[LDPE] 1.8.73 Released (align/distribute,snap to grid, remove params, vertex pasting)

[Nils Schmidt]

Hey,

Willy asked kindly for a feature to align and distribute objects. It is now available (Actions... => Align and Distribute...) on standard perspectives (front, back, left, right, top, bottom). I also added Max's wish to remove superfluous parameters from line types 1-5 (with a quick fix).
And Magnus' wish to not select all, but just one place of a pasted vertex.
There is also Philo's request to snap vertices to the grid (Actions... => Snap To Grid), only usable on standard perspectives (front, back, left, right, top, bottom) and I added a hint what the grid size value actually means (it is the grid size for 1-10% zoom). Finally, I added some improvements and fixed a small negligible bug.




As always, you can download LDPE from this page:

http://nilsschmidt1337.github.io/ldparteditor/

Changelog:

(5 new features and 1 bug fix)

With this release you will be able to...

• ...align and distribute objects (isolated vertices, lines, triangles, quads and subfiles). It behaves differently if "Move Adjacent Data" is ON or OFF. ON keeps the objects connected together. OFF will seperate them. Only usable on standard perspectives (front, back, left, right, top, bottom) .
  
• ...snap vertices and subfiles to the current grid (only available on standard perspectives (front, back, left, right, top, bottom)).
  
• ...auto-remove superfluous arguments from text lines (type 1,2,3,4,5) and also add missing ones (via quick fix in the text editor).
  
• ...benefit from the fact that pasting a single vertex will not enable "Single Vertex Modification" if "Automatically disable "Move Adjacent Data" on paste (3D Editor)" is checked.
  
• ...benefit from a slightly faster 3D editor (e.g. lower latency when you add a triangle).
  

The following critical issue is fixed:

1. Wrong "Invalid number format" warning on "!LPE DISTANCE".
   

The program was tested intensively with "real world" files.
However, something can go wrong in about 140.000 lines of code.

Installation on Windows:

1. Download and extract LDPartEditor_win32_x64.zip
   
2. Run LDPartEditor-1.8.73.msi
   
3. Start LDPartEditor from the start menu
   

Installation on Linux:

1. Download and extract LDPartEditor_linux_x64.zip
   
2. Install ldparteditor_1.8.73-1_amd64.deb
   
3. Start LDPartEditor from the menu or via launcher
   

Installation on Mac OS X:

1. Download and extract LDPartEditor_mac_x64.zip
   
2. Mount LDPartEditor-1.8.73.dmg
   
3. Drag LDPartEditor.app to the Applications folder
   
4. Copy ldparteditor.sh to your home folder
       4a. Open a Terminal.app and run ./ldparteditor.sh
       4b. Or open a Terminal.app and run /Applications/LDPartEditor.app/Contents/MacOS/LDPartEditor
   

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:

• OpenGL 2.1 compatible Graphics Card
  
• Operating System (64-bit): Windows [7 or newer], Linux [e.g. Ubuntu Linux >=14.4], Mac OS X [>=10.6]
  
• CPU: Multicore-Processor e.g. Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon II (>2.0Ghz)
  
• RAM: 4GB
  
• Video-Memory: 1 GB
  
• Free Disk Space: 150 MB
  

Recommended Requirements:

• Operating System (64bit): Windows 7,8,10,11, Linux [e.g. Ubuntu Linux >=14.4], Mac OS X [>=10.6]
  
• OpenGL 3.3 compatible Graphics Card
  
• CPU: Multicore-Processor with 4 cores (or more)
  
• RAM: >4 GB
  
• Video-Memory: >1 GB
  
• Free Disk Space: 500 MB
  
• For a faster start, LDPartEditor and the LDraw™ library should be installed on an SSD.
  

[Philippe Hurbain]

There is also Philo's request to snap vertices to the grid (Actions... => Snap To Grid) and I added a hint what the grid size value actually means (it is the grid size for 1-10% zoom). 

Thanks Nils... but the  Snap To Grid menu entry is always greyed out, whatever is in the selection  What do I do wrong?

[Nils Schmidt]

Thanks Nils... but the  Snap To Grid menu entry is always greyed out, whatever is in the selection  What do I do wrong?

"Snap To Grid" is currently only available on standard perspectives (front, back, left, right, top, bottom).
Otherwise I would need to snap to all three axes (x,y,z) which does not match to the displayed grid.
I am not sure if this should be also supported?  I can add it if I fully understand what was required.

[Philippe Hurbain]

"Snap To Grid" is currently only available on standard perspectives (front, back, left, right, top, bottom).
Otherwise I would need to snap to all three axes (x,y,z) which does not match to the displayed grid.
I am not sure if this should be also supported?  I can add it if I fully understand what was required.

Gotcha. Sorry  Works perfectly.

[Massimo Maso]

Hello Nils,
I'd like to point out some oddities, they are not related to this specific version, and I don't know if they are actually intentional.

- If I open a file from an external memory (typically a USB stick) the whole program slows down as if I had loaded a huge file. If I copy the same file to the internal memory (main or secondary disk) the program works normally.

- If I select the connected faces with same color (Select - with same color - Connected) and cut the selection, if there is a face of a different color with all vertices in common with the selected ones, it is also cutted. If I select the same faces manually or use the Everything feature instead of Connected, this doesn't happen.

- If I select the faces,  in the Graph editor, in a certain order then cut and paste, in the Text editor I don't find them reordered in the order in which I selected them, but apart from the first one, the others are always in the order in which they were already in the text.

- In the Text Editor, is there a way to drag one or more selected lines in order to reorder them or do I have to use the Graphic editor to put them in order in Text too?

Massimo

[Willy Tschager]

Willy asked kindly for a feature to align and distribute objects.

You'll be officially named Santa Claus from now on. This works like a champ!

w.