The PEPAKURA question thread - PLEASE READ RULES IN FIRST POST!

[Suican]

Also, what is the best or easiest way to making parts: foam with pva and smooth-cast, or resin, fiberglass, bondo? Which is best for continuing to making molds?

I cant really vouch for molds, but if you're just making parts then you should use fiberglass & bondo. Both are really easy to use since you're just basically spreading a goopy-liquid aroud. Fiberglass is also fairly sturdy when set as compared to foam.

 

[Onephattsi2]

I hope this is the right place for this, if not please feel free to chastise me, haha...

I will be honest, i didnt read through all 42 pages of this thread, because i am using my phone and i am at work..

My question is this, has anyone had problens with the pep software not printing correctly?? I paid for the full version.. So i dont think its the actual software... Probably i am just doing something wrong.

Anyways enugh rambling, sometimes i try to rearrange parts layouts and rescale pieces, being 6'2" i have to make it all slightly bigger usually, when i print it out, the first couple if pages will be perfectly fine, then usually around page 10-14 it will start printing just the edge ID's, not the outline of the part... Sometimes i can close pepakura out, and reopen it and its fine, but last night. No matter what i did, it wouldnt work correctly... Have any of you had this issue before?? If this has been discussed, just say so and i will search from my desktop once i get home. Thank you all for your time!!

 

[The Ronin]

I hope this is the right place for this, if not please feel free to chastise me, haha...

I will be honest, i didnt read through all 42 pages of this thread, because i am using my phone and i am at work..

My question is this, has anyone had problens with the pep software not printing correctly?? I paid for the full version.. So i dont think its the actual software... Probably i am just doing something wrong.

Anyways enugh rambling, sometimes i try to rearrange parts layouts and rescale pieces, being 6'2" i have to make it all slightly bigger usually, when i print it out, the first couple if pages will be perfectly fine, then usually around page 10-14 it will start printing just the edge ID's, not the outline of the part... Sometimes i can close pepakura out, and reopen it and its fine, but last night. No matter what i did, it wouldnt work correctly... Have any of you had this issue before?? If this has been discussed, just say so and i will search from my desktop once i get home. Thank you all for your time!!

I had this problem before. It's actually a limitation in the computer's memory. Even though it's printing a 2D outline, Pepakura Designer is trying to upload the whole 3D image to the printer. At least that's how my programmer friend described it.

What I did to fix the situation was to print a section of the pages. When you click print, a little window with options pops up. In that window will be an option to print ALL or SELECTED PAGES. Click the SELECTED PAGES option and fill in the option box (EX: 1 to 5, 6 to 10, etc.). Then print. All should be good

 

[ShellumusPrime]

Thanks for getting back to me and giving me something to start with. I plan on using "Epoximite" from smooth-on to resin the part and use with bondo because it looks really strong, but I see a lot of talk about smooth-cast 321. Am I going in the wrong direction?

 

[CankleBreaker]

If I need to enlarge and scale up my file, how do I print it properly if it doesn't fit entirely on the page?

 

[Fierfek]

If I need to enlarge and scale up my file, how do I print it properly if it doesn't fit entirely on the page?

Try cutting the part into smaller parts in pep designer or set margins to 5mm and print with alignment marks on. If it asks you if you want to change the scale because the parts overlap pages, just click "no".

 

[CankleBreaker]

Thanks, i'll give that a try.
Oh and can you help me with scaling? How do I calculate the scale factor for an Optimus Prime helmet? I've tried to use the tutorials but to no avail. I printed out the original file and pepped it but its too small. The original settings are as follows:
H:325
W:280
D:284
Edit: I figured out how to join/disjoin faces to print larger shapes, but now just need help with scaling!

 

[CankleBreaker]

Couple last questions, after changing the settings from A4 to letter and paper orientation from "portrait" to "landscape", when i'm going to print, it asks if I should adjust the paper size, should I put yes or no? And why do we use "landscape" orientation as opposed to "portrait"?

 

[fivenerds]

Looking for the nanosuit Pep

Does anyone have the Crysis Nanosuit or helmet pep file thaI could have?

 

[EyeofSauron]

Re: Looking for the nanosuit Pep

Does anyone have the Crysis Nanosuit or helmet pep file thaI could have?

i have the 3d file and will start working on it after i finished all the iron man projects

 

[fivenerds]

Re: Looking for the nanosuit Pep

i have the 3d file and will start working on it after i finished all the iron man projects

I have seen some great pep work in this site. I also have found dead end links ( to Megaupload). I would be very interested in your progress with your effort.

 

[Deelite]

Thanks, i'll give that a try.
Oh and can you help me with scaling? How do I calculate the scale factor for an Optimus Prime helmet? I've tried to use the tutorials but to no avail. I printed out the original file and pepped it but its too small. The original settings are as follows:
H:325
W:280
D:284
Edit: I figured out how to join/disjoin faces to print larger shapes, but now just need help with scaling!

Pepakura does it 1:1 scale. So if you make the height bigger, the width will be proportionate.

325 mm is 12.8 inches . Is it small in the width or in the height?

I always do a test build on cheap 20lb paper so I can gauge size.

Up the height to 14 or 15 inches ( 355.6 mm or 381 mm)

 

[CankleBreaker]

Thanks for the info, I scaled it up 10% which brings it to about 357mm, i'll use that as a test build and go from there. I just thought there'd be some sort of specific formula to calculate it without trial and error.

 

[Deelite]

Thanks for the info, I scaled it up 10% which brings it to about 357mm, i'll use that as a test build and go from there. I just thought there'd be some sort of specific formula to calculate it without trial and error.

No real specific formula. You just measure the area that you are making the part for, and input the equivalent mm measurement into Pepakura. Add in enough for padding and hardening that you will do.

 

[goldendragon77]

Hi,
Does anyone have a copy of the yellow rangers helmet unfolded? I've looked all over the net and can only find the 3d model.
thanks

 

[cjor]

Pepakura HELP

I am having trouble finding somewere to download files from. Everything I try to download seems to be a scam. Were is a good place to download them from?

BTW I am looking for helmets. Skyrim, 300, Medievel, pretty much any kind of helmet will do.

I am very new to this and am having quite a bit of trouble on finding were to start. I have downloaded the free PEPdesigner. But that is the about the only thing I have downloaded that hasnt tried to install a bunch of crap onto my computer.

 

[Grave]

Re: Pepakura HELP

there are a lot of places to get files. saddly people dont want to have a spot for all of them.
i can't believe that no one has posted to help you yet. i am disappointed in this forum.
so you have the free viewer, designer costs money.
ummm, im trying to think of somewhere that has medieval helmets. i do know that someone on either here or 405th does have the 300 helmet and the litch king. as for anything else... idk.
have you thought about just going to a costume shop and buying something? some things are just better bought then built.

 

[TheNickFox]

Re: Pepakura HELP

i can't believe that no one has posted to help you yet. i am disappointed in this forum.

Or maybe we just didn't have anything that would have helped him out.

Sadly there is no major repository of Pep files to my knowledge, nor is there a pep file for everything you can imagine.

Here are the sites I do know of:

The Printable Armory (Free some Star Wars, Power Rangers and other items)

http://www.therpf.com/f13/fierfeks-premium-pepakura-files-149477/ (Premium files put out by Firefek...he also has free models on the site if you use the search function)

Propzone (Free and paid files including some Skyrim models)

There are more out there, just use the search feature here on the RPF and your bound to find them.

Good luck.

-Nick

 

[cjor]

Re: Pepakura HELP

I did read through the PEP sticky and found the sites posted in there. Ireally appreciate the help. I kind of feel like my first day at school and not knowing were any of my classes are at lol I do wish there was a site were everyone put all there designs up just to make it easy.

 

[Chaotic Descent]

I hate forum software that just loses posts and you can't reacquire them. They're just gone. What? You spent an hour writing a long post? It's gone. You'll have to start over. but how often does it happen? How often am I writing a post that long? Obviously not often enough for me to remember to make a copy every time. I mean, why would I need to do that? (I was posting a quick reply in a thread that got merged/moved. There's nothing to go back to.)

Are there any guides on unfolding? I tried to do a web search and YouTube search and couldn't find anything so far. Too much useless/outdated/too-specific stuff.

I had my own ideas, but I don't actually know.
Like for accuracy, is it easier to get the final result wrong if you're gluing short edges or long edges? Long edges might actually give more accurate angles than short edges, although long edges might be easier to bend and get inaccurate that way. Harder paper invalidates one of those drawbacks making gluing longer edges superior? It also takes more time to glue longer edges than shorter edges. Is it then just time VS accuracy? That's a pretty old guideline.

I'm also wondering if for best accuracy you should edit the 3D model so that some of the general shapes have blank (non-surface) cross-sections on the connecting edges (and on the other shape it's getting glued to. Glue the two blank faces together.) with tabs that fit inside the shape to keep them from deforming in any way. eg: a weapon handle.

I've just realized that many papercraft models are closed shapes. I suppose that means that those are difficult to reinforce with other materials. With closed shapes you want to reinforce, do you make them in two or more parts and reinforce them before sticking them together? Gee, how do you make sure they align properly?

If you're not smoothing your model (bondo & sanding) then you can use the original texture, printed on your model. If you're doing that, you might have your tabs showing some times. At least in Pepakura there's an option to color the tabs a similar color to the attached side, so maybe that's enough to ignore any problems of which sides would look best as folds VS glued.