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Subject: 
Re: Having trouble using LegoCAD...Please help!
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.cad
Date: 
Wed, 31 Jul 2002 20:57:01 GMT
Viewed: 
720 times
  
Hi Brendan,
I hope my answers help some:
(Long)

In lugnet.cad, Brendan Coughlin writes:
what I have downloaded so far:

http://www.ldraw.org/download/start/win/step1/
I assume you have installed ldraw to C:\ldraw\

http://www.lm-software.com/mlcad/
I assume you have installed mlcad to C:\ldraw\
This is ldraw's root directory and contains the PARTS.LST file.

http://www.povray.org/
I haven't used POVRay in a long time, but once you have finished a model
then you can use a program called l3p that will convert your model into a
*.pov file. This a very basic description of the process. www.ldraw.org
(which is not being recognized by my ISP at the moment ??@#$!) has a more
detailed explanation. I would get mlcad running first, build a model, then
start learning how to use POVRay.


Now that this stuff is downloaded, I can't find the LDraw icon.  What does
it look like?
My ldraw.exe icon has a standard blank white window icon, but don't focus on
the icon. Set your folder view to 'details' then look for a file ldraw.exe.
I suggest you not try to work with ldraw. It is very cryptic, requires a lot
of reading to get used to the commands and does not look as nice as mlcad.

When I open up MLCAD, it says that it can't find the parts
list??  So it won't open up.  What am I doing wrong?
When you start mlcad- and I had assumed it was in the c:\ldraw\ directory.
Then everything should have been ok.
However, since you can't see the parts ("... it won't open up.") then I have
to assume that you installed to a different directory. This is ok, you just
need to follow some additional instructions that are listed on the mlcad
website. A pop-up window should appear asking you to locate the ldraw root
directory- your answer is "C:\ldraw", or the folder that contains the file
ldraw.exe.

How can I just open up the programs and start working???
Not easy. We have several programs that rely on an independent program-
essentially you could think of the new programms as plug-ins for the older
program, however the older program (ldraw) was not designed to use plug-ins.
So you cannot install one of the new programs and expect it to work
instantly unless you have followed the 'advised' method of installation for
each of the programs. I know the developers of the new programs could have
their code perform a file search to locate the correct ldraw directory, but
it is simpler for the user to locate it themselves- especially since a user
might have ldraw installed in several locations on their computer.
The solution to your question would require each new program to install its
own version of ldraw when and where it was installed. This wastes space on
your hard drive and is impractical since you might have five different new
programs each with its own installation of ldraw.

Forgive me for being so dumb when it
comes to this LegoCAD stuff, I just really want to be able to use it and
make MOCs since I don't have very many spare pieces.  Any help would be
great.  Thanks a lot in advance!  :-)
I hope this answers your questions. I would like to point out that the
installation instructions I gave came from the links you provided; except
for the slight clarification on what the ldraw root directory is.

I hope this helps you out, and that you continue trying to use the ldraw set
of utilities for building. Maybe one day you'll become a part author and
help fill out ldraw's set of parts.

Adam



Message is in Reply To:
  Having trouble using LegoCAD...Please help!
 
Hello everyone! I asked around a couple weeks ago on chat groups about using Lego CAD. I just now got around to downloading the programs that I wanted. However, I'm still having a ton of trouble figuring out how the programs work. Here is what I (...) (22 years ago, 31-Jul-02, to lugnet.cad)

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