Creating donor parts for LDCad flexible parts

[Roland Melkert]

I'm still working on the flexible part support in the next LDCad version, the system is setup in such away you can use pretty much any existing LDraw file as a donor (e.g. pneumatic segment etc).

But there are many flexible parts that don't have suitable donor parts in the existing official library. To supply non expert users with an easy to use 'out of the box' flexible part library I will need to create a collection of additional donor files.

So I was hoping if there's someone interested in helping me create these files. Some are easy like the 'technic axle flexible' those are pretty much just subsections of e.g. 32199.dat (caps and two different segments).

Others need some more thought like suitable segments for 'hose flexible', the existing ones in the official library are only useable for 'reference' placement like LSynth does.

I'm also thinking about supporting very weird things like bendable technic bricks (a real 16x1 brick can easily be bend 1 or 2mm), supporting this would only require a 'technic brick segment'.

There are more needed donors I'm sure, I haven't made an exact list yet. Such a list will come together on it's own when I start creating templates for all bendable stuff. If someone has such a (bendable parts) list (or want to compile one) that would be very helpful too.

So if anyone is interested please respond here or email me directly (address is on melkert.net/ldcad )

[Steffen]

I like playing with the electric cables;
for them, however, the existing files already suffice to successfully use LSYNTH.
Just wanted to mention it:

http://www.ldraw.org/cgi-bin/ptreviewsum...ctricplugs

[Roland Melkert]

From the look of things on the page you gave, it seems those parts can be used without changes or additional LDraw files in my current setup.

But I will only be suplying default templates for flexible parts which can be constructed/generated using official library parts or custom LDCad ones.

But the second this goes into the official library it shouldn't be a problem, it isn't really a problem right now ether but you would have to make custom templates or configure flexible parts manually when you need them in a model, and have the proper search paths set etc.

This is all fine for advanced users, but for 'normal' users I would like to supply as much flexible content as possible using official (sub)parts or using a collection of custom ones (hence the request in this thread).