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 CAD / Development / 10064
  Parts editing made easy, anyone?
 
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 (...) (20 years ago, 21-Jan-05, to lugnet.cad.dev)
 
  Re: Parts editing made easy, anyone?
 
(...) 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)
 
  BigBen Bricks! (Was: Parts editing made easy...?)
 
(...) Like, wow! Triple wow! Fisrt LCAD, and now LCAM! I wonder how expesive that could be! And I wonder if they are willing to make some custom size Classic style windows and not only train wheels! And I wish that LEGO would offer the same service, (...) (20 years ago, 22-Jan-05, to lugnet.cad.dev)
 
  Re: Parts editing made easy, anyone?
 
(...) 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: BigBen Bricks! (Was: Parts editing made easy...?)
 
(...) Ahem... (URL) (20 years ago, 22-Jan-05, to lugnet.cad.dev)
 
  Re: BigBen Bricks! (Was: Parts editing made easy...?)
 
(...) My eyes see the most beautiful things, but yet they don't understand. I looked for some text that explained who/where/how this lovely sight is made possible. Please let me have some more information! /Tore (20 years ago, 22-Jan-05, to lugnet.cad.dev)
 
  Re: BigBen Bricks! (Was: Parts editing made easy...?)
 
(...) Sorry Tore, I thought you read the article. Here's a brief summary: Mike Pique of Scripps Research Institute, Molecular Biology Department, did some LEGO bricks in the rapid prototype machines in his department. He plans on using them to teach (...) (20 years ago, 22-Jan-05, to lugnet.cad.dev)
 
  Re: BigBen Bricks! (Was: Parts editing made easy...?)
 
(...) Tore, those are parts made on Stratasys and zCorp Rapid Prototyping machines. Rapid Prototyping is a way of using machines to take digital data and create models in an additive fashion, built up layer by layer. zCorp machines build the layers (...) (20 years ago, 22-Jan-05, to lugnet.cad.dev, FTX)
 
  Re: Parts editing made easy, anyone?
 
(...) Why? Is the .DAT file supposed to be readable by humans? Why? ;) What's wrong with the larger number of polygons? What positives (from the side of the automated rendering process) does bring the existence of primitives? What's wrong with the (...) (20 years ago, 22-Jan-05, to lugnet.cad.dev)
 
  Re: Parts editing made easy, anyone?
 
(...) Yes, since it is text based. Also, a most new authors learn by examining the code. (...) Unneccessary memory usage and file size. (...) L3P (and other converters/viewers) detect these primitives and convert them to smooth objects (e.g. L3P (...) (20 years ago, 22-Jan-05, to lugnet.cad.dev)
 
  Re: Parts editing made easy, anyone?
 
(...) If for nothing else, to permit them to be used as the basis for the manual creation of similar parts, and abstraction into resuable sub-components. Not a strong reason, but worth considering. (...) To use just one example - the STUD primitive (...) (20 years ago, 22-Jan-05, to lugnet.cad.dev)
 
  Re: Parts editing made easy, anyone?
 
(...) Well, rendering time gets affected too, right? It's harder to build a model if it takes MLCad 20 seconds to redraw once... Oh, you mean for the rendering in POV when doing the animation? Well, file loading time, memory consumption, etc. etc. (...) (20 years ago, 22-Jan-05, to lugnet.cad.dev)
 
  Re: Parts editing made easy, anyone?
 
(...) I should probably find then for what is LDraw library aimed at. If it's something like as perfect as possible renders or some quick mockup prototyping. (...) Wouldn't it be possible to be the parts as accurate as possible and then (...) (20 years ago, 22-Jan-05, to lugnet.cad.dev)
 
  Re: Parts editing made easy, anyone?
 
(...) No DAT part can provide a perfect render without using some substitutions - flat polygons just can't do perfect curved surfaces. But that's another issue. I have recently finished re-authoring Ben's wheels (URL) (waiting for his OK before I (...) (20 years ago, 22-Jan-05, to lugnet.cad.dev)
 
  Re: Parts editing made easy, anyone?
 
(...) (I'm going to try not to sound like a jilted lover here, bear with me) If you're not already a parts author, you have to ask for permission to submit a part to the Parts Tracker. I've been told translated-from-other-CAD (i.e. messy) parts (...) (20 years ago, 23-Jan-05, to lugnet.cad.dev)
 
  Re: Parts editing made easy, anyone?
 
(...) Maybe I'm missing the point here, but if this whole discussion is about Ben's excellent independently produced wheels, then whether or not they are modelled appropriately for inclusion in the official LDraw library is academic. The official (...) (20 years ago, 23-Jan-05, to lugnet.cad.dev)
 
  Re: Parts editing made easy, anyone?
 
(...) I'm sorry if I was unclear. Earlier in the thread I put forward Bens wheels as an example and continued that example here. I realise they would not be eligible for inclusion in the official Ldraw library, and would not submit them. This thread (...) (20 years ago, 23-Jan-05, to lugnet.cad.dev)
 
  Re: Parts editing made easy, anyone?
 
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?
 
(...) Oh, yes. Definitely. (...) :) [snip a lot of stuff with which I agree] (...) nod, yes. That makes a lot of sense. (...) Very cool. :) Steve (20 years ago, 31-Jan-05, to lugnet.cad.dev)
 
  Re: Parts editing made easy, anyone?
 
(...) 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?
 
(...) <snip> (...) Yes, I use MLCad in conjuction with LDDP/LDView for parts authoring. My method is to build the part in MLCad since it does all the rotaion calculations for me and then clean in up and fine tune ithe part in LDDP/LDView. As far as (...) (20 years ago, 3-Feb-05, to lugnet.cad.dev)
 
  Re: Parts editing made easy, anyone?
 
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)
 
  Re: Parts editing made easy, anyone?
 
Update: the converter works and is posted to the top level newsgroup, "lugnet.cad". (URL) to come. We should perhaps move discussions back here to .dev for intricate details like feature requests and bug reports, but you can also send me e-mail, and (...) (20 years ago, 16-Feb-05, to lugnet.cad.dev)

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