I was asked to describe the workflow I use to convert my LDraw models to Studio (with unofficial parts not in Studio) in order to render them. Here it is...
- Open the model in LDCad
- Embed all unofficial parts: File -> Cleanup -> check "Embed unofficial parts"
- Save the file with a new name (eg. modelparts.mpd)
- Download MPDWizard tool from http://www.pobursky.com/common/files/mpdwizard.zip (Thanks Orion
)
- Launch MPDWizard, and go to "Extract" tab
- Open your modelparts.mpd file in MPD Model File
- Choose a folder in "Directory for Extracted Files". Note that MPDWizard is an old tool, and doesn't play well with complex folder trees! I use a simple folder in the root of my hard disk, eg. "C:\newparts"
- Press Extract button. All the subfiles contained in the mpd are now extracted.
- Now go to Studio custom parts location. On Windows it's located here:
C:\Users\<your user name>\AppData\Local\Stud.io\CustomParts. If there is no CustomParts folder in Stud.io folder, create it. - in CustomParts folder, create a "parts" subfolder and a "p" subfolder.
- Copy all parts files (eg. 80271.dat or u9560.dat) from C:\newparts to (...)CustomParts\parts
- Copy "S" subfolder from C:\newparts to (...)CustomParts\parts (thus creating a "s" subfolder in CustomParts\parts)
- Copy all primitive parts (eg. 3-16con14.dat) from C:\newparts to (...)CustomParts\p
- Copy "8" and "48" subfolders from C:\newparts to (...)CustomParts\p (thus creating a "8" and a "48" subfolder in CustomParts\p). Note that "8" and "48" folders may be absent if there's no hires or lores primitives.
- Launch Studio and open Custom Parts palette. You should see all the new parts there.
- You can now import your original model.