99455.dat part missing in LPub3d fade steps?

[Trevor Sandy]

I'm having the same problem with parts 6551 and 71427c01.  I also have read through those two threads, but I'm running into an issue in step 5 of Trevor's instructions in the first thread. 

When I navigate to my unofficial parts directory, I see a "fade" directory and a "Parts" directory.  There are "parts" and "p" subdirectories under the "fade" directory, but no "fade" subdirectory under the "Parts" directory.



I have not seen any indication of the lpub3dldrawunf.zip archive being updated during processing of my mpd file.

All the rest of the fading appears to be working correctly, and those parts render correctly unfaded, but I can't get them to render faded.

Very easy solution Guys. Make sure the parts in question are added to the FadeStepsColorParts.lst. You have 2 options to do this 1.) Add the part manually by editing the .lst. You can launch the editor from the Configuration=>Edit Fade Color Parts List menu, 2.) Generate a new list from the menu Configuration=>Generate Fade Color Parts List. This option will read all the search directories defined capturing all the parts with static color components for addition to the fade parts list. You can see what search directories are defined under Preferences=>Other. Note: If not using ldraw.ini, but you have in place the directory LDraw\Unofficial, all directories under Unofficial will be detected as search directories by LPub3D. However, for LDView and L3P(POV-Ray), you will have to specifically define search directories under Unofficial.

...just to answer some points above:

When I navigate to my unofficial parts directory, I see a "fade" directory and a "Parts" directory.  There are "parts" and "p" subdirectories under the "fade" directory, but no "fade" subdirectory under the "Parts" directory.

The Unofficial/Fade directory is created by LPub3D to store all generated fade parts (I'll explain these later). These parts are generated during file load if Enable Fade Steps is checked in Preferences. Fade parts are automatically added to the archive library (lpub3dldrawunf.zip) after generation, at LPub3D launch and at specific actions like changing the renderer.

I have not seen any indication of the lpub3dldrawunf.zip archive being updated during processing of my mpd file.

Fade parts are generated to the Unofficial\Fade directory respecting the structure of the Unofficial archive (i.e. Parts, P directories). Fade contents under Parts and P are then added to the Parts and P archive directories in the lpub3dldrawunf.zip archive. Therefore, you will not see a 'Fade' directory in the archive library. To verify that your fade parts have been successfully added to the archive simply look in the lpub3dldrawunf.zip Parts and P folders for your respective faded parts after the model file has been loaded for the first time. 

Faded parts are written to disc and added to the archive library because the disc location provides access to the renderers (ldglite, LDView) while the archive library populates the 3d Viewer. To this end, it is important that the Fade/Parts and Fade/P directories are defined in your search directory lists. For ldglite, preparation of the search directory list is automatic because I have modified ldglite to receive from LPub3D a list of search directories which LPub3D calculates taking into account the Fade parts and primitives directories. For LDView/LP3(POV-Ray); however, you must use ldrawini to define these additional search directories. Although, LDView has the ability to add Extra Search directories from the menu at the User Interface, these directories are not detected when LDView is called from the command line as LPub3D does. They only appear to work when one uses LDView from its GUI.

Here is a summary of the fade process steps:

... on file load:
0. Prerequisite: up to date FadeStepsColorParts.lst; If using LDView as renderer, ldraw.ini updated with paths to Unofficial\Fade\Parts and Unofficial\Fade\P directories
1. Interrogate each line in the load file and compare each part to those on the fadeStepsColorParts.lst
2. If part or it's sub-part/primitive etc... has static color, it should be on the list so a faded representation will be generated (The static colour, except 16 and 24, is substituted by the selected fade colour).
3. The generated faded part/primitive is written to Unofficial/Fade/Parts[P] directories as necessary.
4. Faded parts are loaded into the lpub3dldrawunf.zip archive 
5. Lpub3dldrawunf.zip is reloaded into memory

Hopefully this write-up helps clear things up a bit.

Cheers,