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Subject: 
Re: LPub Orientation and Half-Size LDraw files
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.cad
Date: 
Thu, 30 Jun 2005 14:15:45 GMT
Viewed: 
974 times
  
Kevin L. Clague wrote:

One of the "features" of LPub is to create part list images and bill of
materials images, modeling those concepts found in LEGO building instructions.

One of the issues I noticed years ago when I first used LPub for book authoring
was that not all the LDraw parts are oriented in a way that gives a consistent
orientation feel within a PLI or BOM.

To overcome this issue, LPub uses a file called orientation.ldr provided with
the LPub install package.  When LPub needs to render a given part/color, LPub
looks to see if the part is listed in orientation.ldr.  If it is found there,
LPub uses the part orientation found in orientation.ldr.  If not, the default
orientation is used.

The problem is that each release of LPub overwrites orientation.ldr, erasing any
changes you might have added.  It leaves me wondering if there isn't some way to
manage this file better.

I wish there was an easy way for people to update a global (in the real world
sense) version of orientation.ldr so that all could share in the modifications
of the file.  I do not know of any easy way to do this for non-programmers.
Making the file available through a source code control system makes sense for
us programmers, but is it a workable solution for non-programmers?



Kevin, Could Lpub check for a new orientation.ldr using http to some
well known website every time it's started, or on demand?

A CGI on the website could allow for submissions of updates for specific
parts.

I want to write a little program to let me walk visually through parts.lst and
orientation.ldr, displaying a rendered image of the part.  The tool would then
let you perform simple rotations and rerender, until you are happy with the
orientation.  In the end, you have a new orientation.ldr file for all the parts
in your system.  However, this still leaves all the orientation process local
for each of us who invest in orientation.


Why not have Lpub use a search path. Look in a local file first for
changes the user may have made, then look in the bundled (or updated -
see above) master file if it's not found in the users file.

I realise as I write that I should add the overwrite of orientation.ldr as
options at install time, to at least avoid overwriting local changes.



Doing the the second option above may elimintate the need for that.

half_size.ldr lets you select parts to render at half the size of the natural
render.  For large parts like base plates and RCX's reducing the size makes for
better PLIs.  It suffers the same maintenance problems as orientation.ldr.



I think the same ideas would work for this file too.

    -Kyle



Message is in Reply To:
  LPub Orientation and Half-Size LDraw files
 
One of the "features" of LPub is to create part list images and bill of materials images, modeling those concepts found in LEGO building instructions. One of the issues I noticed years ago when I first used LPub for book authoring was that not all (...) (19 years ago, 30-Jun-05, to lugnet.cad)

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