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Having used MLCad without problems for a few years (though fairly infrequently, so there's lots about it I don't know) I've recently been having some issues bringing in some unofficial parts (the first time I've tried to do this). I've struggled with this for some hours, and then tried to find if the issue had already been covered online, but I can't find anything that helps, including looking in the Section Index of this forum and attemtpting to search for related threads - apologies if I've missed it (or if I've done something silly in getting to where I am). Sorry also for the lengthly description below! The short version is that I believe I have managed to add some 'unofficial' parts in my MLCad library - they are showing up in the Parts Tree, and can be built into a model without 'Unknown Part' errors - but the 3-D representation of those parts does not appear on screen, either in the Parts Preview window, or in the rendering of the model within MLCad. The parts do however appear when the model is subsequently viewd using LDView. The problem only happens when using MLCad without Administartor privileges though. The detail: As I'm using a different PC to the one I last used MLCad on, I have recently done a new installation to a Windows 10 PC, using the All-in-one-installer, so it should be a standard installation, in the folder C:\Users\Public\Documents\LDraw. I normally use a non-administrator account, and MLCad 3.51 (and LDView 4.3) seemed to work fine on this installation when I was just using the standard library, but I wanted to use some of the new-ish parts included in the 42099 inventory, and this is where I had problems. I used the LDraw2001.exe file to bring my standard library as far up-to-date as possible (I think). After this update, for example, I have access to the 3x3 connector 39793 - it shows up in both the Parts Tree and Parts Preview windows, and I can use it in models. But that still left me without the new CV Joint parts and the planetary hubs, so I went looking online for unofficial parts for these items. I found various articles online about using unofficial parts, but I wasn't entirely clear after reading them exactly what needed to be done. In particular, I was left somewhat unclear for example about: - the particular purposes of the separate 'Parts' and 'P' folders; - why you would want to SHOW some but HIDE others in the MLCAD.ini file; - what exactly the 'Scan Parts' instruction does, and when you need to use it; - what program(s) use the Part.lst file (or the Parts.xml file) as opposed to simply looking for .dat files in the relevant folders. Following Holly-Wood's instructions (http://www.holly-wood.it/mlcad/unofficial1-en.html) as best I could, I found the parts for the new CV joints (52730 & 52731) and the planetary hubs (46490) in the LDraw.org parts tracker, downloaded them (including required sub-parts) and put them in the <LDRAWDIR> Parts and Parts\s folders as appropriate. I have amended the MLCad.ini file following his example, un-commenting the lines referring to SHOW <LDRAWDIR>Unofficial\Helper and SHOW <LDRAWDIR>Unofficial\Custom (although I don't understand the significance of this, as the new parts aren't in these particular folders?). But starting MLCad (using my normal non-adminstrator account) after these changes did not appear to bring in the unofficial parts I'd added. I tried "Scan Parts" which did report new parts and offered to write a new Parts.lst file, which I accepted, but this did not seem to make any difference (from the timestamp, I don't believe that the Parts.lst file was actually being updated). By trial and error, I discovered that if I ran MLCAD instead as an administrator, the new parts I'd added did appear in the Parts Tree and the Parts Preview, and I could use them as normal in my model. That wasn't enough however for them to subsequently appear in MLCad when run later without administrator rights however. But if ran "Scan Parts" while using MLCad as an administrator, I was able to update the Parts.lst file. And subsequently, running MLCad without administrator rights then did have the new parts shown in the Parts Tree. But even though I could use them in a model (without 'Unknown Part' errors), they appeared only as a blank space in the Parts Preview window, and they did not show up in the actual model windows - which mean that they are practically unusable within MLCad as you can't see where you are placing them (other than by the coordinates in the parts list). See screenshots below for examples. They are definitely included in the library and in the model though, as a model built using them will display the added parts correctly using LDView. Also, MLCad shows the correct information in the status line when the cursor hovers over the blank space in the Parts Preview window. MLCad run with Administrator rights - the planetary hub and the CV parts show up in the Parts Tree, the Parts Preview window and in the model: The same model loaded into MLCad without Administrator rights - the new parts show up in the Parts Tree window, but only appear as blank spaces in the Parts Preview WIndow and in the model. Note that the cursor was hovering over the 'Technic Steering Constant Velocity 8mm Joint Female' part in the Parts Preview window when the screenshot below was taken, and the corresponding details appear in the status line, so the parts are present in the library The model viewed in LDView: So it would appear that something I've done (or not done) has messed up the rendering of the 3-D model of the added parts within MLCad - but only if run without administrator rights. Can anyone shed light on what I need to do to correct this? I am particularly puzzled by this behaviour, as I thought that regardless of whether MLCad was run as an administrator or not, it was still using the same installation of the program, the same MLCad.ini file etc in the <LDRAWDIR> folder, and so I don't understand how the part 3-D model can show up in one place and not the other. I can just about understand how MLCad can apparently be unable to update Parts.lst unless it has administrator rights, as that involves writing to a file. But surely, once the parts are in the library, displaying a 3-D represntation of a part from the library should only involve reading from a file(s), so why does administrator rights make this difference? Having said that, there are clearly other things going on with the setup of MLCad that I don't understand, as when I run it with adminstrator rights, I don't see the changes I made to the 'Settings/Parts Tree/Tree Configuration' that I made as an ordinary user. So that part of the setup must be stored somewhere separately for my 'administrator' user to my ordinary user, although as far as I can only see, they're both using the same 'C:\Users\Public\Documents\LDraw' folder? Any help would be gratefully received, including pointers to where I might find the answer elsewhere if necessary. PS I understand that could carry on using MLCad with administrator privileges to avoid this issue, but I would rather not do that if possible. And I am in awe of the capabilities of MLCad and the other LDraw programs, so am very grateful to the folks that enable them to be provided free for the community. Setup: Windows 10 MLCad 3.51 Environment variable <LDRAWDIR> is set up and points to C:\Users\Public\Documents\LDraw The Scan_Order section of the MLCad.ini file reads as follows: [SCAN_ORDER] 1 = SHOW <LDRAWDIR>Parts 2 = HIDE <LDRAWDIR>P 3 = SHOW <LDRAWDIR>Unofficial\Parts 4 = HIDE <LDRAWDIR>Unofficial\P 5 = SHOW <LDRAWDIR>Unofficial\Helper 6 = SHOW <LDRAWDIR>Unofficial\Custom -
Mixel towball socket parts in LDraw?
fastlindyrick posted a topic in Digital LEGO: Tools, Techniques, and Projects
It looks like the LDraw official parts library doesn't contain any of the Mixels-type parts that contain a towball socket (e.g. 14418, 14419, 14704) even though unofficial parts have been in there for close to 4 years now. Has anyone done any MOCs in LDraw using these unofficial parts? Any problems? I ask because the one time I tried installing unofficial parts I somehow messed up my parts library so badly that I had to reinstall LDraw entirely, so I am wary. Also, looking at the review comments for the unofficial parts, it looks like the part editors reeeally hate these sockets for some reason. Anyone know why that might be? These parts are dead useful.