LDCad 1.6 Alpha 4 (win+linux)

[Roland Melkert]

Attached file shows a "problem" I got with pneumatic LQ hose. When using dynamic placement (default of template), there is a step at the ends of straight section. This is solved either by limiting merging (but file size is a bit bigger, and some steps are still visible), or switching to static placement which definitely gives better result for the same size. Suggestions and insights?...

(edit): While fiddling with tubing in my model, I got a case where LDCad generated LDraw substitution code contains singular matrices references. Attached...

(edit2): singular matrices seems related to static placement + nearby waypoints with "overlapping" control handles. The same tube with dynamic placement looks bad but doesn't create singular matrices, getting control handle closer to their respective waypoint solves both problems.

Thanks Philo,

Those matrix problems seem to be caused by control  points extended past the next/prev control one like you suspected. This can be prevented by minimizing the distances (use the DYNHP mode for this) I'll try to improve the generator for this situation but I'm not sure that's even possible.

The step problem is because of the accumulation of angle difference during merging I think. Maybe I need to make the minimal allowed angle a function of the distance of the segment instead of the current static one.

Dynamic placements does matrix interpolation which is preferable for curved sections, but it seems it has a problem with long straight sections, I'll see if I can improve the interpolation somehow.

[Roland Melkert]

[quote pid='23540' dateline='1476729339']
Dynamic placements does matrix interpolation which is preferable for curved sections, but it seems it has a problem with long straight sections, I'll see if I can improve the interpolation somehow.
[/quote]

Did some code digging...

There seems to be something wrong with how I implemented dynamic placement, It should result in the same placement as static when used with a alignment of 0.

The whole point of dyn placement is/was to let if follow the segents virtual arc but this is nullified when placement is in the center (align=0)

  dyn.png (Size: 6.49 KB / Downloads: 357)

I'm not sure what is going wrong but thanks for bringing this to my attention Philo. This might also be a good moment to improve dyn placement by also correcting the position according to the curve.

I might postpone these changes to beta 2 though.

[Willy Tschager]

It does for me, all I did is place it in the templates/shortcut  folder (while LDCad is closed). then is listed in the templates/misc bin group (minifig lever in cell).

I tried with 1.5 and 1.6.

Ain't working:

   

w.

[Roland Melkert]

It does for me, all I did is place it in the templates/shortcut  folder (while LDCad is closed). then is listed in the templates/misc bin group (minifig lever in cell).

I tried with 1.5 and 1.6.

Ain't working:

Which version are you using?

Are you using both 1.5 stable and 1.6?, if so be sure you placed the ldr in the templates folder of the version you want to use it in (alpha doesn't use appdata)

If it still won't work could you send me the (zipped) contents of %appdata%\LDCad\Logs

[Willy Tschager]

Ain't working:

Which version are you using?

Are you using both 1.5 stable and 1.6?, if so be sure you placed the ldr in the templates folder of the version you want to use it in (alpha doesn't use appdata)

If it still won't work could you send me the (zipped) contents of %appdata%\LDCad\Logs

Was using Alpha4 - however I copied 1.5 back to the prog folder: the template doesn't show up. Cannot provide a log. They are all dated July when I switched version.

w.

[Willy Tschager]

I find "Locate selection" in the parts window a very odd place. I expected to find it in:

Right click on selected part in the editor window -> Selection ->

w.

[Roland Melkert]

Was using Alpha4 - however I copied 1.5 back to the prog folder: the template doesn't show up. Cannot provide a log. They are all dated July when I switched version.

If the logs are not of a recent date the version you are using is not using appdata, In that case you need to place the minfig.ldr in a different templates folder (the one alongside the main exe).

also it is not recommended to use the alpha 4 exe with the 1.5 appdata folders (e.g. by replacing the exe in program files).

[Michael Horvath]

Can I use LDCad to animate a walk-through of Datsville, but within the engine itself instead of (the very slow) POV-Ray? Thanks.

[Roland Melkert]

Can I use LDCad to animate a walk-through of Datsville, but within the engine itself instead of (the very slow) POV-Ray? Thanks.

Yes using lua scripting, but it probably has to use <5fps or less. You can however use the normal 25fps combined with the OpenGL export for smooth animation.

To move around you need to transform the entire model in 1.5 (by e.g. using a new ldr which references the main datsville model). In 1.6 you can use the new camera control api to e.g. record form the pov of a minifig.

[Michael Horvath]

You can however use the normal 25fps combined with the OpenGL export for smooth animation.

I don't understand. What is this?

[Roland Melkert]

You can however use the normal 25fps combined with the OpenGL export for smooth animation.

I don't understand. What is this?

You can export any animation as a sequence of PNG files, when doing so it doesn't matter how slow the realtime renderings are to get e.g. a 25fps avi using a tool like avidemux.

[Michael Horvath]

I don't understand. What is this?

You can export any animation as a sequence of PNG files, when doing so it doesn't matter how slow the realtime renderings are to get e.g. a 25fps avi using a tool like avidemux.

Okay, cool.

[Merlijn Wissink]

Hey, I found a small annoyance in LDcad.
I got a new mouse a few days ago, the Logitech MX master. It has a scroll-wheel that has 2 modes, a clicking mode (like a normal scroll-wheel) and a free mode in which you can give it a push and it keeps turning for a while (it has no resistance). It's really nice and even after just a few days I love that feature.

However, LDCad doesn't play too nice with it. Well, it works, but not optimally. When I'm in the source-editor and give the scroll-wheel a good push, it scrolls super slow. Well, not slower than with a 'normal' mouse, but also not faster. It just goes up or down line by line, while I expected the lines to swoosh by. For comparison: when I give the mouse-wheel a hard swing in e.g. Excel, I'm at row 10000+ in mere seconds. The part bin has the same problem, although it works better, it scrolls a little faster than the source window.

I hope I explained it well, I know it may sound a little vague. I can make a little video of it if you'd like.

[Merlijn Wissink]

Another thing, I don't know if this has been brought up yet, but mirroring doesn't work very well with corner pieces like 2420.dat, 14719.dat, 2357.dat and 2639.dat.

EDIT: parts 30383.dat and 63868.dat also mirror incorrectly.
EDIT2: 30503.dat and 10247.dat also don't mirror correctly.

[Roland Melkert]

Another thing, I don't know if this has been brought up yet, but mirroring doesn't work very well with corner pieces like 2420.dat, 14719.dat, 2357.dat and 2639.dat.

EDIT: parts 30383.dat and 63868.dat also mirror incorrectly.
EDIT2: 30503.dat and 10247.dat also don't mirror correctly.

Some parts need shadow info for correct mirroring, I've added that for only a few parts. I'm planning to add more once 1.6 Beta is released.

For example 2420 needs:

Code:

0 !LDCAD MIRROR_INFO [counterPart=self] [oriCor=0 0 -1 0 1 0 1 0 0]

[Roland Melkert]

Hey, I found a small annoyance in LDcad.
I got a new mouse a few days ago, the Logitech MX master. It has a scroll-wheel that has 2 modes, a clicking mode (like a normal scroll-wheel) and a free mode in which you can give it a push and it keeps turning for a while (it has no resistance). It's really nice and even after just a few days I love that feature.

However, LDCad doesn't play too nice with it. Well, it works, but not optimally. When I'm in the source-editor and give the scroll-wheel a good push, it scrolls super slow. Well, not slower than with a 'normal' mouse, but also not faster. It just goes up or down line by line, while I expected the lines to swoosh by. For comparison: when I give the mouse-wheel a hard swing in e.g. Excel, I'm at row 10000+ in mere seconds. The part bin has the same problem, although it works better, it scrolls a little faster than the source window.

I hope I explained it well, I know it may sound a little vague. I can make a little video of it if you'd like.

I only 'sample' the direction of the mousewheel, not its speed so it should behave the same as with any other mouse I think.

I'll look into it some more and might be able to do something with the speed of the wheel in beta 2.

[Roland Dahl]

In the case of editing large models having a lot of submodels, and provided that the part bin "all models currently being edited" is active my computer slows downs pretty much. For example: the model doesn't rotate quick and soft any longer but rotation is rather very slow and stuttering.

The reason may be that my pc is not a very powerful one. Not sure, but I assume that my pc is struggling with the high quality thumbnails. However, I wonder if it is somehow possible to accelerate performance?

Thanks for advice!

roland

[Merlijn Wissink]

Another little thing about submodels in the part bin: the sorting is (in my opinion) not optimal. Especially when using the default naming scheme of subModel-x. It doesn't sort based on the actual value of the number, but just on the character. So it becomes something like this (removed the subModel- part for this example:
1, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 2, 20, 21, 23.......... I think you get the point.

Can you do something about this or is this just a matter of 'just live with it' 

[Philippe Hurbain]

So it becomes something like this (removed the subModel- part for this example:
1, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 2, 20, 21, 23.......... I think you get the point.

Yes, I have been mildly annoyed by this one too, mainly for pneumatic tubing. An easy fix for them would be that proposed default naming be pneumaticHoseLQ-01.ldr instead of pneumaticHoseLQ-1.ldr - assuming that there is no more than 99 submodels...

[Roland Melkert]

In the case of editing large models having a lot of submodels, and provided that the part bin "all models currently being edited" is active my computer slows downs pretty much. For example: the model doesn't rotate quick and soft any longer but rotation is rather very slow and stuttering.

Those thumbnails can indeed slow things down especially during loading. But during normal editing they shouldn't matter that much unless you are editing thousands of parts.

If you working on a single mpd you can select the 'file content' group instead the 'all models' one. That should limit the number of cells if you have multiple model files open.

You should also check if 'FBO' is selected in the 'prefs/OpenGL/frame render method' option. If that is set to normal things could be much slower all the time as it will redraw all bin cells for each and every screen update (even hottracking changes etc).

If FBO won't enable (very old OpenGL driver/hardware) then you might want to disable hottracking in the same menu.

Improvements for the slowdown during loading are planned for Beta 2.

[Roland Melkert]

So it becomes something like this (removed the subModel- part for this example:
1, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 2, 20, 21, 23.......... I think you get the point.

I'll look into adjusting the quicksort code, might introduce a new sorting option for it if it is much slower as you probably wont need that for part lists.

[Merlijn Wissink]

I think I found a bug or something like that in LDcad 1.5 and LDcad 1.6 alpha 4.

It's actually a 2-part bug. Part 1:
If I open a model, and then move the 3d view to the top and then press V, it's shows a 2d projection of the top. When I press V again to go the 3D view and then move the 3d view to the bottom, then press V again, it doesn't show a 2d projection of the bottom, but still the top. This also works the other way around (first bottom then top). After you did this, it's also possible to 'lock' on front/back or left/right. Just do the same as before, just with the other sides. But you must use the top/bottom  first, otherwise the other sides work 


Part 2:
When you did the above thing (so you either locked the 2d projection on the top or bottom). And then start hitting V a bunch of times switching between a 2d view of the top or the bottom (doesn't matter which one at this point, you can also mix between them, in the end you'll see only on those anyway due to part 1), LDCad will crash (with an accompanying Windows crash message).

Hope that makes sense 

[Roland Melkert]

I think I found a bug or something like that in LDcad 1.5 and LDcad 1.6 alpha 4.

Part 1 is actually the way it should behave I think (it's been a long time since I setup the base viewing system   )

The reason it first picks top or bottom is because it initializes the 2d state based on the 3d view when first switched. After that it remembers the last 2d state for that plane.

You could also use shift+v if you want to enter a 2D view as closely possible to the current 3d view.

Part 2 definitely is a bug though, but  it doesn't crash for me. Are you keeping down the v key so it continuously switches 2d/3d ?

Edit: or are you on Linux?

[Merlijn Wissink]

I think I found a bug or something like that in LDcad 1.5 and LDcad 1.6 alpha 4.

Part 1 is actually the way it should behave I think (it's been a long time since I setup the base viewing system   )

The reason it first picks top or bottom is because it initializes the 2d state based on the 3d view when first switched. After that it remembers the last 2d state for that plane.

You could also use shift+v if you want to enter a 2D view as closely possible to the current 3d view.

Part 2 definitely is a bug though, but  it doesn't crash for me. Are you keeping down the v key so it continuously switches 2d/3d ?

Edit: or are you on Linux?

Hmm, I see. I didn't knew about shift+v, but now I've seen that one in action, it does sound a lot more logical. Still, it feels weird when I'm looking at the bottom in 3d view, press v and suddenly I'm at the top (same for other sides).

Regarding the crash: no, I was not keeping V pressed. Just pressing it a bunch of times makes it crash (not even ridiculous fast, just pressing a bit). I have no idea what the requirements are for making it crash, but I tested it in 2 different models and was able to reproduce it every time in those 2 models. I tried it in a new file with 1 single part and I couldn't make it crash, but that doesn't mean it wasn't going to crash at some point, maybe I just hadn't pressed V enough times. That's difficult to say, I have so little information about it   

And, I'm on Windows 10 Pro 64bit.

EDIT: maybe I should count the times I press V before it crashes to see if it is a constant (per model).
EDIT2: nope, couldn't find any constant value

[TestOne]

Hi Roland, I recently tried to create a PBG file to build a set and expected the single parts count to decrease as soon as I used them, and to disappear from the list once I used all of them (and to reappear if one part got deleted from the model), but the counters remained the same for the entire process.
I remember that it has been discussed in the past (i.e. here: http://forums.ldraw.org/thread-15309-pos...l#pid15678), but I don't know if this feature has been discarded or if I'm missing some settings.

If it has not yet been implemented, I vote for this to be added in the next releases (since now there are at least a couple of tools to create part bins for LDCad).
Thank you in advance

[Roland Melkert]

Hi Roland, I recently tried to create a PBG file to build a set and expected the single parts count to decrease as soon as I used them, and to disappear from the list once I used all of them (and to reappear if one part got deleted from the model), but the counters remained the same for the entire process.
I remember that it has been discussed in the past (i.e. here: http://forums.ldraw.org/thread-15309-pos...l#pid15678), but I don't know if this feature has been discarded or if I'm missing some settings.

If it has not yet been implemented, I vote for this to be added in the next releases (since now there are at least a couple of tools to create part bins for LDCad).
Thank you in advance

The part counts are indeed still static, I was planning to do more with it but other features got in the way. But it is still on the long term todo list

[TestOne]

Ok, I'll wait for it to come, you have already added many awaited features in v1.6
Thank you very much

[Roland Dahl]

Please let me ask for 2 additional features, so far these are not already implemented:

Mirroring: By using the mirroring function un-mirrored parts "vanish", respectively get replaced by the mirrored parts. May it be possible to directly add the mirrored parts to the initial parts? Or even better: To let the user decide about "single-sided mirroring" and "double-sided mirroring".

Stepping: May it be possible to implement a feature like "hide or show selected steps"? So that it will quickly be possible to selectively show for example step 2, 5 and 9 and hide all others.

[Roland Melkert]

Please let me ask for 2 additional features, so far these are not already implemented:

Mirroring: By using the mirroring function un-mirrored parts "vanish", respectively get replaced by the mirrored parts. May it be possible to directly add the mirrored parts to the initial parts? Or even better: To let the user decide about "single-sided mirroring" and "double-sided mirroring".

Stepping: May it be possible to implement a feature like "hide or show selected steps"? So that it will quickly be possible to selectively show for example step 2, 5 and 9 and hide all others.

I could make it an option to do a duplicate before the selection mirroring itself, but that's probably only useful when a custom selection center is set  otherwise most parts will overlap with their mirrored version. I never thought this would be a real issue though as you can also press ctrl+d or ins before using the mirroring 'x' hot key.

Currently the stepping visuals are implemented in a 'render up to' kinda way, I might redesign that for 2.0 though as it's currently a bit messy combined with buffer exchange anyway. You can however use the 'select menu' to select all in a certain step en then do a normal hide.

[Roland Dahl]

...  only useful when a custom selection center is set  otherwise most parts will overlap with their mirrored version. I never thought this would be a real issue though as you can also press ctrl+d or ins before using the mirroring 'x' hot key.

Yes, by setting a custom selection center all mirrored parts would directly be placed at the right position. Repositioning of the mirrored parts would be obsolete. But you're right, it's not a big issue, it's just nice to have.

You can however use the 'select menu' to select all in a certain step en then do a normal hide.

Ah, thanks, I missed this option so far. Just made a quick  check: It's easy to select different steps via select/current step. That works!

[Milan Vančura]

Hello Roland.

First of all, I thank you much for so well working 1.5, it has helped me a lot in this hurry time; it's the editor which simply does the job well and I can work fast with. I started to think about a note "built with a help of LDCad" added to my builds labels at exhibitions


Finally, I had some time to test LDCad 1.6 and here I come with my observations and ideas.

The first difference to 1.5 I saw was that "+" hotkey no longer works in the partbin, "-" still works. After some testing I found what's the problem: on the US keyboard, "+" is a sign I can get only with Shift and new hotkey machinery is confused with that. Setting the hotkey to "Shift +" is a workaround but that would probably cause "+" on numeric keyboard stop working, if I had any. So there is no way to make them both working now, as it was in 1.5.

More about hotkeys:

* it does not warn me if hotkey is already assigned (and to what), it would be nice if a simple popup window appeared, with that warning and a choice what function I want to set this hotkey to (the old one or the new one)
* could you add "alt" to the list of modifiers?
* how can I assign a hotkey to (sub)menu? For example: Alt-F for "File" menu or Shift-Alt-S for View->Editing_views->Split (Yes, I want to hide menubar and have all menus accessible via hotkeys. I have really small screen on my laptop, especially vertically.)
 
ROTSTEP editing is great feature! The button "Sample view" confused me at first, maybe "Current view" would be more understandable, but it works well in both ways: getting the view and setting it. This makes my life with LPub much easier, thanks!

Group layers feature: technically, it works. And I remember I already needed something like this several times so I really support this idea. Unfortunately the current version is very hard to use and not intuitive. So the feature itself is great and works but, please, add new GUI for that. What about hiding all technical details about layers and simply provide a submenu with a list of currently defined groups, optionally with a name? That would be much easier to use!

MPD cleanup: works and works well. Thanks for it. There is finally a way how to delete flexible parts from the model

Unhide in the Source window: great feature, I like it. Unfortunately it's dangerous because the same hotkey is there for hiding and unhiding ("h") and I cannot even set them to different ones in the hotkey manager window. One of first things what happened during my testing was: I forgot I already have some hidden parts selected, their lines were out of the screen. Then I selected some visible parts and wanted to hide them. What was my surprise when another parts appeared instead!

For more reasons I believe it would be really useful if there was some visible indicator "you have something selected even it might be invisible or hard to see" - something similar to "I" icon in the bottom-right corner? For example I had some hidden parts selected, forgot about that and double-clicked on some part in the partbin. Those hidden parts were silently replaced with that part and, of course, I found that minutes and minutes later when I unhide them - and it was too late for any undo.

Mirroring feature: I did not test it much because it's probably more about missing parts metadata. What I can say is about GUI again: a selection of "X", "Y" or "Z" axis is a random shot, I really cannot remember which is which, it is not shown anywhere in GUI. If there was at least a color corresponding to the diagram of axes in the bottom-left corner, it would be easier. Better if it was shown "in place" instead of a separate popup window, something like grid is - another hotkeys for setting and showing the plane for mirroring.

Region select: great feature! Really helpful, I needed that so many times... Is there a way how to do rectangle unselect, too? The part about 3D box is very hard to use for me, I'd need a way how to see that box and rotate the view at the same time.

Random thought: what about stopping the LMB function of turning the view? I slightly remember you had this as a long-term goal (if I'm corect), it confuses me a little and it's not good for anything, RMB is here for that.

features not tested so far: BUFEXCHG, model reorganizing (embedding of unofficial parts, taking subfiles out of the file etc.), model header editing, scripting.

About scripting: one of my dreams is to make a script allowing user to select a rotation center of the part or group of parts to a specific snap point (resp. the axe of that snap object). So one can bend hinges, rotate 1xN plates on a stud, rotate Technic beams around axles etc. If you remember my video showing this. Would it be possible to work with snap points in scripts? And let the user to select it?

And maybe there would be a chance to add a function/script for making triangles. I know there is already a way how to do that with that helper you showed in one of your videos but it's too complicated and manual.

Oh. I can see how long post I created now. I hope I did not overfill the input buffer of your head    Take it as a summary of all those missing posts during all that time I was silent

[Roland Melkert]

First of all, I thank you much for so well working 1.5, it has helped me a lot in this hurry time; it's the editor which simply does the job well and I can work fast with. I started to think about a note "built with a help of LDCad" added to my builds labels at exhibitions

Thanks, always nice to hear

The first difference to 1.5 I saw was that "+" hotkey no longer works in the partbin, "-" still works. After some testing I found what's the problem: on the US keyboard, "+" is a sign I can get only with Shift and new hotkey machinery is confused with that. Setting the hotkey to "Shift +" is a workaround but that would probably cause "+" on numeric keyboard stop working, if I had any. So there is no way to make them both working now, as it was in 1.5.

More about hotkeys:

* it does not warn me if hotkey is already assigned (and to what), it would be nice if a simple popup window appeared, with that warning and a choice what function I want to set this hotkey to (the old one or the new one)
* could you add "alt" to the list of modifiers?
* how can I assign a hotkey to (sub)menu? For example: Alt-F for "File" menu or Shift-Alt-S for View->Editing_views->Split (Yes, I want to hide menubar and have all menus accessible via hotkeys. I have really small screen on my laptop, especially vertically.)

Some hotkey management improvements are planned for Beta 2. I never realized the + key thing as it was meant to be used with the numpad keys. Maybe I should handle the non numpad key as a normal shift-less hit, I'll have to research if wxWidgets allows for that distinction though.
I've been avoiding the alt key because it acts very different in Linux. It seems to be a system level key in some versions (focus to the program menu bar) I haven't found a way to suppress that behavior yet. Currently menus can not be assigned a hotkey but it shouldn't be too much of an hassle to add that, I'll put it on the beta 2 'nice to have' list.

ROTSTEP editing is great feature! The button "Sample view" confused me at first, maybe "Current view" would be more understandable, but it works well in both ways: getting the view and setting it. This makes my life with LPub much easier, thanks!

I'll rewrite the hint of that button as it is a bit vague indeed.

Group layers feature: technically, it works. And I remember I already needed something like this several times so I really support this idea. Unfortunately the current version is very hard to use and not intuitive. So the feature itself is great and works but, please, add new GUI for that. What about hiding all technical details about layers and simply provide a submenu with a list of currently defined groups, optionally with a name? That would be much easier to use!

Layered groups are a bit experimental. I was planning to iron it out in Beta 2 by allowing users to name layers which will then replace the current layer 1 2 3 placeholders.

Unhide in the Source window: great feature, I like it. Unfortunately it's dangerous because the same hotkey is there for hiding and unhiding ("h") and I cannot even set them to different ones in the hotkey manager window. One of first things what happened during my testing was: I forgot I already have some hidden parts selected, their lines were out of the screen. Then I selected some visible parts and wanted to hide them. What was my surprise when another parts appeared instead!

Currently the 'h' in source window is more a visibility toggle which is indeed very confusing now you point that out. I'll make it a separate action with its own hotkey (maybe shift+h?)

For more reasons I believe it would be really useful if there was some visible indicator "you have something selected even it might be invisible or hard to see" - something similar to "I" icon in the bottom-right corner? For example I had some hidden parts selected, forgot about that and double-clicked on some part in the partbin. Those hidden parts were silently replaced with that part and, of course, I found that minutes and minutes later when I unhide them - and it was too late for any undo.

I could display the 'Selection contains invisible items' label as is done when e.g. a step meta is in the selection.

Mirroring feature: I did not test it much because it's probably more about missing parts metadata. What I can say is about GUI again: a selection of "X", "Y" or "Z" axis is a random shot, I really cannot remember which is which, it is not shown anywhere in GUI. If there was at least a color corresponding to the diagram of axes in the bottom-left corner, it would be easier. Better if it was shown "in place" instead of a separate popup window, something like grid is - another hotkeys for setting and showing the plane for mirroring.

X, Y, Z is shown as Red, Green, Blue lines in the compass and grid. This is somewhat of a standard I thought everybody knew that I'll see if I can render the same colors in the combo box.

Region select: great feature! Really helpful, I needed that so many times... Is there a way how to do rectangle unselect, too? The part about 3D box is very hard to use for me, I'd need a way how to see that box and rotate the view at the same time.

Random thought: what about stopping the LMB function of turning the view? I slightly remember you had this as a long-term goal (if I'm corect), it confuses me a little and it's not good for anything, RMB is here for that.

The 3D part is the far clipping plane which can be moved by the scroll wheel. It should be visible by the background color overflowing part of the model. I did indeed plan to drop the left mouse button controls in faver of the region select but for some reason dropped it again, I think it had mainly to do with left mouse already being used to drag the selection.

About scripting: one of my dreams is to make a script allowing user to select a rotation center of the part or group of parts to a specific snap point (resp. the axe of that snap object). So one can bend hinges, rotate 1xN plates on a stud, rotate Technic beams around axles etc. If you remember my video showing this. Would it be possible to work with snap points in scripts? And let the user to select it?

And maybe there would be a chance to add a function/script for making triangles. I know there is already a way how to do that with that helper you showed in one of your videos but it's too complicated and manual.

I do want to add your snap point rotation idea at some point, I'll see if it can be done without too much of an impact to existing code (beta stage and all).


Thanks for the detailed feedback, I always like to get some insight from a users perspective as I tend to make things a bit technical at times

[Niklas Buchmann]

There is one small thing I would like to see added in a future version:

I would like to be able to add 'tags' (keywords) to parts to be able to find them easier. This feature could make use of the shadow library to leave the existing files intact, but work in any other way similar to the 0! KEYWORDS that can be added to parts.

One example would be to add the tag 'cone' to the 98100 part (Brick 2x2 round sloped) to make it show up in the search results for cone without modifying the original file on disc.

[Roland Melkert]

There is one small thing I would like to see added in a future version:

I would like to be able to add 'tags' (keywords) to parts to be able to find them easier. This feature could make use of the shadow library to leave the existing files intact, but work in any other way similar to the 0! KEYWORDS that can be added to parts.

One example would be to add the tag 'cone' to the 98100 part (Brick 2x2 round sloped) to make it show up in the search results for cone without modifying the original file on disc.

Nice idea, but I don't think it should use the shadow library as that isn't user oriented data (changes apply to all users).

Also currently adding a KEYWORDS line to shadow files won't make it searchable as the search bin uses the *.inv file which is generated from the non shadow part file headers only.

You could however edit the parts.inv file after it has been generated to add some keywords manually. But it might be regenerated at anytime (if some source file timestamp is > the .inv file timestamp).

The structure of parts.inv (in config folder) is fairly simple, you can open it in any text editor and do a search for 98100.dat . the following lines are the gathered stats on the part just below the update tag (e.g. 2015-02) a number is given which indicates the number of keywords (0 for 98100.dat) to add keyword(s) add the number and insert the keyword below it, e.g:

Code:

C:\Users\Public\Documents\LDraw\complete.zip\ldraw\parts\98100.dat
1451687876
offLibParts
zip
C:\Users\Public\Documents\LDraw\complete.zip
1,0,0,0
98100.dat
Brick  2 x  2 Round Sloped
Brick
2015-02
1
cone

[TestOne]

Hi Roland, another request I read in the past, but I'm unable to find the old discussion:
Ability to specify decimal values for the rotation grid

I can't remember why you stated it wasn't possible in previous versions, but I hope it will be possible in v1.6 or maybe next release.

EDIT:
I found the old discussion, it was requested by Philippe: http://forums.ldraw.org/thread-15278-pos...l#pid15564

[Philippe Hurbain]

Yes, beeing able to specify a standard 22.5° rotation grid would be great

[Roland Melkert]

For some reason I keep postponing this, I'll move it up on the list maybe give it a go this weekend as the final Beta 1 feature (no guarantees )

[Roland Melkert]

I can't remember why you stated it wasn't possible in previous versions, but I hope it will be possible in v1.6 or maybe next release.

It's mainly the editing pin which used a 1 deg resolution in its gui stuff. And the 'boring' int to double code changes.

Felt bad about postponing this for so long..........
   

had some time to kill

Rotational steps are limited to 0.5 deg resolution though and 360 mod step must be 0.0
I updated movement stepping too, although I'm not sure when or if that is ever needed.

[TestOne]

wow
Great news, thank you very much for this addition

[Milan Vančura]

Thanks for a detailed answer back, Roland. I add some details:

I've been avoiding the alt key because it acts very different in Linux. It seems to be a system level key in some versions (focus to the program menu bar) I haven't found a way to suppress that behavior yet. Currently menus can not be assigned a hotkey but it shouldn't be too much of an hassle to add that, I'll put it on the beta 2 'nice to have' list.

I may describe this for you. There are two different issues. The first one is that, in past, the Alt key was handled differently than Shift and Control on Linux. Even you might still find some articles about that on Internet, I believe all modern desktop libraries already solved that. For example, with wxWidgets it's a matter of a choice of events. The second issue may be that somebody might configure his/her window manager to use same hotkeys for some actions. That's same as with, for example, alt-tab on Windows. But Alt-[A-Z] are usually not used for that - because even other applications use the same hotkeys (Alt-F, Alt-E, Alt-V, Alt-H for menus: File, Edit, View, Help...). In the end, it's up to the user to configure hotkeys of both LDCad and his window manager to not have conflicts... I do not know about Windows but it's extremely easy on Linux.

Layered groups are a bit experimental. I was planning to iron it out in Beta 2 by allowing users to name layers which will then replace the current layer 1 2 3 placeholders.

I though about a way how the user can have a better overview of defined groups and not needing think about group layers at all, to hide this logic in GUI. However, I must say I do not have a solution for this, it's just an idea. Or, better, a wish The reason is that it's very hard to remember which group is defined on which layer now. Or maybe we can keep this layer switching but add a submenu with a list of (optionally named) groups together with a layer number/name? Something like:

Code:

1. front left wheel    layer 1
2. front right wheel    layer 1
3. front axle with wheels    layer 2
...

Unhide in the Source window: great feature, I like it. Unfortunately it's dangerous because the same hotkey is there for hiding and unhiding ("h")...

Currently the 'h' in source window is more a visibility toggle which is indeed very confusing now you point that out. I'll make it a separate action with its own hotkey (maybe shift+h?)

Yes, much better. There would be still a conflict with original hide/unhide feature but I believe this would not be a problem if an indicator of non-empty selection will be on the screen.

I could display the 'Selection contains invisible items' label as is done when e.g. a step meta is in the selection.

Yes, good idea. And I believe it would be even better if it is an icon, different for each of these two situations (set independently): "selection contains hidden parts" and "selection contains metadata lines". An icon takes much less space so they can be shown both if needed and still be on the right of "Step" indicator. And you can set up a "hover text" for them.

Mirroring feature...

X, Y, Z is shown as Red, Green, Blue lines in the compass and grid. This is somewhat of a standard I thought everybody knew that I'll see if I can render the same colors in the combo box.

And wouldn't be possible to show that plane directly in the Edit window, similarly to the grid or the far plane of the rectangle select? It would be much easier to understand, especially with local coordinates set ("o" key).

Region select

The 3D part is the far clipping plane which can be moved by the scroll wheel. It should be visible by the background color overflowing part of the model. I did indeed plan to drop the left mouse button controls in faver of the region select but for some reason dropped it again, I think it had mainly to do with left mouse already being used to drag the selection.

Ah, you are right. Still, it is not always easy to see what everything is selected. But I do not have any bright idea how to make GUI better in this, unfortunately. What about that "rectangle unselect" feature? That would help if one takes too much or wants to combine that like "select this rectangle without that corner".

I do want to add your snap point rotation idea at some point, I'll see if it can be done without too much of an impact to existing code (beta stage and all).

Great! I may try to create that script for triangles then. (And give it to everybody - if it works )

[Roland Melkert]

I may describe this for you. There are two different issues. The first one is that, in past, the Alt key was handled differently than Shift and Control on Linux. Even you might still find some articles about that on Internet, I believe all modern desktop libraries already solved that. For example, with wxWidgets it's a matter of a choice of events. The second issue may be that somebody might configure his/her window manager to use same hotkeys for some actions. That's same as with, for example, alt-tab on Windows. But Alt-[A-Z] are usually not used for that - because even other applications use the same hotkeys (Alt-F, Alt-E, Alt-V, Alt-H for menus: File, Edit, View, Help...). In the end, it's up to the user to configure hotkeys of both LDCad and his window manager to not have conflicts... I do not know about Windows but it's extremely easy on Linux.

I just realized I didn't use the alt key in the hardcoded hotkeys as it woudn't work on all platforms, but there is no reason to not use it now the hotkeys are dynamic. I've enabled them in the current Beta 1 build and also made it possible to open menus using hotkeys. I've set the defaults alt+s to open the 'select' menu and alt+v to open the 'editing views' menu as those two are needed often during editing.

Layered groups are a bit experimental. I was planning to iron it out in Beta 2 by allowing users to name layers which will then replace the current layer 1 2 3 placeholders.

I though about a way how the user can have a better overview of defined groups and not needing think about group layers at all, to hide this logic in GUI. However, I must say I do not have a solution for this, it's just an idea. Or, better, a wish The reason is that it's very hard to remember which group is defined on which layer now. Or maybe we can keep this layer switching but add a submenu with a list of (optionally named) groups together with a layer number/name? Something like:

Code:

1. front left wheel    layer 1
2. front right wheel    layer 1
3. front axle with wheels    layer 2
...

Actually groups can indirectly be part of multiple layers. The main reason I introduced this is to make it possible to use different configurations in different animations using the same model. I'm going to refine the whole layer thing in beta 2 so if you (or anyone else) has additional ideas please let me know.

I could display the 'Selection contains invisible items' label as is done when e.g. a step meta is in the selection.

Yes, good idea. And I believe it would be even better if it is an icon, different for each of these two situations (set independently): "selection contains hidden parts" and "selection contains metadata lines". An icon takes much less space so they can be shown both if needed and still be on the right of "Step" indicator. And you can set up a "hover text" for them.

I've added hidden parts to the 'label' logics. I do like your icon approach though that might also solve another 'complain' mentioned in this thread: 'relative grid active state indidication'. I'll put it on my Beta 2 list.

And wouldn't be possible to show that plane directly in the Edit window, similarly to the grid or the far plane of the rectangle select? It would be much easier to understand, especially with local coordinates set ("o" key).

I'm not sure I understand this, the compass shows the current axis even when unzoomed. The thicker lines are always the relative ones, the thinner ones show the absolute ones (can be disabled).

What about that "rectangle unselect" feature? That would help if one takes too much or wants to combine that like "select this rectangle without that corner".

This is pending, the truth is the region select currently uses a 'hack' to add stuff the to selection while re-sizing in means of a temporary extra group. Doing deselect is therefore a bit harder to do

I may try to create that script for triangles then. (And give it to everybody - if it works )

The approach used in the selection info triangle helper can be scripted I think the only problem might be how to decide on the side to use. The 8071 example uses something very similar through its 'calcTrianglePlacementAngles' function. Let me know if you need some additional low level vector/matrix object math method or something.