Snapping problem

[Jason McReynolds]

I've played with the Lego Digital Designer, and like some aspects of it, and others drive me nuts. One thing that I like is that it does a pretty good job with snapping pieces together. I'm also playing with LDCad, which is awesome, but I'm noticing some weird behavior and I'm not sure if it's specific to LDraw or LDCad. Here's what I've noticed:

The "Technic pneumatic T-piece Type 2" (4697b) does not appear to snap to the "headlight" hole on the front of "Brick 1 x 1 with headlight" (4070). However, it works just fine on "Brick 1 x 1 with stud on one side" (87087). Also, 4697b snaps just fine to the front hole on "Brick 1 x 1 with studs on four sides" (4733), but will not snap to any of the other holes. This is regardless of the axis stepping that I choose.

Is this by design, or should it snap to any of the holes in any of the bricks I mentioned?

I'm using LDCad v1.4 and the latest version of LDraw library (not sure exactly how to find the version of that), but I installed it using the AIOI about a week ago.

[Roland Melkert]

The "Technic pneumatic T-piece Type 2" (4697b) does not appear to snap to the "headlight" hole on the front of "Brick 1 x 1 with headlight" (4070). However, it works just fine on "Brick 1 x 1 with stud on one side" (87087). Also, 4697b snaps just fine to the front hole on "Brick 1 x 1 with studs on four sides" (4733), but will not snap to any of the other holes. This is regardless of the axis stepping that I choose.

You are right 4070 & 4733 have some snap info mistakes, I'll correct it for 1.5. Thanks for reporting.

Is this by design, or should it snap to any of the holes in any of the bricks I mentioned?

LDCad depends on additional part information to perform snap calculations, the default library hasn't got this info so I'm in the process of adding it on a per (sub)part (.dat) basis.

1.4 has over 1400 of those info files, and 1.5 will have over 2000 of them. The problem is the official library has over 10.000 (sub)part files. So as the result of the amount and all possible combinations etc I 'm guaranteed to make a mistake or two

Also LDCad's snap feature, contrary to e.g. LDD's, is only a guidance/helper tool so it won't force you to use a part in a certain way.

[Jason McReynolds]

Thanks for the info and clarification. I'd be more than happy to help, if you'd like it. I'd need a little direction at first, but it shouldn't take much. Thanks again!

[Roland Melkert]

I'd be more than happy to help, if you'd like it. I'd need a little direction at first, but it shouldn't take much.

If you are comfortable with the LDraw file format and recursive nature it should be reasonable easy to add snap info. Especially using the the upcoming 1.5 Beta version as it offers integrated snap info editing. This feature is mostly for myself though so it is disabled by default and somewhat less user friendly/polished.

[Jason McReynolds]

If you are comfortable with the LDraw file format and recursive nature it should be reasonable easy to add snap info. Especially using the the upcoming 1.5 Beta version as it offers integrated snap info editing. This feature is mostly for myself though so it is disabled by default and somewhat less user friendly/polished.

Nice! I've done a little looking at the file format and it seems pretty straight forward. I look forward to the 1.5 Beta so I can try out the snap info editing. Keep up the great work!