LDCad, submodels and mpd's

[Darren Carlson]

I need help getting a ldr into an mpd as a submodel and not just a bunch of individual parts.

Here's the deal. I made a whole whack of edits to an mpd to get it near where I wanted it. Then I added an entire submodel for the tank on the front trailer.
Then I decided I wanted to start all over and keep some of what I took out of the original.

So I went back to the original, made the edits I wanted and I'm happy with that file right now. It's attached as B-Train_Powered_Tanks_Darren.mpd.
I then went to the other mpd I had created and duplicated the subfile I wanted out to a new ldr which is attached here as Front_Tank.ldr.

When I open both of these files and go to the parts bin and drag the Front_Tank.ldr into the larger mpd, it inserts as individual parts instead of a submodel. It does the same thing whether I use the Ins key or I drag and drop it.

[Darren Carlson]

I need help getting a ldr into an mpd as a submodel and not just a bunch of individual parts.

Here's the deal. I made a whole whack of edits to an mpd to get it near where I wanted it. Then I added an entire submodel for the tank on the front trailer.
Then I decided I wanted to start all over and keep some of what I took out of the original.

So I went back to the original, made the edits I wanted and I'm happy with that file right now. It's attached as B-Train_Powered_Tanks_Darren.mpd.
I then went to the other mpd I had created and duplicated the subfile I wanted out to a new ldr which is attached here as Front_Tank.ldr.

When I open both of these files and go to the parts bin and drag the Front_Tank.ldr into the larger mpd, it inserts as individual parts instead of a submodel. It does the same thing whether I use the Ins key or I drag and drop it.

I just tried adding a new submodel to the main mpd and then dragging the Front_Tank into that submodel. That works but when I then drag the submodel from the parts bin into the main window in the mpd, it still ends up being individual parts. I'm stumped.

[Darren Carlson]

Well, all this messing around and I'm learning stuff. Also found a bug.

You should be able to recreate the problem with the files attached to my OP.

Open the mpd.
Open the ldr.
Switch to the mpd. Create a new submodel.
Drag the Front_Tank ldr into it.

This is where I learned that double clicking that model actually takes you back to the original that you have open to edit it. The submodel is actually just a representation of the ldr just as a submodel is in an mpd. That's the learning.

The bug is this: Now that you have things in that state, switch back to editing Front_Tank.ldr.
Click File, Close. Crashes every time.

ps. The reason I was trying to close the original while I had it open in the mpd was I assumed it might break the link and leave just the parts inside the submodel so that I could then insert that submodel into the main model. I was wrong.

[Darren Carlson]

Well, all this messing around and I'm learning stuff. Also found a bug.

You should be able to recreate the problem with the files attached to my OP.

Open the mpd.
Open the ldr.
Switch to the mpd. Create a new submodel.
Drag the Front_Tank ldr into it.

This is where I learned that double clicking that model actually takes you back to the original that you have open to edit it. The submodel is actually just a representation of the ldr just as a submodel is in an mpd. That's the learning.

The bug is this: Now that you have things in that state, switch back to editing Front_Tank.ldr.
Click File, Close. Crashes every time.

ps. The reason I was trying to close the original while I had it open in the mpd was I assumed it might break the link and leave just the parts inside the submodel so that I could then insert that submodel into the main model. I was wrong.

This has become entertaining talking to myself.
I manually added it to the mpd in notepad++. Cut and paste and stick the 1 FILE at the beginning and 1 NOFILE at the end and now it works.
Not elegant but it worked.

[Roland Melkert]

This has become entertaining talking to myself.
I manually added it to the mpd in notepad++. Cut and paste and stick the 1 FILE at the beginning and 1 NOFILE at the end and now it works.
Not elegant but it worked.

LDraw works with references, it basically doesn't matter what is referenced (a part or model) as technically there is no real difference between a ldr, mpd and dat file.

With LDCad I do make a distinction between model and part but that's purely for user comfort / rendering speed purposes.

Like you discovered if you want the target file to become part of the mpd you have to copy it into it, in 1.6 this can be done through the new 'embed' feature but in 1.5 there is no way of doing that apart from copy pasting the entire model content into a new submodel.

Thanks for reporting the file close bug, I'll look into that.

[Darren Carlson]

This has become entertaining talking to myself.
I manually added it to the mpd in notepad++. Cut and paste and stick the 1 FILE at the beginning and 1 NOFILE at the end and now it works.
Not elegant but it worked.

LDraw works with references, it basically doesn't matter what is referenced (a part or model) as technically there is no real difference between a ldr, mpd and dat file.

With LDCad I do make a distinction between model and part but that's purely for user comfort / rendering speed purposes.

Like you discovered if you want the target file to become part of the mpd you have to copy it into it, in 1.6 this can be done through the new 'embed' feature but in 1.5 there is no way of doing that apart from copy pasting the entire model content into a new submodel.

Thanks for reporting the file close bug, I'll look into that.

You're welcome. And once again, thanks for making this excellent tool.

[Roland Melkert]

Well, all this messing around and I'm learning stuff. Also found a bug.

You should be able to recreate the problem with the files attached to my OP.

Open the mpd.
Open the ldr.
Switch to the mpd. Create a new submodel.
Drag the Front_Tank ldr into it.

....

The bug is this: Now that you have things in that state, switch back to editing Front_Tank.ldr.
Click File, Close. Crashes every time.

I can't replicate this.

Which part bin group(s) is/are active while doing this as that could make a difference.

It might also help to send me the log file "%appdata%\LDCad\logs" of a crashed session.

Actually closing the front tank in this situation will only close it for a little while. Because the mpd submodel now references it and thus will be reload it as soon it is needed for rendering.

[Darren Carlson]

Well, all this messing around and I'm learning stuff. Also found a bug.

You should be able to recreate the problem with the files attached to my OP.

Open the mpd.
Open the ldr.
Switch to the mpd. Create a new submodel.
Drag the Front_Tank ldr into it.

....

The bug is this: Now that you have things in that state, switch back to editing Front_Tank.ldr.
Click File, Close. Crashes every time.

I can't replicate this.

Which part bin group(s) is/are active while doing this as that could make a difference.

It might also help to send me the log file "%appdata%\LDCad\logs" of a crashed session.

Actually closing the front tank in this situation will only close it for a little while. Because the mpd submodel now references it and thus will be reload it as soon it is needed for rendering.

I'll take some time in the next few days and see if I can replicate. Given that the whole thing was being treated as a part and I had to copy the text into the mpd to make it work could have actually been the problem. I don't even have the original files any longer that were blowing up I don't think. But maybe I do. I'll try recreating this in the next couple of days.