Multi-parts document storage

[Lipko]

Hi all!

Sorry if there's a general topic for a simple question like this, but I'm not sure about one thing:

Is everything stored physically in the mpd file or the ldr submodel files are stored somewhere separately? My hunch is that everything is in the mpd file since I cannot find the individual ldr files even with search tools. But the fact that the submodels seemingly have the ldr extensions and that the final mpd file is not as large as an ldd file for the same model with all parts implies that something strange is going on.

Thanks for any answers in advance!

[legolijntje]

Well, it can be both.

In the core, .dat files, .ldr files and .mpd files all are the same except the file extension. You can rename a .ldr to .mpd and it would work fine etc. (although it depends how much the software depends on the file extension). I don't recommend it though

• .dat files are part files which consist of lines, triangles etc.
  
• .ldr files are LDraw models consisting of multiple .dat files. These .dat files can either be stored somewhere else (which is most often the case) or can be inlined in the .ldr file*.
  
• .mpd files are LDraw models consisiting of multiple .ldr (and .dat if needed) files. Just as with the example above, you can either put .ldr files inside the .mpd file are put them in a seperate location.
  

You can view a .mpd as a LDraw model but instead of having .dat files, it houses .ldr files (which in turn have .dat files).

In 99% of the cases the seperate models in an mpd file (the seperate .ldr files) are stored within the .mpd file itself to make it easy to share and open (you only need 1 file).

Pretty much all LDraw software nowadays does it this way.

I hope this little explanation is a bit clear.

*Technicially speaking, when a .ldr files includes .dat files in the same file, it's questionable if it's still a .ldr or a .mpd

[Lipko]

Thank you for the answer, yes, it's a bit cleaner. Is there a way to find the dependencies, because I do see some separate ldr files too?

[legolijntje]

Thank you for the answer, yes, it's a bit cleaner. Is there a way to find the dependencies, because I do see some separate ldr files too?

I don't exactly understand what you mean. Could you maybe give an example?

[Lipko]

Never mind, they were separate files that I imported later into the mpd.