my MLCad parts tree setup

[Steffen]

Just for backup, but also for anybody interested, I'm posting here my current MLCad parts tree setup
which I over some years now found convenient to use.
This is especially useful for me still since MLCad doesn't know of the !CATEGORY keyword yet,
and thus will not show parts in their categories initially.

I'm attaching the MLCad.grp file here to this post (rename it from MLCad.grp.txt to MLCad.grp after download),
so you can directly use it to replace your default one if desired.

Here's a textual description of the contents:

Code:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MLCad Tree Group Name                  Expression
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sticker                                <Sticker
Primo                                  Primo
Duplo                                  <Duplo & !Primo
Belville & Scala                       <Belville | <Scala
Fabuland                               <Fabuland
Figure                                 <Figure | <_Figure | <Microfig
Boat                                   <Boat
Maxifig & Arm & Homemaker              <Maxifig | <Arm | <Homemaker
Minifig                                <Minifig
Animal                                 <Animal
Plant                                  <Plant
Fence & Gate                           <Fence | <Gate
Wheel & Tyre                           <Wheel | <Tyre
Vehicle                                <Car | <Bike | <Tractor | <Vehicle | <Tipper | <Trailer | <Exhaust
Baseplate                              <Baseplate
Brick                                  <Brick
Arch                                   <Arch
Slope                                  <Slope
Dish & Cone                            <Dish | <Cone
Panel                                  <Panel
Plate                                  <Plate
Tile                                   <Tile
Bracket                                <Bracket
Tail & Support                         <Tail | <Support
Hinge & Turntable                      <Hinge | <Turntable
Crane & Excavator & Winch & Forklift   <Crane | <Excavator | <Winch | <Forklift
Windscreen & Window & Glass            <Windscreen | <Window | <Glass
Door                                   <Door
Flag                                   <Flag
Antenna & Bar                          <Antenna | <Bar
Roadsign & Signpost & Lamppost         <Roadsign | <Signpost | <Lamppost
Container & Cylinder                   <Container | <Cylinder
Wedge & Wing & Cockpit                 <Wedge | <Wing | <Cockpit
Technic                                <Technic
Electric                               <Electric
Propellor                              <Propellor | <Jet
Monorail                               <Monorail
Train & Magnet                         <Train | <Magnet
Mursten                                <Mursten
Znap                                   <Znap
Rock                                   <Rock
String                                 <String
_ (Shortcut)                           <_ & !<_Figure
~ (Implementation Detail)              <~
LSYNTH                                 <LSynth

[Willy Tschager]

Folks,

I'm working on a new tutorial and would like you to test the set I've created for the MLCad parts tree. There are special sets for:

Technic
City
Space
Castle
Themes (Duplo, Fabuland, Friends, ...)
Train
Default (to restore everything with a click)

Just download this file:

http://www.holly-wood.it/tmp/PartTreeSets.zip

and doubleclick the .reg files (if you wanna see the content od the .reg files for security reasons you might open it with notepad or any other text editor first).

Any comments are welcome,

w.

[Jude Parrill]

This is interesting, as I do something similar, but mainly rely on a heavily customized parts.lst. Essentially, I move the parts into the order I want them to display in. For example, in the bricks, I've moved them into the following order: Standard, Modified (roughly as bricklink defines it, although also including round and wedge), patterned, and old/discontinued/alias parts. This allows me to have the frequently used parts (e.g. a 1x2 brick) near the top of the list and easily accessible while the less frequently used parts (1x1 brick with "A" pattern) are at the bottom, accessible when needed, but out of the way the rest of the time.

I do with I'd thought of/realized I could use a search pattern like you have, as I ended up doing something involving the parts.lst file as well. Like you, I wanted to put my Windscreens, Windows, Glass, and Doors together. So, to accomplish this, I appended "WWGD" to the front of every Windscreen, Window, Glass, and Door in my parts list, then searched for "<WWGD". The result ends up being the same, but required far more work than it should have.

The main problem with my current system, though, is that every time there is a new parts update, I have to add each new part in manually. Basically, I create a seperate file with all the new parts, run the Makelist function in it to create a list of parts, and then go through it, manually adding each line in as I cut and past the part from the "new parts" folder into my regular parts folder. It's always a time consuming process. This is why I sometimes with Chris would put the parts that have been updated (the ones that aren't new) into a seperate folder so I could simply copy them and focus exclusively on the new parts. As it stands, not only do I have to add each part in, but I also have to be on the lookout for part updates so that I don't add the same part in twice.

I really wish there was an easier way sometimes...

[Michael Heidemann]

I do not understand fully.

If there is a part update you can download the modified new files (http://www.ldraw.org/parts/latest-parts.html) or the complete library.

Oh, now I understand you do not know which parts of the update are new and which are updates.

I am sure there are applications that can compare the content of two folders. Then you have to copy the modified files to your library and the remaining files needs indeed work by hand as the sort order you use (which I like) is only possible in this way.

[Philippe Hurbain]

A trick I often use with MLCad: I have a "Search" category on top of my parts tree. When I need to search for a part containing some text string, I edit this category "search string" entry, and I get together all parts that meet my criterion. Much more convenient, faster and powerful than the Ctrl-F search!

[Jude Parrill]

Yes, Mike, I always download the Parts Update to a seperate folder. I then create a parts.lst containing just the parts in the update (which I ususally then rename "new_parts.lst" to avoid confusion). I then open up both my standard parts.lst and the new_parts.lst, and go through the new_parts.lst, manually adding each new part into my standard parts.lst, while also manually cutting and pasting the appropriate file from the new Parts directory into my standard parts directory (although now that I'm sitting here writing it, I'm beginning to wonder if this is really even necessary).

If all this sounds super tedious, that's because it is. There may be a better way, but I'm still working out what that is.

[Willy Tschager]

My I borrow that? Will give it back in good shape ;-)

w.

[Michael Heidemann]

What you need is a new makelist.exe that sort to your wishes.
But that might be difficult at some point.
Please attach your parts.lst, so maybe me or some else can help.

[Philippe Hurbain]

Sure!