LDInspector

[Michael Heidemann]

In this file there are quite some more interesting lines that I don't understand.

Code:

...
1 14 -80.005 -520 -410.001 -1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 -1 4565 - station - crane - hook.ldr
1 14 -400 -488 -410 0 0 1 0 1 0 -1 0 0 3492c01.dat

0 NOFILE
0 FILE 4565 - station - crane.ldr
0 !LEOCAD MODEL BACKGROUND GRADIENT 0 0 0.74902 1 1 1
0 station - crane
0 Name: 4565 - station - crane.ldr
...

According to the empty line, the "0 NOFILE" meta seems to belong to the following "0 FILE" meta, but as far as I understand the proposal https://forums.ldraw.org/thread-23683.ht...ght=nofile this would "disable" all following file content, for example if binary data is attached (like for an png). But then I don't understand why this meta is included 25 times in a single file and is followed by plain LDraw lines. Additionally, the mentioned sub-file is referenced directly in the main section and therefore should not be skipped.  Now I'm lost completely.

There is another discussion at https://forums.ldraw.org/thread-23762.ht...ght=nofile which suspects combination of "LDCad, MLCad, LPub3D and a texteditor" to be a possible reason for multiple NOFILE metas, but I don't get an idea what LDInspector should do (a) for rendering and (b) for OMR checking.

Can anyone help me with this?   At the time of writing, LDInspector just ignores any "0 NOFILE" comment. With this approach, the rendered image of 4565 seems to be quite valid...

As far as I can see you missed some basics.
If a file contains a 0 FILE line it is a mpd content file. If it does not contain a 0 FILE statement it is a plain ldraw file.
mpd content files are created because it was only possible to share your moc if you give all files you used to the next user. If you missed a single file, your model was broken. Just for unofficial or private made parts this was a mess. If we now add a 0 FILE in front of each single file and optional a 0 NOFILE at the end we can just combine those file by adding them (at that time this was done by console statements).
I hope this remembering is not too far away from real creation process