Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with blueprints

I know how to cook--but I still want a blueprint!

bookmammal — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 19:22:01 -0800

Blueprint artwork for recipes . . . has anyone seen these? Many years ago I saw some poster-type prints that were designed to look like blueprints of how to assemble common foods. I remember one for a taco, one for an ice cream sundae, and I'm sure there were several others. They looked very authentic and were very eyecatching! I'd like to purchase something similar for my kitchen--has anyone seen anything like this online or in an actual store? Googling has not been helpful.

Does anyone know anything about the back corridors in malls behind the stores?

Sully — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 19:41:34 -0800

Does anyone know anything about the back corridors in malls behind the stores? This is kinda a tricky question because it makes me sound like I'm going to burglarize a mall, but I don't know how else to ask it.

Okay, I'm writing this short story about a group of friends who all work in a mall. They weren't friends before, but got to be friends after they all started working there.

Trouble is, I've never worked retail, and I've never worked in a mall before. Sometimes though, inside a mall, I'm tempted to go exploring, just to answer some questions, but I've always been deterred by the Authorized Personnel Only signs.

I googled 'Mall Blueprints', to find out the layout of malls, but understandably, for security reasons, anything but the basic layout of a mall, like the kinds they have on these black plinths near the entrance for shoppers, aren't shown.

So I guess what I'm wondering is this - I know that there are these corridors that run behind the stores in some malls. They're pretty basic and ugly and sometimes there are cardboard boxes and stuff in them - in my story, my characters like to go into them and smoke.

But I've also got this huge elaborate scene later on and I just want to know if it's possible for someone to exit a store into the corridor, then go to an elevator just off the corridor and take it down to the loading docks, with stops in between that let out into a parking lot structure. Essentially, these kids begin to hang out in these areas. This is their "club house".

I know that a lot of malls are different, and that it would depend on the mall. But does this make sense? Or to someone who's ever actually worked in a mall - would they cry bullshit on this sort of layout?

That's all. Thank you in advance.

DIY Cardboard Displays

Rykey — Thu, 29 May 2008 12:07:53 -0800

Please help me find free online blueprints for cardboard store displays. I have access to large sheets of cardboard, and want to make some retail-type floor displays like these.

I've checked Google and found plenty of sites that sell pre-cut displays, and I even found this old AskMeFi question, but nothing solid so far.

A blueprint with measurements, score lines, shapes, etc. for a basic merchandise display stand would be great. I could probably also modify plans for something other than display stands, so be creative with your suggestions.

I Don't Want The World, Just Your Half

rokusan — Fri, 02 May 2008 05:01:52 -0800

Looking for guidance on using Google Maps, or a workalike, for a non-map (blueprints) application. I'd like to use the basic UI of Google Maps (or some other free/open workalike) to web-ify some blueprints so that building stakeholders can annotate and add their own 'markers' and notes.

I have looked through Google's Maps API and many online tutorials and such, but all seem to be about adding functionality to the existing geo-models (layers, notes, vectors added to street maps, etc). I've also, yes, read the previous AskMes on related Maps issues, but they're all world-map-related.

The big difference is this: I don't need the Earth, here, or geographic "infrastructure" at all: just my own large flat graphics to be navigated, zoomed in/out, and annotated with little points of interest + notes. There are no corresponding real-world locations to "overlay" this onto. It would be nice if the visibility of these annotated points could be turned on/off, layers style, too, so that comments from different people/teams could be shown or hidden, so the blueprint graphics could be viewed "clean" or marked up in various ways.

I think I have seen this done with the Maps API before (a print catalog? magazine? something) but I can't find the example now, nor any tutorials or samples.

I need very basic Maps stuff: just navigation, zooming, and point/note adding.

Again, this could be via Google Maps in some way I don't quite grok. If so, I just need a shove in the right direction or a simple, studyable source example to learn from. Or it could be some other library that provides the basic functionality of nav/zoom/add-point/add-note.

I already have very large graphics of the blueprints in question, which I can convert to any format, and I'm competent with JavaScript. I refuse to believe I should write my own framework from scratch here.

What next?

Are maps and blueprints on the 'net a security risk?

AccordionGuy — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 13:59:39 -0800

I often get called to appear on the nightly news whenever they need a guy to talk about computers, the internet or blogging. This time, it's a piece about "how terrorists use the net to organize and plan attacks" to be aired in a series for the week leading up to 9/11. In my segment, I will use my Google-fu to demonstrate how easy or hard it is to dig up maps and blueprints, especially for "sensitive" places. I'm trying to make sure the facts get out there, but I also want to do my bit to counter any scaremongering. My question: Can anyone point to sites or articles that discuss whether or not such publicly-available maps, diagrams and blueprints are a real security risk?

Scanning service for Blueprints (in Chicago)?

Steve_at_Linnwood — Thu, 02 Dec 2004 16:08:14 -0800

I have blueprints that I need scanned on to disc. (jpeg, tiff, something like that) Any ideas where to go? (In Chicagoland) The obvious answer to me was Kinkos, but they don't apparently have the equipment. HELP!