Hi Daniel, I see you are new here, so welcome to the LDraw community!
To answer some of you questions, here goes.
Buffer exchange is a pain, no way to soften that. Surely if you are depending on it heavily like in technic model instructions.
It originated from MLCad and was implemented later in LPub(3D) and LDCad.
To work with it and understand fully, please refer to one of the many tutorials that are out there, like mine:
https://sites.google.com/view/workingwit...r-exchange
Maybe you can study my showcase Technic set 42061 - Telehandler model too.
https://sites.google.com/view/workingwit...d/showcase
These instructions feature some of your wishes and might answer some of your questions too, I think.
As for the software development: you know this is done by hobbyists and comes as is.
I do agree that there are missing features and some could be improved or added.
But we are dependent on the authors of the software and the amount of time and effort they are willing to put in to it.
Development of LDCad is still going strong.
Development of LPub3D has come to a hold it seems.
What version of LPub3D do you use? I do not experience that many crashes. In fact, almost none.
You say "LPub3D default settings should follow current Lego visual language". Why? If you want to mimic exact LEGO instructions you can make your own "template".
I have a whole set of standard settings I just copy in the LDraw file before I start editing in LPub.
But most of the time I try making my own style for instructions though.
Render speed: I start going through the whole model using the native renderer, not creating any callouts, multi step pages, etc. Just go through it to see if the whole building process seems logic. I try to make as much instruction logic while modelling.
Once that is done, I start thinking of callouts. I add the metacommands for those manually to speed things up. Much faster than directly in LPub.
Once happy with the way things look, I start using LDView as rendere and finish instructions. Then often edit the PDF or PNG's manually.
Callouts with complex shapes like your example won't be done any time soon. This is too complex. Again: we depent on the developer of LPub3D and like said that has come to a hold it seems.
Complex callout arrows can be done.
Submodel last step and its application on same page with a divider should somehow be possible, but I haven't figured that one out.
You state that BUFEXCHG and REMOVE GROUP are hard to use. You are right about that. These are very complex and advanced features and hard to learn techniques.
IMHO I think you expect too much of the software. We could never make official LEGO like instructions, but can get very close.
Still, your wishes and ideas are very good.
To answer some of you questions, here goes.
Buffer exchange is a pain, no way to soften that. Surely if you are depending on it heavily like in technic model instructions.
It originated from MLCad and was implemented later in LPub(3D) and LDCad.
To work with it and understand fully, please refer to one of the many tutorials that are out there, like mine:
https://sites.google.com/view/workingwit...r-exchange
Maybe you can study my showcase Technic set 42061 - Telehandler model too.
https://sites.google.com/view/workingwit...d/showcase
These instructions feature some of your wishes and might answer some of your questions too, I think.
As for the software development: you know this is done by hobbyists and comes as is.
I do agree that there are missing features and some could be improved or added.
But we are dependent on the authors of the software and the amount of time and effort they are willing to put in to it.
Development of LDCad is still going strong.
Development of LPub3D has come to a hold it seems.
What version of LPub3D do you use? I do not experience that many crashes. In fact, almost none.
You say "LPub3D default settings should follow current Lego visual language". Why? If you want to mimic exact LEGO instructions you can make your own "template".
I have a whole set of standard settings I just copy in the LDraw file before I start editing in LPub.
But most of the time I try making my own style for instructions though.
Render speed: I start going through the whole model using the native renderer, not creating any callouts, multi step pages, etc. Just go through it to see if the whole building process seems logic. I try to make as much instruction logic while modelling.
Once that is done, I start thinking of callouts. I add the metacommands for those manually to speed things up. Much faster than directly in LPub.
Once happy with the way things look, I start using LDView as rendere and finish instructions. Then often edit the PDF or PNG's manually.
Callouts with complex shapes like your example won't be done any time soon. This is too complex. Again: we depent on the developer of LPub3D and like said that has come to a hold it seems.
Complex callout arrows can be done.
Submodel last step and its application on same page with a divider should somehow be possible, but I haven't figured that one out.
You state that BUFEXCHG and REMOVE GROUP are hard to use. You are right about that. These are very complex and advanced features and hard to learn techniques.
IMHO I think you expect too much of the software. We could never make official LEGO like instructions, but can get very close.
Still, your wishes and ideas are very good.
Jaco van der Molen
lpub.binarybricks.nl
lpub.binarybricks.nl