up after all.
Good tutorial.
 
Is their a way to export a copy of the figure with your measurements? I would like to know so that I could then boolean any parts to it. this would make a pretty close internal sleeve. For 3d printing. Like forearm, shin and thigh parts. I don't own this program yet.
 
Is their a way to export a copy of the figure with your measurements? I would like to know so that I could then boolean any parts to it. this would make a pretty close internal sleeve. For 3d printing. Like forearm, shin and thigh parts. I don't own this program yet.
What do you mean? Like exporting a 3d model of your mannequin? You can save your avatar for opening inside the software but I don't think you can export a model of it
 
Is their a way to export a copy of the figure with your measurements? I would like to know so that I could then boolean any parts to it. this would make a pretty close internal sleeve. For 3d printing. Like forearm, shin and thigh parts. I don't own this program yet.
Yep!

Under Avatar > Export you can create an .obj of your avatar. This is primarily made for 3D printing purposes but I've always thought about using that export to create cross sections for creating an accurately sized mannequin with XPS foam. Unfortunately that's one of those "later" projects that I never seem to get around to.
 
May sound like a silly question, but can you move the avatar from center? This is why I ask. When scaling up and manipulating, say, the forearm. If you zoom in on the avatar, the camera stays center. Can you switch the camera or move the forearm to center? I am sure it is going to be some ridiculously easier answer like "Just hold X, Y, Z key and move it", but I just can't seem to get that one thing figured out.

Great write up though. I had kind of figured out most of it before coming to the forums, but there were some things mentioned that I wasn't aware of. Thanks!
 
May sound like a silly question, but can you move the avatar from center? This is why I ask. When scaling up and manipulating, say, the forearm. If you zoom in on the avatar, the camera stays center. Can you switch the camera or move the forearm to center? I am sure it is going to be some ridiculously easier answer like "Just hold X, Y, Z key and move it", but I just can't seem to get that one thing figured out.

Great write up though. I had kind of figured out most of it before coming to the forums, but there were some things mentioned that I wasn't aware of. Thanks!
Have you tried double clicking on the forearm? When I do so, the camera begins to rotate around the forearm.
 
May sound like a silly question, but can you move the avatar from center? This is why I ask. When scaling up and manipulating, say, the forearm. If you zoom in on the avatar, the camera stays center. Can you switch the camera or move the forearm to center? I am sure it is going to be some ridiculously easier answer like "Just hold X, Y, Z key and move it", but I just can't seem to get that one thing figured out.

Great write up though. I had kind of figured out most of it before coming to the forums, but there were some things mentioned that I wasn't aware of. Thanks!

You can use the arrow keys, or middle mouse button if I remember correctly
 
Surprised there isn't a tutorial yet as to editing patterns. In the pattern layout tab while editing you can press J to join/cut edges or patterns. The green lines indicate where to cut, and the red lines in a face indicate where to connect. I just scaled my armor and was ready to edit the patterns... but I have no clue how to even translate patterns.

Maybe there is a tutorial out here somewhere about how to join or cut patterns, but hey, who knows.
Found out how with the help of this video from Armorsmith Designer at around the 13 minute mark.

Edit: I found out how to translate pieces.
 
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Edit: I found out how to translate pieces.

Here are a few pointers that I found while working with Armorsmith to edit Pepakura files.

* For editing 2D patterns you must have (As of my knowledge) a pep file or similar to edit the unfold. If you have an STL file, the 2D menu is just is blank.

*Right clicking on the white work area will show "Join/Cut, Rotate, Translate" options.

* Resizing the model to be larger in a Non-Uniform fassion will unfold parts of it, making you refold them again. Resizing down in a Non-Uniform fassion does not unfold parts (Need verification), as well as upscaling in a uniform fassion does not unfold parts.

*You can edit directly on the 3D model (Join/Cut), though it might be a little buggy at times. (Must have the join/cut mode enabled)

*Creating the file first in Pepakura and then importing it into Armorsmith is easier than editong it in Armorsmith from the start

Note: This is all much easier with a mouse!
 
For editing patterns your hotkeys of importance are

T - Translate (move and drag)
R - Rotate (rotate selected part about clicked point)
J - Join (combine parts along a shared edge)

There's a big list of things to do once the HOD behind the scenes busy work calms down a bit and more tutorials was one of the items to get a check-mark beside it. If you guys want a pattern editing guide slapped together, I can give it a shot.
 
For editing patterns your hotkeys of importance are

T - Translate (move and drag)
R - Rotate (rotate selected part about clicked point)
J - Join (combine parts along a shared edge)

There's a big list of things to do once the HOD behind the scenes busy work calms down a bit and more tutorials was one of the items to get a check-mark beside it. If you guys want a pattern editing guide slapped together, I can give it a shot.
Omg theres keybinds!!!
 
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