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,

Trevor,

Thanks for the detailed explanation.   I think I understand the process now.  I'm still having the same problem, but it feels like I'm closer to a solution.

When I try to rebuild the fadeStepsColorParts.lst, LPub3D crashes.  I suspect that this may be because my ldraw.ini file is in the wrong format or wrong location.  I have manually edited fSCP.lst to make sure the parts I need are in there. 

So my remaining questions are:
1) Does it matter that all the paths in fSCP.lst are for your computer, and not mine?  Should I do a mass change to my proper location?
2) I didn't have an ldraw.ini anywhere on my computer.  I couldn't find any formal documentation on this file, but a couple threads gave me some hints.  I tried placing the file in C:\Windows based on one thread, and when that didn't work, I moved it to my LDRAWDIR.  Still not working, but this seems like a more reaasonable location.
3) What is the format of the ldraw.ini file?  Here is what I put in mine:

[LDraw]
BaseDirectory="C:\Users\Public\Documents\LDraw"
LgeoDirectory="C:\Users\Public\Documents\LGEO"
[LDrawSearch]
1=<MODELDIR>
2="C:\Users\Public\Documents\LDraw\p"
3="C:\Users\Public\Documents\LDraw\parts"
4="C:\Users\Public\Documents\LDraw\models"
5="C:\Users\Public\Documents\LDraw\Unofficial\p"
6="C:\Users\Public\Documents\LDraw\Unofficial\Parts"
7="C:\Users\Public\Documents\LDraw\Unofficial\models"
8="C:\Users\Public\Documents\LDraw\Unofficial\lsynth"
9="C:\Users\Public\Documents\LDraw\Unofficial\fade\P"
10="C:\Users\Public\Documents\LDraw\Unofficial\fade\Parts"

Am I close?

4) Will having a properly-formatted ldraw.ini file in the correct location resolve the crash when rebuilding the fSCP.lst file from within LPub3D?

Thanks once again.

Kevin

UPDATE:

I little more progress:  I found this link which describes ldraw.ini:  http://news.lugnet.com/announce/?n=3854

My ldraw.ini now looks like this:

[LDraw]
BaseDirectory=C:\Users\Public\Documents\LDraw
LgeoDirectory=C:\Users\Public\Documents\LGEO
[LDrawSearch]
1=<MODELDIR>
2=<DEFPRIM><LDRAWDIR>\p
3=<DEFPART><LDRAWDIR>\parts
3=<LDRAWDIR>\models
4=<DEFPART><LDRAWDIR>\Unofficial\Parts
5=<DEFPRIM><LDRAWDIR>\Unofficial\fade\p
6=<DEFPART><LDRAWDIR>\Unofficial\fade\parts

And I see this in the LPub3D Preferences, "Other" tab:



However, I'm still getting the same results:  some faded parts not rendered, and LPub3D crashing when trying to rebuild the fSCP.lst file.  I also did the mass change to point to my directory path, not Trevor's, but I didn't see any effect.

Thanks.

Kevin

Ok - I'm not able to reproduce a crash during parts list generation. I tried on Win7, Win10 both as Admin and Std users.

I also did the mass change to point to my directory path, not Trevor's, but I didn't see any effect.

It looks like you are using an old format fade step color parts list. which include the absolute file path of the native file. In the old routine, the path was used to quickly locate the native file. However, in the new routine the native file is sourced from the archive libraries so the absolute file path is not used - just to file name.

As you are unable to progress, it looks like we'll have to do some troubleshooting...

First, the prerequisites:
- Be sure you have installed successfully the latest build of LPub3D (version 2.0.7.770)
- Be sure Enable Fade Steps is checked in the Configuration=>Preferences=>General settings tab
- Be sure both your official and unofficial archive files are in the same location (same directory)
- Be sure you are using an updated fadeStepColorParts.lst - See attached archive as you are unable to produce.
- Place your LDraw.ini file in your LDraw directory - this is the safest place to insure all applications will detect it.
- Clear all caches (or delete the generated LPub3D directory) created for the mode file.
- Backup and delete the Unofficial\Fade directory
- Refresh your archive libraries complete.zip and lpub3dldrawunf.zip - normally they can be found in .../<user>AppData/Local/LPub3D Software/LPub3D/libraries
- The fastest way to refresh your archive libraries is to delete them and select copy the next time you launch LPub3D. FYI, they are copied to your AppData location from <LPub3D Install Directory>/Data if you are running an installed distribution.
- After refreshing your libraries, be sure to launch LPub3D a couple of time to be sure all components are in place.
- I would recommend running the test with simple and direct directory paths. For example, placing your LDraw directory (where your fade files are generated) under the logged in user.

- Sample LDraw.ini Search Directories declaration for LPub3D:

Code:

[LDrawSearch]
1=<MODELDIR>
2=<HIDE><DEFPRIM><LDRAWDIR>\P
3=<DEFPART><LDRAWDIR>\PARTS
4=<LDRAWDIR>\MODELS
5=<HIDE><DEFPRIM><LDRAWDIR>\Unofficial\P
6=<DEFPART><LDRAWDIR>\Unofficial\parts
7=<DEFPART><LDRAWDIR>\Unofficial\LSynth
8=<HIDE><LDRAWDIR>\Unofficial\customParts\p
9=<DEFPART><LDRAWDIR>\Unofficial\customParts\parts
10=<HIDE><LDRAWDIR>\Unofficial\fade\p
11=<DEFPART><LDRAWDIR>\Unofficial\fade\parts

Up-to-date fadeStepColorParts.lst

  fadeStepColorParts.zip (Size: 106.58 KB / Downloads: 1)

Tests - generate parts list:
- With the above in place you should be able to generate a refreshed parts list from the menu. Note that the progress bar should cycle 3 times. First for the unofficial files, then for the official files and last for the children of both. I am aware that during the 2nd cycle, the message still says 'Processing Unofficial Library...' when in fact it is actually processing the official library at that time.
- If you continue to experience a crash when trying to generate a new list, let me know the following:
  - the paths to your archive libraries
  - the logged in user type and whether generation is performed with the user's paths or other
  - at what point in the process (looking at the messaging and elapsed time) does the application terminate abnormally

Rendering fade parts with static colour:
- Start with a virgin set of archive libraries as described above - complete.zip and lpub3dldrawunf.zip
- Ensure it is the first launch of the model file (generated LPub3D directory should not be there)
- Launch LPub3D and open the model file
- Navigate to the page containing the expected faded file
- If the model was opened successfully, proceed to the model directory and check the following:
- Open the corresponding 'CSI' file (note if you are using LDView with single call rendering checked, the CSI file will be a named step file) and check that the part expected to be faded is appropriately named - i.e. it will have a suffix of '-fade' in the name before the extension like 48933ps1-fade.dat
- If the part is correctly labeled in the CSI, this means the process to generate the fade file worked as designed. It means that you should also have:
- a file of the same name in your Unofficial/fade/parts directory
- a file of the same name in your lpub3dldrawunf.zip archive library at under the parts subdirectory
- If the file is properly generated but it is not rendered, this means your renderer is not able to detect the fade file at it's location
- To test you can do the following:
- Manually copy the fade file from Unofficial/fade/parts to Unofficial/parts and reload the file
- If the file is not correctly labeled in the CSI, it means LPub3D is not able to detect it as a static color file - i.e. it is unsuccessful to find or read the proper information to detect this file in the fadeStepColorParts.lst. There can be several reasons for this but the most likely is:
- The color part entry is incorrect and the RegExp command against the list returns exist=false
- You can substitute your parts list with the one I attached to test correct entries.

That's all I can think of at the moment. Let me know how you fare with your testing.

Cheers,