[LDPartEditor] 0.8.23 Beta Released (Context menus / LDU->stud / Async header check)

[Nils Schmidt]

Hey,

release 0.8.23 comes with 6 bug fixes and 8 enhancements.
...I am going to write more content for the wiki/manual now.


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

Changelog:
(8 new features and 6 bug fixes)

With this release you will be able to...

• ...convert a unit to stud (20 LDU = 1.0 stud, rounded to one decimal place).
  
• ...access all context menu features from somewhere else, too.
  
• ...use the "Expand Area" buttons to "toggle" the divider position between the text and the 3d editor.
  
• ...use more dynamic context menus.
  
• ...benefit from the fact that there are bigger previews for the primitive area by default.
  
• ...benefit from the fact that "Text on the right / 3D on the left" is now the default window setting.
  
• ...see the stud logos on the upper left view when you use the PartReview tool.
  
• ...benefit from an asynchronous file header check (performance improvement / preparations for more validation features).
  

The following critical issues were fixed:

1. Deleting all text lines from a file with the text editor could sometimes freeze LDPE.
   
2. The PartReview tool did not close+reload already opened "duplicated" files.
   
3. When PrimGen2 opened the file in the 3D editor, the corresponding file tab was not selected.
   
4. The menu key (from the keyboard) did not work on the file tree.
   
5. The menu key (from the keyboard) did not work on the 3D view.
   
6. Wrong singular / plural use for the word "duplicate".
   

What will the next release 0.8.24 deliver? Bug fixes*, more header validation features, usability improvements...

* oh dear..., I still need to reproduce some errors...

---

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 0.8.23 was tested, 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.

[Nils Schmidt]

Hi,

I am writing new content for a wiki :)


Currently, my table of contents has the following main chapters.

1. About LDPE Introduces LDPE - why I built it and what it can do
   
2. The LDraw™ File Format Explore and understand the LDraw library standard
   
3. Setup Guide / Getting Started A step-by-step guide to install and run LDPE
   
4. Basic Usage Learn how to use LDPE
   
5. Configuration Customise the program settings
   
6. Advanced Usage Learn how to master LDPE
   
7. Sourcecode Study LDPE's algorithms and datastructures
   

I will focus on 3,4,5,6 first, then 2, 1 and finally 7.
I expect that it will take about 3-4 months of time to get a decent result [ there will be some winter holidays :) ]...
Nevertheless, I'll try to fix some bugs and release new versions as long as they are not reinventing the wheel.

Leg godt

Nils

[Philippe Hurbain]

Sorry to disturb you from your (useful!) documentation work, but it seems there is a problem now with 0.8.23: the Merge/split->Set X,Y,Z window appears only with a single vertex selection, it no longer works on a multiple selection (eg. to snap a selection on a plane).
(tried with 0.8.21, the oldest version still available on github, it has the same problem. But I am sure it used to work!)

[Nils Schmidt]

Sorry to disturb you from your (useful!) documentation work, but it seems there is a problem now with 0.8.23: the Merge/split->Set X,Y,Z window appears only with a single vertex selection, it no longer works on a multiple selection (eg. to snap a selection on a plane).
(tried with 0.8.21, the oldest version still available on github, it has the same problem. But I am sure it used to work!)

Thank you for this bug report! :)
I already fixed this issue (it took only 30 minutes).

I will release 0.8.24 in the next days (which will feature a little bit faster program start and a few bug fixes).