LDCad 1.5 Alpha 1 (win+linux)

[Roland Melkert]

With the 1.5 version of LDCad I decided to take another approach then my usual beta versions followed by a 'stable' one.

I wanted to give people the opportunity to play with some of the new features while other are still under construction. Downside of this all is an Alpha version might be less stable then beta ones.

This 1.5 Alpha version houses 2 of the 4 planned major features. Both are pretty much 100% complete but might need some additional fine tuning, so any feedback is appreciated.

The features are:
Window overlay / docking

LDraw source window

Note: To undock a window grab it by some of it's 'dead space', To dock a window hold down the ctrl key at the location you want it to be. Optionally you can also lock the configuration (from the gui menu) to prevent accidental unlocking.

There are also many small features / tweaks, like:
improved scroll bar behavior
Part bin appearance tweaks (allows for a much smaller bin width and horizontal orientation)
And may of the smaller feature requests made in the 1.4b forum thread.

For a full list of all changes read the changeLog.txt file.

You can download the latest Alpha version (from now on) at:
http://www.melkert.net/LDCad/nextVer

Please let me know your thoughts.

[Merlijn Wissink]

Nice!

I'm going to try it out this evening or tommorow.
At the moment I'm not working on any instructions though, so I can't test the new features in some real-life scenario.

[Willy Tschager]

Just some impressions from a quick look:

* I really hoped the LMB click somewhere where there are no bricks would unselect all.
* I find it odd that the access to the Color, Parts and source window is somehow hidden in the contextual main menu you get only by the "Go main menu".
* I wish the Edit, About, ... had a mirror in the menu bar by default, not forcing me to dive into the "Menubar config..."
* I'm fine with the floating windows following your cursor immediately but the need to press STRG to dock them was unexpected.
* I love the transparent arrows in the brick categories
* I wish the "Small menu font" setting would also apply to the Menubar and the status bar itself
* I expected that I would be able to resort the order of brick sequence in the source window by drag'n'drop.
* I wish a single or double click in the color history bar would not only change the color in the part bin, but also in the selection, making a cursor shift+click to the "Use current color" box obsolete ... just to speed up building.

w.

[Philippe Hurbain]

* I really hoped the LMB click somewhere where there are no bricks would unselect all.

Initially that was my opinion too, but the way it currently behaves avoids to accidentally deselect a complex multi-selection, so I came to like it as is.

* I find it odd that the access to the Color, Parts and source window is somehow hidden in the contextual main menu you get only by the "Go main menu".

Agreed, well hidden. Too well!

* but the need to press STRG to dock them was unexpected.

Thanks for the tip Willy, dunno if I would have found it on myself! Just had to figure out that "STRG" was CTRL key

Otherwise... I guess this was an already existing feature, but I just discovered the split screen feature and swap to unsplit using space bar. Really great stuff, but I also foung a big bug: when I am in full scren mode, the mouse focus remains on the lower right split screen area (except if the full screen view is a zoom of the lower right pane, in this case it works normally).

[Roland Melkert]

I really hoped the LMB click somewhere where there are no bricks would deselect all.

I'm considering dropping the current left mouse button handling to make room for multiselect. This also means a left click anywhere would reset the selection unless you hold down ctrl. But I also agree with Philio about the loosing your seleciton by mistake. So I'm looking for a way to keep both methods open.

I find it odd that the access to the Color, Parts and source window is somehow hidden in the contextual main menu you get only by the "Go main menu".

The toplevel partbin, etc menus aren't just specific to the part bin window, they are for the bin itself which the windows only visualize. I did consider adding open new part/color/source window items to the view menu but as that menu is actually the 'edit views' menu I thought it would be messy. Maybe I have to reorganize the view menu so it becomes a more generic view menu like in most programs.

I wish the Edit, About, ... had a mirror in the menu bar by default, not forcing me to dive into the "Menubar config..."

I guess it's a personal thing as I initially intended not having a menu bar at all as the application is context driven menu wise (e.g. a right click in the edit edit area while no selection is active will open the edit menu and when a selection is active it will open the selection menu.).

I'm fine with the floating windows following your cursor immediately but the need to press STRG to dock them was unexpected.

Sorry, I forgot to mention this The first versions used ctrl to 'flip' the state (undock while docked, dock while undocked). But I found it to behave very annoying while moving a docked window around.

I love the transparent arrows in the brick categories

Me too, you can thank Owen for that idea .

I wish the "Small menu font" setting would also apply to the Menubar and the status bar itself

It actually does scale but the icons keep it from getting smaller. Maybe I'll add a second set of icons for use with the smaller menus.

I expected that I would be able to resort the order of brick sequence in the source window by drag'n'drop.

You mean while dragging form edit area to the source window? You are right it should reset the position and start a source insert while inside a source window. I will add it in the next version. In the meantime dragging inside the source window itself does reorder the lines (in selection order) even if you drop it at the same place.

I wish a single or double click in the color history bar would not only change the color in the part bin, but also in the selection, making a cursor shift+click to the "Use current color" box obsolete ... just to speed up building.

This would break the working color concept as you will never be able to just change the working color (in order to add a new part) while a selection is active. I could however add a ctrl+click in order to apply it to the selection (dbl click might be a problem as the fist click might change the color below the cursor) .

I guess this was an already existing feature, but I just discovered the split screen feature and swap to unsplit using space bar. Really great stuff, but I also foung a big bug: when I am in full scren mode, the mouse focus remains on the lower right split screen area (except if the full screen view is a zoom of the lower right pane, in this case it works normally).

The zoom feature is present in 1.2 and up, but you are right I broke it while working the docking stuff in. It's an easy fix though.

[Merlijn Wissink]

I think I've found another bug (if it wasn't already mentioned).

When I split the editor (either horizontal, vertical or 4-way) and I swap to full screen (using the menu or spacebar), only one of the editor windows is behaving correctly. So, for example, when I swap to full-screen from the left window, everything works fine, but when I swap to full-screen from the other window, the editor behaves very weird (I can't rotate the camera, new bricks follow the mouse pointer etc. etc.)

You should maybe try it out yourself, it's a bit difficult to explain.

[Roland Melkert]

Philo also found this one, it got broken while adding the docking feature it should work just fine in 1.4b though. It will be fixed in Alpha 2/Beta 1

[Willy Tschager]

I find it odd that the access to the Color, Parts and source window is somehow hidden in the contextual main menu you get only by the "Go main menu".

The toplevel partbin, etc menus aren't just specific to the part bin window, they are for the bin itself which the windows only visualize. I did consider adding open new part/color/source window items to the view menu but as that menu is actually the 'edit views' menu I thought it would be messy. Maybe I have to reorganize the view menu so it becomes a more generic view menu like in most programs.

Agree.

I wish a single or double click in the color history bar would not only change the color in the part bin, but also in the selection, making a cursor shift+click to the "Use current color" box obsolete ... just to speed up building.

This would break the working color concept as you will never be able to just change the working color (in order to add a new part) while a selection is active. I could however add a ctrl+click in order to apply it to the selection (dbl click might be a problem as the fist click might change the color below the cursor) .

Thanks.

w.

[Milan Vančura]

Roland, MANY thanks for LDCad 1.5! (even I know it is still alpha)

This is not just a new version of one editor. This is the first ldraw editor on the world(*) which knows to open a model already edited in another SW like LPub and do not mess it. All comments stay OK and at the correct place, no lines are reordered, no meta information is lost. This is great result, great move forward in the world of ldraw editors. Congratulations, Roland, and many thanks again.

I also thought about improvements (listed below) but I must say the above is the main feature. So my wish #1 is "do not break this functionality, please"

More ideas/wishes:

Source window:

* I'd prefer if a double-click on line "0 STEP" does "Go to that STEP"
* also, it would be nice to have a number of step shown, for example an icon at the beginning of the line (i.e. white ellipsis with a step number)
* an indicator/icon showing the piece on this line is hidden
* a hot key with a function scrolling the source window at the position of the current step (of current (sub)model)
* highlight the current step in the source window (lighter background etc.)
* double click on a submodel reference line should open that submodel
* double click breaks the selection which is annoying - can you distinguish between click and double click so double click does not do "click" action?
* ROTSTEP support: double click opening a subwindow where one can rotate the model and a radio-button "absolute/relative turn".

More advanced - for next versions:

* "color arrows hot keys": using 'p' in move mode one can see a cross of arrows and the "toolbox arrow" in the third direction. I wish those arrows were colored (red, green blue) and there were hotkeys for move in red, green and blue directions. This speeds up the final positioning of the brick. These keys should work regardless of the mode (move/rotation), CTRL+those keys for rotations around those color arrows.

* local grid ('o' key) improvement: local grid is a big help in many cases but it works only for a center of brick and default direction. The great improvement would be to be able to set local grid to place+direction of defined special points, like points of snap. For example a side stud of 'headlight brick', rotation/snap point of hinges etc.
* next question would be how to specify the same for the other ("placed") piece. But I do not have any idea how the UI should look like for that.

---
*) other than dead, Windows-only and 1980-like MLCAD, of course

[Roland Melkert]

Thanks

All comments stay OK and at the correct place, no lines are reordered, no meta information is lost

Only lines you actually changed during editing will be reformatted all others will use the cached original line string. So you might loose (some) indenting etc on type 1 lines, although I'm considering making improvements on that front too

And a second side note: the source window currently uses separate formatting (more efficient for OpenGL prepping) code so it will format all lines uniformly (indenting wise etc) but only for display purposes.

* I'd prefer if a double-click on line "0 STEP" does "Go to that STEP"
* double click on a submodel reference line should open that submodel
* double click breaks the selection which is annoying - can you distinguish between click and double click so double click does not do "click" action?

I'll implement this, I've been thinking to drop the current double click to open props anyway as it contradicts the 3D double click behavior.

* also, it would be nice to have a number of step shown, for example an icon at the beginning of the line (i.e. white ellipsis with a step number)
* an indicator/icon showing the piece on this line is hiddenl

I was thinking about adding icons to indicate grouping/hiding but thought it would take up to much space like the col/exp indent does while no submodels are used. I could however gray out hidden lines.

* a hot key with a function scrolling the source window at the position of the current step (of current (sub)model)

'Scroll to selection', and 'follow selection' will be available in Alpha 2.

* highlight the current step in the source window (lighter background etc.)

I was thinking about adding an option to limit the rendered source to the 'current step' or 'up to current step'.

* ROTSTEP support: double click opening a subwindow where one can rotate the model and a radio-button "absolute/relative turn".

Once things are a bit more stable/finished I was planning to fully support some thirdparty meta highlighting and property wise. First on the list are the LPub ones.

* "color arrows hot keys": using 'p' in move mode one can see a cross of arrows and the "toolbox arrow" in the third direction. I wish those arrows were colored (red, green blue) and there were hotkeys for move in red, green and blue directions. This speeds up the final positioning of the brick. These keys should work regardless of the mode (move/rotation), CTRL+those keys for rotations around those color arrows.

New in 1.5 is the option to do keyboard move's while the pin is in rotation mode by using ctrl+arrows. You can also disable the projection mapping so up/down is always the y-axis etc. I like the color coding suggestion might take that up in a future version.

* local grid ('o' key) improvement: local grid is a big help in many cases but it works only for a center of brick and default direction. The great improvement would be to be able to set local grid to place+direction of defined special points, like points of snap. For example a side stud of 'headlight brick', rotation/snap point of hinges etc.
* next question would be how to specify the same for the other ("placed") piece. But I do not have any idea how the UI should look like for that.

Yes using the snap info pos/ori would be nice to have indeed, but like you say it's difficult to implement gui (indication) wise. Although I'm thinking tab key for controlling it would probably work.


Thanks for your input.

[Roland Melkert]

I think I've fixed all problems I know off and if nothing else pops up while doing some test myself I want to release Alpha 2 soon so I can start working on the remaining bigger 1.5 features.

Did anybody find some additional problems (especially things that do work in 1.4) so I might include fixes / tweaks for it in Alpha 2.

[Milan Vančura]

Thank you for your answer, Roland. I'm looking forward for next Alpha.

* also, it would be nice to have a number of step shown, for example an icon at the beginning of the line (i.e. white ellipsis with a step number)
* an indicator/icon showing the piece on this line is hiddenl

I was thinking about adding icons to indicate grouping/hiding but thought it would take up to much space like the col/exp indent does while no submodels are used. I could however gray out hidden lines.

You're right about hidden parts: gray out is better then an icon. If you change the color of that line text only, it may be safely combined with a different background indicating current step.

For step number: I think that's safe to add an icon there because you can use the column for "plus" indicator on the left. It cannot be that the same line is both a step and a submodel reference.

'Scroll to selection', and 'follow selection' will be available in Alpha 2.

Features about selection are nice but the same for steps will be very handy. Imagine: one presses PgDown, new step is shown in 3D area, the source windows scrolls down and the new current step is highlighted. Great, isn't it?

I was thinking about adding an option to limit the rendered source to the 'current step' or 'up to current step'.

This looks too intrusive for me. I always want to be able to see the whole model, for example to be able to move parts to another step, even forward. I believe it would be enough if lines of the current step had different color of background and there was a hotkey to scroll the source window to show the current step. And another to start the automatic mode 'follow the current step' - as discussed above.

Once things are a bit more stable/finished I was planning to fully support some thirdparty meta highlighting and property wise. First on the list are the LPub ones.

Oh, that's not an easy job. I was surprised how many meta commands LPub uses... Great you are brave enough to plan such a work

New in 1.5 is the option to do keyboard move's while the pin is in rotation mode by using ctrl+arrows. You can also disable the projection mapping so up/down is always the y-axis etc. I like the color coding suggestion might take that up in a future version.

Thanks for a tip, it really works My idea adds two point to that: firstly the visual control: no more doubt about what's the left-right direction and what's the up-down one. And secondly my idea adds a chance to work in all three dimensions at the same time. That's very handy when you position new part in "non-standard way" or part-snapping data is missing or too many parts are around.

Yes using the snap info pos/ori would be nice to have indeed, but like you say it's difficult to implement gui (indication) wise.

I know. I just wanted to support you, to show you it's not only you who finds this feature useful

[Roland Melkert]

I havn't had the time to make the hidden/step lines tweaks yet. I didn't want to delay alpha 2 for it as it has a couple of severe bugs etc.

I do like your fg/bg suggestions though so it will become available at one point. I also like your follow the current step suggestion so I will add that too in a next next version

I did however made some other visual tweaks to the source rendering (e.g. hottracking sync with the 3d window).

Oh, that's not an easy job. I was surprised how many meta commands LPub uses... Great you are brave enough to plan such a work

I'll probably cheat a bit by not making it completely 'dummy proof' just some highlighting based upon the first meta keyword and some comment like editing of the trailing text etc.

Thanks for your input.

[Owen Dive]

I love the transparent arrows in the brick categories

Me too, you can thank Owen for that idea .

You're welcome! I hope to get some time next week to download this latest version and have a play. I will say that I very much liked what I saw in the videos.

One question though: it looks like the source viewer treats each line as atomic - an object to be shifted around to where it needs to go, but not changed at all (except possibly indenting). Do/will we have the ability to adjust position/rotation values from the source viewer?

[Roland Melkert]

One question though: it looks like the source viewer treats each line as atomic - an object to be shifted around to where it needs to go, but not changed at all (except possibly indenting). Do/will we have the ability to adjust position/rotation values from the source viewer?

Yes the lines inside the source window are managed as single objects (subclasses) not plain text. You can edit most common ones using a dedicated property dialog and I do plan to add more and more overtime. The prop dlg is opend by pressing enter (or MMB in alpha 2) while a line is selected.

All type 0 lines have a specialized dialog or will at least use the comment property dialog.

Type 1 lines use the same dialog you get when you click on the info panel in the 3d area. They represent the whole selection but you actually set the first reference's matrix (in abs coordinates if nesting is on).

Currently part level (2..5) lines don't have editors at all but I might add some of them as snap info editing is pending for 1.5.

[Roland Melkert]

I've uploaded Alpha 2

It contains mostly bugfixes and tweaks.

It also contain (experimental) compressed library support. So you can use e.g. complete.zip or ldrawunf.zip without having to unpack them first. Currently this can only be configured after the first normal ldraw location selection at first startup.

http://www.melkert.net/LDCad/nextVer

It also contains a new example, namely 5541 I drew while (re)testing the general editing stuff.

[Milan Vančura]

'Scroll to selection', and 'follow selection' will be available in Alpha 2.

Do you have a full list of what's new in Alpha 2? (So I can test everything.)

Thanks,

Milan

[Roland Melkert]

Do you have a full list of what's new in Alpha 2? (So I can test everything.)

Full list of changes is always in the changeLog.txt file in the docs folder, the Alpha 2 section is this:

Code:

--==1.5 Alpha 2 (26-05-2015)==--
Fixed:
- [Misc] Fixed (minor) memory leaks after playing around with valgrind.
- [PartBin] Fixed major memory leaks caused by continuous re-rendering of overview (mpd) groep items.
- [PartBin] Find selection (again) no longer crashes the application.
- [SourceWin] Removed the extra space between '//' and text for the comment meta's.
- [SourceWin] Moving lines from one path to another now acts like expected.
- [SourceWin] Moving groups around will now automatically ungroup things ending up in a different subfile in order to prevent group file io problems.
- [Editing] Zooming a multi-view window using the spacebar now again works like it should.
- [Editing] path/spring auto group handling no longer causes all kinds of problems when using multiple dynamic parts.
- [Editing] Workpart insertion now always uses the 'rest' properties of the item to be inserted while rendering the to be added part. This was noticeable the most while adding path points.
- [Editing] Path/spring content should now regenerate correctly after all undo operations.
- [Editing] ctrl+home will now correctly use any group center settings.
- [Springs] Spring point and anchors no longer fail to render the editing pin while selected. This also solves them misbehaving while moving start/end groups around.
- [Examples] Corrected the misaligned front bumper on the 5571 model.


Improved/Changed:
- [Menus] Reorganized the view menu to include the new part/color/source window items and moved the old view content to a new 'editing view' submenu.
- [Menus] Toggle items can now be navigated to the preceding option value by using right mouse clicks.
- [Templates] Removed the spaces in the "elecCable 1Wide" and "elecCable 2Brick" template filenames.
- [ColorBin] ctrl+LBM on any of the history items will apply that color to the selection. ctrl+LBM on a wheel segment will do the same.
- [SourceWin] You can now start dragging selected lines  after the last selection click without having to release it first.
- [SourceWin] A different menu will be opened depending on the click location.
- [SourceWin] Changed RMB/MMB behaviour to match editing window.
- [Editing] shift+LMB will now always only the current working part to the selected. It no longer acts different when a selection is active.
- [Paths] New path points will no longer be forced in front of the last one if there are no end caps present for the path or the path is looped.


Added:
- [LDraw] Added full support for using compressed library's (e.g complete.zip) without having to unpack them to disk first.
- [LDraw] (Color)configuration files can now be set relative to the LDraw search paths. This was needed for use combined with compressed libraries, but it also prevents having to change both the search and the color file configuration while e.g. swapping libraries.
- [HeaderDlg] Added a button to load the default author and license values.
- [SourceWin] Hot racking between the source and editing windows can now optionally be synchorinzed.
- [SourceWin] The selection can be kept into view by using one of the 'follow selection' options.
- [SourceWin] Added 'scroll to selection', 'expand all' and 'collapse all' items to the source window menu.
- [Editing] It is now possible to drag selected lines from the source window into the editing view to start manipulating their position. The other ways around (dragging the selection into the source window to change their source location) is now also possible.
- [Examples] Added 5541.mpd


Known issues and limitations:
- [LDraw] Scientific notation (e.g.. 1.323E12) is not supported in LDraw line content.
- [LDraw] LDraw files containing concave quads will render wrong as they are currently processed as if they are twisted.
- [Editing] During nesting mode some parts will be rendered at the wrong place while moving existing parts around, if those parts live in an sub model that's used more then once in the main model of the session. This is not a big issue because one set of the selection will be at the correct place, and your eye will be on them most of the time.
- [Scripting] For now only the type 1 LDraw line references can be manipulated, full access to the path/spring parts is pending.
- [Scripting] File changes to lua files will only be detected for the main script, if the script uses additional modules (include files) a manual reload will be required after changes to them.

[Owen Dive]

One question though: it looks like the source viewer treats each line as atomic - an object to be shifted around to where it needs to go, but not changed at all (except possibly indenting). Do/will we have the ability to adjust position/rotation values from the source viewer?

...
The prop dlg is opend by pressing enter (or MMB in alpha 2) while a line is selected.
...

This is probably sufficient.

[Owen Dive]

So I know I said I'd have a go next week, but I got impatient!
I've got a number of comments, ranging from bug reports, thru deliberate-but-unexpected behaviours (i.e. it might be a bug, or it might be done it that way for a reason), to feature requests.

* When creating a new model, if you check the 'Sync with filename' box in the header dialog that comes up, it's not actually populated in the source view until you open the header dialog box again and click OK. Even if you save the model, it's not in the .ldr file either.


* For a flex part like a rubber band, the source view doesn't scroll to show the whole line.


* Some indication in the source view would be nice if the part is hidden. Though please don't go to the extent of MLCad and not show the whole line. Maybe just grey out the text or something.

* If you hover over a toolbar icon, you get a text description of that function in the Status bar. It would be nice if that description also included the keyboard shortcut (if it exists), like the menu does. I accept that this might be tricky to implement with the configurable shortcut keys that is coming.

* Selecting multiple items in the source view doesn't always work like I would expect.

• Select separate items. Uses CTRL, just like I expect.
  
• Select contiguous range. Uses CTRL + SHIFT, when I expect just SHIFT.
  • Range is always expanding, rather than being relative to the first item selected. For example, suppose there were 10 lines in the ldr file. If I select line 3 and hold down SHIFT (or in this application, CTRL + SHIFT) and then click on line 5, I expect to see lines 3, 4, and 5 selected (and this is indeed what happens). If I then click line 9, I expect the selection to grow to include lines 6, 7, 8, and 9 (again, this is what happens). If I then click line 6, I expect the selection to drop to just 3, 4, 5, and 6. If I then click line 2, I expect the selection to be lines 2 and 3. Instead, I've got lines 2-9 selected.
    
  • Selecting a part vs selecting the line in the source view: If I select a part on the model, the source view highlights, but if I want to use that as the start of a range selection I have to click it again - CTRL + SHIFT clicking a different line selects only the two lines, not all the ones in between.
    
• If deselecting from a range of selected lines, I expect the behaviour to be symmetrical to selecting. Extending the earlier example, if I start with lines 2-9 selected, let go of SHIFT, and click on line 4, that line is deselected (like I would expect). If I then hold SHIFT again and click line 6, lines 5 and 6 are also deselected (just like for selecting things). But, if I click line 5 (which would have had no effect had I been selecting things), the line is now selected, and I any further clicks just grow the selection from line 5.
  

I hope that makes sense?

[Niklas Buchmann]

* "color arrows hot keys": using 'p' in move mode one can see a cross of arrows and the "toolbox arrow" in the third direction. I wish those arrows were colored (red, green blue) and there were hotkeys for move in red, green and blue directions. This speeds up the final positioning of the brick. These keys should work regardless of the mode (move/rotation), CTRL+those keys for rotations around those color arrows.

New in 1.5 is the option to do keyboard move's while the pin is in rotation mode by using ctrl+arrows. You can also disable the projection mapping so up/down is always the y-axis etc. I like the color coding suggestion might take that up in a future version.

Thanks for your input.

Will this also work the other way around, i.e. using CTRL+arrow keys for rotation when in move mode? That's something I'm really missing in the current version.
And can you add a hotkey for resetting the editing plane back to absolute space? Right now the only way I see to do that is to click through to some sub-menu, which is kind of annoying.

Apart from that, thanks for your great work, I really like using LDCad.

[Roland Melkert]

When creating a new model, if you check the 'Sync with filename' box in the header dialog that comes up, it's not actually populated in the source view until you open the header dialog box again and click OK. Even if you save the model, it's not in the .ldr file either.

It seems to misbehave after the first save, which is technically a file rename. I'll fix it in the next version. It also needs some improvements combined with manual editing the single name tag.

For a flex part like a rubber band, the source view doesn't scroll to show the whole line.

The horizontal scroll limit is hard coded at the moment. Improvements on this are pending.

Some indication in the source view would be nice if the part is hidden.

I'm thinking about graying out but I'm not sure how to keep it different from comment lines besides just a different gray value.

If you hover over a toolbar icon, you get a text description of that function in the Status bar. It would be nice if that description also included the keyboard shortcut (if it exists), like the menu does. I accept that this might be tricky to implement with the configurable shortcut keys that is coming.

Actually after the changes needed for hokey re-assignments are in place ti will be almost free. But I kinda decided to push the reasignemnt thing to 1.6 as it makes more sense combined with on of the 1.6 planned features (scripting extensions for so you can use macro's).

Selecting multiple items in the source view doesn't always work like I would expect.

I think it mostly acts like I wanted it to, except for the deselect glitch. I use ctrl+shift as shift alone is already used for 'change workpart'. Also I thought it would be more consistent with the 3d selecting mechanics.

So currently a shift+ctrl will select or deselect everything between the clicked item and the previous one based on the selected state of that last one. So shif+ctrl after you selected something will select all in between them and shift+ctrl (should) after you last deselect something deselect all in between.

Thanks for your feedback Owen.

[Roland Melkert]

Will this also work the other way around, i.e. using CTRL+arrow keys for rotation when in move mode? That's something I'm really missing in the current version.

Yes in move mode ctrl+arrows will rotate, and in selection center mode it will do a normal move.

And can you add a hotkey for resetting the editing plane back to absolute space? Right now the only way I see to do that is to click through to some sub-menu, which is kind of annoying.

Currentyl the keyboard way to reset the grid is esc to deselect everything followed by 'o' to reset the grid. I didn't assign a key (e.g. shift+o) to this as I'm running out of logical key combinations.

Once hot key reassignment is in place (1.6) you could assign it yourself though. Or maybe I'll add shift+o given I can't think of any future feature needing a 'o' .


Thanks for the input Niklas.

[Owen Dive]

Some indication in the source view would be nice if the part is hidden.

I'm thinking about graying out but I'm not sure how to keep it different from comment lines besides just a different gray value.

I could probably handle that - after all, hiding a part is just like commenting out a line of code!

Selecting multiple items in the source view doesn't always work like I would expect.

I think it mostly acts like I wanted it to, except for the deselect glitch. I use ctrl+shift as shift alone is already used for 'change workpart'. Also I thought it would be more consistent with the 3d selecting mechanics.

So currently a shift+ctrl will select or deselect everything between the clicked item and the previous one based on the selected state of that last one. So shif+ctrl after you selected something will select all in between them and shift+ctrl (should) after you last deselect something deselect all in between.

That makes sense, and is not unreasonable.

[Merlijn Wissink]

About hidden parts, maybe you could add a little icon in front of the line to indicate it's a hidden part?

[Niklas Buchmann]

I'm posting this here although it's not strictly related to the 1.5 Alpha, but I noticed some bugs or inconsistent behaviours in LDCad 1.4 and was hoping that maybe you can them until the 1.5 release.

First, if you use the selectors from the select menu like "Same color" or "Same part", the selection is extended to all parts in groups containing a part that gets selected. This way it is often not possible to use this options for tasks like recoloring all red parts to blue, because any group containing a single part in the working color gets completely changed to the new color.

Then there is a (very) small bug in the task bin: Sometimes - and I haven't been able to find out under what circumstances exactly - the filter text display is not updated when switching between different part bin views with active filters. Nothing serious, but still a bug.
While I'm at filters, do you think it's possible a small list of one-click filter presets like Sergio did in SR 3d builder? I find that's something I'm missing a lot in LDCad. It wouldn't have to be long list, just somehing like a list of numbers from 1 to 16 to filter the dimensions of plates etc.

And do you think it would make sense to filter out aliases, moved parts and submodels (any part starting with = or ~, I think) in the list of search results in the part bin?

[Roland Melkert]

First, if you use the selectors from the select menu like "Same color" or "Same part", the selection is extended to all parts in groups containing a part that gets selected. This way it is often not possible to use this options for tasks like recoloring all red parts to blue, because any group containing a single part in the working color gets completely changed to the new color.

This is a tough one as the whole point of groups is to use multiple parts as if they where one. I do have something planned for a future version solving this though (group layers). But it will be in 1.6 at the earliest. In the meantime I advice to maximize sub model usage and keep grouping for things spread of multiple models.

Then there is a (very) small bug in the task bin: Sometimes - and I haven't been able to find out under what circumstances exactly - the filter text display is not updated when switching between different part bin views with active filters. Nothing serious, but still a bug.

I probably indirectly fixed this in 1.5 as the part bin code was partly rewritten to allow for multiple windows of them.

While I'm at filters, do you think it's possible a small list of one-click filter presets like Sergio did in SR 3d builder? I find that's something I'm missing a lot in LDCad. It wouldn't have to be long list, just somehing like a list of numbers from 1 to 16 to filter the dimensions of plates etc.

I could add some kind of filter template combo I'll see what I can do. In the mean time try to minimize using the generic search group as it indeed gives too much results unless you search for something specific. Instead use the category branch to limit things to e.g. panels to start with.

And do you think it would make sense to filter out aliases, moved parts and submodels (any part starting with = or ~, I think) in the list of search results in the part bin?

This is already possible using the filer dialog. You open it by clicking the filter text area. In it you'll find some include options at the right.

Thanks for your thoughts/suggestions.

[Niklas Buchmann]

While I'm at filters, do you think it's possible a small list of one-click filter presets like Sergio did in SR 3d builder? I find that's something I'm missing a lot in LDCad. It wouldn't have to be long list, just somehing like a list of numbers from 1 to 16 to filter the dimensions of plates etc.

I could add some kind of filter template combo I'll see what I can do. In the mean time try to minimize using the generic search group as it indeed gives too much results unless you search for something specific. Instead use the category branch to limit things to e.g. panels to start with.

What I meant is this: Let's say I'm in the "normal plates" category and the filter is set to "8", showing me only eight-long plates. Now I need a twelve-long plate. What I have to do is click once to delete the filter, click again to create a new filter, enter "12" on the keyboard and press enter. In SR 3d builder this was one single click on the "12" button next to the filter/search input area.

One more thing I just remembered: When you open the filter dialog, the previously entered filter text is still in the input field so in order to enter a new text, you first have to delete the old text. I think it would be more comfortable if the text was selected by default so you can overwrite it or if it was deleted altogether.

And do you think it would make sense to filter out aliases, moved parts and submodels (any part starting with = or ~, I think) in the list of search results in the part bin?

This is already possible using the filer dialog. You open it by clicking the filter text area. In it you'll find some include options at the right.

Thanks, I never noticed that.

[Roland Melkert]

What I meant is this: Let's say I'm in the "normal plates" category and the filter is set to "8", showing me only eight-long plates. Now I need a twelve-long plate. What I have to do is click once to delete the filter, click again to create a new filter, enter "12" on the keyboard and press enter. In SR 3d builder this was one single click on the "12" button next to the filter/search input area.

I see but the 8/12 buttons is what I called templates. As in this case a template would be a filter preset you can reapply in someway (e.g. a button). I'll have to figure out how to add this without using (too much) bin space though.

When you open the filter dialog, the previously entered filter text is still in the input field so in order to enter a new text, you first have to delete the old text. I think it would be more comfortable if the text was selected by default so you can overwrite it or if it was deleted altogether.

Great idea I'll add it to the next 1.5 version. Alternatively, in the 1.5 version, you can now also press the esc key (while mouse is on the bin filter text) to reset the filter text.

[Philippe Hurbain]

Now I need a twelve-long plate. What I have to do is click once to delete the filter, click again to create a new filter, enter "12" on the keyboard and press enter.

Though the "length" buttons could be useful, your search can be simpler: put your mouse over the filter field (no click), hit Del to clear field if needed, then key in length (no enter). A tad more to do than with SR3D, but significantly more flexible.

[Milan Vančura]

Hello Roland.

I use/test 1.5 Alpha 2 for some weeks so it's a time for the first report

Full list of changes is always in the changeLog.txt file in the docs folder, the Alpha 2 section is this:

I must say I do not understand all items there so I could not test all features and fixes on this list. Instead, I summarize what I've found so far:

• source window does not show the right end of lines
  
  1. unfold a submodel in src window
     
  2. narrow the src window so the horizontal scrollbar takes effect
     
  3. move the horizontal scrollbar to the rightest position
     
  4. => some lines aren't shown to their right edge, see http://www.ucw.cz/~milan/LEGO/temp/bugs_...t_edge.png
     
  
  
• application crashes after ctrl-X ctrl-V:
  
  1. in src window, select all lines (but the first) and do ctrl-X
     
  2. press ctrl-V and click after the first/only line to select the destination
     
  3. a pop-up window appears, press Discard button
     
  4. => segmentation fault
     
  
  
• GUI problems:
  • subwindow placement is not intuitive: it depends on the order of releasing ctrl and LMB
    
  • the rule "clicking anywhere to the 'dead' zone of the subwindow unreleases that from the layout" makes annoying surprises
    it's easy to click there accidentally and "whoooo!" - a subwindow flies freely over the main window now
    => I vote for a small graphical symbol to release the subwindow and then clicking to 'dead' area does nothing again
    
  • documentation, documentation, documentation
    in general, both hotkeys and mouse behavior in LDCad are unusual, comparing to other GUI applications on the system so documentation is really needed. At the release date, please.
    Two examples: how can I find the 'ctrl' trick to place subwindow? And 'ctrl-shift' trick to select continuous region of lines in src window?
    
  
  
• a question: how can I work with a submodel of submodel, in the main model? 'Nested' mode breaks everything to parts and 'Normal' mode does not allow me to select that submodel of submodel.
  

[Michael Horvath]

Some comments about version 1.4:

1. What is the proper way to navigate up and down the model tree? What I mean is, how do I switch to a child model, then the child's child, then the parent again, and so on. Note there are a mix of MPD and LDR models in no particular order. When I try to Make This the Main Model I sometimes get a "This submodel is not part of a MPD" error.

2. How do I switch to latitude/longitude camera rotation? I thought you added this feature in a previous version.

3. How do I open the window with all the model info in text format? I saw that in your video but don't know how to enable it.

4. The middle mouse button!! In most 3D viewers this button changes the view in some way, for instance panning the camera. In your program it brings up the selection properties window. Can I bind this window to a different keyboard key like in other programs?

5. If you could indent the Change Current Model window to indicate how sub-models are nested, that would be great.

Thanks!

[edit]

Some comments about version 1.5:

1. The program will not display Datsville. All I get are some skinny red crosses.

2. Could you add a tabbed interface to show all currently opened documents? Right now I am not sure how manage these documents. How do I tell which are open and which are not?

[Willy Tschager]

Feature request:

* The background of unofficial parts in the parts bin should be different from certified parts. Best would be if I could assign a color via Prefs > Search (library) paths ... > Current item properties

w.

[Roland Melkert]

source window does not show the right end of lines

Currently the width is hardcoded as calculating the exact width is 'expensive' while not really useful as you will use the property dialog for editing the line anyway. So I'm still thinking about the cons/pros of it, if I decide against it I will set a wider (configurable) value though.

application crashes after ctrl-X ctrl-V

This happens as a result of the ctrl+v nomatter if you use it in the sourcewin or 3d win. Thanks for finding this I'll fix it for the next version (which I was about to release yesterday ).

subwindow placement is not intuitive: it depends on the order of releasing ctrl and LMB
the rule "clicking anywhere to the 'dead' zone of the subwindow unreleases that from the layout" makes annoying surprises
it's easy to click there accidentally and "whoooo!" - a subwindow flies freely over the main window now
=> I vote for a small graphical symbol to release the subwindow and then clicking to 'dead' area does nothing again

I've struggled with this issue myself. The first version did use ctrl like 'normal' windows software (to keep it detached only during drag) but it resulting in awful chicken and egg behavior while dragging without it combined with an already docked panel. Having to press ctrl to dock imho made it way more workable. I also sometimes detached windows accidentally which is why i added the lock windows option in the gui menu. The reason for not having a header or something while the windows are docked is because I didn't want to waste screen space on them but I might reconsider that in the future.

documentation, documentation, documentation in general, both hotkeys and mouse behavior in LDCad are unusual, comparing to other GUI applications on the system so documentation is really needed. At the release date, please.

I'm working on documentation on and off, but in my experience people just won't read it So I'm only working on it when I don't have the time to do large chunks of 'real' work on LDCad. But once 1.5 goes beta I will at least add things like the docking tricks to the FAQ and update the hot key page. General working with the source window will get it's own documentation page somewhere in the future. I'm also still hoping someone with more grasp on the English language might write a tutorial or something from an users perspective.

how can I work with a submodel of submodel, in the main model? 'Nested' mode breaks everything to parts and 'Normal' mode does not allow me to select that submodel of submodel.

You switch to the model's direct parent editing session (using the 'mpd' or models part bin group) or exclude it during nesting in the top level model. This is done by selecting any part/source line of the sub sub model and pressing 'e' during nesting mode. This will make the sub sub model a nesting 'end node'. Exclusion options are present in the editing selection menu.

Thanks for your (detailed) feedback Milan.

What is the proper way to navigate up and down the model tree? What I mean is, how do I switch to a child model, then the child's child, then the parent again, and so on. Note there are a mix of MPD and LDR models in no particular order. When I try to Make This the Main Model I sometimes get a "This submodel is not part of a MPD" error.

In a multi file model you best off using the 'all models' part bin group instead of the 'mpd / file content' part bin group. the make main model option is only usable on mpd's as it moves the current model to the top of the mpd file making it the 'entry' point for renders. It is not a navigation feature. The session list at the top right is depreciated and I probably will completely remove it at some point in favor of something else as I was never happy with it myself.

How do I switch to latitude/longitude camera rotation? I thought you added this feature in a previous version.

In the compass you'll see the text 'TBL' (trackball) if you click it it changes to SPM which is the spin camera mode.

How do I open the window with all the model info in text format? I saw that in your video but don't know how to enable it.

I think you mean the 1.5 source window? I assume (given your below edited text) you found that yourself . You open it from the view menu.

The middle mouse button!! In most 3D viewers this button changes the view in some way, for instance panning the camera. In your program it brings up the selection properties window. Can I bind this window to a different keyboard key like in other programs?

I might change left mouse button behavior in a future version and the middle mouse button might get reassigned at such a time too. 1.6 will introduce hot key remapping, but I'm not sure if that will include the mouse buttons I could make the middle one's function optional though.

If you could indent the Change Current Model window to indicate how sub-models are nested, that would be great.

Like I wrote above the whole menu probably gets replaced in a future version. I'm not sure in what way though.

The program (1.5 a2) will not display Datsville. All I get are some skinny red crosses.

There was an Alpha 2 bug which broke relative model loading as a result of the new zipped library feature, it's fixed in my Alpha 3 code.

Could you add a tabbed interface to show all currently opened documents? Right now I am not sure how manage these documents. How do I tell which are open and which are not?

The part bin session groups are designed for switching between models. Technically all LDraw files used are always open in LDCad the only difference with the ones listed in the top right list is they have additional editing 'session' information. I might add some additional session part bin groups in the future to help completely replace the list in the future. But like I wrote I'm not yet sure how and when

Thanks for the feedback Michael.

[Roland Melkert]

The background of unofficial parts in the parts bin should be different from certified parts. Best would be if I could assign a color via Prefs > Search (library) paths ... > Current item properties

I really like this Idea, I'll try to add it in the first beta. Thanks for suggesting it Willy.

[Milan Vančura]

how can I work with a submodel of submodel, in the main model? 'Nested' mode breaks everything to parts and 'Normal' mode does not allow me to select that submodel of submodel.

You switch to the model's direct parent editing session (using the 'mpd' or models part bin group) or exclude it during nesting in the top level model. This is done by selecting any part/source line of the sub sub model and pressing 'e' during nesting mode. This will make the sub sub model a nesting 'end node'. Exclusion options are present in the editing selection menu.

Many thanks, Roland. I have never understand the term 'exclude from nested list' and it's _that_ what I need

Unfortunately, I've found new issue as I was working in Nested mode:

• rendering of 71128.dat in nested mode
  • put some bricks to the model
    
  • add new submodel with some bricks and 71128.dat (Chrome Silver Reflector)
    
  • go to the main model in Normal mode
    
  • place mouse cursor over the submodel: lines of its parts turn to magenta color as usual - no exception for 71128.dat
    
  • switch to the Nested mode
    
  • other bricks in the submodel work as expected but 71128.dat lines do not change the color any longer - neither to magenta, while mouse cursor is over that, nor cyan, when the part is selected
    
  • 902.dat (the same Reflector with no color specified) works correctly
    
  • 6141p01.dat works, too, even it contains a color definition
    

[Milan Vančura]

source window does not show the right end of lines

...So I'm still thinking about the cons/pros of it,...

For me, the right end of line is very important because this is where the part number or submodel name is written. In fact, I wanted to suggest you the idea of "the matrix compression" feature: an option that those six numbers of transformation matrix would be hidden behind some icon or whatever. This makes each line much shorter and one can see both the color and part number at the same time - the items needed to identify the part.

subwindow placement:...I vote for a small graphical symbol to release the subwindow...

...I didn't want to waste screen space on them but I might reconsider that in the future.

I made a little research about that, already. There are not so many types of subwindows: part bin and color bin have a free space at the right of "line" of Tab names (1..6) and source window has a free space at the bottom right corner, between scrollbars. What do you think about that?

But once 1.5 goes beta I will at least add things like the docking tricks to the FAQ and update the hot key page.

Great. The list of hot-keys is really really needed.

I'm also still hoping someone with more grasp on the English language might write a tutorial or something from an users perspective.

The best help for me we was a set of tutorial videos. I'd be glad if I could promise to help you with them but I'm busy with another ldraw project - I hope I will be able to announce it soon - and ask you for a cooperation then

[Roland Melkert]

rendering of 71128.dat in nested mode

It seems all physical color parts have this problem. 6141p01.dat is a normal part as it has multiple references and a normal "0 !LDRAW_ORG Part" tag.

Thanks for tracking this down I will fix it in Alpha 3.

[Roland Melkert]

For me, the right end of line is very important because this is where the part number or submodel name is written. In fact, I wanted to suggest you the idea of "the matrix compression" feature: an option that those six numbers of transformation matrix would be hidden behind some icon or whatever. This makes each line much shorter and one can see both the color and part number at the same time - the items needed to identify the part.

Great idea, I will add a 'short notation' option to the source window. For type 1 lines it will leave out the pos+3x3 have to review if other line types need some alternatives too.

I made a little research about that, already. There are not so many types of subwindows: part bin and color bin have a free space at the right of "line" of Tab names (1..6) and source window has a free space at the bottom right corner, between scrollbars. What do you think about that?

It's an interesting idea but if I add a hot spot I rather have it at the same place for any kind of window (as more window kinds might be added in the future). Maybe I'll make it an option to render the window top bar (like while detached) while docked. If that option is enabled the deadspace will not be used. If so this will be in the next next version tough.

The best help for me we was a set of tutorial videos. I'd be glad if I could promise to help you with them but I'm busy with another ldraw project - I hope I will be able to announce it soon - and ask you for a cooperation then

Any help is welcome.

[Niklas Buchmann]

(delete please)

[Niklas Buchmann]

Another idea: You could allow non-integer values for the rotation stepping, that way one could use the 22.5 degrees stepping the click hinges lock at.

[Roland Melkert]

Another idea: You could allow non-integer values for the rotation stepping, that way one could use the 22.5 degrees stepping the click hinges lock at.

I wanted to make that possible some time ago but forgot all about it. I will limit it to values which can be summed up to 360 deg though.

[Roland Melkert]

I've uploaded Alpha 3

It (again) contains mostly bugfixes and tweaks as I hadn't had much time for the project lately.

The only new feature is single instance protection. So if you associate mpd and or ldr with the main exe double clicking files will only permit one LDCad window to be open.

This works also on Linux (using a socket file in /tmp) but I have no clue how you do file association over there with a non packaged executable. If anyone has some pointers on that?

I'm hoping the next version will be the first beta (meaning all major features must be present).

You'll find Alpha 3 here:
http://www.melkert.net/LDCad/nextVer

[Milan Vančura]

Hi Roland.

I made first tests and it looks nice: current step has a different bg in the Src window, hidden parts are grayed out, bugs I reported are fixed. (Or, better said - the one with scrollbar is worked around )

I have found two issues so far:

1. minor: changelog says there should be a step number shown at each "0 STEP" line in src window - but I do not see anything. Do I understand that correctly?

2. major: some parts are moved to a completely different step than they are physically, in the file. Please watch my example: http://www.ucw.cz/~milan/LEGO/temp/bugs_LDCAD1.5Alpha3/

[Milan Vančura]

Hello Roland.

As you probably know, I announced our effort to maintain the whole SW-chain for making LDraw instructions. I also want to include LDCad to this chain. I know it is not open-source so it cannot be handled in the same way but I can make Linux packages of non-free SW as well, this is not a problem. What I need is to have a multi-user version: a configuration in /etc with an optional overlay in $HOME/.config/ldcad . Would be this possible for 1.5 ?
Of course, I'm open to discuss another solution, the above is a suggestion, nothing more

[Roland Melkert]

changelog says there should be a step number shown at each "0 STEP" line in src window - but I do not see anything. Do I understand that correctly?

It's in the hint displayed at the bottom of the window.

some parts are moved to a completely different step than they are physically, in the file. Please watch my example: http://www.ucw.cz/~milan/LEGO/temp/bugs_LDCAD1.5Alpha3/

You mean it moved while opening the file so no editing done jet? I'm not able to reproduce that behavior. Was another model open before opening this one or was it the first one? Do you remember doing anything before or during the loading of the file? Did ctrl+z move it back?

[Roland Melkert]

Hello Roland.

As you probably know, I announced our effort to maintain the whole SW-chain for making LDraw instructions. I also want to include LDCad to this chain. I know it is not open-source so it cannot be handled in the same way but I can make Linux packages of non-free SW as well, this is not a problem. What I need is to have a multi-user version: a configuration in /etc with an optional overlay in $HOME/.config/ldcad . Would be this possible for 1.5 ?
Of course, I'm open to discuss another solution, the above is a suggestion, nothing more

Nice project sort of a cross platform AIOI.

I would appreciate a package / packaging script very much. I've researched making Debian packages (I currently compile on Debian 7.5) but it seemed to be very 'complicated' for new users

LDCad can be used in a data/executable split way (the windows setup does it too) by using an LDCad.cfg besides the main executable. That file is readonly and dictates where the program get it's data (partbin files etc). For example the windows version setup writes this LDCad.cfg:

Code:

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

<userAppDataDir> maps to the value of the HOME env var in Linux but I've never really tested it though.
<dirSeeds> Points to where the clean starting data (zip) files are located. Those are synced with the target locations on every program start so if the location is user depended each will end up with its own set of files.

If needed I could add more location templates?

If the cfg file is not there stuff default to be looked/placed relative to the main exe (archive versions). The locations can also be abs if needed.

I'll add the format of LDCad.cfg to the technical documentation soon as I realized it's the only file currently missing explanation on my site.

[Roland Melkert]

I've added a short reference to LDCad.cfg to the documentation at:

http://www.melkert.net/LDCad/tech/config

[Milan Vančura]

changelog says there should be a step number shown at each "0 STEP" line in src window - but I do not see anything. Do I understand that correctly?

It's in the hint displayed at the bottom of the window.

Ah, yes, it's there. Couldn't you place it to the src line directly, please? It's a similar problem like with icons in the top menu: I feel like watching (vertical) tennis match: pointing eyes on mouse cursor at the top part of the screen, then on the hint line at the bottom, then back on the mouse cursor... And in the source window, it would be useful even more: one can scroll source file "to the step 13", for example. If you cannot see those number directly there, you can't do that.

About the bug I reported:

some parts are moved to a completely different step than they are physically, in the file. Please watch my example: http://www.ucw.cz/~milan/LEGO/temp/bugs_LDCAD1.5Alpha3/

It happened after editing another model and opening this one later. AFAIK, no editing of this model. But I cannot reproduce this bug now, even I try to simulate the same order of models opened etc. Same as with another bug I wanted to report you but I cannot reproduce it now either. So I agree to ignore this until/unless I can reproduce it.

[Milan Vančura]

Thank you, Roland. I summarize what I need for Debian package building - hopefully during weekend, I'm busy with another tasks now.