again, 5 bug fixes, PrimGen2 and new features with a not so primitive 0.8.22 release...
...well, however, in the next days I still want to write more content for the wiki/manual.
...use a "new" tool: A PrimGen2 clone is now added to the list of tools.
...choose whether Intersector should hide things or not (default is not to hide).
...benefit from "realtime" asynchronous identical line detection. LDPE detects now duplicates during input with very low latency.
...benefit from a better "Save As..." implementation. It shows a warning if a file is going to be overwritten.
...set the thickness of the lines (type 2 or 5) to zero.
...to see your LDraw username / real name on the header dialog ("Add a comment or header entry...").
...benefit from the fact that the position of the divider between the text and the 3D editor gets restored on start.
...use buttons to quickly "fullscreen" either the text or 3D editor and a third icon which restores the divided view.
...use buttons to maximise / rearrange the area on the left side of the 3D view (selection, snapping, part tree, primitive area).
...set the second line for an angle protractor to a defined length.
The following critical issues were fixed:
"Toggle Comment" / "Toggle !TEXMAP" caused data corruption when it was toggled on the last line of a file.
The "Selection:" tab was broken (it was not possible to edit lines, distance meters and subfile references)
You were not able to open a file in the text editor sometimes (on separate window mode).
Wrong line width was used in "Special Condline Mode" / "Random Colour Mode".
When you opened a file in the 3D editor sometimes it was not added to the recent file list.
What will the next release 0.8.23 deliver? Bug fixes*, maybe more unit calculator features, buttons for view angles, buttons for every(!) action from the 3D context menu... usability should be more important for 0.8.23.
* oh dear..., I still need to reproduce some errors...
The program was tested intensively with "real world" files.
However, it is still a beta version and something can go wrong in about 100.000 lines of code.
Make sure that you choose the right architecture for your OS and Java Virtual Machine (JVM) (64bit or 32bit).
A short guide how to check if a 64bit JVM is installed on your system is located at the bottom of this message.
Download the zip-Archive
Extract the archive content to the location of your choice
On windows, double-click "run.bat" to start LDPE.
On linux/mac, you have to excecute the shell script "run.sh" to start LDPE.
Please note that this software is in the beta stage. Although, LDPE 0.8.22 was tested, there are already known issues for this release. There is a potential risk of data loss.
You can search for updates if you do the following steps:
On windows, double-click "update.bat" to search for updates.
On linux/mac, you have to excecute the shell script "update.sh".
I listen carefully to your requests and possible complaints. Please leave me a message, with your thoughts and wishes to further improve the software.
LDPE is a 3D CAD application: The overall system requirements are higher. While I recommend to use a powerful 64-bit multicore system, it could be possible, to run LDPE on older machines as well.
System Requirements:
Minimum System Requirements:
Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.8
OpenGL 2.1 compatible Graphics Card
Operating System (32/64bit): Windows [XP; Vista; 7 or newer], Mac OS X [>=10.6], Linux [e.g. Ubuntu Linux >=10.4]
CPU: Multicore-Processor e.g. Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon II (>2.0Ghz)
RAM: 4GB
Video-Memory: 512 MB
Free Disk Space: 100 MB
Recommended Requirements:
Operating System (64bit): Windows 7, Mac OS X [>=10.6], Linux [e.g. Ubuntu Linux >=10.4]
CPU: Multicore-Processor with 4 cores (or more)
RAM: >4 GB
Video-Memory: >=1 GB
Free Disk Space: 512 MB
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How to check your JVM version (32- or 64-bit):
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can try on the command line:
Code:
java -d64 version
If it's not a 64-bit version, you'll get a message that looks like:
Code:
This Java instance does not support a 64-bit JVM. Please install the desired version.
In general, I recommend to install the 64-bit version of the JVM for Java 8.
I have an ldr from a friend that did his original design work in LDD. I used LDD to export an LDR and everything worked wonderfully.
However, because LDD doesn't have the ability to use submodels, he has separate submodels laying on the baseplate representing larger components of the model.
This presents two problems.
1. It makes the size of the model ridiculously large and very difficult to navigate around.
2. It results in duplication of parts when I upload the LDR to create a BOM.
So, the question is:
Once I've grouped parts together that represent the individual submodels, how do I move these groups into submodels?
I'm comfortable manually editing the text file directly if necessary.
Thanks all. I realize this isn't actually an LDCad question but you guys have been so helpful, I thought I'd ask here. It's also LDCad that I'm going to be doing the work in. And maybe 1.6 actually has the ability in it.
I've been working on a POV-Ray export for LDCad 1.6
I'm not seeking to replace LDView's export I mainly want to do animation exports.
I would be very interested what the more experienced POV-Ray users have to say about the generated file I've got so far.
Attached is a zip with some test output, It renders like so:
I think it's not bad but it could be better, probably by tweaking the global settings / light (currently it exports the OpenGL light position) / sky sphere stuff.
One thing I don't really understand is the small black square at the bottom left, I have no idea where that's coming from.
Any help / pointers / thoughts would be highly appreciated.
For Beginners: LDCad 1.5 Part Bins for EV3 Education 45544-1, Part 1 of 6
I'm volunteering in a classroom that uses the Mindstorms EV3 Education kit 45544-1 and I'm making MOCs for advanced students. I need building instructions and am using LDCad to create the LDraw model. LDCad is an impressive part editing program!
As Philippe Hurbain has pointed out, the ability of LDCad to present six different part bins organized by type (for example beams, connectors, pins, etc. from the same set) makes the building process fast and intuitive.
I tried to use BrickUtils as described in this thread and got thoroughly confused. It's probably a wonderful application, but as a novice I couldn't get anything to work, and had no idea how to proceed. So I decided to follow Roland's LDCad online documentation and do some trial & error analysis.
I'm going to show I got the part bins to work, in excruciating detail, for any other LDCad novices who want to enjoy the building features of LDCad and need help with the part bin configuration. All the files shown in screenshots below are available for download at the bottom of the last post. Use this example to create your own part bin configurations for your favorite sets.
I'm breaking it up into six segments so corrections and comments from experienced users will be easier to manage.
For this exercise, the goal is to have two part bin options for the EV3 kit:
--- a single EV3-Edu part bin with all the parts in one bin. It's configuration is associated with the name "EV3-Edu" as described below.
--- six part bins with similar parts together like beams, pins, axles, etc. The configuration of these six bins is associated with the name "45544-1-sorted" as described below.
The EV3-Edu kit consists of a tub with the large parts, plus a red tray with thirteen bins for the small parts and a guide to which parts should go in which bin. We want each of our six LDCad part bins to be one or more of these bins.
On a Windows 10 system, the image below shows where the LDCad 1.5 "partbin" folder is located, under C:\Users\Walt as shown. The LDCad 1.5 installation creates and populates the "default" folder. We don't want to change the "default" folder because it might be overwritten by LDCad upgrades. We want a parallel folder with a person's name so it's clear that it isn't part of the official installation. I chose to name it "Walt's Parts."
Edit the "sysRoot.pbg" file to add "Walt's Parts" as shown. When you launch LDCad 1.5 and click the up arrow in the Bin Selection window, you will now see pictures corresponding to each of the two folders. LDCad 1.5 goes into those folders and finds corresponding images (described below) to make the selection choices clear. This pattern will repeat in the examples below: LDCad 1.5 opens things listed in <items> to locate pictures to associate with those items.
How can I make the edges more visible in transparent clear parts?
I made the edge pure black, but that is not enough to see how things are build.
See the example attached.
I need to make sure the builder can see how the 1x2 and 1x1 transparent plates are placed.
My design idea is to render 1:1 parts relative to the selected LPub3D page units (centimeters or inches). This feature would only apply to Technic axles, beams, liftarms and some gears.
My requests for information are:
1. Is there any place I can find the size dimensions for the part types indicated above - in mm, in or LDU ?
2. If this information is not available, is anyone willing to provide this information - for example a part author who may have this information on hand ?
2. Type: Icon, Category: Sticker, Description: Plain white on black background sticker icon to indicate the application of a sticker - without number identification. Note: the example shown indicates the number 1. For LPub3D, no identification is requested.
I just want to know if there exists an open source algorithm for the primitive generation...?
Okay... for rings and cones I have to round the sinus/cosinus to 4 decimal places (and then multiply it with a radius)...
...and round the result again to four dp (how should I round?)...
I know very well how to generate a (torus) primitive... but what are the precise numerical requirements for this task?
Is there any formal description which will lead to the same results on all machines?
What are the specified rounding modes?
Can I write a primitive generator program without a specification?
Currently, I am doing reverse engineering with PrimGen2...
...it seems to be (nearly) impossible to clone.
I make very good progress, but from time to time IEEE 754 pushes me back to the ground.
The mechanics of PrimGen2 are very clear to me and I know that .NET uses a different Math.Round() function than Java...
...it is not easy to finish the implementation soon.
I need some clever advice.
I'm looking for a substitution part for a length of string without end studs, an undetermined length of rolled up string.
Does such a substitute part exist anywhere? I haven't seen it on the tracker, but maybe one of you knows if someone has prepared anything like this (in the same way there are other substitution parts / unofficial parts / helper parts available)
![[Image: imgDuke2.png]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-fi18ywwsEUo/VOOuvkpsdzI/AAAAAAAAASw/Ax0RRFkleKA/s64-no/imgDuke2.png)
