PDFs online at playmobil.com

[henry_martini]

A yellow bandolier  , after all these years of waiting. 

5371:

30 21 2990 chest iron bands
30 60 8950 treasure chest, wood
30 61 6970 lock
30 09 0640 viking helmet
30 20 8050
30 25 8673 wrist protection, silver 2x
30 00 4813 viking
30 22 8363 cape, red
30 35 7750 vase, gold
30 21 5530 aladdin's lamp, gold
30 21 2820 horn, gold
30 27 4150 plate, gold
30 29 2520 egyptian dagger, gold
30 27 0200 short szeptre, gold
30 07 6420 sword, silver
30 09 0930 long axe, silver
30 88 7952 jewelry
30 63 1384 viking shield

30 82 7083 instruction sheet

[sbblabotw]

Absolutely, that's great! I can cut and paste these into the sets pretty quickly. The official site will turn up with some of these lists, but will take their slow time about it, I'm sure. Actually, let's start a new thread, one set per post to keep it organized. Mods, help?

[Indianna]

Henry - another question, if you please!  Can you tell us how you acquire these lists of part numbers, names, and quantities?  I would like to help with this effort if it is something I am able to do.  Thanks again!     

[henry_martini]

Henry - another question, if you please!  Can you tell us how you acquire these lists of part numbers, names, and quantities?  I would like to help with this effort if it is something I am able to do.  Thanks again!     

I just pick single pdfs, type the numers by hand and add ad hoc descriptions to make the parts more easily recognizable.
I go through similar sets (like the knight bags) at once because they contain often similar or same parts.   

Your efforts would be much appreciated. 

[henry_martini]

For pdf pages with several numbers it seems to be 'faster' to make a screen shot, cut the part that contains the pictures and numbers, save it as .jpg and let it go through online ocr (e.g. http://www.onlineocr.net/, self explaining and easy to handle).
I have a 'workflow' now and expect it to become more efficient. 
Report will follow.   

[sbblabotw]

Couple of new PDFs available online: a water-bomber plane and the baby-swimming pool.

PlaymoDB List - New PDFs Jan 2, 2015

[Indianna]

I just pick single pdfs, type the numers by hand and add ad hoc descriptions to make the parts more easily recognizable.
I go through similar sets (like the knight bags) at once because they contain often similar or same parts.   

Your efforts would be much appreciated. 

Thanks for the info, Henry - nice to have a low-tech project!  Though I see you also (in your next post) have some higher tech options, too.  How can we best coordinate our efforts?  Is there a list of needed text inventory lists that we should be working from?  Also, how to avoid duplication of effort?

Heather - is there a particular format in which you would like to receive information?  Would it be useful to get files from you to check for accuracy/completeness?  Other ideas for help we can provide?   

[henry_martini]

Though I see you also (in your next post) have some higher tech options, too. 

Presently I collect the numbers from the pdf klicking on it (left mouse button) which allows to mark areas to be copied. I past these into a .jpg-file that I send for ocr to the link above. This is not necessarily faster than typing and still low tech but requires much less attention. 

How can we best coordinate our efforts? 

By sending pms.

Is there a list of needed text inventory lists that we should be working from?  Also, how to avoid duplication of effort?

So far I picked random sets from the Sets to be added list from above. I added the 2 latest discoveries (
PlaymoDB List - New PDFs Jan 2, 2015) already.

 

[sbblabotw]

All help appreciated - I might not get to handling stuff right away, but it's still in my inbox staring at me.

Something that takes a fair bit of time, that you don't have to be ME to do, is to verify inventory lists, with quantities. There are a lot of sets now that have parts assigned to them automatically by playmobil.de, but it doesn't say how many there are, and sometimes leaves out a few. Have a look at the "Sets needing verification" in the Wishlist, http://playmodb.org/wishlist.php, to see the line that says "Parts Inv'ed - " under each picture. Those with text in red have instructions, but are not complete. Once I've determined a total part count for a set, and there are that many parts listed, that line turns green. For sets without instructions, that text stays brown, because there's no authority to say how many parts ought to be there. Sorry to the colour-blind, not ideal for usability purposes! It's not the only source of that information, though, just an indicator.

Here's an example: 5299 - Take Along Police Station, at the bottom of Group #1. Red text.  The textlist, http://playmodb.org/cgi-bin/listinv.pl?setnum=5299, has all blanks for quantities, and I can see it's not complete because there are no klickies. So, to fix this, copy the text list to your favourite editor (text, Word, Excel would work, whatever you're comfortable with), and go through the instructions page by page, filling in the quantity column.

If you find parts that are not on the instructions (like hair), make a separate list of parts to remove. They're likely subparts or replacement upgrade parts, and I'll handle them individually.

For parts you find on the instructions that are NOT in the DB, create a list with the part number, quantity, page (so I can find it), and a word or two of description - the way Henry has done descriptions is fine.

Post the three lists in one post in Henry's thread, http://www.playmofriends.com/forum/index.php?topic=14438.0 . The only format change I'd appreciate, is to have quantities in their own column, or marked off with spaces, dashes, something, after the number - it's difficult to get the computer to distinguish "4x", e.g., at the end of a line. Also, a total count of unique part numbers, counted from the instructions, would be a useful double-check.

Re: duplication of effort: for larger sets, either inventory from scratch or verification, why not post in the thread when you start? (If you're actually going to finish, that is: good intentions don't count!) This would indeed be a good use for a wiki - I'll look into that. In my spare time

[sbblabotw]

Another game for parts detectives: tackling that huge slagheap of TO BE ASSIGNED. Yes, a lot of them are new parts and I'm just going to have to think up what they're called and what categories to assign them to. (I try to do this in conjunction with verifying a set.) BUT, a lot of them are really familiar looking! If they have German names, often I can match up the name with an existing part with the same German name, and copy over the English name and categories. But if they come in with no names, just pictures, I have to figure out what they are. And there's fourteen pages of them! Here's an example.

30 20 8262, the second part on the first page of the category linked above, is obviously a crown: 30 20 8262. Doing a text search for "crown" results in this: http://playmodb.org/cgi-bin/textsearch.pl?text=crown&pics=on&sortby=partnum&lang=all and, looking through it, you'll eventually see this one: http://playmodb.org/cgi-bin/showpart.pl?partnum=30-20-8260

If I had a chart with columns "unknown part" (30 20 8262), then "existing equivalent" (30 20 8260) and "new colour" (gold), "new printing" (if any), I could set a script to assign the existing name and categories, with the new colour, to the unknown part.

unknown part    existing part   colour   printing
30 20 8262         30 20 8260   gold   
...
...

This is likely to work best with those clear official white-background pictures, since sometimes pictures cropped from scans are small and harder to look at, and the decision is based on your visual appraisal and text-searching skills. (Try German and French as well, if you speak it and English is not giving you anything.) Anybody want to give this a try? Even a few would make a shorter list.