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Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Heinzelmännchen designs as PDF


For those with a Heinzelmannchen set, I created a one page (US letter) PDF of all the Heinzelmannchen designs. You can download the PDF file here, or you can select the PNG image if you prefer.

NOTE: After clicking the PDF link, select option #2 to download the file. You do not need to create an account. The file size is about 2.25Mb in size.

7 comments:

Alan said...

Fun!

Thank you!

The PNG link here is to a thumbnail, not the full size image. With the individual constructions basically thumbnails even at full size, that makes them reeeeaaaalllly tiny. :)

With the KG designs, I downloaded the PNG and printed half each on two pages. That would be nice for the HM as well.

What would be really nice is a multipage PDF with five to seven designs per page & less white space - then they would be big enough to build from without struggling to see.


Cheers,


Alan

William Seppeler said...

I did at one time create a multi-page Heinzelmannchen PDF. The drawback to creating such documents is that the size of the file grows to 5Mb+ in size.

The one page design does produce tiny models, but in comparison to the idea sheet that comes with the HM set, the size is about the same.

From the one photo you took, it appears the PNG images print well for you. Let me know if the quality of the PDF is any better. If not, I'll just stick to creating the PNG images as they take up much less space.

Alan said...

Some of your PNGs print okay, others are a problem (trasparent background?). But it looks like the PDFs enlarge quite a bit better than the PNGs, so maybe I can do something there without having to try to track down the full-size designs in the blog. Or perhaps you could add the design codes (eg "h15") to the PDF?

The tiny designs in the HM booklet and the Set 1 and Set 2 sheets have been okay indoors (and perhaps before my eyesight deteriorated some more), but I like bigger images for outside.

I ordered a Heinzelmännchen from The Toyhouse this morning. I have had great experiences with them in the past, and recommend them highly.

It should be easier to build with the HM in parks than the tiny KG, and easier to tote around than a #6.

Small projects seem to work better in parks, and your great designs provide a bunch to work with.

Thanks again,

Alan

William Seppeler said...

Thanks for The ToyHouse recommendation. I've been meaning to try them out. I've used EuroToyShop in the past, but my last shipment was damaged due to very poor packaging (the box was broken) and all my orders came with at least one defective stone. The defective stone issue was taken care of by the company (which I've had amazing success with), but I always thought the merchant should have at least made an effort. Maybe I'm being too harsh. I'm sure it was just my bad luck.

If I had money to burn, I'd pick up a set #4 for myself. I don't really need it since I have a set #10. But as you mentioned before, it's nice to have those small sets for when you only want to build small models, and I'm too lazy to hunt through my set #10 to pull out the blocks to make a set #4.

William Seppeler said...

Alan, in regards to PDF's and hunting down designs on this blog, I agree, it's not the easiest solution.

It's just as easy for me to create one page PDF's of each design as it is for me to create the PNG. However, I'm restricted to only posting PNG images on this blog.

Hosting the PDF files is a little more of a pain, and more than likely, those PDF links will break in about a month. I've looked into free web hosting sites, but they too have restrictions on hosting PDF files.

Finding designs on this blog is just as big of a pain. I've been using this blog as a file store and thought the concept of a blog was neat so people could provide feed back on each design. However, you can't sort the postings by subject, so there's no easy way to get a list of the designs numerically. I've implemented the labels on the right side bar to restrict viewing designs for a particular set, but that's the best I could do.

This blog has been more of a place holder. Ideally, it'd be better for me to host the designs. I've gone the route of submitting my designs to members of the CVA in hopes they'd get hosted with the other designs they produce. I think 3 of the 50+ designs I've done actually made it out there, and you'll be hard pressed to find them anywhere. I'm not a member of the CVA, so the lack of motivation on their part is completly expected. That, and I think they're swamped with their own work to do.

BTW: If your purchase of a HM set was (somewhat) motivated by the designs on this blog, be sure to tell Chris that. A while back I tried to strike up a rapport with Chris by sending him some designs. I thought he might find them useful in promoting some of his products. I never received any feedback.

One a side note, I've received the same lack of acknowledgment from the manufacturer. My free sample sets (HM + KG) were actually a gift from the factory by request of Burkhard Shultz. After I made about 20 or so HM designs, I created a PDF and sent it to the factory along with a thank you note for the sample sets. I never received a response from them in regards to the designs.

William Seppeler said...

Oooo...skip that comment about Chris. I just visited his site today and I see that he put a link to this blog on his Anchor Constructions page.

I don't think that link was there yesterday, so I can only assume it was the result of something you said.

Anyway, thanks Chris for the link. I hope it can assist some of your starting customers.

Alan said...

Chris is very good with responding to orders & inquiries, but not always so quick to get the web pages updated.

I'd also guess he might have wanted to try building a few of your designs and got delayed & distracted. He is currently not finding much time for building. Perhaps he also wanted to see if your bog maintained some momentum - many efforts fade after an initial burst of enthusiasm.

It seems like using the image feature in google spreadsheets could be a way to create a useful online illustrated index to your plans, with columns for id, title, and link. I'll poke around with & see how it looks.

If I had money to burn, I'd go for a conversion set - I got the CD-ROM series from George Hardy a few years ago, and have long wished I could build some of those alternate styles. And maybe an 8A. :)