Question: LDD style base/floor in LDCad. Can it be done?

[knotian]

One of the nice things about LDD is the starting base which allows placement of axles etc to serve as placement jigs. Is there any way that this "Base Plate" can be loaded into LDCad?

Thanx,

Ed

[Superkalle]

Hi and welcome to the forum. I helped you with a bit more descriptive post title

[knotian]

Thanks -

Ed

[roland]

I did consider adding this as an option (studs or technic holes) but it kinda got side tracked, I'll put it back in the top 10 todo points.

In the meantime you could just place a real base plate at 0,0,0.

But if you want a less intrusive one and are open to some configuration adventures you can create a custom part faking it.

You will need to use 1.5 alpha 4 though, or wait for 1.5 beta (hopeful in a couple of weeks).

Next you register a new library (make a folder containing parts and p subfolders by hand).

In the new library part folder create a basePlate20x20.dat file and copy the below content into it.

0 Fake 20x20 base plate.
0 Name: fake20x20base.dat
0 Author: Roland Melkert [roland]
0 !LDRAW_ORG Unofficial_Part
0 !LICENSE Redistributable under CCAL version 2.0 : see CAreadme.txt
0 BFC CERTIFY CCW

2 15 -200 0 -200 200 0 -200
2 15 -200 0 -180 200 0 -180
2 15 -200 0 -160 200 0 -160
2 15 -200 0 -140 200 0 -140
2 15 -200 0 -120 200 0 -120
2 15 -200 0 -100 200 0 -100
2 15 -200 0 -80 200 0 -80
2 15 -200 0 -60 200 0 -60
2 15 -200 0 -40 200 0 -40
2 15 -200 0 -20 200 0 -20
2 15 -200 0 0 200 0 0
2 15 -200 0 20 200 0 20
2 15 -200 0 40 200 0 40
2 15 -200 0 60 200 0 60
2 15 -200 0 80 200 0 80
2 15 -200 0 100 200 0 100
2 15 -200 0 120 200 0 120
2 15 -200 0 140 200 0 140
2 15 -200 0 160 200 0 160
2 15 -200 0 180 200 0 180
2 15 -200 0 200 200 0 200

2 15 -200 0 -200 -200 0 200
2 15 -180 0 -200 -180 0 200
2 15 -160 0 -200 -160 0 200
2 15 -140 0 -200 -140 0 200
2 15 -120 0 -200 -120 0 200
2 15 -100 0 -200 -100 0 200
2 15 -80 0 -200 -80 0 200
2 15 -60 0 -200 -60 0 200
2 15 -40 0 -200 -40 0 200
2 15 -20 0 -200 -20 0 200
2 15 0 0 -200	 0 0 200
2 15 20 0 -200 20 0 200
2 15 40 0 -200 40 0 200
2 15 60 0 -200 60 0 200
2 15 80 0 -200 80 0 200
2 15 100 0 -200 100 0 200
2 15 120 0 -200 120 0 200
2 15 140 0 -200 140 0 200
2 15 160 0 -200 160 0 200
2 15 180 0 -200 180 0 200
2 15 200 0 -200 200 0 200

0 !LDCAD SNAP_CYL [gender=M] [caps=one] [secs=R 6 4] [grid=C 20 C 20 20 20]

After you restart LDCad do a search for 'fake' and it should show up (might be an apparently empty cell). Place the part a 0,0,0 (or anywhere followed by shift+c). It will show a 20x20 grid of invisible studs. And it will not respond to (re)selection as it has only lines.

http://www.melkert.n...el/fakeBase.png

If you don't want to see the grid lines just remove all the "2 ...." lines from the .dat file.

Hope this is somewhat clear, helpful :)

edit: You can also just put the .dat into your official library's parts folder.

Edited September 17, 2015 by roland

[knotian]

Thanks a lot -

What would I change to make it technic holes rather than studs?

Ed

[roland]

What would I change to make it technic holes rather than studs?

Replace the last line with

0 !LDCAD SNAP_CYL [pos=0 20 0] [gender=F] [caps=none] [secs=R 8 2  R 6 16  R 8 2] [grid=C 20  C 20  20 20]

This will make it a grid of (sunken) technic pin holes.