[LDPartEditor] 0.8.21 Beta Released (Protractor Angle / Move Adjacent Data / bugfix)

[Nils Schmidt]

Hey,

again, 10 bug fixes and new features with a fresh 0.8.21 release...
...in the next days I want to write more content for the wiki/manual.


As always, you can download LDPE from this page:
http://nilsschmidt1337.github.io/ldparteditor/

Changelog:
(8 new features and 10 bug fixes)

With this release you will be able to...

• ...set the second line in a angle protractor to a defined angle (with the selection tab).
  
• ...decide when "Move Adjacent Data" will be deactivated (new option).
  
• ...orientate the manipulator relative to the vertex location.
  
• ...set the vertex position to the position from a clipboard vertex.
  
• ...set the vertex position to the manipulator position.
  
• ...remove the target type from the selection (switch the object type while holding Alt).
  
• ...deselect an object with the selection rectangle (while holding Ctrl+Alt).
  
• ...benefit from more digits on some important numerical fields.
  

The following critical issues were fixed:

1. Issues regarding "Move Adjacent Data".
   
2. The red close cross on the tabs in the 3D editor did not close the correct tab sometimes.
   
3. It was not possible to measure an existing edge line / triangle because LDPE prevented the creation of a distance meter / protractor on top of an edge line / triangle.
   
4. Various usability bugs with "Open Part File" / "Save as..."
   
5. Drag&Drop a file to the text editor opened the file in the 3D window, too (when sync. tabs was off).
   
6. Drag&Drop a file to the text editor created new superflous tabs when a revert was cancelled.
   
7. "New Part File" from the text editor opened the file in the 3D window, too (when sync. tabs was off).
   
8. A change to the colour palette deleted the palette separator all editor windows.
   
9. "Open Part File" from the text editor opened the file in the 3D window, too (when sync. tabs was off).
   
10. "Save As..." from the text editor opened the file in the 3D window, too (when sync. tabs was off).
    

What will the next release 0.8.22 deliver? Bug fixes* (regarding Flipper / selection filter) and non-standard primitives, more features for the angle protractor, real-time identical line detection...

* well..., I need to reproduce the errors first. I was not able to...

---

The program was tested intensively with "real world" files.
However, it is still a beta version and something can go wrong in about 100.000 lines of code.

Make sure that you choose the right architecture for your OS and Java Virtual Machine (JVM) (64bit or 32bit).
A short guide how to check if a 64bit JVM is installed on your system is located at the bottom of this message.

1. Download the zip-Archive
   
2. Extract the archive content to the location of your choice
   
3. On windows, double-click "run.bat" to start LDPE.
   
4. On linux/mac, you have to excecute the shell script "run.sh" to start LDPE.
   

Please note that this software is in the beta stage. Although, LDPE 0.8.21 was tested, there are already known issues  for this release. There is a potential risk of data loss.

You can search for updates if you do the following steps:

1. On windows, double-click "update.bat" to search for updates.
   
2. On linux/mac, you have to excecute the shell script "update.sh".
   

I listen carefully to your requests and possible complaints. Please leave me a message, with your thoughts and wishes to further improve the software.

LDPE is a 3D CAD application: The overall system requirements are higher. While I recommend to use a powerful 64-bit multicore system, it could be possible, to run LDPE on older machines as well.

System Requirements:

Minimum System Requirements:

• Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.8
  
• OpenGL 2.1 compatible Graphics Card
  
• Operating System (32/64bit): Windows [XP; Vista; 7 or newer], Mac OS X [>=10.6], Linux [e.g. Ubuntu Linux >=10.4]
  
• CPU: Multicore-Processor e.g. Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon II (>2.0Ghz)
  
• RAM: 4GB
  
• Video-Memory: 512 MB
  
• Free Disk Space: 100 MB
  

Recommended Requirements:

• Operating System (64bit): Windows 7, Mac OS X [>=10.6], Linux [e.g. Ubuntu Linux >=10.4]
  
• CPU: Multicore-Processor with 4 cores (or more)
  
• RAM: >4 GB
  
• Video-Memory: >=1 GB
  
• Free Disk Space: 512 MB
  

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How to check your JVM version (32- or 64-bit):
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can try on the command line:

Code:

java -d64 version

If it's not a 64-bit version, you'll get a message that looks like:

Code:

This Java instance does not support a 64-bit JVM. Please install the desired version.

In general, I recommend to install the 64-bit version of the JVM for Java 8.

[Nils Schmidt]

(affects all versions)

Due to a single missing line of code, the following procedure will corrupt LDPEs data structure:

I assume these steps are performed on the same file and "Insert At Cursor Position" is off.

1. Open the file in the text and the 3D editor
   
2. Select something in the 3D editor (triangles, vertices, subfiles, ...) and copy it to the clipboard.
   
3. Open the file in the text editor and move the cursor to the last line.
   
4. Toggle the comment (or !TEXMAP)
   
5. Now click in the 3D editor view
   
6. Paste the clipboard content
   

This will lead to some errors (incomplete file save, undo/redo problems, rendering issues, etc.).

It depends only on the fact that the last line was selected in the text editor.
"Toggle Comment" will work correctly on other lines.

[Nils Schmidt]

Sorry for the double posting, but I like to keep these issues separate...

Vertex merge with ctrl-W / ctrl-E is an awesome tool to reduce a mesh in a controlled way. So...
Wish of the day: when selecting several vertices with a marquee, it would be nice if the last vertex enclosed in the marquee became last vertex in selection so that ctrl+E merges all vertices onto this last vertex. That would be a great time saver!

Otherwise, never used so far the merge to nearest edge/face functions. Now I did, and I can say it's an awesome tool to coerce a random mesh to fit a primitive (eg. LDD wig mesh onto a LDraw head)

So my question is: What is the last vertex enclosed in the selection rectangle?

[Philippe Hurbain]

So my question is: What is the last vertex enclosed in the selection rectangle?

I meant the last vertex that enters the rectangular marquee as the user enlarges the marquee. Now I realize it may not be so easy to determine it the user enlarges the marquee, then shrinks it...???

Another possible time saver: if in the selected vertices there is one and only one belonging to a primitive/subpart (thus not moveable) then this vertex becomes the last one so that snapping occurs on that unmovable vertex.

[Nils Schmidt]

Currently, I am integrating the functionality of PrimGen2 into LDPE.

edit: Now with an interactive 3D preview window ;)

[Nils Schmidt]

Hi,

release 0.8.21 introduced unfortunately another bug.

The "Selection:"-tab (from the 3D editor) does not show subfiles, lines and distance meters anymore.

I will fix this with the upcoming version 0.8.22.

Leg godt

Nils

[Nils Schmidt]

Hello,

release 0.8.20 introduced another bug, too.

If you use the 3D editor and the text editor on seperate windows, you won't be able to open a seperate text editor window anymore...


I will fix this with the release of the upcoming version 0.8.22 during this week.

Leg godt

Nils

[Willy Tschager]

Feature request of the day:

* Along with LDU, mm and inch in the calculator I'd like to see also stud (20 LDU = 1 stud, rounded to one decimal place).

w.

[Magnus Forsberg]

* Along with LDU, mm and inch in the calculator I'd like to see also stud (20 LDU = 1 stud, rounded to one decimal place).

Do you know of the LDCalc from Mike Heidemann?  It's a great tool and can do all of these unit conversions.


Might I ask for another of the tools i LDCalc to be integrated into LDPE? I often use the Line Intersection and miss that posibillity.
I often use the similar tool in LDPC. Love it.
As a user I want to create an intersection point between two lines or edges.

Or is it somehow possible to cut a line with a surface allready? Intersector?

[Willy Tschager]

* Along with LDU, mm and inch in the calculator I'd like to see also stud (20 LDU = 1 stud, rounded to one decimal place).

Do you know of the LDCalc from Mike Heidemann?  It's a great tool and can do all of these unit conversions.

Sure I even worked with Paul Easter's LDCalculator before but I'd like to have everything in one place without the need to fire up another prog.

w.

[Nils Schmidt]

As a user I want to create an intersection point between two lines or edges.

Or is it somehow possible to cut a line with a surface allready? Intersector?

Yes, it is possible. You have to select the line and run the Intersector tool.

However... LDPE's Intersector has the "design flaw" to hide everything except the result of the intersection. (not anymore!)
I didn't use Intersector for a long time and was very scared how it works [ consider the fact that I implemented this behaviour some time ago ]

I thought it was a bug, but that is not the case... Click on "Show All" to restore the whole 3D model.

With the release of 0.8.22 (in a few minutes) the user can decide whether to hide it or not (the default is not to hide).