Command line export to pov from LDView ?

[Rob]

Hi all,

Does anyone know if there is a way to export to POV format from LDView using the command line ?

e.g. LDView.exe sample.ldr -exporttopov sample.pov
(or something...)

I've look at the helpfile command reference but don't see it...

Up to now I've always used L3P but I came across a couple of models recently which didn't include all the necessary parts when creating the POV file with L3P whereas LDView created the POV file fine. (Example of part which L3P didn't export was 30552.dat, LDView was fine - which I found a bit odd as I thought both would be using the same parts folders in my LDraw folder ?).

I'm also thinking that LDView is currently supported and being actively developed whereas L3P hasn't been updated for some time, and LDView also tries to download missing parts automatically from LDraw which is a bonus - so would really like to start using LDView instead of L3P I think - but I need the ability to run the export from the command line if at all possible.

Thanks.

TCBUK

[Travis Cobbs]

Unfortunately, no there isn't. It's a planned feature, but not one currently available, and it almost certainly won't be available in the official 4.2 release. When I originally wrote LDView's export functionality, I planned to encorporate it into a standalone command line-only converter application, which I would release in addition to LDView. Because of this, I didn't put command line support for exports into LDView. I never produced the standalone application, though, and no longer plan to. So I will be adding command line export support to LDView, but just haven't gotten around to doing so yet.

As a side note, I am still actively developing LDView (and Peter Bartfai is still actively updating the Qt version as I add features to the other versions), but I have spent a lot less time working on it since LDView 4.1 was released than I did prior to that. That's the main reason it took so long for the 4.2 Beta release, and it's taking so long for me to get the official 4.2 release out.

[Steffen]

And we all love this great tool, Travis.
Thank you a lot again.

[Rob]

I agree it is a great tool.

I have fudged an automated export from LDView by using 'Sendkeys' from vb.net (my main programming tool) which works but is not ideal when I'm trying to export hundreds of 'frames' - for animations. However, I'll look into refining that until the command line option comes along (or I can work out why L3P is not doing a good a job at locating parts as LDView).

Thanks for the speedy and informative response Travis.

Rob

(TCBUK)

[Philippe Hurbain]

LDView also tries to download missing parts automatically from LDraw which is a bonus -

That may be the reason why you have problems with parts such as 30552. This part was renamed (from "481"), but is not yet official. LDView will automatically download the right files, but you may have a configuration issue to access these unofficial parts from l3p.

[Rob]

Philippe,

Many thanks for the thought - it made me take another look at my configuration.

I found that in my 'C:\LDraw\Unofficial\Parts' folder were the parts which I was missing (which presumably LDView had downloaded and saved there and was using correctly) but L3P was not setup to look in this folder.

I have added a LDraw.INI file as described on the L3P website and L3P is now including these 'unofficial' parts - many thanks.

... I really like this forum

Rob

(TCBUK)

[Jean-Philippe Ouellet]

I'd just like to state that I'd also like to be able to export stl files from the command line to do automated checking for parts with bad BFC winding and parts that aren't watertight in the entire library using already existing freely available utilities. That's the only thing technically keeping the LDraw library from being 3d printer ready (besides the fact that most commonly available 3d printers aren't accurate enough to reproduce parts with anywhere near the required tolerances for actual use, but hopefully that'll resolve itself eventually).

Many thanks for all your excellent work over the years.

[Philippe Hurbain]

I'm afraid that MOST LDraw files are not watertight...

[Travis Cobbs]

The placement of studs across a single flat polygon might also cause problems (although it might not). Additionally, no matter what settings are used, round surfaces are subdivided into polygons.

[romg]

Hello,

Back on this topic, I saw that version 4.2 is available as a beta, but can't get list of changes from 4.1 to this 4.2 version.

I just wanted to know if command line support for exports was finally included in this new version?

thanks!

[Travis Cobbs]

It's not in the 4.2 Beta either, nor is it in the development-only code.