[LDPartEditor] 0.8.7 Beta Released

[Nils Schmidt]

Yeah showtime for version 0.8.7!

currently, I am on easter holidays. I have some spare time... and here is the next release!


As always, you can download LDPE from this page:
http://nilsschmidt1337.github.io/ldparteditor/

Changelog:
(6 new features and 8 bug fixes)

With this release you will be able to...

• ...benefit from a faster program start.
  
• ...toggle the visibility of conditional line control points.
  
• ...drag&drop files on the 3D editor view.
  
• ...drag&drop files on the text editor view.
  
• ...use the new "modern" GUI layout on a fresh installation.
  
• ...activate anti-aliasing on some linux systems with MESA/Gallium*
  

The following critical issues were fixed:

1. Risk of data loss: When you open a file again (which was unsaved in LDPE) the file in the 3D view gets cleared.
   
2. "Show selection in text editor" did not work correctly for subfiles, if the text editor was closed before.
   
3. "Open Part File" from the 3D editor opens a text editor window, too.
   
4. Identical lines are not detected if they have different colours.
   
5. CSG does not work with invalid colour numbers.
   
6. "Unselect" (Ctrl+Click) does not work for subfiles.
   
7. Subfile selection issues with adjacent subfiles.
   
8. The coarse/medium/fine grid buttons don't stay pushed.
   

The program was tested intensively with "real world" files.
However, it is still a beta version and something can go wrong in about 100.000 lines of code.

Make sure that you choose the right architecture for your OS and Java Virtual Machine (JVM) (64bit or 32bit).
A short guide how to check if a 64bit JVM is installed on your system is located at the bottom of this message.

1. Download the zip-Archive
   
2. Extract the archive content to the location of your choice
   
3. On windows, double-click "run.bat" to start LDPE.
   
4. On linux/mac, you have to excecute the shell script "run.sh" to start LDPE.
   

Please note that this software is in the beta stage. Although, LDPE 0.8.7 was carefully tested and developed, there are already known issues for this release. There is a potential risk of data loss.

You can search for updates if you do the following steps:

1. On windows, double-click "update.bat" to search for updates.
   
2. On linux/mac, you have to excecute the shell script "update.sh".
   

I listen carefully to your requests and possible complaints. Please leave me a message, with your thoughts and wishes to further improve the software.

LDPE is a 3D CAD application: The overall system requirements are higher. While I recommend to use a powerful 64-bit multicore system, it could be possible, to run LDPE on older machines as well.

System Requirements:

Minimum System Requirements:

• Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.8
  
• OpenGL 2.1 compatible Graphics Card
  
• Operating System (32/64bit): Windows [XP; Vista; 7 or newer], Mac OS X [>=10.6], Linux [e.g. Ubuntu Linux >=10.4]
  
• CPU: Multicore-Processor e.g. Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon II (>2.0Ghz)
  
• RAM: 4GB
  
• Video-Memory: 512 MB
  
• Free Disk Space: 100 MB
  

Recommended Requirements:

• Operating System (64bit): Windows 7, Mac OS X [>=10.6], Linux [e.g. Ubuntu Linux >=10.4]
  
• CPU: Multicore-Processor with 4 cores (or more)
  
• RAM: >4 GB
  
• Video-Memory: >=1 GB
  
• Free Disk Space: 512 MB
  

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How to check your JVM version (32- or 64-bit):
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can try on the command line:

Code:

java -d64 version

If it's not a 64-bit version, you'll get a message that looks like:

Code:

This Java instance does not support a 64-bit JVM. Please install the desired version.

In general, I recommend to install the 64-bit version of the JVM for Java 8.

_______
* (on Windows, for AMD/NVIDIA cards, you have to enable anti-aliasing manually for the javaw.exe process, with AMD Catalyst or the NVIDIA Control Panel)

[Magnus Forsberg]

How do I correctly close a file from the 3D-editor?
In previous versions I could close a file by right-clicking on it, in the filemanager area, and choosing Delete.
(Delete is a very strong word. I don't like it).

If I do that in this version, a suffix is added to my file "12345.dat.bak" and I can't open it again untill I rename it in windows explorer.

I can close a file in the text editor correctly by clicking on the red cross on the file tab, but not in the 3D editor.

[Nils Schmidt]

In previous versions I could close a file by right-clicking on it, in the filemanager area, and choosing Delete.
(Delete is a very strong word. I don't like it).
If I do that in this version, a suffix is added to my file "12345.dat.bak" and I can't open it again untill I rename it in windows explorer.

As I understand, it will be better to rename "Delete" to "Close" and avoid the superflous ".bak" suffix?
That is a very good suggestion.

At the moment, you can only open another file to overwrite the contents of the 3D view.
However, the program does not lock the files on your harddrive.
When you open a file it will be parsed and when you save it, it will be written to your harddrive.

[Philippe Hurbain]

Great! faster startup and antialiasing tip for Windows are appreciated (not yet tried the remaining improvements).

[Philippe Hurbain]

I seem to have one major issue with this release on my XP 32bit: I can't close the program. When I try to do so, the program asks to if I want to save projects, etc..., then closes the text windows but the 3D window stays open and still works normally. If I kill the program using task manager, it does shutdown, but then I can't restart it without deleting the config.gz. Maybe it's related to primitives caching? At startup, after answering library location /authorship questions config.gz is about 3k. After trying (unsuccessfully) to close the program, size of config.gz jumps to 750k or so. My config.gz is attached here if it can help to understand the problem.

Otherwise I don't think it's a good idea to save cache in the same file as general configuration. If something goes wrong with caching you loose the whole config, shortkeys, etc...

Edit:

the 3D window stays open and still works normally.

Not quite: when trying to Undo something LDPE froze on "loading data..."

[Willy Tschager]

currently, I am on easter holidays. I have some spare time... and here is the next release!

Be assured I'll do my best to fill it for my personal benefit :-) Here we go:

* I'm very happy with the copy/paste/... on a right click. You could spoil the whole thing by adding the copy/paste/... icons from the toolbar to the contextual menu
* I'd like to have a some sort of LDCalc in the 3D and Text Editor toolbar. To be clear, not the whole thing. A toolbar with LDU/mm/inch where I hammer in my digits and get the converted result in the other boxes would be enough
* I find it tiresome that I have to select something and then hit the arrow (Next item) button in the Selection tab in order to get it loaded. I would prefer that the values get automatically loaded as soon as I make a selection.

w.

[Willy Tschager]

Anybody successfully running Intersector in LDPE?

I tried to cut out some sections of the two red cylinders and get fine looking vertices but no surfaces. Here is the code:

1 4 0 42.75 0 18.5 0 0 0 5.25 0 0 0 18.5 4-4cyli.dat
1 4 0 42.75 0 16 0 0 0 5.25 0 0 0 16 4-4cyli.dat

1 14 10 48 10 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 stud.dat
1 14 -10 48 10 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 stud.dat
1 14 10 48 -10 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 stud.dat
1 14 -10 48 -10 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 stud.dat

What I'm doing wrong?

w.

[Philippe Hurbain]

In the code below, if I select the quad then select -> select connected, the elements of the cylo (not the cylo itself) gets selected. If I then try to move the selection, only the quad moves.

Code:

1 16 -10 1 28 -2 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 -2 1-4cylo.dat
4 16 -12 1 60 -12 1 28 -12 3 28 -12 3 60

Worse, if I cut the selection then copy, I get the following result:

Code:

1 16 -10 1 28 -2 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 -2 1-4cylo.dat
2 24 -11.8478 1 27.2346 -11.4142 1 26.5858
2 24 -11.8478 3 27.2346 -11.4142 3 26.5858
2 24 -12 1 28 -11.8478 1 27.2346
2 24 -12 3 28 -11.8478 3 27.2346
2 24 -10.7654 1 26.1522 -10 1 26
2 24 -10.7654 3 26.1522 -10 3 26
2 24 -11.4142 1 26.5858 -10.7654 1 26.1522
2 24 -11.4142 3 26.5858 -10.7654 3 26.1522
4 16 -12 3 28 -11.8478 3 27.2346 -11.8478 1 27.2346 -12 1 28
4 16 -11.8478 3 27.2346 -11.4142 3 26.5858 -11.4142 1 26.5858 -11.8478 1 27.2346
4 16 -11.4142 3 26.5858 -10.7654 3 26.1522 -10.7654 1 26.1522 -11.4142 1 26.5858
4 16 -10.7654 3 26.1522 -10 3 26 -10 1 26 -10.7654 1 26.1522
5 24 -12 1 28 -12 3 28 -11.8478 1 27.2346 -12 1 30
5 24 -11.8478 1 27.2346 -11.8478 3 27.2346 -11.4142 1 26.5858 -12 1 28
5 24 -11.4142 1 26.5858 -11.4142 3 26.5858 -10.7654 1 26.1522 -11.8478 1 27.2346
5 24 -10.7654 1 26.1522 -10.7654 3 26.1522 -10 1 26 -11.4142 1 26.5858
5 24 -10 1 26 -10 3 26 -10.7654 1 26.1522 -8 1 26
4 16 -12 1 60 -12 1 28 -12 3 28 -12 3 60

[Philippe Hurbain]

Looks like LDPE has issues with 1-16chrd (which boils down to invisible "empty.dat"). If I select several lines in text editor then hit "show selection in 3D View", all elements below line with 1-16chrd are not selected/highlighted.

[Nils Schmidt]

You have to inline these two lines recursively:

Code:

1 4 0 42.75 0 18.5 0 0 0 5.25 0 0 0 18.5 4-4cyli.dat
1 4 0 42.75 0 16 0 0 0 5.25 0 0 0 16 4-4cyli.dat

Intersector can not do this for you.

[Nils Schmidt]

I created a ticket for this issue 10 days ago. I will fix this with the next release.

[Nils Schmidt]

* I'm very happy with the copy/paste/... on a right click. You could spoil the whole thing by adding the copy/paste/... icons from the toolbar to the contextual menu

Done! It will be included in the next 0.8.8 release.

* I'd like to have a some sort of LDCalc in the 3D and Text Editor toolbar. To be clear, not the whole thing. A toolbar with LDU/mm/inch where I hammer in my digits and get the converted result in the other boxes would be enough
* I find it tiresome that I have to select something and then hit the arrow (Next item) button in the Selection tab in order to get it loaded. I would prefer that the values get automatically loaded as soon as I make a selection.

I created some issues/tickets for this feature request.
But before I start the implementation I have to fix a few more bugs

[Nils Schmidt]

Thank you Philo for this bug report!
That's a tricky one. On my XP 32 bit system, the error did not occur.
I am sure that it is related to the new primitve caching.
Fortunately, I was able to improve the implementation for the open/save-config mechanics.
With the next 0.8.8 release, your configuaration will be independend from the data consistency of the primitive cache.

Otherwise I don't think it's a good idea to save cache in the same file as general configuration. If something goes wrong with caching you loose the whole config, shortkeys, etc...

It was even worse I put the cache in the same object. This object stored the general configuration and the cache. This was a major design flaw and is fixed now.

Edit:

the 3D window stays open and still works normally.

Not quite: when trying to Undo something LDPE froze on "loading data..."

D'oh... you have reached an unstable state, since most of the underlying data structure is already disposed because of the event which was triggered on close.

[Nils Schmidt]

In the code below, if I select the quad then select -> select connected, the elements of the cylo (not the cylo itself) gets selected.

Well, there is a solution.. did you try the "...with Whole Subfile Selection" option from the "Select..." menu?
It was implemented in March 2015

[Nils Schmidt]

It gets even worse. At the moment, any empty subfile (like "empty.dat") can be a troublemaker.
I was able to fix this. It will be corrected with release 0.8.8.

[Philippe Hurbain]

Well, there is a solution.. did you try the "...with Whole Subfile Selection" option from the "Select..." menu?

Well, actually the problem is not that subfile is not selected, but when I copy/paste I actually inline primitive (whether or not "...with Whole Subfile Selection" is checked)

[Nils Schmidt]

Okay. Now I understand where the problem is
I created an issue.

[Philippe Hurbain]

* I'd like to have a some sort of LDCalc in the 3D and Text Editor toolbar.

More than a calculator I'd like to see a measuring tool, showing the distance between 2 vertices and the deltaX, deltaY, deltaZ distances (either in world directions or in manipulator directions). An angle protractor for 3 points would be great too!

[Willy Tschager]

Bug:

To get Intersector generating surfaces you have to do the selection in the 3D editor. Selecting in the Text Editor will produce all vertices needed but no surfaces.

[Willy Tschager]

Feature request:

The "Open in 3D Editor" button in the text editor should be automatized. When I click on a tab in the Text Editor the part should automatically be loaded in the 3D Editor. This would make the button superfluous.

w.

[Magnus Forsberg]

the program does not lock the files on your harddrive.

No, I would say that the file is locked.

If I edit and save my file in the text editor, I close it with the red cross. I then empty the 3D editor by choosing to wiew another file in the 3D editor. I then open my file in LDDP, edit it and want to save it, I get a error message telling me the file is in use.
Or do I have to also save my project too?

Why is there two save buttons in the 3D editor? One for parts and one for projects?

[Philippe Hurbain]

I am not so keen of current implementation of random color render, I would have expected to have a uniform color in each primitive/subfile, instead of a color per facet. Now current style may be useful too...
Speaking of colors (this will be solved when we get customizable colors), the red for lines during edge/triangle/quad creation is the same as the red of BFC backwards surface. So often we have to work without visual feedback...

[Magnus Forsberg]

I've never dared to continue after trying to use Intersector. All I see is new vertices and the rest of my part strangely disappear...
All is reverted after I use Undo.

[Philippe Hurbain]

No, I would say that the file is locked.

This remains a mystery for me. Sometimes file is locked, sometimes no. Recently it seems I have been lucky with files generally not locked. Perhaps an improvement in 0.8.7?

[Magnus Forsberg]

+1

I dislike that the edge lines are randomized too...

[Philippe Hurbain]

Mostly agree (for edge lines colors), but... current implementation can be usful too

[Magnus Forsberg]

Maybe it is just me, but why are the X and Z axis rotated around Y-axis in default two-third view?

   

[Nils Schmidt]

More than a calculator I'd like to see a measuring tool, showing the distance between 2 vertices and the deltaX, deltaY, deltaZ distances (either in world directions or in manipulator directions).

Yesterday, I finished the implementation of the distance measuring tool.
Today, I will start the angle protractor implementation! :)