A little backgrounder
Here's a little who and why for the Ramp Generator Project
There’s lots of ramp plans available online and sites like Trasher Magazine has some good books as well. Why would you build a software to create skate ramps? We think there’s many good reasons.
Why a Generator?
- Many of the plans you can find online are lacking in some respect. We want to create solid building plans containing cut lists, step by step instructions as well as the tips and tricks you’ll need.
- Most plans offer fixed solutions in terms of size. We want to make it possible to create any ramp, in any size. Now you can utilize all of the garden space allotted by your mother/wife!
- Most plans are in feet or inches. While convenient for Americans, our tool that works for people on the Metric system as well and you can toggle back and forth as you like.
- A plan on paper is cool, but our tool will build the ramp virtually and then let you ‘fly’ around the 3D model before you start.
- The app will be free to toy around with, but to download the custom building plans/cut list, we’ll need to charge a small fee.
The project will have a ‘Beta’ status until all aspects are finished and tested. Feel free to sign up to help us test it!
The People
The Ramp Generator project is a collaboration between Tom Gam and Jens Brynildsen. Tom’s been skating for a long time and knows all the tricks, whereas Jens current goal is to Ollie. If you look at the picture above, you can guess who is who 
Tom is educated and works as an Architect, so he really has the construction skills. He’s built dozens of ramps before and the project got started based on a PDF he made for NORB many years ago. Tom is now working on the building instructions that will be output after you’ve created your ramp.
Jens is a programmer specializing in Adobe Flash and web applications. He’s fond of carpentry, but has never built a Skate Ramp before. He’ll be one of the first testers and will document his building progress in this blog. Jens can’t really skate a ramp (other than dropping in) but he’s pretty good at this Flash-stuff. His Flash-related blog is at flashgamer.com.
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User Responses
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Human figures added for reference |
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Selecting the type of Ramp to create |
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Basic measures |
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Tweaking |
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Selecting the width/depth |
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Rendered view |
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Prototype |
01 09 2009
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Skateboarding is a sport that is ever changing, new terrain is challenged, wheels get smaller, new tricks are invented.
Still some universals/architypes seem to stick around, a nice miniramp will allways be a treat to any one who enjoys a nice transition.
Phillip Skau and Thomas Langren built a miniramp at Marienlyst 12 years ago and it has become the most copied miniramp in Norway.
Anyone I meet up there seem to love it and it`s these kind of universal measures/qualities we have tried to translate and give a parametric value.
The RampGenerator is an aid to create the best possible ramp given a specific set of parameters.
These parameters might be the size if your garage, height of your living room or more likely your personal preferences.
The RampGenerator will generate a ramp accordingly to the parameters you feed it and the set of universal measures it`s built upon.
So if you either would like to create a ramp around a transition radius or the height of the ramp the RampGenerator will adjust to your preferences.
Afterwards you can of course tweak and refine the ramp to your exact likings(more relevant to seasoned skaters than beginners).
All the “extras” you might want like extensions and escalators is not possible to create in this version of the RampGenerator, but given the information you recive from the RampGenerator you will have all the measures and principles to extend it or tweak it as you like.
Building your own ramp will also let you alter and modify your ramp as your skateboarding skills progresses.
The RampGenerator will publish a drawing set containing all the information you will need to create your dream ramp.
2M