[LDPartEditor] 0.8.45 Beta Released (toolbars / vertex window bugfix)

[Nils Schmidt]

Hey,

I think Willy had to wait far too long for this


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

Changelog:
(3 new features and 2 bug fixes)

With this release you will be able to...

• ...directly set the render mode (via GUI toolbar and shortkeys, Alt + NUMPAD + 1 to 9)
  
• ...set the viewport perspective (via GUI toolbar and shortkeys, Ctrl + NUMPAD + 8,4,5,6,2,0)
  
• ...close the view (via GUI toolbar and shortkey, Q)
  

The following critical issues were fixed:

1. The vertex window stayed on top of all open programs.
   
2. [OpenGL 2.0 only] TEXMAP with transparency did not show the expected result.
   

What will the next release 0.8.46 deliver? clever auto-completion / context menu for the text editor / usability.

---

The program was tested intensively with "real world" files.
However, it is still a beta version and something can go wrong in about 140.000 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/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:

• 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]

• ...directly set the render mode (via GUI toolbar and shortkeys, Alt + NUMPAD + 1 to 9)
  
• ...set the viewport perspective (via GUI toolbar and shortkeys, Ctrl + NUMPAD + 8,4,5,6,2,0)
  
• ...close the view (via GUI toolbar and shortkey, Q)
  

Best release ever!

w.

[Nils Schmidt]

Hi,

I want to introduce an auto-completion feature (context sensitive) for the text editor with the next release.
Willy wanted just a drop-down, but I prefer a drop down with auto-completion
The new feature supports BFC meta commands only (as a proof of concept).
I will extend the auto-completion to include other meta commands in the future.
And I want to add a feature for inserting primitives at the same position as the previous one.

I have a surgery in September (2018-09-10). A benign tumour will be removed from my head.
As a result, the next release will be delayed a little bit (maybe November?).

Cheers,
Nils

[Philippe Hurbain]

Looks promising... My best wishes for your surgery!

[Willy Tschager]

All the best and I hope they don't screw up your brilliant mind.

w.

[Magnus Forsberg]

My best wishes to you and good luck.

[Johann Eisner]

Hi,

I want to introduce an auto-completion feature (context sensitive) for the text editor with the next release.
Willy wanted just a drop-down, but I prefer a drop down with auto-completion
The new feature supports BFC meta commands only (as a proof of concept).
I will extend the auto-completion to include other meta commands in the future.
And I want to add a feature for inserting primitives at the same position as the previous one.

I have a surgery in September (2018-09-10). A benign tumour will be removed from my head.
As a result, the next release will be delayed a little bit (maybe November?).

Cheers,
Nils

I agree with the previous speakers.
Good luck and best wishes.

[Willy Tschager]

Has any of you noted performance issues with the opening and closing vertex window when STRG+E merging vertices?

w.

[Nils Schmidt]

Thank you all!

[Nils Schmidt]

Has any of you noted performance issues with the opening and closing vertex window when STRG+E merging vertices?

w.

Hi Willy,

I tested the window in combination with Ctrl+E actions on Linux today and saw no performance impact.
Maybe, the issue is related to MS Windows? I will re-test it on Windows in the evening.
Thanks for your performance observation.

Best,
Nils

edit: I was not able to detect a performance issue on MS Windows and Linux.

[Willy Tschager]

Feature request of the day:

* LDView's Latitude Longitude Rotation limitation
* Viewing mode that shows the smoothing effect of the cond. lines as LDView does, to figure out where the conds reach their limit and it is better to work on the vertices to get a rounded surface.
* A feature which moves a vertex (the odd one) back into a coplanar position when you get a Non-Coplanar Quadrilateral warning.

Bug of the day:

* When you open a file from the Last opened files list it gets loaded only into the 3D view but not the Text window.

w.

[Philippe Hurbain]

* A feature which moves a vertex (the odd one) back into a coplanar position when you get a Non-Coplanar Quadrilateral warning.

I wish that too, but not simple: if the vertex belongs to other quads you may end up warping them.

[Philippe Hurbain]

Bug of the day: if I select a condline, then select->with same type->everything, subparts are selected too (and get deleted if I want to delete all condlines to regenerate them).
This occurs even if I set the select filter to condlines only. I have to exclude subfile content for this to work.

[Philippe Hurbain]

Little feature request of the day: I'd like the "verbose" attribute of tools (edger2, rectifier, etc) to be persistent across LDPE sessions.

[Willy Tschager]

Feature request of the day:

* LDPE does't store the size of the window. I'd like a start with full screen, while I always get a 98% screen which I have to widen
* No rounding is performed when I select code in the text window which contains a 0 // Comment
* No rounding is performed when I select say all triangles and quads in the 3D window and those get highlighted in the Text window
* I wish the (first) bounding box in the text window of a selected vertex (I select in the 3D window) would scroll the text automatically so that is the first line of code in the text window. Currently I have to carefully scroll the text window to find the bounding box of my selected vertex.

w.

[Nils Schmidt]

Hey,

here are some good news: I have a little bit additional time for LDraw again.
I would like to invest this in extending the LDPE documentation rather than implementing new features.

Cheers,
Nils

[Orion Pobursky]

Hey,

here are some good news: I have a little bit additional time for LDraw again.
I would like to invest this in extending the LDPE documentation rather than implementing new features.

Cheers,
Nils

I was just going to ask about this. Is there is there rudimentary documentation? I checked the github repository but those docs say coming soon.

[Nils Schmidt]

I was just going to ask about this. Is there is there rudimentary documentation? I checked the github repository but those docs say coming soon.

There is an older wiki page on
https://github.com/nilsschmidt1337/ldpar...ome-Backup

I am currently restructuring the wiki on github and will inform you all about the progress in ~1 month.

In the meantime, I highly recommend a visit to J.C.'s great manual page about LDPE
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl...&sandbox=1
http://jc-tchang.philohome.com/manuel/LDPartEditor.htm

[Orion Pobursky]

I was just going to ask about this. Is there is there rudimentary documentation? I checked the github repository but those docs say coming soon.

There is an older wiki page on
https://github.com/nilsschmidt1337/ldpar...ome-Backup

I am currently restructuring the wiki on github and will inform you all about the progress in ~1 month.

In the meantime, I highly recommend a visit to J.C.'s great manual page about LDPE
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl...&sandbox=1
http://jc-tchang.philohome.com/manuel/LDPartEditor.htm

That's exactly what I wanted. I was kind of lost in the UI and needed some help. Thanks.

[Nils Schmidt]

Hey,

I had to create a new 0.8.45 release for Mac OS X.
So in case you are a rare user which runs LDPE on a Mac, then you should download this version again.
Sorry!

Technical root-cause: A third-party UI library (SWT) was not ready for some breaking changes in Cocoa.

Cheers,
Nils