[LDPE] 1.8.65 Released (enhanced txt2dat)

[Nils Schmidt]

Hi,

this release will improve the integrated txt2dat version a lot.



As always, you can download LDPE from this page:

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

Changelog:

(2 new features and 3 bug fixes)

With this release you will be able to...

• ...see the currently used font name and style (txt2dat).
  
• ...add a small margin on all sides, so that the text is completely included in background (txt2dat).
  

The following critical issues were fixed:

1. [txt2dat] There was a glitch in "w" top (Arial font, default parameters).
   
2. [txt2dat] Removed parameter "min angle between line segments" which had no action.
   
3. [txt2dat] Removed the unnecessary "interpolate flatness" parameter.
   

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-1.8.65.msi
   
3. Start LDPartEditor from the start menu
   

Installation on Linux:

1. Download and extract LDPartEditor_linux_x64.zip
   
2. Install ldparteditor_1.8.65-1_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-1.8.65.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.
  

[Philippe Hurbain]

Much better - background margin specification is highly appreciated. But I still see several extraneous vertices in straight lines (though much less than previously) - I'm probably nitpicking here!

What's the useful range of flatness parameter? any value above about 0.5 seem to give the same result.

[Nils Schmidt]

Much better - background margin specification is highly appreciated. But I still see several extraneous vertices in straight lines (though much less than previously) - I'm probably nitpicking here!

What's the useful range of flatness parameter? any value above about 0.5 seem to give the same result.

I can't say it precisely, but it also depends on the font size of your choice (not the font height in LDU).
You can reduce the amount of triangles, by reducing the font size and increasing the flatness parameter.

For bigger font sizes you may need a higher flatness value.
This is a little bit confusing, because the font rendering uses methods from the operating system, too (I have no insight and control in this area).

[Nils Schmidt]

What will be included in the upcoming 1.8.66 version:

• (feature) As a user I'd like the change winding tool (j) to be also active on type 2 and type 5 lines, swapping the end points.
  
• (feature) As a user I want to have the "verbose" option to be common to all tools, and be remembered between sessions.
  
• (feature) As a user I want to have the CR LF at the end of a line to be included in the selection when I click on a line number.
  
• (bugfix) "Merge To Nearest Vertex" recognizes condline control points as vertices to merge for. - It should not do that.
  
• (bugfix) 3D scenes only render to 1/4 of 3D window in some cases (big thanks to Travis Cobbs for helping out!)
  

...and maybe there will be another suprise.

[Philippe Hurbain]

What will be included in the upcoming 1.8.66 version:

A minor wish (can wait!!!)...
When you deep inline a subfile, it is marked with a start meta
0 // Inlined: 1 16 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 file.dat
and an empty line at the end.
I'd prefer that the end was marked as a meta too, something like
0 // Inlined end: file.dat

[Philippe Hurbain]

The thing that bugs me most in LDPE is the erratic manipulation behaviour. Sometimes, not always but often enough to be a real pain, the orientation of manipulator gets polluted, making the next operation completely wrong. I made two short videos showing the problem.

[Nils Schmidt]

I created an issue (#951). This took 10 minutes to solve and test. It will be included in 1.8.66, too.

[Nils Schmidt]

The thing that bugs me most in LDPE is the erratic manipulation behaviour. Sometimes, not always but often enough to be a real pain, the orientation of manipulator gets polluted, making the next operation completely wrong. I made two short videos showing the problem.

I was able to reproduce it and created an issue (#952). It will take some time to solve.

[Max Murtazin]

LDPE allows you to use scientific notation for numbers (1e2 for example), which is not supported by official library - I think it counts as a bug therefore

[Nils Schmidt]

LDPE allows you to use scientific notation for numbers (1e2 for example), which is not supported by official library - I think it counts as a bug therefore

Thanks Max. I created an issue (#955).