LDCad 1.4 Beta 1 (win+linux)

[Roland Melkert]

Hi all,

This weekend I finished the first beta of LDCad 1.4, it took a bit more time than I planned but hopefully it's worth the wait.

Some new features are:

• Script based animation.
  
• Groups are now stored in the LDraw file.
  
• Updated GUI (font and some icons wise).
  
• Made it easier to interact with session mode's and options
  
• Experimental support for the LDraw texture meta (all three variants)
  

See the changeLog.txt for the full list of changes and additions.

Animation is of course by far the most important new feature, animaitons are done using lua scripts. I added three animations to some of the example models (5510, 5580 and 8248).

Here's a clip of 8248 and 5580 in action.

I also added a full api reference to the LDCad site at

http://www.melkert.net/LDCad/docs/scriptAPI

and some getting started pointers concering making animations at

http://www.melkert.net/LDCad/docs/scriptExamples


With the 1.4 version I also changed the license a bit, it adds an exception to the non commercial use only part. As I received questions from people wanting to use LDCad for making building manuals in order to sell them.

Final note due to the new font rendering I'm not completely sure the 1.4 version will work on all Linux distributions currently compatible with 1.3a, so part of this first beta will be fine tuning that aspect of the Linux versions. But I can only do that if people report problems (or success) to me so I can make adjustments etc.

Thanks to Willy for tweaking some of the navigation arrow icons for me.

In closing some screenshots , hope you like the new version.

[Richard Speyer]

Looks great. Font rendering works on Slackware.
I won't have a chance to look at the animation stuff until maybe this weekend. The examples are looking really impressive.

One feature request would be to separate the config from the install.
On Linux you should be able to use $XDG_CONFIG_HOME


genDskEntry.sh is a nice addition.

[Roland Melkert]

Thanks,

If you really want to split the app into binary and config etc, you can do it with the current versions using a LDCad.cfg in the same location as the main executable (this is essentially what the windows setup version does, as it's exe etc is identical to the archive one).

In the LDCad.cfg you just point to the absolute locations of the various locations.

Example LDCad.cfg (only config is redirected, rest uses the default)

Code:

[paths]
logDir=<appDir>/logs
cfgDir=/path/to/config/location
guiDir=<appDir>/gui
resourcesDir=<appDir>/resources
colorBinDir=<appDir>/colorBin
partBinDir=<appDir>/partBin
examplesDir=<appDir>/examples
templatesDir=<appDir>/templates
donorsDir=<appDir>/donors
shadowDir=<appDir>/shadow
dirSeeds=<appDir>/seeds

This is somewhat untested for the linux version though.

[Philippe Hurbain]

Hi Roland,

I'm trying to build a model using LDCad, and I have a few questions/remarks...
- Is there a convenient way to insert a building step if I realize that I forgot it and the model is completed?
- How do I find a part by it's name or part number if I don't know in which category it belongs? the filter is great, but works only if I am already in the right category (or deep enough in "function" tree)...OK, just found the "Search the inventory". I thought it was a minifig generator
- I would appreciate if it was possible to filter out dithered colors and show only LDConfig ones.
- Some of the category icons are not iconic at all... I guess they are auto generated from first part in each category? Dunno what you could do better...

Edit: Found also how to remove dithered colors (Prefs/Ldraw/Calculate missing dither off)

[Roland Melkert]

Is there a convenient way to insert a building step if I realize that I forgot it and the model is completed?

You mean the step it self (step label click, insert) or moving some parts to a different step? (right click when a selection is active) 'move to step'. That will open a submenu (you can keep open if you need to move to multiple steps) which lets you choose the destination step for the selection.

Edit: Found also how to remove dithered colors (Prefs/Ldraw/Calculate missing dither off)

Disabling that option will cause models using those colors to render in grey, alternatively you could add 'exclude calcedDither' to the end of 'solid.cbg' file to just hide them in the 'Solid plastic' group. Or create an additional color bin group file for it altogether.

Some of the category icons are not iconic at all... I guess they are auto generated from first part in each category? Dunno what

You are right the mascots for the by category groups use the first one as those groups are auto generated as an alternative to the sorted tree. I'll see if I can add better default mascots at some point, never really thought about it as I don't use those groups myself. If you really want you can edit the pbg files (in partBin/default/cats) though, but beware program updates can overwrite them at some point.

[Philippe Hurbain]

Thanks Roland!
As for the steps: I have a bunch of bricks added more or less with the right sequence but forgot to add steps. In MLCad or SR3D a text window with allows me to place the step at the right point in brick sequence. How do I do this in LDCad?

[Roland Melkert]

A 'source' (or at least a list of bricks in placement order) window is on my to do list, maybe in version 1.5.

In the mean time I could add an 'insert step after (last item in) selection' feature in the next beta as it is very easy to implement.

[Philippe Hurbain]

OK... not a big deal for me now anyway, just wondering...

...and another question: is it possible to move a rotated part in the directions its local orientation, instead of world main directions?

[Roland Melkert]

You can change the grid orientation through the editing plane menu, or by simply pressing 'o' while the part is selected.

Pressing 'o' while nothing is selected changed the grid back to absolute space.

[Philippe Hurbain]

Excellent!

[Philippe Hurbain]

My LDCad is broken! (*)
The rotate move arrow thingy is no longer displayed (but the box showing parts coordinates is still displayed, and I can rotate/move parts using keyboard arrows).

(*) As usual with computer problem, the issue probably lies between keyboard and chair

[Roland Melkert]

Weird,

Is is still missing after a program restart?

Are you sure it isn't just hidden, maybe you pressed 'p' by mistake at some point.

[Philippe Hurbain]

Sorry, "p" was the problem. Somehow I missed it in shortcuts documentation and I found no entry in program menus... Thanks again!

[Jason Smith]

Haven't dug into it yet but 1.4 looks great. Quite eager to learn all about the animations, now that is an awesome and pro feature.

Thanks again for all your hard work!

[Jason Smith]

Roland would it be possible to create a simple youtube animation scripting tutorial from start to finish? Just to assist with those of who benefit from visual learning.

I've looked over the scripting API page as well as the examples page but it's all still a little overwhelming for me.

Cheers

[Roland Melkert]

I'm not sure if a video would be that helpful as I'm usually all over the place when making a script, it's like play dough most of the time.

But I'll try do a very basic one when I finish beta 2 next week or so.

Maybe (in the meantime) looking at the example script of the 5510 model will make things more clear, as that one is currently the simplest of the examples.

The next beta will also have an additional example script to learn from, but it will be the most complicated one so far (400 lines and counting and I still have to add the comments).

[Roland Melkert]

Hi all,

I just finished some bugs and the OpenGL export feature for beta 2, and I wanted to share my very first export with you.

It's an animation of the 8071 model which will be included as an example with beta 2.

   

The clip is in full HD, but youtube might down sample the first half of it during playback, like usual, just restart it when it goes to hd in such a case.

I also wanted to ask if people have found any problems using Beta 1 so I might also fix those for the next beta I would like to release later this week.