[Software] LDCad - LDraw cad

[roland]

It works for me, and nothing has been changed in that section of code for this version.

Be sure the 'shadow location' is given and valid in the prefs/ldraw/search paths dialog for the official library.

Also be sure 'Shadow files' is enabled in prefs/ldraw

And the compass is set to PS

If all fails you could try resetting the configuration by deleting main.cfg in %appdata%/LDCad/config

[IstakaCiti]

10 hours ago, roland said:

Be sure the 'shadow location' is given and valid in the prefs/ldraw/search paths dialog for the official library.

This was the issue, after adding the path its working fine, Thanks

[Duq]

I have started trying LDCad v1.6 after 15 years of MLCad...

A lot of things are probably just a matter of getting used to (like keys doing different things all the time) but I do have a serious problem:

If I switch to Nested editing mode the whole UI falls apart; all the buttons are gone as well as some borders. Switching back to Normal mode does not work. Any idea what might be causing this?

I also have a question: If I put in a string, how do I change the path? How do I 'hook' the middle of the string over another part?

[roland]

55 minutes ago, Duq said:

If I switch to Nested editing mode the whole UI falls apart; all the buttons are gone as well as some borders. Switching back to Normal mode does not work. Any idea what might be causing this?

To be honest I have no clue, as this is something noone else has reported, also the nested mode state is completely different programming code form the gui buttons etc.

The only thing I can think of is a OpenGL driver problem, are you using the latest drivers for you card?

57 minutes ago, Duq said:

I also have a question: If I put in a string, how do I change the path? How do I 'hook' the middle of the string over another part?

Without nested mode this is hard to do, you'll have to go to the string's own subfile and add control points to the string's path. Similar to using LSynth in MLCad except the string.

[Duq]

I've updated the video card drivers on my laptop but it hasn't made a difference....

Nested Edit issue by Duq, on Flickr

[legolijntje]

That looks... weird. Haven't seen that in the (probably) thousand(s) of hours I used LDCad... What laptop/video card do you have?

[MReizinho]

Hello "Duq"!

Please try to do a clean install.

1. Go to Control Panel and uninstall LDCad

2. Go to %appdata% folder and delete "LDCad" folder

3. Install program again from the link: http://www.melkert.net/action/download/LDCad-1-6-Win.exe

Let us know how did it go.

 

[Duq]

Hello "MReizinho", fancy meeting you here ;-)

I will try a reinstall tonight. The laptop is an Asus, 8Gb, with a GeForce GT 540M video card, running Windows 7.

[roland]

Reinstalling will not fix that, It seems your OpenGL driver has problems using Display Lists. Very similar to when you run LDCad.exe in wine on a MAC.

For the mac situation I added an option to 'force' the OpenGL driver to try use a lower context version as on mac's the default context doesn't support display lists at all.

You could try that option, for this open

%appdata%\LDCad\config\main.cfg

while the program is closed.

And look for a line:

reqVersion=0.0

change it into

reqVersion=3.0

 

Tech background if you want to know :)

OpenGL >3.1 no longer officially supports display lists, so drivers are free to ignore those commands (hence the missing gui). This option tries to force the driver to use a OpenGL 3.0 environment in which display lists are still part of the spec. But the driver might ignore this if it's a lazy one :(

Edited July 14, 2017 by roland

[Duq]

Unfortunately neither a reinstall nor the ini file change have worked.

I've installed a utility that shows OpenGL details and that tells me that I have OpenGL 3.0 installed.

Any other suggestions? Any details that could help?

Any help would be appreciated...

[roland]

Are you sure you are using the most recent driver for that card as 3.0 sounds low (most drivers are at 4.x)

Did you get the driver here (lists a 2017 version for that 540m):

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

or from ASUS, fi you did the one try the other.

[Duq]

I installed the latest driver from the nvidia site you linked (the 2017 one) and it didn't work.

I've installed an Intel driver update tool to make sure I have the latest driver for the integrated video chip. No luck.

I've used the NVidia tool to force LDCad to use the NVidia video card instead of the integrated one: couldn't even start LDCad: "Couldn't create OpenGL context"

Tried the Asus website. The latest NVidia driver there was from 2011 and it failed to install.

I guess I'm just buggered and can't use LDCad on this laptop....
 

[roland]

I'm 99% certain this is all due to no or buggy display list support by the dominant OpenGL driver, if this is the Intel one it could explain things as the older Inter drivers are not as good as those from NVIdia and AMD.

So you might need to disable the intel chip in the bios to make sure the windows desktop (and thus LDCad) uses the nvidia chip.

Other from that I'm also kinda out of ideas, any suggestions from people using similar laptops chip setups?

LDCad 2.0 will no longer use display lists, but it will take quite some time before that version is usable.

 

[Duq]

So you might need to disable the intel chip in the bios to make sure the windows desktop (and thus LDCad) uses the nvidia chip.

That's what I did, but not in BIOS:

I've used the NVidia tool to force LDCad to use the NVidia video card instead of the integrated one: couldn't even start LDCad: "Couldn't create OpenGL context"

I'll have another look at figuring out the OpenGL for NVidia.

[legolijntje]

Or you could completely wipe the nvidia driver using this tool and then reinstall it again. Not sure if it would help anything, but..."niet geschoten is altijd mis" 

[Duq]

I finally got it to work by forcing Windows to use the Nvidia chip and then changing that line in main.cfg back to reqVersion=0.0.

So now that nested editing finally works it's time to figure out strings. When I put in a string with two studs at the ends and go to nested, I can move the two end studs around. Along the string are a pink and a green ball and I can slide them along the string but that doesn't appear to do anything. I can select the string itself but I can't manipulate it. If I try to insert a control point (anchor or bezier) I get "Part usage not allowed in this kind of subfile".

What am I missing?

Sorry for all the questions, I've heard good things about LDCad so I want to give it a try but it's not easy...

[legolijntje]

The green and red balls are the bezier curve control handles (or whatever the official name is). When the string isn't curved (just a straight line) they indeed do nothing because there is no curve. If you move on the of the string up/down or left/righ and then drag the red or green ball, you'll see what they do.

Inserting a control point can be done using the 'INS' (insert) button on your keyboard. The new point will be inserted after the currently (or last) selected control point (unless it's the last point, then it will be inserted before it I believe).

For some more explanation, read the paragraph titled 'Pneumatic hoses' here or look at the (older) video here.

LDCad is great in my opinion, but the learning curve can be a bit steep (especially when you start with flexible parts ). But as soon as you've got the hang of it, it's great and so much faster, easier and more precise than MLCad (for me at least). Maybe it would be a good idea to build a small Lego set in LDCad to get used to the interface?

[Duq]

10 minutes ago, legolijntje said:

Inserting a control point can be done using the 'INS' (insert) button on your keyboard.

Ah... I was trying to insert from the 'Path parts' bin. It seems that every time I want to use the mouse I should use the keyboard and vice versa... LDCad seems very much aimed at a PC with a full keyboard and mouse rather than a laptop using the trackpad.

Maybe starting with flex parts isn't the best way to learn but I'm not quite a newbie in digital Lego; I started using Leocad I think in 1999 and switched to MLCad a few years later. What I struggle with most in LDCad is that keys and mouse movements keep changing functions all the time, depending on which part is selected, which part of that edit pin is selected, what angle you're viewing at and a handful of settings. 

[legolijntje]

42 minutes ago, Duq said:

Ah... I was trying to insert from the 'Path parts' bin. It seems that every time I want to use the mouse I should use the keyboard and vice versa... LDCad seems very much aimed at a PC with a full keyboard and mouse rather than a laptop using the trackpad.

The paths part bin... I don't think I ever used that one, I believe you only need it if you want to make your own flexible part templates or something like that. Better ask @roland, I'm not sure about that.

While I have used LDCad with a trackpad without problems, in my experience I find using a separate mouse is a lot easier. But I guess I can say that for basically any 3d application in combination with a trackpad.

43 minutes ago, Duq said:

What I struggle with most in LDCad is that keys and mouse movements keep changing functions all the time, depending on which part is selected, which part of that edit pin is selected, what angle you're viewing at and a handful of settings. 

I don't believe there's a lot of changing keys, but maybe I just don't notice because I'm so used to it. 

[roland]

@Duq glad it's working now.

6 hours ago, legolijntje said:

The paths part bin... I don't think I ever used that one, I believe you only need it if you want to make your own flexible part templates or something like that. Better ask @roland, I'm not sure about that.

While I have used LDCad with a trackpad without problems, in my experience I find using a separate mouse is a lot easier. But I guess I can say that for basically any 3d application in combination with a trackpad.

I don't believe there's a lot of changing keys, but maybe I just don't notice because I'm so used to it. 

The path bin is indeed for making custom stuff from scratch instead of using existing templates.

I did setup the program to be used with full sized keyboards and a mouse in mind.

As of version 1.6 you can change all hotkeys and or assign keys to things currently not having one to compensate.

Some hotkeys are context sensitive, like editing keys onyl work while the mouse is inside the ediing window. Or the arrows depending on the orientation and mode of the editing pin etc. You can however clear those (editing pin) bindings and assign global x,y,z movement / rotation ones instead if you like the MLCad behavior better.

 

[roland]

I've finally finished rendering the 8852 animation in POV-Ray

https://youtu.be/ZeUtxgQp_7g

It took 30 hours which I let running on the background now and then, hence the two month delay.

[roland]

I've released version 1.6a

This is mainly a maintenance version addressing bugs, but it also includes a couple of new color bin features, namely:

- Direct color selection by number. This is done by typing the number followed by enter while the mouse is over a color name inside any color bin. Or click that text to open a input dialog for typing the number/hex code.
- Transparent color indication inside the color bin history bar.

As always get the latest version at:

http://www.melkert.net/LDCad/download

[MReizinho]

There's something that has been nagging me for some time: part 24246.dat - Tile 1 x 1 with Rounded End, has some problems rendering correctly. You can notice a distinct shadow in the top surface that will change orientation as you rotate the model around. 

 

Does anyone know why this happens or if there is any way to avoid this? 

@roland, do you have any "hidden" parameters accesible through the config files to tune up the OpenGL rendering (outline lines, primitive substitution, light, etc.)?

[Jason C. Hand]

I'm gonna try out this software this weekend. Just curious, though: Can any models built with LDCad be made POV-Ray compatible?

[MReizinho]

Just now, Jason C. Hand said:

I'm gonna try out this software this weekend. Just curious, though: Can any models built with LDCad be made POV-Ray compatible?

Models built with LDCad are standard LDraw models. You'll have no problem with POV-Ray