[LDPartEditor] 0.8.20 Beta Released

[Nils Schmidt]

Hello,

this could be version 0.9.0... but it's still 0.8.20... the best is yet to come.


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

Changelog:
(11 new features and 5 bug fixes)

With this release you will be able to...

• ...use the 3D editor and the text editor in one window. You can enable this under "Options...->Misc. Options->Text and 3D editor arrangement". It needs a restart of the application.
  
• ...use the TJunctionFinder to just "find" possible T-junctions without changing the mesh.
  
• ...deselect objects only with Ctrl+Click (Ctrl+Marquee is not possible anymore).
  
• ...add objects to the selection (Ctrl is pressed and you use the selection marquee or Ctrl+Click).
  
• ...benefit from the fact that the existing selection is cleared if nothing was selected and Ctrl was not pressed.
  
• ...find the "Last opened Files/Projects" on the "New Part - Open Part - ..." toolbar.
  
• ...benefit from the fact that empty text editor windows are populated with a new tab instead of creating a new text editor window.
  
• ...restore the complete viewport state for different files. Each file has now its own 3D viewport configuration. Open file A, activate "Random Colours" and you switch to file B to do something different without "Random Colours". If you switch back to file A, "Random Colours" are activated again. However, this automatic feature is not limited to the random colour mode. It includes every 3D viewport setting.
  
• ..."group" a selection. Select non-subfile content in the 3D editor. Open the context menu over the 3D view and select "Join selection (Text Editor)" to bring together what belongs together!
  
• ...see a warning/info, when "Move Adjacent Data" is on (for translate/rotate/scale).
  
• ...benefit from the fact that "Quick Fix Similar" for vertex declarations deletes other vertices (!LPE VERTEX), too.
  

The following critical issues were fixed:

1. SyncEdit: The cursor jumped ahead after I tried to edit a vertex
   
2. Switching the tabs in the 3D editor modified the last visited file location.
   
3. Some issues with the hint/warning/error tree.
   
4. Pasting something does not disable "Move Adjacent Data".
   
5. The selection highlight feature in the text editor was sometimes not synchronised with the 3D view.
   
6. Other minor bug fixes (regarding undo / redo with selection and/or hidden objects).
   

What will the next release 0.8.21 deliver? Bug fixes, selection and manipulator features, more features for the angle protractor...

* well..., I need to reproduce the errors first. I was not able to...

---

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.

Make sure that you choose the right architecture for your OS and Java Virtual Machine (JVM) (64bit or 32bit).
A short guide how to check if a 64bit JVM is installed on your system is located at the bottom of this message.

1. Download the zip-Archive
   
2. Extract the archive content to the location of your choice
   
3. On windows, double-click "run.bat" to start LDPE.
   
4. On linux/mac, you have to excecute the shell script "run.sh" to start LDPE.
   

Please note that this software is in the beta stage. Although, LDPE 0.8.20 was tested, there are already known issues  for this release. There is a potential risk of data loss.

You can search for updates if you do the following steps:

1. On windows, double-click "update.bat" to search for updates.
   
2. On linux/mac, you have to excecute the shell script "update.sh".
   

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:

• Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.8
  
• OpenGL 2.1 compatible Graphics Card
  
• Operating System (32/64bit): Windows [XP; Vista; 7 or newer], Mac OS X [>=10.6], Linux [e.g. Ubuntu Linux >=10.4]
  
• CPU: Multicore-Processor e.g. Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon II (>2.0Ghz)
  
• RAM: 4GB
  
• Video-Memory: 512 MB
  
• Free Disk Space: 100 MB
  

Recommended Requirements:

• Operating System (64bit): Windows 7, Mac OS X [>=10.6], Linux [e.g. Ubuntu Linux >=10.4]
  
• CPU: Multicore-Processor with 4 cores (or more)
  
• RAM: >4 GB
  
• Video-Memory: >=1 GB
  
• Free Disk Space: 512 MB
  

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How to check your JVM version (32- or 64-bit):
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can try on the command line:

Code:

java -d64 version

If it's not a 64-bit version, you'll get a message that looks like:

Code:

This Java instance does not support a 64-bit JVM. Please install the desired version.

In general, I recommend to install the 64-bit version of the JVM for Java 8.