Sariel's tools, united, new and improved

[Sariel]

I've done some tidying up on my tools - now they're all in one place, some of them are improved and there is one brand new. I'm sure at least some will be useful to you, so let me walk you through it step by step:

1. My 5 most popular tools are now available from a single website: tools.sariel.pl. The idea was to make things easier to bookmark in your browser etc - now you only need one address instead of five (there's also an animated hamster, so there's that). The tools are, of course, still available separately under their independent addresses, listed below. Additionally, every tool now has a small bar on your screen's left side that lets you navigate from one tool to another.

2. There is one new tool available to you: a Thumbnail Helper (thumbs,sariel.pl). If you have pictures in a Brickshelf or Majhost gallery, this tool provides easy way to put them in a post - you can do it in few clicks, and your post will include thumbnails that open up big images - this way everybody wins. This tool generates BBCode that works on pretty much any forum and it can extract up to 100 images from a single Brickshelf / Majhost folder. It does not include subfolders - you need to process them separately.

Here's how it works:

- paste the URL address of your gallery, e.g. http://www.brickshel...ry.cgi?f=390121

- if the gallery is not yet public, the tool can still access it if you provide your Brickshelf/Majhost login and password - it will then simply log to your account once to scan the gallery. Now, I realize login and password are sensitive and you may prefer to keep them private. In this case, you'll need to wait until your gallery becomes public. For what is worth, this tool was originally developed for our Polish forum, and no passwords have ever been stolen - the tool does not store them anywhere, just uses them once.

- once the gallery is scanned, you'll see up to 100 first thumbnails. Click the ones you want to show to select them, and if you change your mind click any thumbnail again to deselect it. There is no "select all" option at this time, sorry - this tool was intended for adding a small selection of pics to your post, not for bombing it with 100 pics.

- once you've selected the thumbnails you want to share, copy the entire code from the bottom textarea. Simply click the "Mark the code" button, then press Ctrl + C

- in your forum post, press "Toggle editing mode" button (the very first one in the menu above the text area, with flip switch icon), then paste the code (Ctrl + V) in desired place and press the "Toggle editing mode" button again

- you should now be seeing your post with a row of thumbnails in it. You can still write above and below it. Once you post your post, the thumbnails will be clickable, opening up full-size pics from your Brickshelf / Majhost folder

3. Changes to existing tools:

Wheels Chart (wheels.sariel.pl)

- "Rim diameter" column added

- the entire chart can now be sorted by simply clicking any of the dark gray column headers, e.g. "Weight". The default sorting is by total diameter, ascending. The column with pics is, sadly, not sortable.

- all dimensions are now expressed in millimeters, inches and studs

- several new wheels added

- several values corrected / updated / complemented

Unit Converter (studs.sariel.pl)

- added two units: millimeters and stacked minifigures

- new, more accurate method of rounding up the decimals employed

Gear Ratio Calculator (gears.sariel.pl)

- no changes

Model Scaler (scaler.sariel.pl)

- side margins added to avoid the Tools bar overlapping the working area

I hope the tools meet your needs. They remain, as always, free to use.

PS. Now, where's my "jQuery maniac" badge? ;)

Edited February 5, 2015 by Sariel

[Blakbird]

That new thumbnail helper is really cool. I think the only weakness is that the thumbnails are really small, but I see that you are just using the thumbnails already generated by Brickshelf which have a fixed size.

Personally, I'd prefer that the "tools" side menu be on the right side of the screen instead of the left because otherwise it overlaps the input cells a bit.

Nice work, as always!

[Sariel]

Thanks. I guess you're viewing it a low resolution, so some overlapping is inevitable, left or right. I could just make the menu icons smaller but it will change very little while making the icons much uglier. And I'm concerned that menu on the right screen size can get mixed up with the scrollbar, especially on mobile devices. Maybe if I moved it to lower left window corner it would help?

[jorgeopesi]

Thanks for the help Sariel, one off-topic question, is there any site with the new Lego pieces ordered by years?, it would be an interesting tool to be informed. I know we have some but I wanted one to show us just the new parts of every year.

[Sariel]

Well, good old Bricklink lets you view all parts from a chosen year, here's 2015 for instance:

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?catType=P&catID=&itemYear=2015&searchName=Y&searchNo=Y&q=&catLike=W

[Tommy Styrvoky]

You still need to add the L motor to the gear calculator, for converting torque.

Edited February 6, 2015 by Tommy Styrvoky

[jorgeopesi]

Well, good old Bricklink lets you view all parts from a chosen year, here's 2015 for instance:

http://www.bricklink...=Y&q=&catLike=W

Oh thank you I still have more to learn .

[Jeroen Ottens]

Hi Sariel,

I just tried to use your model scaler tool, but for some reason I can't draw lines any more. Instead every time I click-hold-drag the mouse the picture is moving instead.

Also the input field for the picture is obscured with the previous 5 links pull-down menu. I'm using Firefox 35.0.1

Any idea what can be wrong?

EDIT: Apart from that it looks nice, but I agree with Blakbird on the location of the tools menu bar. I'd like to use as much real-estate as possible for the drawing for maximum accuracy. Having it on the left eats some real estate, so I'd prefer it to be collapseable .

Edited February 6, 2015 by Jeroen Ottens

[Sariel]

Any idea what can be wrong?

My bad, it was a technical problem I just fixed.

To solve the Tools bar problem, I made it stay in the upper left screen's corner and be only title-tall. It expands on hover. How does that work for you?

Edited February 6, 2015 by Sariel

[Siegfried Meyer]

Hi Sariel

I'm using Chrome as my Browser, but there is no draw function 'tool' for taking the measurements. and this error message pops up after entering the amount of studs

Results:

Draw dimension first!

Could it be my browser?

tx

[nerdsforprez]

Great tools. I have used them many times, especially the gear calculator. It might be a good idea to add the power miners wheel (#64712) to the gears. Although technically a wheel (or hub) the inside has 48 teeth and can be used for planetary gear systems.

[Sariel]

I'm using Chrome as my Browser, but there is no draw function 'tool' for taking the measurements. and this error message pops up after entering the amount of studs

Results:

Draw dimension first!

This error only happens when you drew nothing. Are you sure you can't draw? It definitely works in Chrome.

[Jeroen Ottens]

My bad, it was a technical problem I just fixed.

To solve the Tools bar problem, I made it stay in the upper left screen's corner and be only title-tall. It expands on hover. How does that work for you?

It works fine again. Thanks

The toolbar title-tall is perfect. I can use the whole width of the screen for the drawing now.

Thanks again

[Siegfried Meyer]

Tried again and it does work now Thanks, but had to update my browser.....

clicked on the colour and then on pic to draw got it and thanks for this cool Tool now I can get my KAMAZ to scale

[zux]

Great news! I just spotted that while on a page of certain tool and select a new tool from left side menu it opens new tab instead of same page. Quite inconvenient, spam-like experience.

[Sariel]

while on a page of certain tool and select a new tool from left side menu it opens new tab instead of same page.

It's a deliberate choice. I don't want you losing all your results from e.g. the model scaler because you clicked on another tool and the link took you to it.

[sonar]

Ah finally complete wheels chart with rim and tire diameters. That will be useful. Thank you.

[__________________________]

It's a deliberate choice. I don't want you losing all your results from e.g. the model scaler because you clicked on another tool and the link took you to it.

These tools are very well-designed. They may have some flaws but I am thankful you are giving back to the TFOL community. :thumbup:

[Graydingo]

I've used the gear page a dozen times already. You rock Sariel!

[darksheep]

Thanks this is really cool , i use http://gears.sariel.pl/ a lot .

[Pat-Ard]

Hi Sariel,

I want to thank you for those tools. They help a lot, especially while building my U411!

Pat

[rm8]

Some builders, especially young and non-English speaking ask how to use Sariel's Scaler tool. Just shared video how I usually use it with English subtitles.

Very useful tool, not only for LEGO builders,

since you can switch to different units, not only studs. Thank to Pawel.

[Seasider]

Used this a few times to get rough scales but one thing I never worked out is how to interpret the wheelbase.

The wheelbase is the distance between the 2 axles, so when using the scaler and for example the wheelbase comes up as 11, and front and rear overhangs as 5 each for example how many studs would that be between the axle pins in Lego and in front and behind then an axle goes at a stud location which you're not measuring ?

Or do people take half a stud off their calculation ?

So the number of studs between axle pins in this case would be 10 with 4.5 studs as front and rear overhangs from the axle ?

[ddeklerk]

The style.css does not appear to be linked properly for tools.sariel.pl. I get a error code 500 in the console.

[brunojj1]

Used this a few times to get rough scales but one thing I never worked out is how to interpret the wheelbase.

The wheelbase is the distance between the 2 axles, so when using the scaler and for example the wheelbase comes up as 11, and front and rear overhangs as 5 each for example how many studs would that be between the axle pins in Lego and in front and behind then an axle goes at a stud location which you're not measuring ?

Or do people take half a stud off their calculation ?

So the number of studs between axle pins in this case would be 10 with 4.5 studs as front and rear overhangs from the axle ?

Don´t be afraid to measure the exact wheelbase on the blueprint and then add +1 stud in the real model. Stretching by 1 - 2 studs the overall lenght usually doesn´t disturb proportions of the big picture (depends on the scale of course) because usually you have some unintentional but unavoidable bulges somewhere else, especially the height of the front hood in flat supercars, which can be kind of “compensated” by this little trick. Try to keep the height measures though, deviations of +/- 1 stud can be very crucial here for the finished model! The correct width has to have an odd number in Technic models and often has to be compromised a bit as well, not severe.

Say good bye to bulky unproportional and therefore ugly replicas ! Thanks to Sariel for his useful toolbar – the model scaler is my favourite !