[LDPartEditor] 0.8.6 Beta Released

[Nils Schmidt]

Hey!

Well, it's a small number increase from 0.8.5 to 0.8.6, but there are a lot of improvements with this release.


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

Currently, there is a critical bug in version 0.8.6 (risk of data loss):
If you open a file again (which is modified with LDPE, not saved and has an asterisk * as a filename suffix), the file in 3D editor gets cleared.

Changelog:
(9 new features and 11 bug fixes)

With this release you will be able to...

• ...customise the layout of the 3D editor toolbars by placing one of the "layout_3D_editor.cfg" files in the application folder. You find two different layouts in the attached archive "layouts.zip". The new modern version could improve your workflow
  
• ...zoom in/out on the primitive area with two new buttons (-) and (+) (instead of using Ctrl+Mousewheel)
  
• ...use "Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete" in the right-click contextual menu from the text and 3D editor
  
• ...browse in the last visited folder if you open a file dialog again.
  
• ...select something and move it into a subfile (with a click on the old "Add Subfile" button), supports cut and copy
  
• ...draw to the cursor position from the text editor (there is a button on the 3D editor, to enable this behaviour).
  
• ...use two new buttons ("Save Part" and "Save Part As...") in the 3D editor.
  
• ...use a new "Switch BFC" button in the text editor.
  
• ...reset the snapping/grid values to the default value with a right click on the corresponding "coarse", "middle" or "fine" button.
  

The following critical issues were fixed:

1. Creating a new *.dat (Text Editor) did not rebuild the hints/warning/errors tree.
   
2. Java heap space problems on 32bit machines
   
3. "Merge / Split => Transform / Rotate / Scale" was able to break the 3D model triangulation.
   
4. "Merge/Split => Rotate Selection" did not rotate around Z axis
   
5. "Open *.dat File" did not rebuilt the text editor tab, if the same file was saved before.
   
6. Copy->Paste->Mirror, mirrored the initial copy.
   
7. The hide/show state was deleted on undo/redo.
   
8. "Save as..." did not update the <"0 Name: "> (and type) entry accordingly.
   
9. The "Select Touching" implementation was not correct. It selected too much.
   
10. Focus issues: A click on a button in the 3D editor removed the focus from the 3D view
    
11. A small memory leak (<1KB)
    

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.

[Philippe Hurbain]

Thanks for the update! I like "modern UI" layout a lot! Zoom on primitives is highly appreciated too. Also it seems that my shortcut issue is solved. This one is strange, at startup of the new version the "S" for Select and "R" for rotate didn't work, but I redefined them again and now everything works.
Now the wishes/suggestions...
- could it be possible to somehow cache primitives to make startup (much) faster?
- The coarse/medium/fine grid buttons don't stay pushed, so you need to pay attention to grid value to know what you are doing. Maybe too they should be placed on a toolbar, they get hidden if you are on another tab (eg. selection one)
- I miss the possibility to add shortcuts to manipulator operations, mainly move to origin and orientate to the world - Actually I'd like a shortcuut that does both in one operation!
- I'd like double click on a number in text window to select the whole number (minus sign+integer+decimal separator+decimal digits)
- If I draw a marquee to select several elements, primitives gets selected if they are touched by the marquee, while other elements get selected only if completely covered by the marquee. I'd prefer a consistent behaviour for all elements, and if possible a switch between both modes ("touching" or "covered")

[Willy Tschager]

- could it be possible to somehow cache primitives to make startup (much) faster?
- I miss the possibility to add shortcuts to manipulator operations, mainly move to origin and orientate to the world - Actually I'd like a shortcuut that does both in one operation!

+1

[Gerald Lasser]

At a first glance I cannot start LDPE with the new run.bat

Code:

start "" javaw -Xmx1500m -Xms512m -jar -Djava.library.path="natives/" -jar LDPartEditor.jar

The old start-up works:

Code:

start "" javaw -jar -Djava.library.path="natives/" -jar LDPartEditor.jar

I also do not get any error message, also not in the cmd window

[Philippe Hurbain]

Works for me (XP 32bits, 4GB RAM). What is your config?

[Gerald Lasser]

Win 7, 64 bit

I did an update through the update.bat

[Philippe Hurbain]

Your Java is 64bit too? then that could explain, the parameters -Xmx1500m -Xms512m are for 32bit only. Maybe the updater got confused (worked for me on my Win7/64 machine).

[Philippe Hurbain]

Got a strange problem... after some editing, selection/display started to go wrong: as soon as I selected an element, it disappeared from initial place and got displayed as if it was turned by 90° around Z axis...
Not found how to reproduce this.

And another little glitch: if I try to select the chrd by clicking on it (code below), the cylo gets selected too.

Code:

1 16 -15 -7 0 0 0 -2 -2 0 0 0 18 0 1-4cylo.dat
1 16 -15 -7 0 0 0 -2 -2 0 0 0 1 0 1-4chrd.dat

-> giving another question: is there a way to unselect an element of a multiple selection? I tried the "standard" ctrl+click again to no avail.

[Willy Tschager]

* LOVE the "Modern Layout"! Why didn't you pack it with the rest?
* Shortkeys for 1,2,3 now work, but I had to re-register as Philo did
* Middle mouse button works, actually it works the middle mouse button as well as my registered space bar!
* Bug: Open a .dat in the 3D editor will fire up a second text editor window
* Someday someone will explain me what the "Move on line" is all about

w.

[Philippe Hurbain]

* Someday someone will explain me what the "Move on line" is all about

+1!

[Gerald Lasser]

Did anybody find the "Draw to Selection" Button?

[Philippe Hurbain]

No. I find a (related but very different!) Insert Objects behind cursor position.

[Nils Schmidt]

I created a tutorial for this complicated (but useful) feature.

https://github.com/nilsschmidt1337/ldpar...-on-a-line

[Nils Schmidt]

At a first glance I cannot start LDPE with the new run.bat

(on Win 7, 64 bit)

On windows 64 bit you have to use the old command line without these additional parameters:

Code:

start "" javaw -jar -Djava.library.path="natives/" -jar LDPartEditor.jar

[Gerald Lasser]

That's a good one, too. Removes a bit of sorting hassle :-)

[Philippe Hurbain]

Looks like I should have realized earlier that there was a wiki with useful information!!!

[Philippe Hurbain]

- could it be possible to somehow cache primitives to make startup (much) faster?

I see on the wiki:

Code:

This will take some time and it is slower than parsing the parts.lst file, but it guarantees that you will see the actual library content.

I would much, much prefer to take the risk to sometimes have an outdated parts.lst in order to get a faster startup time!!! Even on this machine with LDraw library on a SSD, LDPE is a pain to start! On a hard disk it's aweful...

[Magnus Forsberg]

Thank you Nils, looking forward to next release.

Identical lines are not detected if they have different colours

...draw to the cursor position from the text editor (there is a button on the 3D editor, to enable this behaviour).

How do i trigger the "draw to cursor position"? Were is the button? What does it look like?

[Nils Schmidt]

There were some issues with the attached screenshots for this wiki entry. They should be gone now!

[Nils Schmidt]

How do i trigger the "draw to cursor position"? Were is the button? What does it look like?

It looks like this:

  Insert_Behind_Cursor.PNG (Size: 1.23 KB / Downloads: 10)



Thanks for the bug report! This will be fixed with release 0.8.7...

[Magnus Forsberg]

??

Is'nt that the "Insert Objects behind cursor"-button Philo found?

[Nils Schmidt]

Yes.
It is a toggle button.
A first click on it enables the new insert mode, a second click disables the mode.

[Gerald Lasser]

The button does what the help-text says "Insert at Cursor Position"

Does not do draw to cursor

[Philippe Hurbain]

Wish of the day...
When scaling/rotating a bunch of primitives using Merge/Split scale or rotate, it would be nice to be able to set pivot point to manipulator coordinates (with a button in tool window). Setting pivot point to an existing vertex is interesting, but there may be no vertex in the right place, while it is easy to set manipulator to primitive origin.

[Philippe Hurbain]

2nd wish of the day...
When mirroring a selection (scaling with a negative discriminant matrix) it would be great to automagically invert winding of all quads and triangles of the selection...

[Nils Schmidt]

- could it be possible to somehow cache primitives to make startup (much) faster?

I would much, much prefer to take the risk to sometimes have an outdated parts.lst in order to get a faster startup time!!! Even on this machine with LDraw library on a SSD, LDPE is a pain to start! On a hard disk it's aweful...

Today, I wrote a fast and durable caching algorithm (without the risk of an outdated list of primitives), which gave me a 50% reduced startup time on my SATA3-SSD. On HHDs, the results will be even better.
You'll get this improvement with the next release

[Magnus Forsberg]

to automagically invert winding of all quads and triangles of the selection...

+1

[Magnus Forsberg]

easy to set manipulator to primitive origin

+1

[Magnus Forsberg]

Confirmed.
I see the same selection issue. If I click on the chrd, the cylo is also selected.

[Magnus Forsberg]

Adding to the fast growing wish list...

*
How do I add the next primitive in the exact same position and orientation as the previous one, without using drag'n'drop?
The drag'n'drop feels to imprecise. Maybe some sort of snap to the nearest primitive is possible?

*
When I add stuff in the 3D editor, the text file is missing a CR LF.
If I then want to add something in the text-editor, I have to start with hitting the Enter-button

[Nils Schmidt]

Currently, there is a critical bug in version 0.8.6 (risk of data loss):
If you open a file again (which is modified with LDPE, not saved and has therefore an asterisk * as a filename suffix), the file in 3D editor gets cleared.
I will fix this immediately with the release of 0.8.7.

Wishes of the day...
- what about supporting drag and drop to open a file?

0.8.7 will also feature drag 'n' drop support.

1. You can drag a *.dat file into a 3D view and LDPE will open it. Due to technical restrictions, an open text editor tab with this file has to be closed automatically.

2. You can drag a *.dat file into a text editor view and LDPE will open it. Due to technical restrictions, the file has to be opened in the 3D editor automatically, too.

It will not be possible to overwrite the contents of an unsaved file with the "Open Part File" button, unless you revert all changes to this file.

[Philippe Hurbain]

It seems that it is impossible to create thin triangle or quads with LDPE (though well within LDraw specs). Trick to create them is to make a shorter, fatter version and use ctrl+E snapping to get what you want. (oh, btw, love ctlr+E !!!)

[Philippe Hurbain]

Often (but not always!) LDPE doesn't show a part X referenced in file Y when you open Y in 3D editor, even though part X is in the same folder as Y. Both LDView and MLCad properly show part X when viewing file Y.
Sometimes it does work, but I haven't been able to understand the difference between working and not working situations.

[Nils Schmidt]

I was able to reproduce this issue. The solution is not so difficult to implement.