I played a little bit with MLCad and found the following. Maybe it is also interesting for some else.

hey all,

now that I have a working JavaScript .dat to .obj converter for using LEGO parts in a WebGL context, I was wondering whether anyone had already tried implementing a complexity reduction algorithm for parts meshes.

At several thousand vertices per part, some of these parts might be better rendered as reduced meshes with some bump/texture mapping that fakes some of the more intricate details (like teeth on cogs, or profile on an axle joiner), not to mention help load larger models, as WebGL only allows ~65k vertices per scene.

Has anyone experimented with this yet?

- Mike

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(all is in subject...)

Hi all,

I wrote a JavaScript .dat to .obj converter for use online with things like cubicvr.js and other WebGL rendering libraries - it's free to use, with the source code on https://github.com/Pomax/WebGLdraw (feel free to fork!)

If you spot anything that can do with improvements (like where to look for parts and subparts, for instance) let me know, or if you'd rather fix the code yourself and do a pull request with your better version: also good!

- Pomax

NB: I found testing the result of the converter easiest by running it through GLSViewer, since I'm on windows (it's a tiny 394kb utility for viewing .obj models)

Hi,

this is my very first post here and I'm ashamed for that
Because I'm running this index on EuroBricks and I'm a good contributor and made many models. And I'm a great LDraw fan and I'm even experimenting a bit with making missing patterned parts for LDraw, but I never ever joined this forum!?

Anyway, I'll get to my question:
there is this part on Bricklink, and I'm wondering where I can find it in the LDraw parts? The small picture on Bricklink suggests that it exists.

20015 - Alligator

Attached Files

  20015 - Alligator.mpd (Size: 5.85 KB / Downloads: 8)

20014 - 4 x 4 Dynamo

Attached Files

  20014 - 4 x 4 Dynamo.mpd (Size: 4.16 KB / Downloads: 8)

I'm writing a .dat to .obj converter in JavaScript so I can do LEGO modelling using WebGL, and the following the documentation for data interpreting is pretty straight forward, except I'm gettting weird looking inverted faces when loading several parts.

So, I took part 75535 (technic pin joiner round) and commented off the parts after the initial two inner cylindrical surfaces. This turns it into the following extremely simple .dat file:

75535.dat reduced version Wrote:0 BFC CERTIFY CCW
0 BFC INVERTNEXT
1 16 18 0 0 0 -16 0 6 0 0 0 0 6 4-4cyli.dat
0 BFC INVERTNEXT
1 16 -18 0 0 0 16 0 6 0 0 0 0 6 4-4cyli.dat

The 2012-03 LDraw Parts Update has been now been released. This update includes 564 new files in the core library, including 354 new parts and 56 new primitives.

As ever, thanks are due to the small community of part authors who created or corrected parts for this release and to those who have reviewed files in order to make this release happen.

You can preview the new parts in 2012-03 and download the update by going to the Latest Parts page.

Most of the 113 certified files remaining on the LDraw Parts Tracker were held back from this update in keeping with our normal practice of not releasing new primitives or subparts until they are needed for an official part file.