I've been tinkering around with the template in an attempt to make it more useful for the admins and a little less boxy. If any of the changes cause problems (they shouldn't since most are CSS stuff) let me know. Also if you have anything that's annoying about the forums from a template standpoint let me know and I'll try to address if I can.

With the 1.5 version of LDCad I decided to take another approach then my usual beta versions followed by a 'stable' one.

I wanted to give people the opportunity to play with some of the new features while other are still under construction. Downside of this all is an Alpha version might be less stable then beta ones.

This 1.5 Alpha version houses 2 of the 4 planned major features. Both are pretty much 100% complete but might need some additional fine tuning, so any feedback is appreciated.

The features are:
Window overlay / docking

LDraw source window

Note: To undock a window grab it by some of it's 'dead space', To dock a window hold down the ctrl key at the location you want it to be. Optionally you can also lock the configuration (from the gui menu) to prevent accidental unlocking.

There are also many small features / tweaks, like:
improved scroll bar behavior
Part bin appearance tweaks (allows for a much smaller bin width and horizontal orientation)
And may of the smaller feature requests made in the 1.4b forum thread.

For a full list of all changes read the changeLog.txt file.

You can download the latest Alpha version (from now on) at:
http://www.melkert.net/LDCad/nextVer

Please let me know your thoughts.

I did a quick search, and found no other post relating to the request of Mars Mission alien parts.

I am speaking of:
x1765: http://peeron.com/inv/parts/x1765
x1764: http://peeron.com/inv/parts/x1764
62723: http://peeron.com/inv/parts/62723
62724: http://peeron.com/inv/parts/62724

I know they will be very difficult because of a rediculous amount of curved faces and odd shapes, but at least I can say I suggested it.

Hello everyone!

Are you allowed to create a software application that uses the LDR file format (the sets, not the parts) without asking or do I have to register my software somewhere? Because I am working on a game in which you build official and custom sets from the point of view of a minifig and it uses the LDR format to place all the bricks at the right position and players can import their own LDR files as long as they only use the parts that I have modeled for the game (it doesn't use any LDraw parts).

My second question is related to the first as I have a problem with the game. To be more precise, I have trouble converting the LDraw coordinate system to the game engine's system (Unreal Engine 4):
   

In the engine's visual scripting component I hooked up the values like this:
   

On the left you see the index of a line that starts with "1" and all the green 1s in the center column of the image can either be 1 or -1. I would have done it the brute force method and try all combinations but there are 1024 of them which would take too long. Most parts are placed correctly, it's just the angled pieces such as these flowers:
   

They are correctly placed inside the LDR file as well as in my modeling software. If someone with a sharper mind than mine could tell me which values I have to change to convert the axes correctly, I'd be very grateful.

Thank you in advance!

PS: I hope this is the right place for this question.

Hi all, I'm new to the forum so let me know if I'm putting this in the wrong place.

I am in the process of making designs using LPC (LDraw Pattern Creator) for some models. The specific part I was looking for (the Astro Torso from the Mars Mission theme) is not in the parts library and I have not seen it in the parts tracker, so I decided to make it myself.

I used Inkscape and a few web images to make rough-but-good-enough SVG files for both the front and back, and exported them as a file to use as a background in LPC. What I can't figure out is how to apply the different patterns to the different sides of the torso.

I'm quite a noob at this sort of thing, so any help is much appreciated.

I am working on this part right now:

- Need to check the dimensions again as I think I measured them actually smaller than 9 studs.
- Refine the intersections and edges, as the part is transparent, they need to fit.

   
   

Wanted to have it done in LDPE, however its not starting... (need a reboot)

As mentioned in the "wrapping" thread, and driven by Philo's step-by-step I made a small XLS generating me the template for Stickers that need to be applied on curved surfaces.

Due to the nature of the spreadsheet, the tool works only if the curve is in one direction only (e.g. Slope Curved 2 x 1, etc.) It could handle more surfaces than the 4 to 5 lines currently in the sheet. I did not tweak it further due to a lack of time and to get the Speed Champions stickers 4 to 5 surfaces are currently sufficient ;-)

Some known problems:
- The ARCCOS produces sometimes an invalid value due to the base value being greater than 1 somewhere far behind the decimal point.
- The generation of the extruded surface with the offset, i.e. Sticker shorter than the surface where it is to be applied is only implemented for 4 surfaces.

Input required:
Quads, only quads right now, and some of the clipping info that will make the sticker fit.

Output:
Two columns for LDPC templates
- one for the cuts that need to be applied (" * " needs to be changed to a Carriage Return)
- second the projection coordinates
For the part:
- the LDRAW code for the sides (Starting point for the first and last points not yet calculated)

What does it do?
- It is calculating the normals for each surface
- Calculates the middle between two normals
- Sets the correct lenght for the normals for the thickness of the sticker
- Generate the list of flat rectangles that later will wrap along the surface
- Generate the projection matrix for LDPC

   
   

Attached Files

  LPDC-Sticker Template_Gen.zip (Size: 20.61 KB / Downloads: 15)

   

I've just noticed that 6923.dat won't "Zoom To Fit" properly in MLCad 3.4.
Can't say I've ever noticed this problem before on any other part. Maybe I'm not using exotic enough parts

Both "Top" windows above are same size. Both have "Zoom To Fit" run on them.

The difference is on the bottom one I removed these from 6923.dat:

I just discovered that MLCad seems to ignore transformation matrix and origin offset when it "upgrades" older version parts!
Attached a sample file and the buggy result I get after "upgrade" and save with MLCad.
Now I am appaled
Did I miss something and is this a known bug?

Attached Files

  testmoved.ldr (Size: 80 bytes / Downloads: 0)
  testmovedmlcad.ldr (Size: 141 bytes / Downloads: 0)

I'd love to have this part in ldraw, very helpful for building mechs/robots!
Thanks and keep up the awesome work!

Erik