Subject:
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Parts editing made easy, anyone?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.cad.dev
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Date:
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Fri, 21 Jan 2005 23:31:08 GMT
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Viewed:
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2089 times
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Are parts authors really using text editors to compose new parts? I find it hard
to understand that a text editor is still the tool of choice for this relatively
complicated modeling task.
I might be wrong and could need an update on what tools people use, but I have
had a very hard time finding any working export tools to make LDR parts files
that are not full of errors and work without lots of hand tweaking. The links
provided on the LDraw page mostly lead to outdated, abandoned software that
generate very bad LDR output. I understand why - the LDR format has a few
peculiarities like "conditional lines" that makes it a difficult task to simply
rewrite an existing 3D model exporter to output LDR data.
However, it shouldn't be an impossible task to make a good, working and
reasonably convenient exporter or file converter for some popular 3D modeling
program like 3dsmax. Would anyone be interested if I sat down and wrote such a
thing? (No promises, I do have the skills but might be unable to find the time.)
I have contacted a few LDraw people and authors of previous software that claim
to export LDR files, but received virtually no response, so I have no idea
whether this is worth looking into.
If there was a simple way to model a Lego element in some common 3D modeling
program, export to a file and have it automatically converted into a clean,
fully finished LDR part file, would it be useful to anyone? If so, please tell
me and I will look closer into the problem. (My software, if I wrote it, would
be free and open source.)
Stefan Gustavson (stegu@itn.liu.se) #2407
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Message has 5 Replies:
 | | Re: Parts editing made easy, anyone?
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| (...) Hi Stefan, yes I believe there would be interest in such a utility. And yes, I believe most people still used text-based programs to edit parts. There are tools that make it a bit easier, like LDDesignPad, but it's still basically just a text (...) (20 years ago, 21-Jan-05, to lugnet.cad.dev)
| | | Re: Parts editing made easy, anyone?
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| (...) If you look up my posts on LUGNET, you'll find that's all I've really ever talked about here. (Damn, I'm boring. Well, OK, I also talk about trucks) You've touched on the critical issues I've found over the years: - LDR/DAT files created by (...) (20 years ago, 22-Jan-05, to lugnet.cad.dev)
| | | Re: Parts editing made easy, anyone?
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| Thanks for your suggestions, the message I received is: "Yes, a good and useful translator would be appreciated." One brief comment on the issue of whether we want clean, compact and well structured files or not: of *course* we want clean files! A (...) (20 years ago, 29-Jan-05, to lugnet.cad.dev)
| | | Re: Parts editing made easy, anyone?
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| (...) Hi Stefan: I'm chiming in late here, but I've crafted at least a few unofficial LDraw parts, and I thought I might offer some thoughts. My original composing tool of choice was the shareware text editor "PC-Write v4," which no longer appears (...) (20 years ago, 2-Feb-05, to lugnet.cad.dev)
| | | Re: Parts editing made easy, anyone?
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| I'm replying to my own post to keep a low profile for the time being. The project is not quite finished yet, but I have some good news I'd like to share with you: I now have a working file converter that takes ASE export input from 3dsmax and writes (...) (20 years ago, 15-Feb-05, to lugnet.cad.dev)
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