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To see and discuss his Sentry Box, go here. Phes's Imperial Sentry Box
Several users who are just beginning with MLCAD may find it annoying to have to move 100 pieces just because you forgot a brick in the middle of the model, or to try to rotate 100 pieces in the same direction, but fear not, because a solution awaits you! I found that one of the greatest things in MLCAD is submodel or multi-part builds. This little tutorial is to show you how to use that feature!
First things first, what is a submodel? It is a model inside a larger model. Think about when you are working on a LEGOŪ set and the instructions have a small breakout box with a submodel, like a wing on a TIE Fighter, or a cannon on a pirate fort, that is a submodel!
The advantages to the submodels are at least 4 fold.
1) They are easier to work with because they are smaller.
2) Submodels that are inserted into a larger model are a 'single piece', so it can be moved and rotated as a single unit.
3) If you use an item consisting of several pieces multiple times, you need only build it once. *like the torches on the Sentry Box
4) Once a submodel is inserted into a larger model, if you change something in the submodel, it will instantly be reflected in the larger model.
When you first enter MLCAD, there is a blank workspace.
From here you can drag pieces into your workspace and move the parts around to make the model.
Even a relatively small model like the Sentry Box can benefit from being built with submodels.
In the case of Phes's Sentry Box, I know I am going to want at least 4 submodels based on the reasons listed above.
I want the base of the model, or the actual Box itself except the roof, to be one submodel, the minifig to be another, the torches to be a third and the roof itself to be a fourth.
I selected the multipart menu and selected 'new model'.
MLCAD asks for a name and a description. The submodels can have the same description, but must have unique names.
I entered a name and description and selected okay. At this point I could have started making a submodel, but since I knew I was going to need several submodels, I just repeated the process and made names and descriptions for all the submodels I would need.
After all the names and descriptions for all submodels were created, I was ready to start building the submodels. I needed to select the submodel to work on, so I clicked on the 'Multipart' menu, then selected 'Active Model'. A list of all the submodels I made appeared.
I selected the first one, which I had named 'base'.
I then just dragged the pieces I wanted to make the base model.
Once I was done with the submodel, I selected 'Active Model' from the 'Multipart' menu list and went on to my next model.
Once I was finished with all the submodels, I decided it was time to assemble all the submodels into one single big model. When I first started working, and selected to make my first submodel, I actually already had one submodel in my list. You will see it was titled 'untitled'. This is just the default/first model when you enter MLCAD. If you never click on the 'Multipart' menu, or make another submodel, this will be the default submodel and your entire creation will be in this single submodel. Since it was already blank, I decided I would use it to assemble all my submodels into one larger model. You could create a new submodel from the 'Multipart' menu list and name it 'complete' or 'sentry box' or something, but since I already had a blank model to use, I just used it.
Here is the key to using Multiparts and submodels!!
Once I selected the the model that I was going to assemble all the submodels in, I scrolled down the left hand side of my parts list to the section titled 'Documents'
As you can see, all the submodels are there!
All I had to do was drag the individual submodels into the workspace as if they were a single part!
Here is Phes's box.
Now here is where all this submodel stuff becomes VERY useful. Let's say that I wanted the roof to look different, but I didn't want to delete all the hard work just to find the new roof didn't wasn't what I wanted. Since I have made submodels, all I have to do is delete a single piece, the roof submodel, off my finished model and make a new submodel of a new roof to add onto the sentry box. If I don't like that roof, I can easily go back to the old one since it is its own submodel.
Here is a quick example of making a quick change to the roof using a new submodel. As you can see over on the left, I still have a submodel for the old roof, so I could change it back whenever I wanted! I called the new roof something intelligent like 'roof2', and inserted it into the finished model.
I hope you found this useful!
Note:
I am not going to export any of the models into picture form, because this is Phes's creation! Also, any instructions will also be up to him, I just wanted to show everyone the use of the submodel construction and its advantages!
MLCAD also had a brief tutorial which can be view by clicking the link below.
MLCAD Tutorial Link
Also additional parts for MLCAD can be found at the link below. Make sure to follow the instructions to ensure the parts are added to your library!
Parts Tracker Library Link
