Technic 1977

[N. W. Perry]

Hello NW Perry,
Thanks a lot for your comments. I am surprised to see 2 remarks I can't place after almost using MLcad for 10 years.
1. the whole implement is about 5 LDU off-center in the X direction; I don't know what this means? I am not aware that you can place a model somewhere specific.
2. [color=#333333][size=small][font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]model's origin (0,0,0) so far away; probably same as point 1. I will try to find out in MLcad where you can adjust these settings.
3. Regarding the gears, I never do the meshing of the gears, was not aware that is necessary.
4. I will read the guidance, I only used the MPDcenter check tool.
To summarize I have some home work to do!!

Thanks again, much appreciated.
Regards Allard[/font][/size][/color]

1. Here's a screenshot from LDCad showing what I mean:
   
I've displayed a grid at a 5 LDU resolution (and hidden one 1x8 beam for clarity). Looking down from above, the tractor itself is visible at bottom, and the attachment (your submodel "equipment1") is at top. The vertical white grid line shows the center of the model; notice that the main tractor is properly centered, but "equipment1" is one grid square too far to the left. Since its current position is <-320 16 1625>, all that's necessary is to add 5 to the X coordinate, so: <-315 16 1625>.

2. Not sure how it's done in MLCad since I don't have the program, but it should be quick and easy, and worth doing. Depending on what program others use to view your model, it might give strange results when we try to rotate the view, if it's set to rotate around the model's origin. (I personally like to set the Y-origin at the lowest physical point of the model, so it sits on the "floor" and doesn't appear to be floating when I go to render the model, but that's not the only way to do it.)

3. Meshing gears isn't necessary for OMR purposes, it's really just your own discretion as a modeler. While I always mesh everything when building Technic models in LDraw, it was a presumption on my part that most other modelers do as well, but perhaps the practice isn't as widespread as I guessed. (It seems many of the good folks here put their considerable skills into tackling behind-the-scenes issues, allowing less accomplished LDraw-ers like me to focus on things like meshing gears.) :-)

4. Yes, MPDCenter won't know if you're building a set that has alternate builds, but there are specific guidelines for naming those files. However, I'm not actually sure how that would apply here—most Technic sets have 2 or more totally different models you can build, but in this case it's one model with a variety of alternate attachments (and then I think the set has a couple of fully standalone alternate builds as well).

So I'd open that question to the community as to what's the most appropriate naming scheme for this set. I think my personal solution would be to have all the attachments included as submodels in the final building step, at the appropriate positions, and then to "comment out" all but the one currently being displayed. All of that together would then be named "851 - Tractor - Main model.mpd". Then if you decided to build the two standalone models, they would be named "851 - Tractor - Power saw.mpd" and "851 - Tractor - Wood splitter.mpd"—or whatever you determine those models to actually represent!