Need help with armorsmith

[SomeDumbGamer]

I'm doing my second ever build, the first being Master Chief that turned out pretty good but I had issues with scaling (I'm 6' 4" about 185lbs) using pepakura. So I bought armorsmith and have been learning it for a few months. I've gotten things scaled but now I've run into problems with printing out the larger peices.

Usually I just use the cut/join tool to chop up peices that are too big to big to fit on a single peice of paper since no matter how i try to set up my printing setting it always has a margin of dead space that just simply wont print and lining things up doesnt work well. But this build has multiple large peices that don't have cut lines that allow that without still not fitting on a single paper. I can't figure out a way to do a free cut on the patterns either. So I figured I'd just put in reference lines on the peices and and print with them opposite ends cut off the page, chop them up and tape them like all the other large peices. But I've run into multiple problems. First is that the line option doesn't seem to work in program. I click one point to start the line and then another to end it and it continues to allow for another point in the line. Enter cancels the line, as does esc. Right click brings up a menu but does not set the line in place. It seems to function more like a measuring tool.

So I thought ok I'll use text and just put colons or underscores across. Well the text doesn't attach to the peices but to the background and I haven't found a way to group them like in pepakura. On top of that, the text isn't printing with the peices, it's just isn't there on the printed pages. And on top of that I came across a peice that in the 2d patterns page seems to be set to a top "layer" floating above the pages so anything I place on it (text, ect) actually goes behind it anyway lol. So I couldn't put text on it for reference anyways unless I can figure out how to change whatever is making it act like that.

I don't know if it's just because armorsmith is an unfinished, buggy, abandoned program and is not working properly or if I just lack the knowledge to use the features correctly but I'm kinda stuck until I figure this out and I have two months to complete this build. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[KaeSpoon]

I do not unfold nor print in Armorsmith for any reason due to its buggy nature, but I will repost a message here that I sent awhile ago:

• If you are using Pepakura/foam files and altering their scale, the program will break the templates, and you will have to re-unfold the model inside or outside the program after exporting. The unfolding tool in Armorsmith is janky, and I try to avoid it whenever possible.

If you want to make armor using foam or Pepakura, this is the method I use to get accurate templates IF they are broken in Armorsmith:

1) Import the .pdo or .stl into Armorsmith.

2) Attach and size the model to your body (feel free to use non-uniform or free-form deformation so the model can fit your body properly).

3) Once you are happy with the sizing, double-check to see if the unfold is broken in the "patterns" tab. If it is, click on your model > file > export > model > name and save the model in file explorer.

4) Open Pepakura Designer (this is a separate program from Armorsmith; I believe you need the full version to unfold files). Find the website HERE) and go to file > open > select model from your file explorer. Be sure that the overall dimensions of the model are similar to the ones in Armorsmith before doing anything else.

5) Unfold your pattern, and there you go!

Yes; this method is tedious, but it is the only way I've ever been able to get around unfolding in Armorsmith.

Best of luck.

 

[SomeDumbGamer]

I do not unfold nor print in Armorsmith for any reason due to its buggy nature, but I will repost a message here that I sent awhile ago:

• If you are using Pepakura/foam files and altering their scale, the program will break the templates, and you will have to re-unfold the model inside or outside the program after exporting. The unfolding tool in Armorsmith is janky, and I try to avoid it whenever possible.

If you want to make armor using foam or Pepakura, this is the method I use to get accurate templates IF they are broken in Armorsmith:

1) Import the .pdo or .stl into Armorsmith.

2) Attach and size the model to your body (feel free to use non-uniform or free-form deformation so the model can fit your body properly).

3) Once you are happy with the sizing, double-check to see if the unfold is broken in the "patterns" tab. If it is, click on your model > file > export > model > name and save the model in file explorer.

4) Open Pepakura Designer (this is a separate program from Armorsmith; I believe you need the full version to unfold files). Find the website HERE) and go to file > open > select model from your file explorer. Be sure that the overall dimensions of the model are similar to the ones in Armorsmith before doing anything else.

5) Unfold your pattern, and there you go!

Yes; this method is tedious, but it is the only way I've ever been able to get around unfolding in Armorsmith.

Best of luck.

Thanks for the reply. I saw this posted earlier but I don't know if my templet is broken or the program is just buggy or what. But I also haven't really messed around with unfolding, all my templates were already unfolded and just needed to be resized and arranged for printing. I'll take a look into this method though, since if I can resize in Armorsmith (since it can do non uniform resizing and has the avatar with my dimensions) and then export with those dimensions to pep I would definitely prefer to handle all the 2d stuff in there; I know it better, it's not buggy, and feels more functional with the 2d templates.

But again thanks for the reply, it might be a solution.

 

[Bargo]

small tipp You do not need to buy Pepakura if you Unfold and lay your parts out you can print them as PDF without license but you can't save the Project. but overall the program is worth buying