[LDPE] 1.8.64 Released (rectifier defaults / usability / txt2dat)

[Nils Schmidt]

Hey,

this release will provide four small improvements.



As always, you can download LDPE from this page:

http://nilsschmidt1337.github.io/ldparteditor/

Changelog:

(4 new features)

With this release you will be able to...

• ...benefit from a new Rectifier default setting (it will not convert quad to rect when the quad has adjacent condlines by default (results in smoother surfaces)).
  
• ...use the "Copy" command on the icon bar at the bottom of the tab, mirrored from the contextual of the "Problems" tab
  
• ...have a single background bounding rectangle for the whole string (txt2dat).
  
• ...use an alternative option to not have a background but only the characters themselves (txt2dat).
  

The program was tested intensively with "real world" files.
However, something can go wrong in about 140.000 lines of code.

Installation on Windows:

1. Download and extract LDPartEditor_win32_x64.zip
   
2. Run LDPartEditor-1.8.64.msi
   
3. Start LDPartEditor from the start menu
   

Installation on Linux:

1. Download and extract LDPartEditor_linux_x64.zip
   
2. Install ldparteditor_1.8.64-1_amd64.deb
   
3. Start LDPartEditor from the menu or via launcher
   

Installation on Mac OS X:

1. Download and extract LDPartEditor_mac_x64.zip
   
2. Mount LDPartEditor-1.8.64.dmg
   
3. Drag LDPartEditor.app to the Applications folder
   
4. Copy ldparteditor.sh to your home folder
       4a. Open a Terminal.app and run ./ldparteditor.sh
       4b. Or open a Terminal.app and run /Applications/LDPartEditor.app/Contents/MacOS/LDPartEditor
   

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:

• 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.
  

[Vincent Messenet]

Thanks for this new update Nils!

[Philippe Hurbain]

Thanks Nils!

I made some tests of the new version of Txt2Dat, there are still a few things I don't like 

• Why use direct colors for text/background instead of LDraw codes such as 0 / 15 ?
  
• Why is there sooo many vertices in straight portions of letter shapes? Eg. in Arial, "L" should have a total of 6 vertices... Increasing "interpolate flatness" improves the result, but the vertices issue is not solved before other problems appear.
  
• There's a glitch in "w" top (Arial font, default parameters).
  
• It would be great to display currently used font name
  
• The result would be much more easy to use if the text was completely included in background, adding a small margin on all sides (only the 4 corner vertices to manage)
  
• Parameter "min angle between line segments" seem to have no action?
  

Maybe have a look at Ross Crawford work? source is public here https://roscohead.id.au/txt2dat

[Nils Schmidt]

Thanks Nils!

I made some tests of the new version of Txt2Dat, there are still a few things I don't like 

1. Why use direct colors for text/background instead of LDraw codes such as 0 / 15 ?
   
2. Why is there sooo many vertices in straight portions of letter shapes? Eg. in Arial, "L" should have a total of 6 vertices... Increasing "interpolate flatness" improves the result, but the vertices issue is not solved before other problems appear.
   
3. There's a glitch in "w" top (Arial font, default parameters).
   
4. It would be great to display currently used font name
   
5. The result would be much more easy to use if the text was completely included in background, adding a small margin on all sides (only the 4 corner vertices to manage)
   
6. Parameter "min angle between line segments" seem to have no action?
   

Maybe have a look at Ross Crawford work? source is public here https://roscohead.id.au/txt2dat

Thanks for your feedback! I am thinking about removing "interpolate flatness" completely. It just adds vertices to line segments, which is "pointless"*

1.) I prefered direct colours. When I implemented it, a few years ago, I wanted to use them, because it does not collide with anything which might be already in your file.
2.) * "interpolate flatness" is basically a workaround to avoid triangulation errors, but it also introduces a lot of additional triangles. I will try to find a solution with a constrained Delaunay triangulation. This will make the interpolated flatness unnecessary. For this, I can take a look at Ross Crawford's work, too! (#947)
3.) Constrained Delaunay triangulation will solve this (#946).
4.) I created an issue (#948).
5.) I created another issue (#949).
6.) The "min angle" has no effect. It is not used. I will try to find out, what the original intention was (#950).

[Philippe Hurbain]

Thanks for your feedback! I am thinking about removing "interpolate flatness" completely. It just adds vertices to line segments, which is "pointless"*

1.) I prefered direct colours. When I implemented it, a few years ago, I wanted to use them, because it does not collide with anything which might be already in your file.
2.) * "interpolate flatness" is basically a workaround to avoid triangulation errors, but it also introduces a lot of additional triangles. I will try to find a solution with a constrained Delaunay triangulation. This will make the interpolated flatness unnecessary. For this, I can take a look at Ross Crawford's work, too! (#947)
3.) Constrained Delaunay triangulation will solve this (#946).
4.) I created an issue (#948).
5.) I created another issue (#949).
6.) The "min angle" has no effect. It is not used. I will try to find out, what the original intention was (#950).

1: you have a point! Alternatively you could give the user the choice of colors, but probably not worth the trouble!