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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 -
Evening everyone, New member and first time poster here so apologies if this is in the wrong section. Im currently building a producing instructions for a model and have use a buffer exchange command to show the placement of a tile in the main build. Now Ive followed the information from Holly-wood.it and the working with pub google site but I still have an issue. The 'hovering' part appears with the arrow in the correct location but on the next step it recounts the piece in the PLI so you end up with a extra piece. Is it something simple that I've missed or arranged incorrectly ? The code looks correct but Im not sure. Here is the code: 1 0 420 -8 -460 0 0 1 0 1 0 -1 0 0 3068b.dat 1 0 460 -8 -460 0 0 1 0 1 0 -1 0 0 3068b.dat 0 STEP 1 0 -20 -8 -430 -1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 -1 3069b.dat 1 0 60 -8 -390 -1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 -1 3069b.dat 1 0 180 -8 -370 -1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 -1 3069b.dat 1 0 -100 -8 -370 -1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 -1 3069b.dat 1 0 380 -8 -380 0 0 1 0 1 0 -1 0 0 3068b.dat 1 0 420 -8 -380 0 0 1 0 1 0 -1 0 0 3068b.dat 0 BUFEXCHG A STORE 0 GHOST 1 0 -270 -64 -470 0 0 1 0 1 0 -1 0 0 3069b.dat 0 MLCAD ARROW 0 -250 -18 -470 0 1 0 -1 0 0 0 0 1 10 4 12 40 3 30 1 2 4 4 0 MLCAD SKIP_BEGIN 3 4 -250 -6 -470 -255 -21 -470 -250 -16 -470 3 4 -250 -6 -470 -245 -21 -470 -250 -16 -470 3 4 -250 -16 -470 -252 -18 -470 -248 -18 -470 4 4 -252 -18 -470 -252 -58 -470 -248 -58 -470 -248 -18 -470 0 MLCAD SKIP_END 0 STEP 0 BUFEXCHG A RETRIEVE 1 0 -250 -8 -460 0 0 1 0 1 0 -1 0 0 3069b.dat 1 0 460 -8 -370 -1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 -1 3069b.dat 1 0 260 -8 -430 -1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 -1 3069b.dat 1 0 340 -8 -390 -1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 -1 3069b.dat 0 STEP 1 15 -120 -8 -430 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 4162.dat 1 15 -80 -8 -410 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 4162.dat Thanks in advance
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This is a fictional space-themed LEGO shopping mall complex named "The Spaceship" due to the shape of main building resembling a spaceship. If that naming idea had come sooner I would probably have designed something that actually looked more like a spaceship, but the idea only came to me more than halfway through the project when I saw what shape the building was taking so I just used the idea to name and style numerous parts of the model. The model uses approx. 175000 parts and 258 custom sticker designs and measures 3810mm x 3493mm x 519mm (13.3m² footprint). It features 30 shops, 218 car parking spaces, 500 minifigs, bank, post office, library, cinema, amusements, restaurant, foodcourt, admin/security office, service access, maintenance areas, escalators, functional elevators, toilets, ice rink, gymnasium, boating pond, custom brick-built road layout, and real LEGO lighting in most of the main building and ice rink. The design attempts to be as functional as possible by providing convenient car access, separate rear public transport access, and separate rear service vehicle access to all shops on the first two levels, as well as multiple entrances and fire exits. It also attempts to be wheelchair/buggy friendly as much as possible using a mixture of stairs, escalators, ramps and a glass elevator. The main glass roof can be removed in two halves, as can the roofs of the gym, the wing shops, and the rear section, the latter of which reveals the battery packs for the LEGO lighting. There's also manual cable winders on both the customer and service elevators. I managed to get the water tank in too but had to forego the boiler room - despite the size of the build I found myself running out of space. The massive size of the model caused numerous problems, especially due to buggy software and PC limitations, so I had to reduce the intended length of the mall and forego a few other features too, but it's still by far the biggest model I've built. It probably should have taken around 6 to 9 months to complete, but due to personal and technical issues it ended up taking more than 2 years. This virtual LDraw model was built using MLCad software and rendered with LDView (sadly it's too big to render with POV-Ray), with additional construction, graphic and animation support via the use of PHP, LDraw Sticker Generator, LDraw txt2dat, LDraw LSynth, ImageMagick, Paint Shop Pro, GIF Movie Gear, IrfanView, PNGOUT, AviSynth, VirtualDub, and ffmpeg. Even had to use Excel to write macros to compute the precise angles needed for the curved window walls on the wings, which were too difficult to compute on paper. And no, I don't intend building it for real! Links: Flickr (lots more images) YouTube (looks better at 720 resolution) The video contains still images and many flyby sequences which give a better impression of the model by restoring some of the 3D visual cues lost due to the non-raytraced renders containing no shadows. Excuse the length of the video and number of images. It's a REALLY BIG model, and 25 images just wasn't going to do it... This is my first post here, and may well be my last! - during the uploads of the more than 200 images the PC terminally died and the remainder of the uploads and this post had to be done from a Raspberry Pi.
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Hello! Recently I've come across this video (which got me really hyped BTW). In the description the author states he got the models from MLCad and modified them to be low poly. I tried downloading MLCad, but the link to the parts database seems to be broken. If I got it right, MLCad uses the parts database of another program (LDraw if I recall correctly). I want to get the models, I don't care if they are from MLCad or from another program. I'd like to use them to make some animations with the Toa Mata. Can anyone help? Thanks :)
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LDD/MLCad 15D The Black Pearl Project - A joint venture by Courleciel and Papacharly EDIT April 1st 2015: Black Pearl mpd-file is available now. Please also note the relevant post #15 below! End of last year I had been invited by Courleciel to join a project he already started. The goal of this project was to virtually build the Black Pearl from the Lego video game “Pirates of the Caribbean” and, in a second step, to “make great renderings”. At this time the ship had already been built by Courleciel in real bricks. Starting point for this project was an “old” lxf-file (Lego Digital Designer) by captainjack. The virtual model was significantly optimized by Courleciel so as to make it more accurate and complete. A lot of parts have been repainted, some new elements were added (such as anchors, bell, grating, cannons...), and some were adjusted or rebuilt (like the capstan, figurehead, lanterns, masts...). After the model was nearly completed, the LDD file was converted to the LDraw format and my job started. According to Courleciels conceptual work I added rigging, rails, ropes and strings by using SR3D Builder and MLCad/LSynth. Sails were directly created in povray. Additionally it was necessary to manipulate some original LDraw parts (e.g. # x1609 batarang, see stern) to make them authentic with regard to the video game. Finally we decided on all setups for being rendered. All renders have status “as rendered”. There was no “photoshopping” applied, aside from scaling down and anti-aliasing. I have not counted all the hours I spent working on this project. But doing all the work Courleciel and me had a lot of fun. So we hope that you also will enjoy our work and have some fun too. High resolution “technical renders” showing the conceptual work of Courleciel can be found here. For high resolution images of the movie scenes click here. And here is the outcome of our project:: First we have some technical renders of the Black Pearl. Then we show some movie scene remakes. For all those which are not familiar with “Pirates of the Carribean”, please find the original movie scene respectively an original video game screenshot below each rendering. Here comes a remake of a video game screenshot: Two movie scenes from part 1 "The Curse of the Black Pearl": Movie scene “Pantano River” from part 2 "Dead Man’s Chest" Two movie scenes “Locker” from part 3 "At World’s End" Last but not least we have an atmospheric and maybe kitschy sunset render which is not related to any movie scene.
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When I'm working on something, I like to build with real bricks. But I also like to keep a digital copy of them for future reference. I usually have no problem with digital building in MLCad (except LSynth), but creating instructions is always a problem. The ordering of pieces requires huge amounts of time & care. What I'm asking is, what is the best way to build a digital copy of a real model, with the aim of making creating instructions easier? I'm asking about MLCad&LPub, but tips for other tools are also welcome. Also I almost exclusively do technic builds, so concerns might be different for regular bricks vs studless technic builds. -
While building #5540 Formula 1 Racer model, I had some trouble finding the exact position of the two gray plate of the motor. I've positionated them at the 54° angle on the 3938 1x2 hinge top, and then I found that the one on the right (viewing from the bottom of the model) appears to be "well" positionated with value X 200 Y 48.625 and Z 40.625. The plate on the left (ever viewing the model from the bottom) instead has the position values of Y 11.375 and Z 40.75. You can argue the pieces are not parallel, but in the editor they appear right. Where I'm wrong? Thanks for the answers, PN -
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
