I'm wondering... is POVRay still the most liked / preferred HQ rendering tool for LDraw scenes / animations out there?

I mean with GUI tools like blender around and all.

Just wondering in preparation of the LDCad animation HQ export feature.

So I have a problem that maybe someone would be able to help me with. I did a search of the forum and found nothing.

I use multiple computers with multiple hard drives and therefore have to boot from various copies of OS X. I'd like to be able to export my favorites list of parts to another hard drive and not have to re-create a new favorites list. Is this possible? I imagine it would be located in a system preferences file somewhere. But I can't seem to find a system preference file for Bricksmith. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Hello,

I was surprised to see that part 87414 isn't in the LDraw library yet, not even on the PT.
I suppose it's not a really difficult part to make, since it's just part 3641, but with a "band" around the wheel at the center.
Take a look at the images at Bricklink to see what I mean.

Ok. I kicked the hornets nest with threading. That's a good thing by the way since I now know it is important. I'd like to post a poll and have some more discussion.

- Does anyone use the "flat post" view for the forums and if it went away would it detract from your forum experience? (Note: not the hybrid view which indented posts, the completely flat view)
- For the threaded used not using hybrid (i.e. one post per page with the thread tree on the bottom), if this option went away and was replaced by something similar to the hybrid view would that detract from your forum experience?
- What about for the hybrid users if that were replaced by the "one post per page" view?

Hello,

I've made this file (it's set 7140), but I can't view it in LDview. It crashes immediately when it starts up (after double clicking the file). I think it must be one of the parts inside the X-wing, because I can view all the submodels separately except the X-wing. And, I downloaded a file from the internet based on the same set (altough it was old and incomplete) and it had the same problem with the X-wing.

Could someone try to open the file on their pc to see if it crashes there too?

I have Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit and LDview 4.2 Beta.

Who uses threaded view? If so, if threaded view went away would that be a deal breaker for using the forums?

I use hybrid view but the reality of new users seems to be that they either don't know or don't care about threading. I fully realize that we are the exception to the norm here in that we offer a threaded option. Threading exists because I wanted to ease the transition from LUGNET. Now that we are some years away from that I'm wondering if we even need it any more?

Maybe our 3D editing tools could get some ideas from this cool interactive 3D modeler?

SpaceClaim Direct Modeler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95vOhN2dTp0

http://sldtech.com/?page_id=14

3D Scanning with Agisoft PhotoScan

(in this video you probably want to turn down the music...)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzCeHFEUaro

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMb4iMDzvj8

http://www.agisoft.com/features/professional-edition

http://www.agisoft.com/buy/online-store

Hi all,

I just released the second beta of LDCad 1.4

It has a boatload of bug fixes and two new major features, namely OpenGL export and 'triangle angle' selection information the later helps you create something like this:

   

See also this video clip

The first let you export the current editor view (without GUI items) into any size your VGA card supports. For example here's an exported snapshot of the new 8071 example model.

   


8071 includes an advanced animation script example which makes it's mechanics come to live. You can view the exported version of it on youtube. And I also made a second clip showcasing some of the internals.

As animation might be a difficult thing to get started with I also made a two part tutorial video on making an animation from scratch.

Part 1 The model
and
Part 2 The script

Like always you'll find the latest LDCad version at

www.melkert.net/LDCad

The next version will probably be the definitive 1.4 version without any major features as I'm taking a little break from working on LDCad for the next couple of weeks.

Have fun.

Hello,

I was looking for some topic to play with WebGL recently, and found out LDraw file format to be simple and interesting to implement as a exercise.

You can check my result at:
http://trybikowo.pl/ldraw/

I am a little bit involved in mindstorms/WeDo-based education projects. My goal is to add some animations (at least) or (even) control to the models. A kind of exercise for children that participates in workshops which can be done at home.

All feedback is more than welcome

Best regards,
Jakub Trznadel