Subject:
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Re: Challenge/Request for the CAD gurus
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.cad
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Date:
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Sun, 11 Nov 2001 01:20:19 GMT
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Viewed:
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628 times
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Bram has hit it squarely, as has Jake. Put the two voices together and you
get three main ideas...
Ldraw should be:
1. Simple to Download
2. Simple to install
3. Simple to understand (i.e. DOCUMENTATION)
I would pull back from Jake's request to the degree that perhaps full blown
animation is something best left to the TRULY obsessed -- not that a slick
tutorial on the subject of animating in POV isn't desirable. In terms of
getting to first things first, let's make the whole Ldraw thing more
coherent before worrying about offshoots like animation. Maybe I find it a
little "elitist" also, for lack of a better term. Animation is just not
going to be everyone's main interest.
By contrast, I think the rest of the suggested project partially realized by
the many LDraw variants, add-ons, etc. is something ANY builder can benefit
from and for which s/he shouldn't have to jump through hoops of fire to
acheive. I am not an idiot -- and even I have found the material pretty
scattered. If I didn't have a background in the use of graphics
applications I think I wouldn't be getting quick enough results with the
LDraw apps to keep me entertained/interested in working with these tools. A
newbie is more than likely just screwed unless they are unusually motivated.
The sad part is that many of the applications are QUITE good and easy to use
if you are not a newbie to graphics applications.
Speaking of the need for better documentation...
I was considering rewriting a short tutorial by Brad Hamilton on the use of
POV-Ray when I get a little more proficient with POV, but then I thought
perhaps I should suggest to someone or to Brad himself that HE rewrite it.
[I don't know how that should be handled.] He has most of it nailed down, I
just think it should go a little further, be a little more in-depth, and
speak to the reader as if the reader were an idiot. I wouldn't be reading a
tutorial or tips page unless I needed to know something I don't already know
-- so idiot or not, give me what I need so that I don't have to reinvent the
LDraw wheel, so to speak...to me this is how all documentation should be
approached, as if the reader knew almost nothing. As it stands he uses terms
like "comment" as if every reader were a programmer and would know what that
means. That's not the case. Talk down to us readers, Baby! Tell us what
you're gonna say, say it, and then summarize what has been said.
Anyway, I am not trying to step on toes, and I am very respectful and
grateful for the work done by the many to tread this path before me. I am
just trying to help.
But if the LDraw project doesn't stay focused I fear that none of it will
happen to anyone's satisfaction. I just happen to think that better
documentation is a must, that an easier installation scheme would improve
things substantially, and that the layout of ldraw.org could use some
tweaking too.
-- Hop-Frog (I apologize if this is more incoherent or trenchant than usual,
I am dead tired as I write...)
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | RE: Challenge/Request for the CAD gurus
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| (...) Sounds like the first time I encountered LDraw in 1996 or 97... Of course the lack of a 3D view and my lack of experience with DOS command lines didn't make things any easier. (...) Believe it or not, that takes a ton of time. My LDraw (...) (23 years ago, 11-Nov-01, to lugnet.cad)
| | | Re: Challenge/Request for the CAD gurus
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| "richard marchetti" <blueofnoon@aol.com> wrote in message news:GMM3pv.6xr@lugnet.com... (...) usual, (...) Hey man - Good, well thought out post. And exactly what I'm feeling too. Been chatting with a few people offline about the project of getting (...) (23 years ago, 11-Nov-01, to lugnet.cad)
| | | Re: Challenge/Request for the CAD gurus
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| (...) I found Ldraw/Ledit to be easy to download and install. I would say that I was middle level computer user, I am quite experienced but have no programming/DOS software experience. I now use MLCad which is much more user friendly for the average (...) (23 years ago, 12-Nov-01, to lugnet.cad)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | RE: Challenge/Request for the CAD gurus
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| (...) Well, I hate them too actually, but considering that there are quite a few utilities that we might not include in Typical but would include in Complete, it might be useful, even/especially for people with slow connections. Better still would (...) (23 years ago, 10-Nov-01, to lugnet.cad)
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