[LDPE] 1.8.81 Released (subfile links/new 3D shortcuts/ empty prims/ better rounding)

[Nils Schmidt]

Hey,

this update is like a "bouquet of flowers" with several different aspects taken care of.
There is one important bug fix for the categories.txt update function.
And a lot of new features. One of them are "Blender-like" transformation shortcuts (G, S and R key, with X,Y,Z key to lock on the axis). Works best on a single 3D view.
The ability to see "empty primitives" in files directly referencing them and the possibility to follow type 1 references in the text editor with ctrl-click.
And there is even better automatic rounding: If you do a transformation resulting in 0.9999... or 0.09999..., LDPE will automatically round these values into 1 or 0.1 respectively (unless your snap/move distance is below 0.001, then it will not do the automatic rounding).



As always, you can download LDPE from this page:

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

Changelog:

(8 new features and 2 bug fixes)

With this release you will be able to...

• ...ctrl-click a subpart or prim in the text editor to open it in the 3D editor and jump straight to it (cmd-click on Mac).
  
• ...use a faster way to move ( G), rotate ( R) and scale ( S) (press G, S or R on the 3D view, press X, Y or Z to lock to an axis. Or ctrl-shift-x and so on to lock to a plane.).
  
• ...calibrate a background image with a measurement (click on the new "Calibrate Background Image" button, select a line (type 2 or 5 on the image plane) and enter the new distance)
  
• ...better see "empty" primitives.
  
• ...get even better automatic rounding of .9999s and .0000s (e.g. for PathTruder results).
  
• ...use an upgraded gizmo/manipulator (to move and scale in XY, XZ, YZ planes).
  
• ...benefit from cleaned up inlined results from CSG_COMPILE.
  
• ...benefit from the fact that empty tree items for hints / warnings / errors / duplicates in the text editor will be expanded when they get new items to display.
  

The following critical issues are fixed:

1. The ldraw.org link to download the contents of categories.txt was outdated.
   
2. It was possible to assign a key twice (with a newly introduced shortcut).
   

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-1.8.81.msi
   
3. Start LDPartEditor from the start menu
   

Installation on Linux:

1. Download and extract LDPartEditor_linux_x64.zip
   
2. Install ldparteditor_1.8.81-1_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-1.8.81.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: 150 MB
  

Recommended Requirements:

• Operating System (64bit): Windows 7,8,10,11, 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: 500 MB
  
• For a faster start, LDPartEditor and the LDraw™ library should be installed on an SSD.
  

[N. W. Perry]

Indeed, a lovely assortment of cool new features! I especially like being able to directly open type 1 lines.  Calibrate image is also very slick.

One little thing I would love in a future update is an assignable key shortcut for merge/split tris to quads. Right now it's a long mouse distance from the 3D editor to the buttons!

[Nils Schmidt]

Indeed, a lovely assortment of cool new features! I especially like being able to directly open type 1 lines.  Calibrate image is also very slick.

One little thing I would love in a future update is an assignable key shortcut for merge/split tris to quads. Right now it's a long mouse distance from the 3D editor to the buttons!

Thanks, I created an issue (#1066).
For this release Fredrik Hareide provided many ideas. One of them was ctrl/cmd+click on type 1 lines.

[N. W. Perry]

For this release Fredrik Hareide provided many ideas. One of them was ctrl/cmd+click on type 1 lines.

Well then, cheers to Fredrik!

[Fredrik Hareide]

Nice work, Nils! This release really has a lot of great new features  I have had little time to test it lately, but I can already see that ctrl-click shortcut and inline math will be huge time savers for me

[Rene Rechthaler]

the ctrl-click also seems to be triggered when copy-pasting some values in the text editor around...
(still executes that copy, but it is sometimes irritating when it immediately opens that subfile)

Edit: tested some more: only gets triggered when pasting something via ctrl+V in a type 1 line

[Philippe Hurbain]

I seem to have a problem with this one, often (not always) when using the classical cut/copy/paste shortcuts Ctrl-X Ctrl-C Ctrl-V on the source window I end up opening the subfile of the line I'm editing...

[N. W. Perry]

I just thought of another possible enhancement. (Maybe this is already possible…)

In the "Set X/Y/Z" dialog, I'd like to have buttons to swap the x/y, x/z and y/z coordinates (of a vertex, for example), like you can currently do for manipulator axes.

And/or, I'd like to be able to add the missing coordinate to a 2D vertex (or group of vertices).

Perhaps a use case will illustrate it better: Right now I am importing node coordinates from Inkscape and converting them to LPE vertices. I want the 2D x and y coords from Inkscape to become the x and z coords in LDPE. When I paste I get a list like this:

Code:

L 2.77 3.56
L 2.77 7.79
L 5.64 7.79
L 5.64 3.56

I can find/replace "L " with "0 !LPE VERTEX ", then manually type in zeroes for the Y coord, but I often have 100 or so vertices in my list. So it would be nice if I could find/replace with "0 !LPE VERTEX 0 " instead (i.e., adding an empty x coord), then swap the x and y. Or alternatively, just click a button to add the missing y coord—for example, by using "Set X/Y/Z" and checking the Y box set at zero, but currently this doesn't work as LDPE doesn't recognize the vertices without all 3 coordinates.

Hopefully that makes sense—and like I said, maybe there's already an easy way to do this that I just haven't discovered yet.

[Nils Schmidt]

I seem to have a problem with this one, often (not always) when using the classical cut/copy/paste shortcuts Ctrl-X Ctrl-C Ctrl-V on the source window I end up opening the subfile of the line I'm editing...

In the next version 1.8.82, I will change the combination to Ctrl/Cmd+Shift and add a possibility to customise this shortcut by the user.