[LDPartEditor] 0.8.34 Beta Released (Textedit.Hide&Show / Selection Info / Usability)

[Nils Schmidt]

Hey,

here are eight new features and one bug fix with a new version of LDPE for Windows, Linux and Mac


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

Changelog:
(8 new features and 1 bug fix)

With this release you will be able to...

• ...see some information for the number of currently selected parts in the status bar.
  
• ...copy protractor and distance meter values in the clipboard.
  
• ...hide/unhide things from the text editor.
  
• ...see (in text editor) which lines are currently hidden (you can customise the colour in the options menu).
  
• ...use the shortkey "B" to toggle "Move Adjacent Data" (you can customise the key in the options menu).
  
• ...control if the mesh reducer tool should not destroy patterns.
  
• ..."Draw Only the Selection" (text editor context menu)
  
• ..."Draw Until Selection" (text editor context menu)
  

The following critical issues were fixed:

1. The undo/redo feature for hidden and shown elements was not correct.
   

What will the next release 0.8.35 deliver? Better controls for numeric input...

---

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, this version 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, 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:

• 64-bit Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.8
  
• OpenGL 2.1 compatible Graphics Card
  
• Operating System (64-bit): Windows [7 or newer], Linux [e.g. Ubuntu Linux >=14.4], Mac OS X [>=10.6]
  
• CPU: Multicore-Processor e.g. Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon II (>2.0Ghz)
  
• RAM: 4GB
  
• Video-Memory: 1 GB
  
• Free Disk Space: 100 MB
  

Recommended Requirements:

• Operating System (64bit): Windows 7,8,10, Linux [e.g. Ubuntu Linux >=14.4], Mac OS X [>=10.6]
  
• OpenGL 3.3 compatible Graphics Card
  
• CPU: Multicore-Processor with 4 cores (or more)
  
• RAM: >4 GB
  
• Video-Memory: >1 GB
  
• Free Disk Space: 512 MB
  
• For a faster start, LDPartEditor and the LDraw™ library should be installed on an SSD.
  

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

[Willy Tschager]

• ..."Draw Only the Selection" (text editor context menu)
  
• ..."Draw Until Selection" (text editor context menu)
  

Love it!

w.

[Magnus Forsberg]

Love it!

Me too.

And hide/unhide in the text editor is also highly appreciated. I've already used it, and found some unnecessary surfaces in the part I'm reworking.

[Nils Schmidt]

The next release will fix a performance bottleneck which is related to Hide/Show.
Currently, LDPE becomes sluggish if you insert the following lines in the text editor and hide them.

Code:

1 16 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 stug-16x16.dat
1 16 320 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 stug-16x16.dat
1 16 0 0 320 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 stug-16x16.dat
1 16 320 0 320 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 stug-16x16.dat

I don't want to explain the technical reasons which are causing this behaviour.
Basically, only files which are using many common subfile instances (e.g. stud groups) are affected (only if they are hidden).

[Willy Tschager]

The next release will fix a performance bottleneck which is related to Hide/Show.

I beg your pardon but as usual I would prefer a focus on LDPE, which is my main author prog ;-)

w.

[Nils Schmidt]

Wishes of the day...
It is difficult to type in values in all dialog windows.
 - As a user, I want to be able to type in negative value easily. If I key in 12.54, I get the correct value. If I key in -12.54, I get 1.2.54 (two times wrong since "value" is positive, and with extra decimal separator). (major issue)
 - As a user, I'd like that existing value becomes selected when I click in a field, ready to be wiped out. of course, clicking again at some position in the field should place the insertion cursor there. (annoying but I can live with this...)
 - As a user, I'd like to be able to key in .54 instead of 0.54 (this one is really minor!).

Today, I implemented these features (#441).

[Philippe Hurbain]

Good news

[Nils Schmidt]

Hey,

Milestone 0.8.35 has currently only three open user stories:

• As a user I want to see where the protractor is fixed.
  
• As a user I want to see where the distance meter starts.
  
• As a user I want a shortkey to toggle the BFC winding of a selection.
  

In the next weeks I will focus less on implementation tasks.
I need more good user stories for future versions of LDPE.
The current backlog is extremely small. There are about 40 open issues in total and many of them are not the best bang for your buck or have no business value at all.
I'll try to be creative and experiment a little bit, before I continue to work on the backlog.

BTW, my last great bug hunt was a long time ago and LDPatternCreator needs some attention, too.

Leg godt

Nils

[Philippe Hurbain]

I was going to ask for this one https://github.com/nilsschmidt1337/ldpar...issues/345 but I see that things are moving there
This one is loosely related too https://github.com/nilsschmidt1337/ldpar...issues/538...

Otherwise, I have an other wish...
As a user, I'd like to have a local mesh convexity optimizer. Pretty often in scanned or LDD meshes, we have a portion of mesh which is convex overall, but a few triangle pairs are in concave configuration. We generally optimize such configurations using the flip tool, but it's a tedious process. Some automatic optimization would be great in this case! Of course there is no simple solution if the mesh is twisted or saddle-shaped.

Attached an example (from LDD) where I manually optimized one side (light blue area). Here the curvature defect is very shallow and barely worth the trouble, but often it's more valuable!

[Philippe Hurbain]

Wish of the day...
When meaningful, I'd like to be able to select (and see in 3D view) elements producing an error or warning (warped quads, triangles or quads with colinear vertices, duplicated lines) directly from error line right click contextual menu (along with quick fix this/quick fix all)

[Nils Schmidt]

I created issue #572 (local mesh convexity optimizer).

[Nils Schmidt]

I created issue #573 (selection of elements which causing errors).

[Philippe Hurbain]

Bugs of the day...
- I can select several elements of different types (lines/triangle) with control+click and changing selection mode in-between. But if I switch to subpart selection mode, previous selection is forgotten (on the opposite, if I select subparts first then lines/surfaces, it works).
- When snapping on edges, it seems that projection is broken. In the attached file (testsnap1.dat) I want to snap the vertices on the big pink quads sides. Since the quad sides are parallel to Y axis, y coordinates shouldn't change during snapping. But they do... (result in testsnap2.dat)

[Nils Schmidt]

Bug of the day...
- I can select several elements of different types (lines/triangle) with control+click and changing selection mode in-between. But if I switch to subpart selection mode, previous selection is forgotten (on the opposite, if I select subparts first then lines/surfaces, it works).

I fixed this issue today (#574).

[Nils Schmidt]

Today, I implemented this feature (#538).

[Nils Schmidt]

Bug of the day...
- When snapping on edges, it seems that projection is broken. In the attached file (testsnap1.dat) I want to snap the vertices on the big pink quads sides. Since the quad sides are parallel to Y axis, y coordinates shouldn't change during snapping. But they do... (result in testsnap2.dat)

I fixed this issue today (#575).
The solution improved other functions, since the calculation for nearest edges is used on other places, too.

[Gerald Lasser]

Draw to Selection!

That is great! Thank you!

[Philippe Hurbain]

I also love the new Draw (until) selection, but...
As a user I'd like to have a "Draw all" menu entry, allowing to come back to normal view, without changing current text selection or cursor position.

[Nils Schmidt]

I also love the new Draw (until) selection, but...
As a user I'd like to have a "Draw all" menu entry, allowing to come back to normal view, without changing current text selection or cursor position.

Today, I implemented a "Show All" (or "Draw all") menu entry (#576).