[LDPartEditor] 0.8.26 Beta Released [unstable] (new engine / 64bit only)

[Nils Schmidt]

Sorry, but version 0.8.26 is now marked as unstable / impossible to use.
I reverted all download paths (github / sourceforge) back to version 0.8.25.

J.C. Tchang found a bug, which triggered an infinite loop on the first start.
I apologize for any inconvinience! :/

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Greetings,

here is version 0.8.26 with 8 bug fixes and 4 enhancements (including a completely new and fast render engine)!
You can see if the new engine is active when you take a look at the window title: "LD Part Editor 0.8.26 (OpenGL 3.3)"
In case of a hardware or software incompatibility it would be written as "LD Part Editor 0.8.26 (OpenGL 2.0)".

I did a few improvements here and there, too,  which I do not describe in detail.
Unfortunately, I have to drop the 32bit support for a moment.


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

Changelog:
(4 new features and 8 bug fixes)

With this release you will be able to...

• ...benefit from a brand new render engine (thanks to the power of OpenGL 3.3, which makes better use of the GPU).
  
• ...activate "Smooth Shading" (requires the new render engine).
  
• ...benefit from a faster program start.
  
• ...benefit from better performance for "Show All".
  

The following critical issues were fixed:

1. Toggle comment / TEXMAP didn't adjust the text selection.
   
2. Sometimes a time-consuming selection with the selection rectangle did select nothing.
   
3. Background Image: "Previous" and "Next" buttons skipped images.
   
4. Edger2 wrongly added condlines in the middle of slightly warped quads
   
5. Edger2 put condlines/edge lines between surfaces and... protractors.
   
6. Double click doesn't select the last character of a value if it was at end of line.
   
7. !TEXMAP PLANAR: Wrong winding for CCW faces (with INVERTNEXT)
   
8. Fixed a rare exception regarding directory I/O
   

What will the next release 0.8.27 deliver? Bug fixes, more header validation features, usability improvements...

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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, you have to excecute the shell script "run.sh" to start LDPE.
   

Please note that this software is in the beta stage. Although, LDPE 0.8.26 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, 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:

• 64-bit Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.8
  
• OpenGL 2.1 compatible Graphics Card
  
• Operating System (64-bit): Windows [7 or newer], Linux [e.g. Ubuntu Linux >=14.4]
  
• CPU: Multicore-Processor e.g. Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon II (>2.0Ghz)
  
• RAM: 4GB
  
• Video-Memory: 1 GB
  
• Free Disk Space: 100 MB
  

Recommended Requirements:

• Operating System (64bit): Windows 7,8,10, Linux [e.g. Ubuntu Linux >=14.4]
  
• OpenGL 3.3 compatible Graphics Card
  
• CPU: Multicore-Processor with 4 cores (or more)
  
• RAM: >4 GB
  
• Video-Memory: >1 GB
  
• Free Disk Space: 512 MB
  
• For a faster start, LDPartEditor and the LDraw™ library should be installed on a SSD.
  

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How to check your JVM version (32- or 64-bit):
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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:
This Java instance does not support a 64-bit JVM. Please install the desired version.