Submodels Cascade in MLCAD

[correaapoc]

Hello everyone,

I don't know if someone had this problem before, but I'm trying to make some building instructions of a MOC I created and I'm using MLCad and LPub for it.

Right now I have this situation

Main model (mpd file)

Submodel_1 (ldr file)

Submodel_2 (ldr file)

Submodel_3 (ldr file)

Submodel_4 (ldr file)

I need to insert a submodel inside Submodel_3, like Submodel_31, therefore Submodel_3 will become a mpd file, right?

The problem I'm facing is that I can't insert the new Submodel_3 (mpd file) into the Main model.

Does anyone know how to do it?

The final situation I would like to have is:

Main model (mpd file)

Submodel_1 (ldr file)

Submodel_2 (ldr file)

Submodel_3 (mpd file)

Submodel_31 (ldr file)

Submodel_4 (ldr file)

Is it possible?

Thanks all

[legolijntje]

That's certainly possible. But, don't worry about any of those file extensions. It's only for 'humans', it doesn't matter for (most) LDraw software it the file extensions if .mpd, .ldr, .dat or even .txt.

You can just insert a submodel into a submodel in MLcad. You don't have to do anything manual for that. Just in mlcad add submodel_31 into submodel_3 like you would add submodel_3 into the main model.

What's exactly the problem you're having?

Aside from that, I personally find MLCad quite annoying to work with for todays standars. I can recommend LDcad, it's works flawless (and imho easier compared to MLCad) with submodels. Of course, it's just personal preference

[correaapoc]

The problem is that when I add Submodel_31 into Submodel_3, Submodel_3 becomes a MPD file.

When I look back to the Main Model, the Submodel_3 I have there is the ldr file, not the mpd file (with Submodel_31), and when I try to add the Submodel_3.mpd (with Submodel_31), MLCAD doesn't allows me since I can only import .LDR files into a MPD file.

Did I make myself clear? What I want to say is that MLCAD only allows to import .LDR files into MPD files.

Thanks for your help

[Classicsmiley]

Add all of your sub models to your main file, then add whatever references you need to between them.

Here's an extremely simplistic example of what I'm talking about.

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/ClassicSmiley/Temp/submodelexample.mpd

[roland]

If you truly want to use submodel3 as a mpd file containing submodel31 on its own, you need to put both 3 and 31 in a separate file on disk. which then indeed will be a mpd you can reference from the main model inside main.mpd.

But if you just want to use the 31 submodel inside the 3 submodel you can add it to the rest of the submodels inside the mian.mpd just like submodel2 etc. It doesn't matter at which recursion level it is used all submodels are stored side to side sort to speak.

[correaapoc]

It worked!! Thanks a lot!!!

Classicsmiley, Just one final question regarding your example. Which software do I use to open your example? When I click the link it opens a window with the code. I tried to save it, but it only saves as a .txt file. I tried to open it with LPub and MLCad, but it didn't worked.

I've seen this kind of code before but I couldn't figure out how to use it.

Thanks for the advices everyone!

[legolijntje]

It worked!! Thanks a lot!!!

Classicsmiley, Just one final question regarding your example. Which software do I use to open your example? When I click the link it opens a window with the code. I tried to save it, but it only saves as a .txt file. I tried to open it with LPub and MLCad, but it didn't worked.

I've seen this kind of code before but I couldn't figure out how to use it.

Thanks for the advices everyone!

LDraw files are just text files. If you come across an LDraw file that has the .txt extension, 99% of the time you can just rename .txt to .ldr or .mpd and open it

In this case, there's always a little 'problem' when downloading LDraw files from Brickshelf. It opens the file in the browser instead of downloading. You can right-click the link from Classicsmiley and choose 'Save as' or something like that (depends on your browser and language of course).

[Classicsmiley]

LDraw files are just text files. If you come across an LDraw file that has the .txt extension, 99% of the time you can just rename .txt to .ldr or .mpd and open it

In this case, there's always a little 'problem' when downloading LDraw files from Brickshelf. It opens the file in the browser instead of downloading. You can right-click the link from Classicsmiley and choose 'Save as' or something like that (depends on your browser and language of course).

Thanks for explaining this! It's been quite a while since I linked to an LDraw file on Brickshelf, so I forgot to mention that necessary step.

[correaapoc]

Thanks!! :classic: