LDCad 1.7 Beta 1 (win+linux)

[Roland Melkert]

Hello all,

I'm proud to present the first beta version of LDCad 1.7.

It's been some time since the last update, so I hope it was worth the wait.

Major new features:
- Interactive animations
- Full !DATA meta (embedded texture) support.
- Collada export (partial, deprecated).
- gtTF2 export
- Lots of new scripting objects.

There are also stacks of small changes / tweaks, some new examples and lots of bugfixes.

See changeLog.txt for the full list of changes.

   

You can get the latest version at:
https://www.melkert.net/LDCad/download

[Sam Potter]

Hello all,

I'm proud to present the first beta version of LDCad 1.7.

It's been some time since the last update, so I hope it was worth the wait.

Major new features:
- Interactive animations
- Full !DATA meta (embedded texture) support.
- Collada export (partial, deprecated).
- gtTF2 export
- Lots of new scripting objects.

There are also stacks of small changes / tweaks, some new examples and lots of bugfixes.

See changeLog.txt for the full list of changes.



You can get the latest version at:
https://www.melkert.net/LDCad/download

thanks, is the 0 !LDCAD IMAGE meta available in this build, if yes how do you use it?

[Roland Melkert]

thanks, is the 0 !LDCAD IMAGE meta available in this build, if yes how do you use it?

Sorry but no, it turned out to be trickier (time intensive) to do it the right way, so I decided to postpone it as I had very little time for the project as a whole.

You can still use stickers to get the same effect though.

[N. W. Perry]

Works great, fonts appear correctly right out of the box on Mac/WINE!

And of course, it's fun to play with the dump truck. Now I'm wondering if the interactive animation can be used to help solve geometrical puzzles…?

[Magnus Forsberg]

How do I include printed plates in the "normal plate" bin?

[Roland Melkert]

How do I include printed plates in the "normal plate" bin?

While LDCad is closed edit %appdata%/LDCad/partBin/default/sorted/platesNormal.pbg

Change
exclude description pattern,sticker,duplo,fabuland
into
exclude description duplo,fabuland

or copy the old version from 1.6

I changed it as I thought the 'normal' groups were littered by non normal parts.

Should've have added a sticker version (like with tiles) though.

[Magnus Forsberg]

Should've have added a sticker version (like with tiles) though.

And how do I do that?

[N. W. Perry]

This may be a Mac OS thing, but I've noticed a change in behavior with hotkeys (starting in the previous Alpha version). For most key bindings I have to remap CTRL to ALT in order for it to recognize my CMD key. But now with (only) the edit menu commands (copy, paste, cut, undo, select all etc.), it seems to recognize CMD as CTRL, so the remapping doesn't work. Using the Sample function in the hotkey config dialog seems to confirm this.

I've still got some experimenting to do, but wondered if anyone else had noticed this? (MacOS 13.4–13.5, by the way.)

[Magnus Forsberg]

In that folder, %appdata%/LDCad/partBin/default/sorted/ there are two files called subulba.pbg and minifirAccessory.pbg
Is the misspelling deliberate?  The spelling is the same inside these files. The figure is called s_E_bulba and shouldn't it be minifi_G_Accessory?

What are they supposed to accomplish? And, perhaps, how do I correct them?

[Roland Melkert]

And how do I do that?

Create a new file alongside platesNormal.pbg named platesPat.pbg containing:

Code:

[options]
kind=filter
caption=Patterned plates
description=Plates with a print or sticker.
picture=
mascot=3024p03.dat
sortOn=description
sortDesc=false
sortCaseInSens=true
sourceInv=parts


<rules>
include category plate
exclude description ~*,_*,=*
exclude !description pattern
exclude keyword wing
exclude description without corner,clip,arm,handle,ball,petals,swirl,tooth,pin,cube,hook,engine,shoot,ladder,hole,wheel,train,extension,hinge,grill,saucer,door,raised
exclude description tail,axle,frame,socket,magnet,brick,curved,bar,cuboid,0.667,claw,exhaust,spoil,degree,offset,holder,tabs,binoculars,rail,rotor,coupling,teeth

And add a
sorted\platesPat
below
sorted\platesNormal

in the plates.pbg file

This will probably be standard in the next version.

This may be a Mac OS thing, but I've noticed a change in behavior with hotkeys (starting in the previous Alpha version). For most key bindings I have to remap CTRL to ALT in order for it to recognize my CMD key. But now with (only) the edit menu commands (copy, paste, cut, undo, select all etc.), it seems to recognize CMD as CTRL, so the remapping doesn't work.

Weird I did change some things in one of the Alpha's but far I know those only solved some problems.

If ctrl, alt and or shift is pressed comes from the wxWidgets side of things, and I did upgrade that library to the newest version. But it might also be a WINE thing. Any other mac users having similar problems?

In that folder, %appdata%/LDCad/partBin/default/sorted/ there are two files called subulba.pbg and minifirAccessory.pbg
Is the misspelling deliberate?  The spelling is the same inside these files. The figure is called s_E_bulba and shouldn't it be minifi_G_Accessory?

What are they supposed to accomplish? And, perhaps, how do I correct them?

Those are not part of the default bin, are they in one of the subfolders of sorted?

If so those are generated based on all categories in your loaded library(ies).

Maybe there are typo's in unofficial files?

[Magnus Forsberg]

Those are not part of the default bin, are they in one of the subfolders of sorted?

If so those are generated based on all categories in your loaded library(ies). 

Maybe there are typo's in unofficial files?

Yes, they are in sorted\others. But I have a subulba.pbg in "cats" too.

So, are these files "auto created" every time I happen to put a file containing a bad spelling in my unofficial/parts-folder?
When are they created?

I seem to have some strange, old files in "other". What will happen if I delete them all?

[Roland Melkert]

So, are these files "auto created" every time I happen to put a file containing a bad spelling in my unofficial/parts-folder?
When are they created?

I seem to have some strange, old files in "other". What will happen if I delete them all?

They are updated whenever a change in the library is detected.

You can delete them while LDCad is closed they will be regenerated the next time you start it.

If you want them gone for good (or at least till the next LDCad update) remove the
sorted\other
sorted\underscore
sorted\tilde

lines from main.pbg in the sorted folder.

[N. W. Perry]

Weird I did change some things in one of the Alpha's but far I know those only solved some problems.

If ctrl, alt and or shift is pressed comes from the wxWidgets side of things, and I did upgrade that library to the newest version. But it might also be a WINE thing. Any other mac users having similar problems?

I'm not even sure I'd classify it as a problem since it would be nice if all CTRL bindings were automatically remapped to the CMD key—unless, I suppose, you want to actually use the CTRL key in some shortcuts as well. :-)

One thing that this actually seems to fix is that, previously, I would still have to use my actual CTRL key for these edit functions inside of LDCad's dialog boxes, whereas my remapped CMD (ALT) versions worked everywhere else in the GUI. Now, when I use CMD it's recognized as CTRL, so it works in dialog boxes as well as program windows.

[Magnus Forsberg]

They are updated whenever a change in the library is detected.

OK, since I am updating/changing the content of my official/unofficial library every day, as an active part author, I get different content in the part bins every time I open LDCad?

Is there a way to prevent that? Or maybe I want the content to always be up to date?
How should I manage the content of the "default/sorted" folder?

[Roland Melkert]

OK, since I am updating/changing the content of my official/unofficial library every day, as an active part author, I get different content in the part bins every time I open LDCad?

Is there a way to prevent that? Or maybe I want the content to always be up to date?
How should I manage the content of the "default/sorted" folder?

There is no global option for that, but you should be able to force it by changing the pbg kind from
kind=catList
to
kind=basic

in all the category groups you want to 'freeze':
other.pbg
underscore.pbg
tilde.pbg
cats.pbg (in default)

untested though.

edit: the existing (filter) groups in the subfolders will keep getting updated though, but no new groups will be created.

[Miguel Reizinho]

Thank you Roland! It's great to see a new update!

I'm having troubles in finding the colours on the new version. Now the group for "Solid Plastic" has fewer colours. And I never noticed but inside the "Plastic" colour wheel, there are all those transparent colours? I find it a little confusing. 

I know that we can search for a specific colour by clicking on the name and inserting the LDraw colour ID. Could it be possible to search by text as well? If I type "blue" on the search box, all the colours with the name "blue" on it would appear and let me choose the one I wanted.

[Philippe Hurbain]

 Could it be possible to search by text as well? If I type "blue" on the search box, all the colours with the name "blue" on it would appear and let me choose the one I wanted.

I dream of that too 😉

[Roland Melkert]

I'm having troubles in finding the colours on the new version. Now the group for "Solid Plastic" has fewer colours. And I never noticed but inside the "Plastic" colour wheel, there are all those transparent colours? I find it a little confusing. 

That's probably because the 'calculated' dithered and transparent colors are now disabled by default. You can enable them in the prefs/ldraw menu.

Transparent colors inside the plastic group is normal as those transparent parts are still made of plastic.

I know that we can search for a specific colour by clicking on the name and inserting the LDraw colour ID. Could it be possible to search by text as well? If I type "blue" on the search box, all the colours with the name "blue" on it would appear and let me choose the one I wanted.

i did considered it, but decided to put it on the 2.0 'must have list'.

[N. W. Perry]

I have two probably minor suggestions for the next round of updates:

1. I'd like to be able to set the default step rotation from the GUI. It could be a menu item under Prefs->Editing, and/or in the Step Properties dialog, the addition of a "Use as def" button. (Would only work for ABS step rotations I guess.) Right now you can set the default rotation by editing main.cfg, but you first need to know the matrix to use…

2. I'd like to be able to set default directories for Open and Save. (Or is there already a way?) Right now it looks like the only option is the last used directory, which is often handy. But I'd like to set my Models dir as the default, because for some reason I can't navigate upwards in the directory tree in the Save and Open dialogs. If I want to change to another directory, I have to drill down each time from the top level of my computer.

Thanks for listening. Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

[Roland Melkert]

I have two probably minor suggestions for the next round of updates:Thanks for listening. Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

Both seem doable I've made a note of it for the next version.