LDCad 1.4 Beta 1 (win+linux)

[Roland Melkert]

Hi all,

This weekend I finished the first beta of LDCad 1.4, it took a bit more time than I planned but hopefully it's worth the wait.

Some new features are:

• Script based animation.
  
• Groups are now stored in the LDraw file.
  
• Updated GUI (font and some icons wise).
  
• Made it easier to interact with session mode's and options
  
• Experimental support for the LDraw texture meta (all three variants)
  

See the changeLog.txt for the full list of changes and additions.

Animation is of course by far the most important new feature, animaitons are done using lua scripts. I added three animations to some of the example models (5510, 5580 and 8248).

Here's a clip of 8248 and 5580 in action.

I also added a full api reference to the LDCad site at

http://www.melkert.net/LDCad/docs/scriptAPI

and some getting started pointers concering making animations at

http://www.melkert.net/LDCad/docs/scriptExamples


With the 1.4 version I also changed the license a bit, it adds an exception to the non commercial use only part. As I received questions from people wanting to use LDCad for making building manuals in order to sell them.

Final note due to the new font rendering I'm not completely sure the 1.4 version will work on all Linux distributions currently compatible with 1.3a, so part of this first beta will be fine tuning that aspect of the Linux versions. But I can only do that if people report problems (or success) to me so I can make adjustments etc.

Thanks to Willy for tweaking some of the navigation arrow icons for me.

In closing some screenshots , hope you like the new version.