Subject:
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Some comments on the LPub 2.2.0.9 beta
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.cad
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Date:
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Sun, 27 Mar 2005 10:52:57 GMT
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Viewed:
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1750 times
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Kevin,
here are some comments on the LPub 2.2.0.9 beta. Some
may also be valid for the 2.2.0.2 version but I observed
all of them in the 2.2.0.9 beta version ....
1. The install program does not recognize where an
earlier version was installed to. It would be nice
if it could that find out and offer that directory
as the destination folder.
2. I tested installing 2.2.0.9 beta over an existing
2.2.0.2 version and compared that to a plain
installaiton of 2.2.0.9 beta. It turns out the
install over the existing version results in some
more files (presumably from the old version) being
available:
.\Part_Images\color_annotation.ldr
.\Part_Images\half_size.ldr
.\Part_Images\orientation.ldr
.\irunin.bmp
.\irunin.dat
.\irunin.ini
.\irunin.lng
.\LPub.html
It would be nice if LPub upgraded an existing
version cleanly. If that is too difficult, the next
best solution is to check whether the target
directory is empty and give a warning or even refuse
installation if not.
3. When selecting Custom installation mode, the list of
features to be installed is empty.
4. Some comments on Lpub.html:
a) FILE MENU, On "Save Local Config saves the
settings in the current directory in a file
called config.lpb." : It is not clear what
"current directory" means. I suggest to say
something like "the directory of the LDRAW file"
since that is what it seems to do. (And yes,
LPub may change its current directory to that
inside of the program, but that is not visible to
the user...)
b) UTILITES MENU: The new "Max Camera Distance"
function should be explained.
c) I think a statement would be helpful explaining
that in the case of .MPD files, the "complete
model" is the first model in the .MPD file, and
the "sub-models" are those models in the .MPD
file that are used by the first model either
directly or indirectly through other sub-models.
After all, the .MPD file could contain sub-models
that are not used by the first model, and they
would be ignored by LPub (hopefully ?)
5. Calculating the max camera distance (Utilities menu)
a) The camera viewing angle should have an effect on
the required minimum distance, but the menu entry
comes up with always the same distance regardless
of the angle. The viewing angle does have an
effect on the size of the generated images,
though.
6. In the config file, the new setting for the page
number font is not stored yet (At least I believe
... the symptom is that this setting stays on its
default when loading a config after restarting LPub,
after having saved a config with the font changed).
7. I find the following line in the config file:
pov_image_size 1600 1200pov_quality 9
I assume a newline is missing there ?
8. Configuration panel structure
I see some inconsistencies in the current dialog
design and in some cases I had to apply trial&error
to find out what a particular setting controls.
Some examples are:
- The "Sub-assembly" checkmark seems to control
whether or not the sub-models are generated for
both CSIs and PLIs, but it does not say so
- How do the L3P settings for Position/Orientation
and Lens correspond to the "Scale" settings in the
"General" sub-tab ?
- Do the L3P settings for Background control CSI,
PLI/BOM part images or none of them ?
I think it would be helpful for clarity to
restructure the configuration dialog somewhat and
would like to offer the suggestion below. It is
well possible that I did not understand all the
combinations of the current options, so let me know
if you think something is missing. The guiding
principle for the suggestion was to be clear about
which production is being influenced by a setting.
Also, I think it would be helpful to move from the
various "Generate" menu entries to just one
"Generate" menu action, and the configuration panels
control what is generated. The suggestion allows to
do that.
1-Tab "Images"
2-Tab "Complete Model"
checkmark to generate Complete Model
- rest of dialog greyed out if disabled
"Scale" group as in current "Global" tab
"Camera Globe Coordinates" group (for CSI) as in
current "PLI/BOM" tab
- maybe some more controls needed, like "XYZ"
or "Look At" from current L3P "Position and
Orientation" group, but I personally would
be happy with just globe coordinates.
"Background" group as currently in L3P
"Surroundings" tab
- plus checkmark for transparent background
"Floor" group as currently in L3Pub
"Surroundings" tab
2-Tab "CSI"
checkmark to generate CSIs
- rest of dialog greyed out if disabled
checkmark "to generate CSIs of sub-models
"Scale" group as in current "Global" tab
"Camera Globe Coordinates" group (for CSI) as in
current "PLI/BOM" tab
- maybe some more controls needed, like "XYZ"
or "Look At" from current L3P "Position and
Orientation" group, but I personally would
be happy with just globe coordinates.
"Previous Step Color Scaling" group as in
current "Global" tab
"Backgrounds & Fonts" group with contents of
current "SubModels" tab
- plus checkmark for transparent background
- the dialog may become a bit long with this
one, so (less ideally), this one could be
moved to a second CSIs tab. Or maybe
introduce sub-tabs under CSI, to show that
it belongs together.
2-Tab "PLI/BOM"
checkmark to generate PLIs
checkmark to generate BOMs
- rest of dialog greyed out if both are
disabled
checkmark "to generate PLIs of sub-models
checkmark "to generate BOMs of sub-models
"Scale" group as in current "Global" tab
"Camera Globe Coordinates" group (for CSI) as in
current "PLI/BOM" tab
"Background & Fonts" group with contents of
current "Surroundings" group in "PLI/BOM" tab
- plus checkmark for transparent background
"PLI Content" group as in current "PLI/BOM" tab
2-Tab "Renderer"
As currently, but several of the current L3P
settings could be removed ("Position and
Orientation", "Lens", "Background" and "Floor"
groups), since they are now controlled by the
respective settings in the image specific
sub-tabs. The "Dimensions" group in the
POVOutput sub-tab could also be removed for the
same reason.
I do realize that the nesting level of tabs
would be quite large that way (four in the L3P
case). So maybe "Renderer" moves up one level
again (to where it is currently), but that would
be less ideal.
1-Tab "Web Pages"
checkmark to generate Layout Images
- I tend to believe they would only be generated
for web pages but I may be wrong (in which
case they belong under the new "Images" tab).
checkmark to generate Screen Web Pages
checkmark to generate Web Page Table
URL field
- I think some control over the position of the
PLI within the Layout Image would be good.
Curently it is always Top-Left, but some of my
models are viewed so that they extend from
top-left to bottom-right, so it tends to
overlap.
1-Tab "Miscellaneous"
Contents as the current "Building Instructions" /
"Controls" sub-tab. That one has partially pretty
global stuff in it, which motivated me to have it
at the top level. Maybe some of its checkmarks
should stay somewhere under the "Images" Tab.
9. Terminology
I suggest to use consistent terminology. Just a
nit, but it helps beginners very much:
a) "complete model"
Currently, "Complete Assembly" and "Whole model"
are used.
b) "sub-model"
Currently, "SubModel" and "Sub-Assembly" are
used.
10. The BOM generation produces an error message saying
that it cannot open the xxx.ldr file, which
according to the message it tries to open in the
directory of the loaded LDRAW model, while it
probably should be opening it in the LDraw
directory. It seems the new directory structure was
not yet applied to the BOM generation part
completely.
11. At some point in the sequence of steps within a
sub-model, the generated CSIs have only the greyed
out color of previous parts. In the cases I have,
it always starts with the first step after any
rotation step, until the end of that sub-model. Let
me know if you want to have an example.
12. The generated PLIs are consequently missing any
part that is a sub-model. If that resulted in an
empty PLI, the PLI image files (correctly) is not
generated. I verified in the config file that
pli_include_submodel_images was set (if that is the
right one). Since it does it so consequently, I
think maybe it has to do with not reading the config
setting properly.
13. Both the CSIs and the Part Images now come with
transparent background, i.e. the background settings
are all ignored. I think the control of the
background settings should allow to set transparent
background (see my proposal above), and whatever was
set should be honored.
14. The "Progress Status" window is modal (the main
window cannot be operated as long as the status
window is open), but the main window can be brought
into the foreground, which hides the status window.
If the main window then is minimized, the status
windoiw is minimized too, and if the main window is
restored again, the status window is still behind
it. It would be nice if the status window were to
stay on top of the main window.
15. The "Cancel" button in the rogress Status window
does not always see to work. I do realize that
sometimes it waits for the rendering to complete the
current picture, but sometimes it ignores the
cancellation even beyond that.
16. The POV-Ray rendering window pops up for every new
image being rendered. I did not find a POV-Ray
setting that would prevent this. I'd like to be
able to minimize all windows during rendering and
have it done completely in the background. Since
LPub apparently has a POV-Ray exit DLL, is there any
way LPub can help to get there, or would this need
to be fixed by POV-Ray itself ?
Andy
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Some comments on the LPub 2.2.0.9 beta
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| (...) I have a minimal install package that came with Borland C++ Builder, and I barely know how to use it. Any education would be greatly appreciated. (...) Fair enough. (...) Max camera distance only calculates max camera distance for building (...) (20 years ago, 27-Mar-05, to lugnet.cad)
| | | Re: Some comments on the LPub 2.2.0.9 beta
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| (...) <snip> (...) I reread the MPD file format specification, and it says: "When an MPD file is used to store a multi-file model, the first file in the MPD is treated as the 'main model' -- all other files in the MPD will only be rendered if they (...) (20 years ago, 4-Apr-05, to lugnet.cad)
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