Official 'Getting Started - Linux' Wiki page available

[Nathanel Titane]

Greetings everyone,

It is with great pleasure that I announce the completion and availability of the LDraw 'Getting Started - Linux' Wiki page.

The wiki pretty much sums up the ways of getting to setup and properly install all the LDraw essentials (library and tools) on Linux based distributions.

It also details all the currently available Linux-native tools such as editors and viewers which can either be built from source or installed via their respective website sources or repositories.

Some of the editors are still works in progress and the contents of the Wiki will be maintained and updated accordingly, as the progress continues.

I will also attempt to script another utility to automate the fetching, deployment and installation of all the required elements to get users to edit models in no time.

Cheers!

[Roland Melkert]

Nice page,

Personally I do not agree with recommending the wine solution as a primary setup, but that might just be me being a bit bias (I'm the author of LDCad)

I will also attempt to script another utility to automate the fetching, deployment and installation of all the required elements to get users to edit models in no time.

Do you mean creating packages? If so, if you need any information on LDCad (e.g.. how to split bin and data etc) don't hesitate to contact me.

[Stephan Meisinger]

thanks nice, didn't know leocad had a package in debian. Nice!

[Nathanel Titane]

My pleasure

Please feel free to contact Leonardo Zide if you encounter any issues reagrding the applications operation on your system (bugs or features). ANything else should already be documented.

Browse through the application's preferences to customize it to your liking and enjoy!

[Nathanel Titane]

Thank you.

Well, to be honest, MLCad is by far the most complete and LDraw spec. compliant editor to date. Until Konstruktor comes out (very soon ^_^) or LeoCAD's dev decides to implement all of the necessary features, it'll have to be the #1 recommendation.

I am very much aware of the fact that it isn't the best recommendation as it is not Linux native. But having tried to use all other Linux native ones such as LDCad and LeoCAD, both seem to lack many of the required basics to enable full blown use of all the aspects of the LDraw LDR/MPD specification as well as other elements that make the user experience enjoyable.

Then again, MLCad does have its share of downers (developer's inexistent communication, as well as impossibly slow development cycle/updates).

Bare with me as I promised frequent updates to the Wiki, with more prominent Linux native and utmost LDraw compliant solutions, but that only depends on how fast the developers are willing to work for me to update such elements.

I am in constant communication with the developers and the process would obviously benefit some expert programmer input (as I am not one even though I can do some hacking around) and since the projects are technically open source and that the developers do seem to be keen in using proposed patches, solutions and recommendations.

By far, the biggest issue seems to be the developer's lack of time to invest in finishing the projects or their reluctance to improve their application in a more drastic/radical manner based on user experience feedback.

Let me explain:

LeoCad is well in line to be the editor of choice for Linux based platforms as it seems to offer much of the necessary flexibility in terms of UI and user input customization. Most of the LDraw spec. compliance seems to be present as the application reads, parses and draws dat ldr and mpd files.

I have been in constant communication with Leonardo Zide over the past few weeks to help him improve the application's current compliance status and even provided extensive feedback and reasoning as to how and why it could benefit from fully implementing the LDraw spec, notably, the full and proper parsing of mpd files into main and submodel assembly, as well as their editing, the addition of more flexible tool panels, the addition of a live model parts list and sub-assembly model list. For some odd reason, he avoids responding on such matter and even showed what seemed to be reluctance to implement such features... why, I have yet to know. Though, together, we have made significant improvements on how the appication UI (quad ISO pov and custom tool panels) will come to be in the next few updates and that is already much of an improvement on its own!

On the other hand, Park Joon Kyu's Konstruktor, when finished, will be fully LDraw compliant (it already is actually..), and OS agnostic. We have been working together to get it up to speed and have as many of the standard required tools and features, including many customizable panels, features, floating panels/modular UI and other cool things implemented form the get go. While he is utterly busy and only partly available to spend time on the application's development, I assure you he does so when he can and is even getting the latest code prepped for a new beta phase.

Now, when it comes to LDCad, I'm afraid that the UI is its biggest Achilles heel and that even I wasn't able to cope with it. Also, adding the standard ISO viewing and editing features as well would greatly enhance the experience. Might I recommend a full UI/codebase overhaul? I think you get the idea and it is needless to add more.

[Roland Melkert]

Thanks for the info.

I would like to add that LDCad has full mpd support it's one of the core features. It also offers basic part snapping, bendable parts, ghosting and grouping. So I was wondering, what kind of feature are you missing in regards to e.g. mlcad and leocad?

As for the GUI when I started the project I decided to go for the less is more kinda approach. But I'm well aware that people seem to have troubles getting started with it. I'm hoping to solve that using tutorials.

With the 1.4 version I'm working on improving some aspects of the GUI (I've already replaced the fonts with freetype renderings) but I don't think I'm going to change it in a big way anytime soon. Also I kinda like the gui myself , it's a hobby project after all.

But again thanks for the info page.

[Nathanel Titane]

Agreed that your CAD supports all the LDraw spec features. But if you do not mind my saying this, and please, reread what you wrote on the before-last paragraph of your reply:

'[...]but I don't think I'm going to change it in a big way anytime soon. Also I kinda like the gui myself , it's a hobby project after all.'

That is the issue right there... as I pointed out, even for the devs mentioned initially.

I do not blame you for it, and do hope that in some not so distant future you will reconsider the approach of building a more modern version of the UI for LDCad.

[Philippe Hurbain]

(...) and OS agnostic.

Any chance to get a Windows version some day?

[Nathanel Titane]

Well, you'd be amazed at the fact that all this time Park was developing Konstruktor and us not getting any update was him working on the Windows port, which is when he realized he's have to dump all the KDE dependencies and whatnot to enable a more portable solution to getting the code to function...

So yes, you will be getting a windows version, atop a Mac and Linux one too (last time we spoke that was the plan).

[Nathanel Titane]

Hello once again!

I have updated the LInux Wiki with the latest information concerning the availability of ready to install packages for LDView and LPub, for both Debian and Red-Hat based systems.

A big thank you goes out to Peter Bartfai and Kevin Clague for their communication and help.

Enjoy!

[Nathanel Titane]

Well, I do feel kind of disappointed at the fact that all the effort I had put into detailing as much information as possible and putting it down into the Wiki, seems to have been overwritten and modified by someone else.... so much for the effort...

[Nathanel Titane]

Reverted to previous version of the Wiki (June 17th 2014).

Added new entries to the LDraw Linux Wiki:

Buf3D/Buf3D+
LDraw Bulk Parser utility

[Santeri Piippo]

Well, I do feel kind of disappointed at the fact that all the effort I had put into detailing as much information as possible and putting it down into the Wiki, seems to have been overwritten and modified by someone else.... so much for the effort...

Reverted to previous version of the Wiki (June 17th 2014).

Okay I'm ticked off now. You do not seem to understand how a Wiki works.

First off, it's a wiki, a community effort. Anyone can edit any page, in fact there's a clearly written footer on the edit box that reads that by making changes you agree that anyone can mercilessly edit them. The 'getting started on Linux' is not your precious page.

Second off, yes I did modify the page in an effort to make it better. I did not void anyone's work by doing so, I contributed further to the page by reformatting it to make it look professional. You started it as a community member, I edited it further as another community member. Now you in turn took and reverted all my work instead of working off the page's existing state.

You vandal.

[Nathanel Titane]

Santeri, I am not trying to offend you in any way but had you paid attention to the so called formatting, you would have noticed that you chopped off many important notes and aspects that I specifically took time to outline to help anyone set it up on a linux based system.

You also chopped and forgot to edit the later, lower sections of the wiki page, keeping the Konstruktor section merged to whatever notes you had prepended over that section, without taking time to clean it up.

It is the irregularity and lack of concern for details that ticked ME off if anything.

Again, I am not against working together to achieve a better result, then again, please, do mind the effort i put into it, rather than simply wiping over 4000 commits out of the blue.

Would you like to have the wiki worked over via a shared Google Doc with me so that we can make it better, together then?

[Willy Tschager]

You've got mail. Please check your inbox at google.

w.