GUIDE: Setting up your account, and uploading models

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Part 1: Setting up your account

To prevent spam and make sure all models on Open L-Gauge are of high quality, new users need to contact us via email in order to create an account.

To get started, please send us an email at contribute@open-l-gauge.eu and include a link to some of your models. We will have a look at your work, and if we think your models would be a valuable contribution to the site, we will create an account for you and send you a link to setup your password.

After you have created an account and logged in, a dark grey bar will be shown at the top of the site. On the right of this bar, hover over your username, and click on “Edit Profile”.

Here you should enter your PayPal email address (this is optional, but if you don’t enter a PayPal email, you won’t be able to receive any donations for the models you upload) and select how you want your name to be displayed on the site (either enter your full name, or select a nickname).

You can also set a profile picture, add some information about yourself, or link to a website. This info is shown on your author page.

Part 2: Uploading a model

To upload a new model, click on the “+ New” button in the WordPress bar at the top of the page.

You will be shown a pop-up explaining some important info on licensing and copyright, please read it carefully before proceeding.

To start, set the “Featured image”. This is the image that will be shown in the thumbnail view of your model, and at the top of your model page. This image should be in a 16:9 aspect ratio. To set the Featured image, expand the “Featured image” section in the sidebar on the right of the page, and upload an image.

Secondly, add some specifications for your model. These are also set in the sidebar, under the “Specifications” section.

Next, upload your stud.io file and/or PDF building instructions.* These are also uploaded from the sidebar, under their respective headings. The files should be smaller than 256MB.

You can use our tool to generate cover pages for your building instructions if you want

If you want to include multiple stud.io files, or add a separate part list file (a good idea if your model uses custom parts), create a .zip archive with all the files you want to share, and upload the .zip archive instead of the stud.io file.

Finally, add a title and write a description for your model. You can add text, additional images, or embed a YouTube video here if you want.

When you are done, click on the blue “Publish” button in the top-right, and your model will be submitted for review. We wil check your model to see if it meets the submission guidelines, and publish it. If we do not think your model meets the guidelines, we wil contact you and let you know why we rejected it.