LDCad 1.6 - Placement Arrows?

[Andy Dassing]

What's the recommended procedure in LDCad to indicate part/assembly placement using arrows, lines, and inset bubbles?  Here's a link to an example:

https://sites.google.com/site/workingwithlpub/_/rsrc/1454413877598/lpub-4/working-with-submodels/using-a-callout/PointingOutPartsExamples.gif

Needs and Concerns:

• BUFEXCHG is needed?
  
• With and without subfile assemblies?
  
• CLEAR commands needed?
  
• Custom arrows, dashed/dotted lines, bubble callouts, etc?
  
• Prevent part duplication in the parts list?
  
• Clear and understandable rendering in LDCad
  

I understand that much of this can be accomplished (somewhat) by hand editing and LPub tweaking, but I'd like to do it all in LDCad if possible.

Can this be done in 1.6x, or will this something better suited to 2.x?

[Roland Melkert]

Needs and Concerns:

• BUFEXCHG is needed?
  
• With and without subfile assemblies?
  
• CLEAR commands needed?
  
• Custom arrows, dashed/dotted lines, bubble callouts, etc?
  
• Prevent part duplication in the parts list?
  
• Clear and understandable rendering in LDCad
  

BUFEXCHG is supported in 1.6 and its visibility rules are (optionally, enabled by default) applied to all rendering.

As for arrows etc these should be placed in sub models or separate (.dat) files. As a technical limitation of LDCad dictates no loose lines/polygons may be used in a model. Doing so will cause the whole model to be treated as a part (for rendering optimization).

Personally I prefer a loose arrow/callout 'part' library which I would embed in the mpd once the model is done.

Part duplication can be controled through LPub meta's but LDCad does not apply those to the part bin lists. The part count in the right bottom info panel does only count the visible ones but some parts might repeat in multiple steps due to the buffer restores.

All these meta's can best be edited using the source window.

2.0 will have a looser rendering engine meaning it will no longer care about lines in a model etc, full LPub meta support is planned but will take some time. It might be 2.1 even.


edit: Just noticed this is my 2000th post

[Jaco van der Molen]

What's the recommended procedure in LDCad to indicate part/assembly placement using arrows, lines, and inset bubbles?  Here's a link to an example:

https://sites.google.com/site/workingwithlpub/_/rsrc/1454413877598/lpub-4/working-with-submodels/using-a-callout/PointingOutPartsExamples.gif

Needs and Concerns:

• BUFEXCHG is needed?
  
• With and without subfile assemblies?
  
• CLEAR commands needed?
  
• Custom arrows, dashed/dotted lines, bubble callouts, etc?
  
• Prevent part duplication in the parts list?
  
• Clear and understandable rendering in LDCad
  

I understand that much of this can be accomplished (somewhat) by hand editing and LPub tweaking, but I'd like to do it all in LDCad if possible.

Can this be done in 1.6x, or will this something better suited to 2.x?

Single part call-out (like my example) is only one part in a submodel called out. The arrow is generated by LPub.

Buffer exchange is more useful for subassemblies (consisting of one or more parts) that hover in one step and are in place in the next.
Arrows or dashed/dotted lines pointing to where the subassembly must go have to be made in LDraw as a "helper part"


Buffering a part or subassembly in one step and change, move or remove in 2 or more steps later can be done with the REMOVE GROUP meta in LPub, using (old) MLCad's Group meta.

LPub should be able to prevent false part counts. If not, this can only be corrected by hand by ignoring a certain part.

The CLEAR metacommand is outdated (I think) and was used in very old versions of LDraw (not sure though)