"Help!" for: Papercraft or Pepakura

[Thrasher]

wait do u mean viewer? or did u buy designer? umm thats the first time i heard that problem.
i suggest u restart ur comp and see if that fixes the problem. if it doesnt work still look around tamayasoft(people who made the program) and see their troubleshoot guide. DO NOT uninstall it unless it is the last choice and i mean the last of the last

 

[AuRon]

I've "fixed" the problem. I switched computers to print out the pieces, but now I have another problem. I can't get all the pieces to fit on their own page. Is this a problem normally? Because when I print them out, the pieces are split by white spaces. Should I ignore this and add them together using painters tape? Or is there a way to fix this?

 

[mkshane81]

Unless the model has pieces that are just too large, there are tools in Pepakura Designer that resolve that issue. To move pieces around in the individual pages, use the tool as indicated by a red window with a cursor in it, located on your toolbar at the top. If you need to rotate pieces to aid in getting them to fit on a page, use the tool next to the previous, as indicated by three connected circles, located on the same toolbar. My best advice is to just play around with Pepakura Designer itself. There are quite a few things you can do.

-Matt

 

[Thrasher]

if u have designer its possible to move them to fit the page. make sure that ur margins are set to 5 the lowest it can take. make sure that the paper is in Letter type and not A4.

the pieces that dont fit are they like giant pieces or the flaps?

 

[AuRon]

Well, I played around with it, and I can't find anything that will work. The offending piece is the boot, so I plan to skip it, and come back to it later on. Move up one piece to the shin...

 

[Thrasher]

have u tried the cutting tool. theirs a tool in design that lets u cut part up try that. if still doesnt work come back to it later LOL

 

[AuRon]

Another problem, the thigh piece I'm using (brandon mcclain 2010) is only appearing in one direction (right thigh) is there a solution to this?
EDIT: How do I scale knee pads? and is there some guide for this? Because I will need help again when I make the shoulder pads.

 

[coldevil123]

I think to make the right thigh into a left thigh you have to go into pep designer and invert the 2D part. That should made it all reversed, and when you put it together it will be left.

 

[AuRon]

Thanks, I'm in the middle of pepping my first shin piece, so I'll go do that asap.
EDIT: Thighs are too big to fit on the pages, I have an example, and I'll take a picture and post it soon. Does anyone know how to scale knee-pieces?

 

[Katsu]

Page fitting can be one of many problems.
The first a nd most common one is that the file you're using is meant for A4 paper instead of letter (since you live in the states, if you liked in the UK the problem would be the opposite)

In pep designer, you go to File -> Print and Paper Settings
And the top option is paper style, be sure it reads Letter.

For scaling, there is no good way to do it. You can guess by measuring your body part and comparing that to the scale settings under 2d -> Change Scale -> Scale Factor.
You estimate based on the diameter of the body part, making sure to make the pep piece a bit bigger than that to account for padding and hardeners.

For left/right, some pieces have a left or right counterpart, alternatively you can just print it out again and do everything backwards... But an easier way is to use Pep Designer, under the menu go to 2d -> Invert Pattern
It will magically flip the entire thing, so you can make a righty into a lefty.

You should only need to use the zipper tool if a piece is a giant block that can't fit on the page no matter what you try with rotating and moving.

 

[AuRon]

Again, thanks Katsu! I almost have half of the right shin cut out and folded, I mostly just need to cut and fold the other half and glue it all together. I'll take your advice, and test the knees once I've finished pepping the shins. Same with the thighs. Do you have a reach boot file? The one I have is missing a toe.

 

[Katsu]

Pm'd you aboot it.

 

[SPRTN 2043]

Insight really

I have made quite a few peps, thrown them in the bin because they warp... I have just finished a Jun helm and the top half is off kilter to the right only fractionally but enough to see.

any ideas how to remedy this?

cheers team

 

[Katsu]

Warping usually happens from not lining up the numbers correctly. Be wary of the hats on 1's and 7's, and try and get every number on two pieces to line up to their counterparts. One small error at one point in the helmet has a butterfly effect later on in the pepping.

 

[MousieGuy]

Hey, I constantly have this problem whilst building helmets.
For some reason, the top and the bottom just collapse in itself, and usually means starting over. I was wondering if there is a type of thicker paper I can use that is stronger for pepakura.

One other thing. I'm using the pepakura models on halo-costuming-wiki. Problem is, I see helmets with much more detail, and a lot more vertexes. Where do I look for detailed files on the forums?

 

[Katsu]

You should NOT be using paper for this project, unless it's for quick and dirty scale-testing (Something good to do)

If you have the scale of the helmet right (it actually fits right) then you want to move to 60 or 110lbs cardstock. This is easily available at any Megamart store (Walmart in particular has a good 110lbs card stock for about 15 bucks for 250 sheets). 60 lbs will be a easier to cut and fold, but 110 will give the best strength and durability to survive until resin stage, but still go through the printer without breaking it!

Which reminds me, be sure you have a rear top loading printer. If the paper is drawn from beneath the printer it will roll the cardstock and can jam or bend it. Look at how the paper loads, and where it comes out when printed to figure out if it has to bend or twist inside the printer in order to make that journey.

There are high and low def models for a lot of things out there, be sure what you are seeing is details in the pepakura, and not details the person is carving in later, because lots of stuff we do is carved by hand later in the building process!

But yes, not to knock the the halo costuming wiki but it is a kind of minimal and outdated. There is a VERY detailed database that was updated this past september and has virtually every version of very file out there! Here you go:
http://www.4shared.com/dir/iLZI7Rb-/halo_reach_files.html

 

[MousieGuy]

Thanks a ton.

I'll go out an purchase it all tomorrow. Saves me a ton of time.

 

[Katsu]

Be absolutely sure to triple check the scaling on the pep pieces before/when printing, some of them are scaled funny and need to be messed with.

 

[MousieGuy]

Be absolutely sure to triple check the scaling on the pep pieces before/when printing, some of them are scaled funny and need to be messed with.

Hmm, is there a tutorial on scaling helmets anywhere?

 

[Katsu]

Not a good one. Which helmet are you making?

Some of them are very very easy to scale, while others not so much. The deciding factor is the amount of crap the helmet has on the ears. Helmets like ODST, which are practically buckets, have a similar diameter from the neck hole to the ears, some like the MkV have big protruding ear things that stick out further than the tiny neck hole. This is important because pepakura decides the "width" of the helmet based on the furthest two points on its horizontal axis. So a MkV helmet would be as wide as its ear pieces, which isn't how wide the neckhole is, but the ODST helm has a neckhole that is roughly the same width as its widest point so it is easier to guestimate.

The best bet in my experience, is to build up the bottom part of the helmet in paper, and test fit it. If it goes on easily, then it's a good fit. But be careful because some helmets like the MkV have special neck crap that you usually just don't build or cut out:

If you already built it once in paper, then you should just see how that one fits. If it's good, then you don't need to worry about it, but if it feels too big or too small, you'll need to adjust the scale in the file.

Long ago, there was a tutorial on using your height to scale your armor, but I personally think it's total garbage, especially for the helmet. I have a large head, but am pretty average in height. According to my scale calculator I'd have built a helmet about 10% smaller than I actually need. I really don't recommend using that tutorial/calculator at all, it may seem easy, but it is usually pretty wrong.