Subject:
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Re: Highly confused about Library Updates for MLCad
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.cad
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Date:
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Wed, 17 Oct 2007 11:19:38 GMT
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Viewed:
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2653 times
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In lugnet.cad, Christopher Deck wrote:
> Hello everybody!
>
> For years I have been using MLCad, and I am grateful for the great service
> and support of the software. I recently installed the official parts updates
> for MLCad offered at the relating website. But now suddenly I have 2 1x1
> round plates. The standard 4073 one and a new 6141. May I ask what is the
> need for this second one?
>
> Speaking of double parts, I have another question if I may. There is the
> 1x1x2/3 slope 50746
> (<http://www.ldraw.org/cgi-bin/ptdetail.cgi?f=parts/50746.dat>). I downloaded
> it when it first appeared. Today it is a subfile for a new part 54200
> (<http://www.ldraw.org/cgi-bin/ptdetail.cgi?f=parts/54200.dat>), the
> identically piece. But does this need its identical file as subfile? And,
> both are indicated as 45 degree slopes although the slope is only roughly 30
> degress.
>
> Can anyone un-confuse me? Any help is greatly appreciated! Thank you very
> much,
>
> yours Christopher
Hello Christopher,
I will not go into the same level of details as previous replies in this thread,
but rather reply in a more general way.
First of all, you make a mistake if you call it "Library Updates for MLCad". In
one way, yes they are library updates for MLCad. But at the same time, they are
not. Because the *LDraw* library (not the same as calling it MLCad library) is
aimed towards so much more than MLCad only.
Bricklink uses pictures generated by some LDraw-compatible program. Let's say
you have one LEGO part marked 6141 and you suspect the vacuum cleaner to have
eaten the other you used to have. You enter bricklink.com marketplace to buy a
new one. In that case, it is very good that LDraw (and Bricklink of course)
recognizes both part numbers. But as an MLCad user using the same LDraw library,
you may find it but annoying.
I don't use MLCad, but yet I use the LDraw library almost every day to create
virtual pictures of LEGO parts and models. Generally, I use L3Lab < NoteTab >
L3PAO > L3P > POV, often together with some pre- or postprocessing program.
Right now, I experiment with Jim DeVona's PreL3P and my own DatShine.
Personal opinions mode:
I used to be quite upset when people talk about different molds and different
part numbers while I, as a LEGO builder and a L-Cad user, I think of a "part" as
the unit I use when building. A window with the glass factory glued to is one
part from my point of view, while others think of the frame as one part and the
glass as another with their own unique part numbers and the glass and the frame
glued together as an assembly or a shortcut with a third part number. To me, a
window frame without a glass is either a broken part; an ex-part if you like, or
something that will soon become a part before it leaves the factory.
But since LDraw has grown into something much bigger and far different from the
simple but brilliant LEGO drawing system that James Jessiman once laid the
foundation for, I'll have to most unwillingly accept the evolution.
My personal opinion is that this evolution is very much in favour for the
systematic, rigid correctness that database administrators strive for, at the
expense of ordinary L-Caders confusion. Not to mention the impact is has on
beginners' learning threshold.
But, just like the likewise grown old Bob Dylan sings: "I used to care, but
things have changed..."
/Personal opinions mode
To sum up, I think the double part numbers are there because the LDraw library
is also some kind of a database, besides the function it fills in CAD programs.
And the incorrect angles is the fruit of tradition and will caus even more
confusion if trigonometrically recalclated into more accurate values.
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Highly confused about Library Updates for MLCad
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| Hello everybody! For years I have been using MLCad, and I am grateful for the great service and support of the software. I recently installed the official parts updates for MLCad offered at the relating website. But now suddenly I have 2 1x1 round (...) (17 years ago, 16-Oct-07, to lugnet.cad, FTX)
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