The LDraw All-In-One-Installer 2012-03, in short AIOI, has been released.

The AIOI supports Windows XP (Home and Pro), Windows Vista (all versions) and Windows 7 (all versions). On 64-Bit Operating Systems it will install in the "Program files (x86)" folder. The Installer will NOT run on Windows 95, 98, ME, NT Ver 4, 2000, or XP below SP2.

There are currently some issues with the installation of PovRay and the registration of a file needed by Sticker Generator when installing on Windows 8.

You can download the AIOI from:

Home > Help > Get Started > LDraw All-In-One-Installer

Willy Tschager
(LDraw.org Content Manager)

6741 - Mini Jet - Jet.ldr
6741 - Mini Jet - Shuttle.ldr
6741 - Mini Jet - Speedboat.ldr

Attached Files

  6741 - Mini Jet - Jet.ldr (Size: 3.55 KB / Downloads: 6)
  6741 - Mini Jet - Shuttle.ldr (Size: 2.99 KB / Downloads: 7)
  6741 - Mini Jet - Speedboat.ldr (Size: 3.02 KB / Downloads: 7)

5864 - Mini Helicopter - Boat.ldr
5864 - Mini Helicopter - Helicopter.ldr
5864 - Mini Helicopter - Plane.ldr

Attached Files

  5864 - Mini Helicopter - Boat.ldr (Size: 2.49 KB / Downloads: 7)
  5864 - Mini Helicopter - Helicopter.ldr (Size: 2.82 KB / Downloads: 8)
  5864 - Mini Helicopter - Plane.ldr (Size: 2.33 KB / Downloads: 10)

5762 - Mini Plane - Plane.ldr
5762 - Mini Plane - Speedboat.ldr
5762 - Mini Plane - Twin Tail Prop.ldr

Attached Files

  5762 - Mini Plane - Plane.ldr (Size: 2.82 KB / Downloads: 10)
  5762 - Mini Plane - Speedboat.ldr (Size: 2.33 KB / Downloads: 8)
  5762 - Mini Plane - Twin Tail Prop.ldr (Size: 2.36 KB / Downloads: 9)

4837 - Mini Trains - Locomotive.ldr
4837 - Mini Trains - Steam Train.mpd
4837 - Mini Trains - Train.ldr

Attached Files

  4837 - Mini Trains - Locomotive.ldr (Size: 3.88 KB / Downloads: 9)
  4837 - Mini Trains - Steam Train.mpd (Size: 4.48 KB / Downloads: 24)
  4837 - Mini Trains - Train.ldr (Size: 3.28 KB / Downloads: 14)

4347 - Auto Pod - Cement Truck
4347 - Auto Pod - Race Car
4348 - Aero Pod - Helicopter
4348 - Aero Pod - Space Ship

Attached Files

  4347 - Auto Pod - Cement Truck.ldr (Size: 1.84 KB / Downloads: 6)
  4347 - Auto Pod - Race Car.ldr (Size: 2.06 KB / Downloads: 6)
  4348 - Aero Pod - Helicopter.ldr (Size: 1.2 KB / Downloads: 6)
  4348 - Aero Pod - Space Ship.ldr (Size: 1.43 KB / Downloads: 5)

6426 - Super Cycle Center - Buggy

Attached Files

  6426 - Super Cycle Center - Buggy.ldr (Size: 1.67 KB / Downloads: 12)

Hello,
thanks a lot for the ldraw software tool: it's great.

Me and my colleaque thinking about writing a book about the new Lego mindstorms EV3 and now I am wondering how long it will take to have the new parts in ldraw? Any guesses? How long does it usually take?
Thanks, Christine

Following my first foray in uncharted texmap country, I made another try, this time using Eomer helmet.
The big problem is to create the image for texture map. The part is not flat, so despite rather good lighting, it's not uniform, and plenty of reflexions. Moreover, printing itself is full of smudges. So you have to redraw the image anyway...

So I tried to kill two birds with one stone, and use LDraw Patterns Creator to create the drawing. OK, LPC is certainly not the most handy vector drawing program, but with it I obtained "old style" triangle based texturing of the part for comparison (and usage with MLCad...)
The next step was to generate images from the LDraw model. Easy...
- Open it using LDView
- In LDView options, disable lighting and edge lines. Set the field of view to a very low angle value (0.1°).
- Save a snapshot from the directions you want to project, with a transparent background. Here from side:

- You may want to show all conditional lines and make another snapshot. This shows the facets limits and will help to properly crop the image.
- Using an image editor, remove all areas that use main color, and crop your file to the area needed for mapping. For the helmet, I used two projections, one from front, one from side.
Here is the compared result.

Front helmet is the textured one, back helmet is the triangle-based texturing. As you can see, the good point of texmap is that LDView can do its magic and give a nice, smooth result.
Out of curiosity, I generated another version of triangle textured subpart, this time with conditional lines everywhere to force smooth shading. Result is smoother, but not as good as texture map...


Now, texture maps have their own problems...
- I still find it very difficult to derive correct values for mapping parameters. Theoretically it's simple, practically it's another story (maybe it's just that I have not yet got the hang of it...). The method I use is to create helper triangles to materialize projection area and when they are right, copy the values in texmap meta:

- For some reason, LDView properly smooth texmapped mirrored subpart... but not the other side!

- Even though the images I used are relatively high resolution, edges are not so crisp, and there is a slight fringe effect. It seems that partial transparency causes some issue to LDView. Here is an enlarged snapshot, showing that areas in transition region is transparent, instead of merging with main color. I even tried to use completely hard edge around image (helmet2.dat in attached files), the transition area is reduced but still there.
.

Attached a zip file (renamed .txt to be able to post it here) containing the helmets...

Attached Files

  helmet.zip.txt (Size: 221.95 KB / Downloads: 3)

Here are the models contained in the 8841 set. It's unfinished because some parts (particularly in the 8841+8700 model) are missing or unofficial. Includes flexible parts modeled with LSynth, could change that in the future.













8841+8700 attached in reply

Attached Files

  8841-1 - Desert Racer.mpd (Size: 70.91 KB / Downloads: 5)
  8841-2 - Desert Racer - Tractor.mpd (Size: 34.74 KB / Downloads: 4)
  8841-3 - Desert Racer - Chassis.mpd (Size: 3.62 KB / Downloads: 5)
  8841-4 - Desert Racer - Balance.mpd (Size: 3.24 KB / Downloads: 4)
  8841-5 - Desert Racer - Buggy.mpd (Size: 5.99 KB / Downloads: 4)