Recently I've been playing with the LDCad GUI. And I would appreaciate people's thoughts on the tweaks I made so far in 1.4 Alpha.

This is how it looks the current stable version 1.3a


This is how it now looks in my latest 1.4 build


I replaced the fixed font rendering with 'real' freetype font rendering, it's using Verdana at the moment (and FreeSans on Linux) but suggestions are welcome.

I also attempted to create better part bin root group pictures and app icon.


thoughts?

Hi folks,

I just updated the MLCad.ini file accordingly to the latest LDraw.org parts update 2014-01. The .ini file defines (among other things) the parts available in MLCad's minifigure generator.

Download the file from my website: http://www.holly-wood.it/mlcad/mlcad_ini-en.html

A direct download is available at: http://www.holly-wood.it/files/mlcad/MLCad.ini

Bye, w.

Greetings everyone,

It is with great pleasure that I announce the completion and availability of the LDraw 'Getting Started - Linux' Wiki page.

The wiki pretty much sums up the ways of getting to setup and properly install all the LDraw essentials (library and tools) on Linux based distributions.

It also details all the currently available Linux-native tools such as editors and viewers which can either be built from source or installed via their respective website sources or repositories.

Some of the editors are still works in progress and the contents of the Wiki will be maintained and updated accordingly, as the progress continues.

I will also attempt to script another utility to automate the fetching, deployment and installation of all the required elements to get users to edit models in no time.

Cheers!

Hello

I make stop-motion movies with Lego and I need make backgrounds for my movies. Lego models will be renderred with Ldraw, Pov-Ray (maybe) and Vue (professional graphics programm to create photorealistic landscapes). I need render photorealistic Lego models in the backgrounds, too, because backgrounds in my movies and Lego models on them must be identic as real Lego bricks on the movie set.

So I would like to ask you, if I can convert Ldraw models to Pov-ray (with LGeo library of course) and then convert from Pov-ray to Vue (wich supports standard graphics objects format like .3ds, .obj etc.) to achieve photorealistic models on landscapes in the background. Or can I just directly convert Ldraw models to Vue to have photorealistic models, too?

Thanks in advance

Hi Guys,
I hope the apps that I could provide in the past are helpful for your work.

Now I think I need help from your side, if you are a coder. Please note that I am only able to code in .NET (visual basic).

For some applications I need the inline procedure (f.e. grafics output). Because the code I currently have is up to 10 times (or more) slower than the code Philo uses for edger2, I like to know why and what I need to change.

I have stopped my development for a viewer, because it does not make sense to wait a minute to see a 2 x 4 Brick .

I already tried to do this myself, but failed ever time. Now after about 2 years I think I ask the public.

So, if there is somebody who reads this and like to help, please let me know. We can discuss in this thread or by PM. I am open for every communication.

cu
Michael
[mikeheide]

I was really happy to see that somebody (Philo) made Sails. But which sails are that?

The Sails have following part numbers 64991 and 96714. And the diffrent shpae wich are really nice.

But due to bad numbering (the just didn't now the real number of any sails) on bricklink.com and peeron.com you can't find the sails easy. The names are also not that good either.
64991.dat seems to be 'Cloth Sail 17 x 28' (x421)

But what is 96714.dat? I don't know this one. Any visual comparison with the sails listed on bricklink or peeron did not let me find it.
It looks like a smaller version of 64991.dat, but this one was allready the top sail(the bottom is still missing).

Or should it be Cloth Sail Rectangle Small 18 x 12?

and the other one Cloth Sail Rectangle 27 x 17?

Are Cloth Sail Rectangle 27 x 17 and Cloth Sail Top 27 x 17 with Blue Thick Stripes Pattern the same shape?

Hallo,

in http://www.ldraw.org/library/primref/ the following is mentioned: "To avoid matrix arithmetic problems in some renderers, the third dimension ({y} in the default orientation) must be given a scaling factor of 1."

Is it that strict or is a -1 allowed as well?

The reason for the question is that I'm still working on 11767. If I fix the BFC and I mirror or rotate a primitive I get a -1 as scaling factor for y. Is it legal or is it prefered to have a 0 BFC INVERTNEXT statement for many lines of code?

regards, Ingolf

The 2014-01 LDraw Parts Update has been now been released. This update includes 454 new files in the core library, including 262 new parts and 28 new primitives.

Thanks are once again due to all the part authors who created or corrected parts for this release and to the reviewers who have played an important role in making this release happen.

You can preview the new parts in 2014-01 and download the update from the Latest Parts page.

No new "Physical colour" parts are included in this update as we still intend to move these to a separate section of the LDraw file structure, to more closely fit with the "DesignID" vs. "ItemID" concept. A number of such parts on the Parts Tracker are awaiting admin review, but will not be released until this concept has been implemented.

Despite this being a substantial update, it has really only matched the number of new files submitted since Parts Update 2013-02 was released in December 2013. Although there is clearly an appeal to working on new parts, it would be good to try and reduce the backlog of held or insufficiently reviewed parts. Please remember that if the last author has not responded to a "Hold" within three months, it is considered open for anyone to pick up. Held files can be located on the Parts Tracker here.

Based on an idea of Magnus Forsberg [MagFors] I have updated DATHeader.

There are often linetype 1 lines that calls a flat subfile. But the matrix of that line also contains scaling of that file in the flat direction. This does not affect in any way the visual appearance of the whole model/part, but it is not a good coding.

DATHeader now detects this (if the reference file that is called is in the searchpath) and also can correct this.

Because this is not a real error I have not marked this as error that needs a hold vote.

If you have any other wish for DATHeader, please let me know and I am looking what can be done.

You can download DATHeader as usually from DATHeader homepage.

cu
mikeheide

Hello,

Would some kind soul be able to convert this part for ldraw?

thanks!
mike