[0.11.15]FactoCAD 0.0.4 (20/02/15)

[MF-]

Now I understand why are the corners on those pipes so weird.
There are above-ground <-> under-ground translations all over the place.
And it's probably the "two"-layered nature of them that is actually multi-layered, since underground pipes and belts won't collide that is causing trouble?

PS: Highcontrast wouldn't really be based on default graphics, but on the original early factorio graphics, which was of a schematic nature.
Agreed, it's not interchangeable. Highcontrast's goal is playing for people with worse eyesight and better imagination. Your's is not.
But still, given the "vapour" condition on the said mod I might attempt to use your mod instead, even though it's likely to turn too uncomfortable.

Heh.. I am not even sure you're doing those renderings in real-time or just on demand. Whether you show those on screen or just write them into a file.

PPS: the screenshot you posted doesn't seem to be righ-res enough for me to read any texts.

[y.petremann]

Now I understand why are the corners on those pipes so weird.
There are above-ground <-> under-ground translations all over the place.
And it's probably the "two"-layered nature of them that is actually multi-layered, since underground pipes and belts won't collide that is causing trouble?

PS: Highcontrast wouldn't really be based on default graphics, but on the original early factorio graphics, which was of a schematic nature.
Agreed, it's not interchangeable. Highcontrast's goal is playing for people with worse eyesight and better imagination. Your's is not.
But still, given the "vapour" condition on the said mod I might attempt to use your mod instead, even though it's likely to turn too uncomfortable.

Heh.. I am not even sure you're doing those renderings in real-time or just on demand. Whether you show those on screen or just write them into a file.

For the graphics part generation, that only about making an external program to build the graphics. Actually this is just a texture pack with a wa to put it in the game without changing everything, so there is no ondemand mode. I should try something to be able to do that but I'm not sure if it would works.

PPS: the screenshot you posted doesn't seem to be righ-res enough for me to read any texts.

Sorry, I can't do anything to make them better, derivepi should do that ...

[Ric]

A fellow CAD technician I see?(from the drainage drawing), it's nice to see you putting your work skills to your gaming time.

I do the same thing but I've actually drawn bases fully in CAD. Not quite the same thing but fun none the less.

May give this a shot sometime!

[y.petremann]

A fellow CAD technician I see?(from the drainage drawing), it's nice to see you putting your work skills to your gaming time.

I do the same thing but I've actually drawn bases fully in CAD. Not quite the same thing but fun none the less.

May give this a shot sometime!

You see, I'm not a CAD technician, I more an amateur CAD technician ...

I've actually seen the way DerivePI does it and I really like it, search on the forum for the topics he made. And finally I really would like to see your designs.

[Ric]

I've actually seen the way DerivePI does it and I really like it, search on the forum for the topics he made. And finally I really would like to see your designs.

Well your designs look pretty good for being an amateur

I'll see if I can dig them out. Been a while since I've played Factorio as I'm waiting for multiplayer but they'll be in a folder somewhere.
If you need any help or want some advise with CAD stuff, please let me know. Around 12 years experience using Cad within the building/engineering industry.

[y.petremann]

Well your designs look pretty good for being an amateur

I'll see if I can dig them out. Been a while since I've played Factorio as I'm waiting for multiplayer but they'll be in a folder somewhere.
If you need any help or want some advise with CAD stuff, please let me know. Around 12 years experience using Cad within the building/engineering industry.

Well, first thing, Do you see any parts that don't look good, that's too complex or doesn't represent correctly it's functionality ?

I've some parts that no as good as I would :

• Boilers : The shape is not good for me, it don't represent pipe connectivity. I would like something in the idea of the chemical plant.
• Offshore pump : When drawing it, it was pretty good, but don't seem to integrate with the terrain.
• Oil refinery : Is the oil refinery too complex ?.
• Pipes ends : I really would like a way to indicate pipe ends without making too complex drawings, but don't know what.
• Pumpjack : The shape is not good for me, I made it like it is for the moment because that a placeholder.
• Steam engine : I don't know how I would represent them, I imagine three pistons connected to the pipe and a electric symbol for generator, but I'm no sure with that .
• Inserters : That completely the parts I don't have any idea.

I really thank you if you could help.

[DerivePi]

The aim of the second screenshot was to reproduce this design with my graphics. I would like to ask you a simple question, which of them do you prefer ?

In my impartial opinion... I like the one that works in the game as a mod!

Fantastic job!

My input -
•Boilers : If you want to show pipe connectivity, just offset the box 2 pixels and put a heavy line where pipes can connect on the 4 sides. I really don't think you need to change anything though.
•Oil refinery : The oil refinery is too complex. This is a schematic view. Just show the direction of operation, a symbol for oil industry (pumpjack profile?), the pipe leads (in and out), and label the pipe leads (C, W, H, L, P?)
•Pipes ends : 2 pixel wide heavy lines, but there really is no reason to declare the ends (except at terminations). Can you show the underground pipes and belts?
•Pumpjack : Haven't seen what you have, but I'd just make a 3x3 box with pipe lead and oil industry symbol on it.
•Steam engine : water drop - arrow - lightning bolt. Same procedure for solar panel - sun - arrow - lightning bolt and for the mystery energy (when they finish meddling with multiplayer ) atomic symbol - arrow - lightning bolt (cooling towers do not differentiate).
•Inserters : Standard and long are simple. Fast, you could put motion arcs on the side and smart I'd go with a lighbulb if space allows or just put the letters IQ on it (should also get the motion arcs since it is fast as well).

Glad the developers linked to this. I never would have found it otherwise.

[Ric]

Well, first thing, Do you see any parts that don't look good, that's too complex or doesn't represent correctly it's functionality ?

I've some parts that no as good as I would :

• Boilers : The shape is not good for me, it don't represent pipe connectivity. I would like something in the idea of the chemical plant.
• Offshore pump : When drawing it, it was pretty good, but don't seem to integrate with the terrain.
• Oil refinery : Is the oil refinery too complex ?.
• Pipes ends : I really would like a way to indicate pipe ends without making too complex drawings, but don't know what.
• Pumpjack : The shape is not good for me, I made it like it is for the moment because that a placeholder.
• Steam engine : I don't know how I would represent them, I imagine three pistons connected to the pipe and a electric symbol for generator, but I'm no sure with that .
• Inserters : That completely the parts I don't have any idea.

I really thank you if you could help.

The models look pretty good. Could do with a little work but good for starters. I like the belts.
I'd probably be better giving you more general advice. It will hopefully be more helpful rather than talking about each model. Although I can still do that when I have more time and CAD at my disposal if need be.
It may be worth considering a lettering system, rather than drawing an actual block for your main buildings so that it's more like a schematic drawing, rather than an illustration.

You would also need to draw them in 4 different views as you would want the ability to rotate them in CAD to form the proper alignment. Or you could have a main model and use basic arrows in & out or use inserter blocks to show the direction of items.

I like the small symbol you've used on the science lab. You could implement a key and use more of these?
It all depends if you want it to be clean and easy to read or more attractive with some models.

Sadly, I only managed to find 1 image only of when i was playing around in CAD. to work out an efficient furnace/belt layout. Link
It's very basic though so don't expect to see much
I have used very simple blocks for my models as i was wanting to move stuff around quickly but introduced some colours so some things stand out more. Especially the inserters i was planning on using. They are colour coded to match the game. You can't zoom in too far which is a shame. It's a large image file and has the split percentage detail om splitters when zoomed in. Again, very basic. Maybe download it and see if you can zoom in further? If you have the latest pdf reader, you will also see the simple layering system I used on the left. I can elaborate more on layers, depending on your CAD experience. Just let me know if needed.

I've also used a combination of dynamic blocks. If you look at the one of the belts for example, you'll notice there are no corners. They just butt up against each other. This is because I have 1 single dynamic belt block that I can stretch out as long as I like and it will copy the image(in this case the direction arrows) over and over to my liking. i can then copy/rotate and re-stretch another length.

All your images/models seem to be using the same line weight. By this I mean all lines have the same thickness and it can end up looking a little bland at times and everything will blend together and get lost when further zoomed out. It would benefit you to introduce some different line weights to make some blocks stand out a little more. eg:all your belts in the lightest pen, inserters slightly darker, then assemblers and so on.

I could CAD some other things up for you or give you some examples/more advice of anything you've not understand above. I can get CAD at home as I have a duel license through my work so would just need to d/l it.

Hope some of this helps. I've waffled on a little..lol...

[y.petremann]

In my impartial opinion... I like the one that works in the game as a mod!

Fantastic job!

Glad the developers linked to this. I never would have found it otherwise.

thanks, you've been inspiring for that job. That was the design I was talking about here.

•Boilers : If you want to show pipe connectivity, just offset the box 2 pixels and put a heavy line where pipes can connect on the 4 sides. I really don't think you need to change anything though.

That something a bit difficult to work on them for now since factorio don't support all connections for boilers.
But each days I try again and again on them.
As of each days I work on the global apparence of the machines and stuff, I think boilers should use the same apparence.

•Oil refinery : The oil refinery is too complex. This is a schematic view. Just show the direction of operation, a symbol for oil industry (pumpjack profile?), the pipe leads (in and out), and label the pipe leads (C, W, H, L, P?)

I think that a oil industry symbol should be good
I think I should implement a universal way to mark inputs and outputs for all machines?
I don't want to label them since to make shematics of complex factories, I think peoples should make screenshot with the alt view.

•Pipes ends : 2 pixel wide heavy lines, but there really is no reason to declare the ends (except at terminations). Can you show the underground pipes and belts?

Pipes ends are important since they are used by machines that have some inputs/outputs not connecteds to pipes.
Also for now I can't change the way underground pipes and belts are rendered, but I can change the for the hover state.

•Pumpjack : Haven't seen what you have, but I'd just make a 3x3 box with pipe lead and oil industry symbol on it.

I've almost done it, it already use a pumpjack icon.

•Steam engine : water drop - arrow - lightning bolt. Same procedure for solar panel - sun - arrow - lightning bolt and for the mystery energy (when they finish meddling with multiplayer ) atomic symbol - arrow - lightning bolt (cooling towers do not differentiate).

Sound be cool, I should make an icon library for all icons I should use, I think all machine should be represented by a rectangle and some icons.

•Inserters : Standard and long are simple. Fast, you could put motion arcs on the side and smart I'd go with a lighbulb if space allows or just put the letters IQ on it (should also get the motion arcs since it is fast as well).

I almost think about a circle with arrow at starts and ends with a icon inside. It should be an arrow, double arrow for fast and long arrow for long, smart would be a lightlub as you sugested and burner would be with a flame.

The models look pretty good. Could do with a little work but good for starters. I like the belts.
I'd probably be better giving you more general advice. It will hopefully be more helpful rather than talking about each model. Although I can still do that when I have more time and CAD at my disposal if need be.
It may be worth considering a lettering system, rather than drawing an actual block for your main buildings so that it's more like a schematic drawing, rather than an illustration.

You see, I really would like this mod being playable as well and not being dependent to language, so for my part, I think it should use icons to describe things more than using letters or words. I'm not english so maybe I don't understand correctly what you meant.

You would also need to draw them in 4 different views as you would want the ability to rotate them in CAD to form the proper alignment. Or you could have a main model and use basic arrows in & out or use inserter blocks to show the direction of items.

I don't really see the point of what you're asking. all things are done in a way that it would looks natural ingame, so all things are done to fit the actual view ingame.
The only thing I really change about the default look is that we are not with a 45° oriented view but with a top-down view.

I like the small symbol you've used on the science lab. You could implement a key and use more of these?
It all depends if you want it to be clean and easy to read or more attractive with some models.

Well, that a bit dificult, since I want things attractive and clean at the same time. as I've said, I would make so all machine would have their icons.

Sadly, I only managed to find 1 image only of when i was playing around in CAD. to work out an efficient furnace/belt layout. Link
It's very basic though so don't expect to see much

You see, I'm not really fond of the way you've done it, it's not so much easy to understand because it doesn't represent the way things works in factorio (try to make my first screenshot the same way you've done it ... and ask yourself if that easy to understand, I don't thinks so), but as I could always say, each design, each methods is good for some peoples, bad for some others, everything is not perfect. I almost see some advantages in the way you've done it, it's faster to draw and the symbols are keep simple and so don't take more ram on the computer than they need.

I have used very simple blocks for my models as i was wanting to move stuff around quickly but introduced some colours so some things stand out more. Especially the inserters i was planning on using. They are colour coded to match the game. You can't zoom in too far which is a shame. It's a large image file and has the split percentage detail om splitters when zoomed in. Again, very basic. Maybe download it and see if you can zoom in further? If you have the latest pdf reader, you will also see the simple layering system I used on the left. I can elaborate more on layers, depending on your CAD experience. Just let me know if needed.

I've also used a combination of dynamic blocks. If you look at the one of the belts for example, you'll notice there are no corners. They just butt up against each other. This is because I have 1 single dynamic belt block that I can stretch out as long as I like and it will copy the image(in this case the direction arrows) over and over to my liking. i can then copy/rotate and re-stretch another length.

The way things are done are very dfferents. You are using a software to completely recreate schematics. I draw parts using all software that could help me and put them in factorio to be rendered ingame. so the results could really not be the same.

For now I only work on black and white symbols because I've planned to print some designs and don't want to use colored ink. But after I have done the base asset of factorio I would put some colors. Or to be more precise I would modify automaticaly the color palette to match the sixth propositions I've put in the poll, which is here to see what should I do in priority when done.

If somebody would like to make real blueprint, I would tell you that it's better done on black and white (transluscent) drawings, see more about that on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueprint.

For now the poll say exactly what I was expecting : Colored on a Black background would make it look like almost all CAD software, Colored using original objects color would be a major part for me because it would let have a simplier view of the game while keeping colors, it would also be my main way to make the five other render ways using color palette. Black and white on black, white or blue background would be also logic for screens and printers, and finally, seing colored drawings on white backgrounds is hard to look at.

All your images/models seem to be using the same line weight. By this I mean all lines have the same thickness and it can end up looking a little bland at times and everything will blend together and get lost when further zoomed out. It would benefit you to introduce some different line weights to make some blocks stand out a little more. eg:all your belts in the lightest pen, inserters slightly darker, then assemblers and so on.

I've planned that, but for now I make things using the same line weight because I don't want to always change line weight for details. I think that pipe and belt (including belt stuff) would be keep like that. I've a little issue at being able to see items teleportng, but it doesn't really matter for me for now, maybe I would fix that later. Machine would have a 2 pixel line weight, and inserters would have filled areas.

I could CAD some other things up for you or give you some examples/more advice of anything you've not understand above. I can get CAD at home as I have a duel license through my work so would just need to d/l it.

Hope some of this helps. I've waffled on a little..lol...

In all case, I'm really fond of seeing people creations, so share your creations, it would be a pleasure for me.

[y.petremann]

I've reworked a bit all machines I've made and I've made a a specific pattern.

I've also made a lot of stuff, I just wanted to show you that : (the image is bigger, click it for larger version)

[DerivePi]

I think I'll miss seeing the underground connections.

[n9103]

[y.petremann]

I've updated the mod to version 0.0.3 which is compatible with factorio 0.11.15, it is also a bit heavy because some textures I am working on are still the original versions.

[y.petremann]

I've updated to 0.0.4 since 0.0.3 was not optimized

[Bartimaeus]

I think I'll miss seeing the underground connections.

DerivePi: how do you make your CAD designs?

[steinio]

This mod looks really nice.
Are there plans to migrate it to 0.13?


I came here from reading FFF #45

Greetings steinio

[y.petremann]

This mod looks really nice.
Are there plans to migrate it to 0.13?


I came here from reading FFF #45 ;)

Greetings steinio

If necessary it will be done.

The last time I was working on it was before they introduced mod checksum (which boken a way for me to play with it on server and since it only modify graphic stuff it doesn't cause desync) and I was making so all textures were colored on black background.