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LDView 3.2 Beta 1 is now available for download from the LDView downloads page
here:
http://ldview.sourceforge.net/Downloads.html
This is a Beta release, which means that I’m hoping to get as much feedback as
possible. This also means that it is likely not as stable as a final release, so
you probably don’t want to try it out if you absolutely hate using buggy
software. (Having said that, this release does have some bug fixes in it that
significantly improve command line image generation.) The translations have not
yet been updated to work with this release, and translations created for version
3.1 will refuse to load.
Some notable changes:
- Generate an HTML parts list for your model. (This should generate an accurate part count even for MPD files with multiple instances of sub-models, and arbitrary nesting. However, mirrored sub-models will generate mirror image parts for those parts that aren’t symmetric.) This uses Peeron for part images (with permission).
- Light source direction can now be changed. There are nine pre-defined directions in the Preferences, plus you can rotate to any arbitrary direction by holding down shift and dragging with the mouse in the model view.
- Support for light.dat files in LDraw models (up to a maximum of 8 total lights)
- LDView can now be used to generate thumbnails in Windows Explorer thumbnail view in Windows* and Gnome Nautilus file browser in Linux**.
- Zoom to Fit no longer messes up the rotation center.
- As noted above, various command line processing fixes that greatly improve the overall experience when using LDView to create images from the command line.
- Universal Mac Binary version. (Uses QT Mac, but does not require X11.)
* While I don’t think it will do so, this feature can potentially crash Windows
Explorer, since it uses a DLL loaded into the Windows Explorer process. If you
can’t live with that, don’t click the check box in the installer (it isn’t
installed by default). Also, if you browse any folders with .ldr/.mpd files and
then try to uninstall LDView, the uninstall won’t fully succeed.
** This is in
the ldview-gnome-3.2beta1-1.i386.rpm file.
Please see the full change history
here.
Mac users: the current DMG file contains a package that creates an LDView
directory in /Applications. The LDView directory contains LDView.app and a
number of other files. After talking with a Mac user, I’ve come to the
conclusion that this isn’t the appropriate way to do things, but that’s how
things are for this Beta release. I’ll just put all the files (including
LDView.app) into a DMG without a package for the next release. Also, there are
some minor glitches in the PPC version (like the LDView mini icon in the window
title bar doesn’t look right). I don’t have a PPC Mac, though, so I can only
test via Rosetta on my Intel Mac. Please let me know if you have problems.
Finally, LDView only allows you to have one file open at a time. I know this
isn’t the way things are done on the Mac, but fixing this is a really big
undertaking, and likely won’t get done for a while. It is possible to launch
multiple instances of LDView, but you can only do this from the command line.
Please send any bugs, suggestions, or other feedback to ldview@gmail.com. As mentioned above, the main reason for this release is to
get feedback so that the official release will be as high-quality as possible.
--Travis Cobbs (tcobbs@REMOVE.halibut.com)
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One feature that’s not mentioned in the help file, the change history file, or
the previous post is (Windows-only) support for running LDView off of removable
media (like a USB key). This feature has had very little testing, and has some
known problems, but if anyone would like to try it out, I’d like to get
feedback.
When LDView detects that LDView.exe is on a removable drive, it stops storing
settings in the Windows registry. Instead, it creates a file named LDView.ini
in the same directory where LDView.exe is located. Additionally, if the LDraw
directory is located either inside the directory that contains LDView.exe or the
parent directory, it will be used. For example, both of the following LDraw
directories will be found:
G:\MyProgs\LDView\LDView.exe
G:\MyProgs\LDRAW
OR:
G:\MyProgs\LDView\LDView.exe
G:\MyProgs\LDView\LDRAW
(As a note, this change will work with the LDraw directory on fixed disks also.
It was added to make life easier for removable storage, but unlike the LDraw.ini
change it happens whether or not LDView.exe is run from removable storage.)
Right now, those are the only places that you can reasonably put the LDraw
directory. If you put it anywhere else, the drive letter will be stored in
LDraw.ini along with the path, meaning that unless your removable drive gets the
same drive letter assigned on every computer you use it on, you’ll be asked for
the location of the LDRAW directory every time you run LDView on a new machine.
Hopefully before the official LDView 3.2 release I’ll correct this problem.
--Travis
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In lugnet.announce, Travis Cobbs wrote:
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- Generate an HTML parts list for your model. (This should generate an accurate part count even for MPD files with multiple instances of sub-models, and arbitrary nesting. However, mirrored sub-models will generate mirror image parts for those parts that aren’t symmetric.) This uses Peeron for part images (with permission).
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Looks great. Can you make submodel colors propagate to children for parts
marked as color 16?
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- Light source direction can now be changed. There are nine pre-defined directions in the Preferences, plus you can rotate to any arbitrary direction by holding down shift and dragging with the mouse in the model view.
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Very handy.
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- LDView can now be used to generate thumbnails in Windows Explorer
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Another great feature, but is there any way to change the settings (background
color, lights) used to make the thumbnails? --Bram
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In lugnet.cad, Bram Lambrecht wrote:
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In lugnet.announce, Travis Cobbs wrote:
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- Generate an HTML parts list for your model. (This should generate an accurate part count even for MPD files with multiple instances of sub-models, and arbitrary nesting. However, mirrored sub-models will generate mirror image parts for those parts that aren’t symmetric.) This uses Peeron for part images (with permission).
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Looks great. Can you make submodel colors propagate to children for parts
marked as color 16?
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I thought it did, so if it doesn’t it’s a bug. Can you send me a model that
does this? (On a side note, one of your models that used color 16 for the main
model was one of the reasons I added the Default Color setting way back when.)
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- LDView can now be used to generate thumbnails in Windows Explorer
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Another great feature, but is there any way to change the settings
(background color, lights) used to make the thumbnails? --Bram
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It uses the “Thumbnails” preference set. I forgot about the fact that this
tidbit isn’t in the help file yet. If it didn’t create the “Thumbnails”
preference for you automatically, go into LDView and create one yourself. Then
switch to that preference set, set it to have all the settings you want, then
switch away (so that you don’t accidentally mess with it in the future).
--Travis
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