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In lugnet.cad, Steve Bliss wrote:
> In lugnet.cad, Kevin L. Clague wrote:
> > I've been up to my ears in NXT land, in case anyone noticed or wondered about
> > my absence. Needless to say there are "unoffical" Ldraw parts being developed.
>
> Yeah. :)
>
> > I've increased my skill set as a part author (previously I've only modified
> > parts that were there.) Contrary to the recommnendations I did my work in
> > MLCad. Now I have a better understanding why a text editor might be a good
> > alternative.
>
> BTW, there are at least 2 reason not to use MLCAD to create parts which you want
> to contribute to LDraw.org:
>
> 1. (General reason) it's more work than doing it in an enhanced text editor.
> 2. (Specifically) MLCAD does things to the file that are not allowed in official
> part files, so you have to clean up the code afterwards (and then you can no
> longer edit it in MLCAD).
Ummmm.... given that.... could you be so kind as to tell me what those are?
This way I can choose to/or not use MLCad and then clean things up afterwards.
Thanks...
> > I don't have the time, *but* if a 3D GUI editor (e.g. LeoCAD or MLCad) were to
> > provide the concept of identified (maybe named) verticies, intersections of
> > planes with planes, cylinders with circles, etc.... I think it would be much
> > easier to create and edit parts.
>
> I don't know if this helps, but we already have language to support this
> concept. The LDLite language extensions support the definition of named points
> and matrices (and colors, but that's not so useful in this context). In LDLite
> code, you can create a file like:
>
> 0 POINT A1 10 0 10
> 0 POINT B2 -10 -10 -10
> 0 POINT C3 0 -10 0
> 0 POINT D4 10 -10 10
> 3 1 A1 B2 C3
> 3 2 B2 C3 D4
>
> Even if the user were not aware of the point-names, I could see this format
> being useful for programs that use point-lists.
>
> It also typically results in smaller files than straight DAT code.
>
> Steve
To be honest, I figured there were some approaches to this issue already
implemented. The topic was too obvious for me to be the first to recognize it.
I'll have to do some homework..... when I find a few nano-seconds of free time.
Kev
P.S. Sorry you had to clean up those unofficial parts I created using MLCad.
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In lugnet.cad, Kevin L. Clague wrote:
> In lugnet.cad, Steve Bliss wrote:
> > BTW, there are at least 2 reason not to use MLCAD to create parts which you want
> > to contribute to LDraw.org:
> >
> > 1. (General reason) it's more work than doing it in an enhanced text editor.
> > 2. (Specifically) MLCAD does things to the file that are not allowed in official
> > part files, so you have to clean up the code afterwards (and then you can no
> > longer edit it in MLCAD).
>
> Ummmm.... given that.... could you be so kind as to tell me what those are?
> This way I can choose to/or not use MLCad and then clean things up afterwards.
I did a quick test with MLCAD 3.11 and noticed the following:
(Opened a partfile in MLCAD and save it under a different filename
and then compared the two files)
MLCad adds two rotation commands to the header
0 ROTATION CENTER 0 0 0 1 "Custom"
0 ROTATION CONFIG 0 0
MLCad replaces every
0 BFC INVERTNEXT
with
0 BFC CERTIFY INVERTNEXT
No harmfull things are:
MLCad removes unnesseccary spaces and empty lines
MLCad replaces numbers as 3.10 with 3.1
MLCad replaces numbers as .123 with 0.123
Niels
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In lugnet.cad, Niels Karsdorp wrote:
> I did a quick test with MLCAD 3.11 and noticed the following:
> (Opened a partfile in MLCAD and save it under a different filename
> and then compared the two files)
Thanks for doing this, Niels.
> No harmfull things are:
> MLCad removes unnesseccary spaces and empty lines
When creating part files, I frequently add 'unnecessary' spaces and empty lines
to improve (IMO) readability.
> MLCad replaces numbers as 3.10 with 3.1
> MLCad replaces numbers as .123 with 0.123
Change-tracking is much simpler if lines of code aren't changed unless they
actual need to be changed. For people making new parts, MLCad's forced-format
isn't a big deal. When people update/correct official files, I consider MLCad's
forced-format changes to be hostile to the update process.
Steve
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